As the season of politics begins, let us reflect on the promises of Nigeria. Some like us who received the best from Nigeria feel extremely unhappy about the state of things. I graduated when banks used to use stadiums (hello, TBS Lagos) to do employment tests because halls could not accommodate their needs.

My humble self received my first job offer nine months before graduation. The job offered a driver, a Mercedes Benz, a furnished 3-bedroom flat and a great pay. That was Bourdex Telecoms, to work with Canadian expats. I left that one for another. And others came. Even when I picked the bank, I had to enter the plane, the very first time, to excuse myself from Schlumberger that I was not coming. My alma mater FUTO was a center where companies were coming to hire the best months to graduation. That was Nigeria. The offer from the university was there as a backup!

So, as the political shows begin, the pundits must ask tough questions. This nation used to be super-amazing. We all became big boys because we earned GREAT money. People bought good cars just 3 months into new jobs out of universities. Whatever Obasanjo was doing was working, at least from my view!

In Alade Avenue in Ikeja, my nickname  was Chairman for doing something simple: buy mamaput for Area Boys who used to be at the Alade Av//Fela’s family house junction every pay day.

Fellow citizens, do not allow tribe, religion, division, etc to cloud your imagination for voting the right person. The TV pundits must do their jobs and present where these men and women stand. If we vote for the right people the good days will return. 2023 is another CHANCE.

Recently, digital loan companies took the center stage of Nigeria’s private data watchdog, National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), who found some of the lenders, who use ‘shaming’ as a debt-recovery technique, guilty of invading and violating the privacy of borrowers. Sokoloan was fined N10 million last year.

The development exposed a friction in the burgeoning digital loan market, especially in Nigeria. How can digital lenders recover their money without violating people’s privacy?  A company has found an answer to the question, and is now raising millions of dollars to expand its services around the world.

Bfree, a Nigerian credit management fintech, which uses data provided by the lenders to build the user profiles of defaulters, running their data through an algorithm to predict their behavior and recommend the best way to collect debt, has raised $1.7 million in a pre-Series A round to expand into new markets where new digital lending apps are springing up.

Investors include 4Di Capital, Octerra Capital, VestedWorld, Voltron Capital, Logos Ventures among other angel investors.

The latest round brings the total capital raised by the Lagos-based startup to $2.5 million, since it started operation in August last year. The startup raised $800,000 in a seed round last May.

Founded by Chukwudi Enyi (COO), Moses Nmor (CPO) and Julian Flosbach (CEO), Bfree is growing rapidly as ethical tech-based debt-collection tools. This means exploring new markets following the acceleration of digital loans. The market is buoyed by the huge number of underserved people shut out of loan services by traditional financial firms.

“We are going into markets with large populations, credit deepening and an underdeveloped regulatory environment, where a behavioral collection approach is likely to work,” Bfree co-founder and CEO Julian Flosbach told TechCrunch.

“We saw that there was like a little bit of a breach in the value proposition of lenders — they are good at giving out loans, but the aftersales services of the credit market didn’t work as collections processes were inefficient and not user friendly,” said Flosbach.

Bfree has found 16 new markets which include Ghana, India, Uganda, Brazil, Colombia, Mexico, Russia, Poland, Pakistan and Indonesia. The startup is now recruiting massively as it sets up operations in the new markets.

Flosbach told TechCrunch that Bfree employs the use of ethical debt collection standards and works closely with defaulters for tailor-made settlement options, with the end-goal of increasing the repayment rate and customer satisfaction.

By applying ethical debt collection standards, Bfree ensures the privacy of customer information during the process, explore flexible repayment options and do not lead to unnecessary penalties like lateness fees and debt-shaming.

Per TechCrunch, Bfree is currently working with 30 credit institutions, including digital lenders, micro-finance institutions and banks. The startup uses a two-way method, depending on a customer’s risk. It either directs them to a self-service platform, where borrowers set new payment plans using their phone number, or follows up on debt balance through automated communication (chatbots, callbots or IVR technology) or direct calls.

Using the ethical debt collection standards, Bfree has so far followed up with 1.1 million defaulters to date, and is currently handling around 800,000 customers, a majority of them in Nigeria. Flosbach said it anticipates the startup to be handling 1.4 million profiles by the end of next month.

Bfree’s ethical debt collection now presents a solution that will end the controversial method of debt-shaming, which has seen digital loan firms calling and texting friends and family members on the contact list of their borrowers.

The former Barcelona and Cameroon’s Indomitable Lions ace striker has a message: Africa will rise via education.

Samuel Eto’o: “I am convinced that us Africans are significant in so many things but we don’t know how to come together.”

“It has to be said that everyone has their opinion, that’s certain, and that will always be the case, but everyone’s interests must come first, ahead of the individual’s. That’s how other continents develop. We have to know how to do it here.”

“Africans have a lot of talent, Europeans a bit less. But the Europeans have understood something: education. Education is the magic of every success.”

“In Africa, we don’t know how to educate ourselves, and to educate you have to have patience. What you educate today will bear fruit in 10 years’ time. We don’t have that patience.”

“On the other hand, in Europe, people don’t stop educating themselves. You go and see someone in France and they say, ‘I’m going to do a course on this’. But why does he do that when he has a job?”

“Because the people have understood that to improve you have to educate yourself. And that’s what we Africans have to do — educate Africans and not stop. And then we will have the chance to win the World Cup.”

Source: CC WhatsApp

“There’s now an excise duty of N10/per liter imposed on all non-alcoholic and sweetened beverages; and this is to discourage excessive consumption of sugar in beverages which contributes to a number of health conditions including diabetes and obesity.”  Nigeria’s minister of finance,  Zainab Ahmed.

Samuel Nwite explains how Nigeria has ramped up taxation in this piece. The nation has no option with debt servicing picking a big chunk of the nation’s revenue. My prediction remains: by 2027, most national universities would be privatized as the government looks for ways to cut expenses.

The current model of everywhere tax will not do much since there are few things to tax. The key thing would be cutting expenses; you will see surprises.

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has stated that heavy debt servicing is taking a toll on lean fiscal resources.

This was disclosed by a member of the CBN board, Prof. Mike Idiahi Obadan in his personal statement at the last MPC meeting.

The debt serving position for Nigeria could hinder the availability of funds to finance critical government programmes and projects.

[…]

“The Federal Government has struggled against the tide of two debilitating recessions in five years, occasioned largely by externally-induced shocks including the coronavirus-induced health and economic shocks. With little or no fiscal buffers, it has had to borrow heavily, domestically and externally, to mitigate the negative impacts of the shocks,” he said.

He stated that the skyrocketing debt service to revenue ratio is putting pressure on Nigerian’s fiscal resources. “With the rising debt service-to-revenue ratio, which is currently put at over 90%, heavy debt servicing is taking a toll on lean fiscal resources and could hinder the availability of funds to finance critical government programmes and projects,” Obadan stated.

Sugar Tax: Nigeria Introduces N10/Liter Tax on Non-alcoholic Beverages