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Cristiano Ronaldo Returns To Manchester United

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Cristiano Ronaldo makes it back to Manchester United in a €15 million deal with a potential €8m addition. He will sign a two year contract to reconnect to the old club after 12 years. On business, this is superb but on sports and trophies, this is poor. They will get more TV rights but that is it!

Ronaldo is a legend. He scored more than 80 goals in Italy in 3 years. But under him Juventus degraded. Before his arrival, Juve was easily winning the league – 9 straight! In Ronaldo’s last session, the Old Lady was 4th. Notice that they made no progress on the Champions League: lost to Ajax in quarterfinals and last 16 to Lyon and Porto. Largely, Juve won only one knockout game with him. Not his fault except that he was in the midst!

Ronaldo will score many goals in Old Trafford. But scoring goals without creating goals or having others who do, will rarely win Champions League. He scored many goals in Italy, winning the battle but if you check, he lost the war. I do think that ManU needs a different type of player because ManU lacks consistency in structure in the midfield.  The ManU coach Solskjaer was an open book which other coaches read quickly!

I am never a good footballer but in secondary school, my nickname was Sausa: the football strategist and analyst. What a village boy! Welcome home Ronaldo, nevertheless.

Updated After Facebook and LinkedIn Comments

General response on my Cristiano Ronaldo’s piece. Yes, my problem is that I wrote something unpalatable about a god to many. I would not have written that piece if I am currently in Lagos. CR is a god and Manchester United is a temple. The altar remains the streets of Lagos and beyond where fans congregate on any ManU game.

So, I am aware that I was going against the crusaders of the Red Devils for pointing out that CR won his battles in Italy with many goals but lost the war of bringing Champions League to the Old Lady. But if you believe in numbers, my point is clear.

But when it comes to gods, even numbers are meaningless. CR, I am with you on this. Break the nets and may we forget our problems in Nigeria from those goals!

The article – https://lnkd.in/e6H8izyC).

NNPC Delivers Great Numbers – N287 Billion PAT in 2020

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GMD Kyari mele nnpc

Good People, join me to congratulate a good friend, Group Managing Director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) Malam Mele Kyari, for what he is doing in NNPC. He continues to improve the numbers, hitting a N287 billion profit after tax in 2020. If NNPC becomes this efficient, I posit that by 2025, it would be delivering at least N1 trillion per year to Nigeria.

“For NNPC family, this is a very proud moment for us and for our shareholders because we no longer declare losses. We moved from loss of N803 billion in 2018, reduced to N1.7 billion in 2019 and in 2020, we are making profit after tax of N287 billion, this is in no doubt a huge progress but no means sufficient….We saw the opportunity to be more efficient by automating our system and processes that made thing work faster and ultimately reduced logistic cost that added additional cost to our business, Borrowing at lower rate in 2020 also helped us to reduce cost of production,’ GMD NNPC

To the NNPC Team, congrats for great execution. Yet, we MUST still do better. I do think that Nigeria needs to run compounding acceleration on value realizable from our energy assets to go ahead of the inflection point of any energy flip. Sure, moving from red to black is a welcome development. Now, SCALE that black fast!!!

The Decades-Long Opportunities on Digitizing African Economies

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We sent this note to members of Tekedia Capital Syndicate. We are seeing new patterns evolving in African markets, and we are sharing with our members at deeper levels, co-educating with them as we make decisions with Naira and US Dollars. We like patterns because you never miss opportunities if you understand them. We understand how the technology nexus shapes markets and economic systems. This morning, a startup we invested in our last cycle (July) is closing another funding at 3x valuation. I am long on Nigeria and Africa.

Greetings. We thank you for your partnership. We are writing to inform you that we are seeing new patterns in markets, and Covid-19 has drastically re-wired the architectures of economies. These changes are enabling new dimensions of opportunities across industries and territories.

Case 1: Africa seems to have found a working ecommerce model. In the last 6 months, B2B ecommerce companies like Suplias, Alerzo, TradeDepot, Omnibiz and others like them have raised $millions in Nigeria alone. And these firms are not burning money but have found extremely niche ways to capture value in markets. They provide sellers in open markets and supermarkets a means to order bulk merchandise through their apps, and they deliver to those shop owners. By doing this, the shop owners do not need to leave their shops, among other benefits.

Case 2: Portfolio company Lafiya Telehealth was originally conceived for the African market. But due to orders on its cloud hospital, the company has opened a physical sales location in the US to serve states which found it innovative to build a hospital within hours instead of days!. So, even in advanced nations, everything has changed: decentralized everything connected by technology.

Cases….

Tekedia Capital wants to play a major role at the early stage of funding these new species of companies. Our goal here is to see that even if our members decide to exit during relative mid-tier valuation secondaries, they could have made decent returns. In other words, if bigger investors come, and decide to buy out early investors, returns will still be significant.

Our strategy is proactive: never wait for builders to come; go after them. If we keep finding them, we will be well positioned for this decades-long digitization of African economies. The potential reward is massive.

We are excited about the promises of the future. We are always here for one-on-one conversation on what we see in markets. We are here to discuss at deeper levels these patterns with relevant market cases. Thank you for your partnership.

Regards,

Tekedia Capital Team

We Welcome New Members: Use this link for Tekedia Capital Syndicate registration

For prospective investors & startups looking for funds, email capital@fasmicro.com

Update Your LinkedIn With Your Tekedia Institute Qualifications

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Tekedia Institute Alumni, add your qualification in your LinkedIn profile education section. Let’s grow the alumni community.

So, for Tekedia Mini-MBA, Tekedia Advanced Diploma, Tekedia Certificate programs, Tekedia Practice, etc, programs you can pick the school “Tekedia Institute” under Education and type the qualification.

—To List for Mini-MBA:
Go to Education section in your LinkedIn profile:
School: Tekedia Institute
Degree: Mini-MBA
Field of Study: Business Administration Management, General

—To List Advanced Diploma in Project Management:
School: Tekedia Institute
Degree: Advanced Diploma
Field of Study: Project Management

The best school.tekedia.com

ZIVA: Zenith Bank Introduces AI-powered Customer Service Channel

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The Nigerian banking sector is increasingly adding Artificial Intelligence (AI) to its workforce, using automation to fill the gap in customer service among other areas.

In this vein, Zenith Bank Plc has introduced an Artificial Intelligence (AI) powered Chatbot on WhatsApp named ZIVA (Zenith Intelligent Virtual Assistant), which enables customers to perform financial transactions and enjoy real-time customer service from their mobile phones.

The bank explained in a statement that its customers would be able to use the initiative by simply adding the bank’s verified WhatsApp mobile number 07040004xxx on their mobile devices, agree to the legal terms of use and then initiate a conversation.

This product provides the convenience for the bank’s customers to interact and transact on a 24 hours basis on the encrypted WhatsApp platform, it added.

Among the functions of the AI enabled chatbox is instant response to chats/queries via the WhatsApp platform. Also, customers would be able to open new accounts, receive instant transaction notifications, check their balances on the go, transfer funds and top up airtime.

They would also be able to confirm cheques, pay bills, apply for loans, block their accounts, and request mini statements, amongst other banking services.

Commenting on the new banking solution, the Group Managing Director/Chief Executive of Zenith Bank Plc, Mr. Ebenezer Onyeagwu said: “The launch of ZIVA is driven by the need for additional secured channels of communication with our customers as we deepen our retail penetration.”

He further explained that the ZIVA initiative was instigated by the need for diverse communication channels for the bank’s customers.

“Since the behavioural pattern of the modern customer dictates that they want to engage with brands over the channel of their choice, it was really important for us as a leading financial services institution and a pioneer of several technological innovations in the financial services industry to implement this solution in order to continue to create value for our teeming customers who incidentally were already using WhatsApp as a primary channel of communication,” he said.

Zenith Bank has remained the leader in the Nigerian banking industry in many fronts. The bank said it would continue to distinguish itself in the Nigerian financial services industry through superior service offerings, unique customer experience and sound financial indices.

“The bank has remained a clear leader in the digital space with several firsts in the deployment of innovative products, solutions and an assortment of alternative channels that ensure convenience, speed and safety of transactions.

“The bank’s commitment to world-class service standards has led to several product innovations, including the “Zenith Timeless Account”, which allows Nigerians aged 60 years and above bank for free, the “Zenith Save4me”, a high-interest target savings account and the deployment of contactless payments and QR on ATM points, amongst others.

“Zenith Bank places a premium on its core business strategy anchored on People, Technology and Service, to create value for its numerous clientele. With a team of dedicated professionals, the bank leverages its robust Information and Communication Technology (ICT) infrastructure to provide cutting-edge solutions and products through its network of branches and electronic/digital channels,” it said.

However, the AI initiative, which is likely going to be followed by other banks will impact jobs in the banking sector. With automated solutions to customers’ queries, the banking workforce will undergo a downsizing. AI is increasingly being embraced by industries following the outbreak of covid-19, limiting in-person services as much as possible but also taking jobs away from people.

Experts believe the trend will force many out of work in the near future, but will also help them to learn and practice other needed skills.