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The Business Growth Playbooks with Ndubuisi Ekekwe is a live program which takes place on Zoom. It focuses exclusively on growth strategies, mechanisms, models, frameworks, etc which businesses can deploy to win new markets and territories. In other words, the program objective is to master how companies can grow, biased for the African markets.
Greetings. Tekedia Institute invites you to register for the 6th edition of Tekedia Mini-MBA which begins on Sept 13 to end Dec 6, 2021. Tekedia Mini-MBA is an innovation management 12-week program, optimized for business execution and growth, with digital operational overlay.
It runs 100% online. The theme is Innovation, Growth & Digital Execution – Techniques for Building Category-King Companies. All contents are self-paced, recorded and archived which means participants do not have to be at any scheduled time to consume contents. We also have optional thrice weekly Zoom sessions. Register here via any of the means noted; registration continues and ongoing.
Our Faculty members come from MTN, Shell, Microsoft, Amazon, Flutterwave, Nigerian Breweries, KPMG, Amazon, Infoprive, Bank of Industry, Kendor, Trusbanc Capital, etc, and are coordinated by Prof Ndubuisi Ekekwe. Our Learners come from 39 countries and have great things to say about our world-class program here.
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A global leader in payment services, Mastercard is aiming to expand its blockchain-based services. The New York-headquartered company announced Wednesday, an agreement to acquire CipherTrace, a leading cryptocurrency intelligence company with insight into more than 900 cryptocurrencies.
The acquisition will enable Mastercard to extend its capabilities deep into the field of digital assets with an agreement to As digital assets, including cryptocurrencies and non-fungible tokens (NFTs), become more intertwined with everyday activities — from the way people pay and get paid to how they invest — trust and security will be critical enablers to ensure broad adoption and scale, the company said in a statement.
Mastercard embraced cryptocurrency early in the year, and has since been looking for ways to accommodate innovative products that have come along with it, including the NFT. The payment outfit has partnered with companies such as Uphold, Gemini and BitPay to create crypto cards.
The company noted that these new technologies will require new solutions and more powerful intelligence to ensure that the crypto economy is instilled with the same trust and peace of mind that consumers currently experience with more traditional payment methods.
With the technical exigencies following each of the new innovation, especially in the area of security, Mastercard wishes to leverage the integrated offering to build on CipherTrace’s suite of digital assets and Mastercard’s cyber security solutions to provide businesses with greater transparency to help identify and understand their risks and to help manage their digital asset regulatory and compliance obligations.
“Digital assets have the potential to reimagine commerce, from everyday acts like paying and getting paid to transforming economies, making them more inclusive and efficient,” said Ajay Bhalla, president, Cyber & Intelligence at Mastercard. “With the rapid growth of the digital asset ecosystem comes the need to ensure it is trusted and safe. Our aim is to build upon the complementary capabilities of Mastercard and CipherTrace to do just this.”
Terms of the agreement were not disclosed, and the transaction is anticipated to close before the end of the year, pending certain conditions.
Cybersecurity concern in the cryptocurrency industry has heightened overtime due to increasing cases of fraud. Thus, investors need assurance that their investment and transactions is safe. And for that sort of assurance, CipherTrace has proved its mettle.
CipherTrace’s innovative platform helps customers enhance their security and fraud monitoring activities for crypto-related programs. They provide solutions for some of the largest banks, exchanges, and other financial institutions in the world due to their industry leading data analytics and algorithms to help customers convert on their opportunities across 7,000+ cryptocurrency entities.
“We help companies – whether they are banks or cryptocurrency exchanges, government regulators or law enforcement to keep the crypto economy safe,” said Dave Jevans, CEO, CipherTrace. “Our two companies share this vision to provide security and trust throughout the ecosystem. We are thrilled to join the Mastercard family to scale CipherTrace’s reach across the globe.”
Mastercard said in a statement that the deal will enable it to combine the technology, AI and cyber capabilities of both companies to differentiate its card and real-time payments infrastructure, allowing customers and stakeholders globally to build upon and benefit from the solutions to protect their consumers and comply with regulations, as they build their own virtual asset offerings.
CipherTrace will also help drive continued innovation with a diverse range of partners, like fintechs, crypto-wallet providers, governments, etc., while also allowing the company to deliver on the principles it has established for all blockchain-related programs.
“The acquisition is part of Mastercard’s strategy in the digital assets space to help provide customers, merchants and businesses with more choice in how they move digital value. It follows a number of investments the company has made, including partnerships with Uphold, Gemini and BitPay to create crypto cards, the creation of new platforms to test and support Central Bank Digital Currencies, programs to support the broader use of blockchain technology and NFTs, and the potential to support select stablecoins directly on its network,” Mastercard said.
Welcome to Tekedia Institute. We run an amazing business school which has attracted professionals and students from 39 countries. The next edition begins Monday, Sept 13, 2021. It is a great academic festival, and one that is nurturing a generation of leaders, innovators and change makers. Tekedia Mini-MBA is serving Africa through educating on the tenets of entrepreneurial capitalism.
Our Faculty members come from Microsoft, Shell, Flutterwave, Nigerian Breweries, Jobberman, Coca Cola, and other great organizations. Thrice weekly, I personally coordinate live Zoom sessions on the mechanics of business systems. We bring our Faculty and Guests on those sessions, covering industries and business domains.
Our impacts are huge because most young founders are passing through our program. Just today, I connected one with a Mastercard Director to further his vision.
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Not quite long after attaining unicorn status, Flutterwave is in the news again for good. The boisterous fintech company, that has taken the world of payment by storm, announced on Thursday it’s partnering with Africa’s largest network provider, the MTN Group, to facilitate mobile payment across Africa.
The partnership will enable Flutterwave to onboard MTN’s mobile money platform, MTN MoMo, which provides consumers and businesses with an electronic wallet, enabling electronic transfers and payments as well as access to digital and financial services.
Besides acquisition, Partnership with existing payments platforms has become another viable strategy for fintech companies seeking to expand to new markets. Many of them in the African market have partnered with mobile network providers who offer mobile money services, as it is an easy way to reach the underserved.
With their customer-base counting to millions of users, mobile money operators offer fintech companies such as Flutterwave, a sort of already-made customers to incorporate into their networks.
This new partnership will enable Flutterwave to offer MTN Mobile Money as a payment method to its business customers, the company said in a statement.
MTN MoMo which had 48.9 million active users and 581,514 merchants as of June 2021, will help Flutterwave to integrate markets in many African countries where MoMo services are operational.
“As we progress on our journey to becoming the largest fintech platform in Africa, we will empower millions of businesses to embrace e-commerce in our markets to accept digital payments from MoMo consumers. We believe this is an enabler to accelerating digitized payments in Africa. Building strong ecosystems through partnerships is central to our platform strategy and we will continue to invest in expanding the reach of our platform to consumers and businesses in Africa,” Serigne Dioum, MTN Group Chief Digital and Fintech Officer said:
The partnership will allow businesses integrating Flutterwave in Cameroon, Côte d’Ivoire, Rwanda, Uganda and Zambia to receive payments via MTN Mobile Money. The company said it will enable them to expand on its previous collaboration with MTN, beyond Uganda and Rwanda – with the potential of deepening adoption of digital payments and e-commerce in Africa.
The fintech and mobile telecom industries in Africa are both witnessing a boom, presenting opportunities for future economic growth that strategic partnership between players in the industries will help to achieve.
This year, Africa is projected to hit the half a billion mark of unique mobile subscribers and the continent will reach 50% subscriber penetration by 2025, according to the GSMA. Data from Statista also noted that Sub-Saharan Africa alone is responsible for more than 45% of the world’s mobile money accounts with the number of account holders exceeding half a billion by 2020.
Flutterwave said its partnership with MTN will positively contribute to this trend by increasing mobile money usage and penetration in Africa to improve local economies and livelihoods as well as create opportunities for individuals and businesses across the continent.
“Africa has one of the highest growth rates for mobile money adoption and e-commerce in the world. It makes sense that we help provide a seamless payment method to support and ensure African businesses reap the full benefits of the e-commerce boom in the region. Our goal has always been to grow a new wave of prosperity in Africa by creating more avenues for businesses in Africa to accept payments. With this partnership, we can achieve this while creating endless possibilities for our customers,” Olugbenga “GB” Agboola, Founder and CEO of Flutterwave, said.