A microchip is a composite of transistors which are biased at different regions using current. In analog circuits, you need to calculate the amount of current to pass through the transistors so that they will run within the operating regions of interest. To determine that current, you solve some calculus which provides you the length, width, etc of the transistors. But no matter what you have done, you will always optimize things when simulations show variations from design and operations. Those variations come from many factors, including the process you have designed for. This is what I do for a living!

Interestingly, the processes involved in many circuits are also what great nations use to run policies. You commit to a policy, you try things and over time, you look at data. Depending on what you have seen, you recalibrate. For example, President Biden is learning many things on the correlation between social support and looking for jobs.

That brings me to a new IMF call on Nigeria: the resurgence of fuel subsidies: “The mission expressed its concern with the resurgence of fuel subsidies. It reiterated the importance of introducing market-based fuel pricing mechanism and the need to deploy well-targeted social support to cushion any impact on the poor.” 

“The mission expressed its concern with the resurgence of fuel subsidies. It reiterated the importance of introducing market-based fuel pricing mechanism and the need to deploy well-targeted social support to cushion any impact on the poor. The mission recommended stepping up efforts to strengthen tax administration to mobilize additional revenues and help address priority spending pressures.

“The Nigerian economy has started to gradually recover from the negative effects of the COVID-19 global pandemic. Following sharp output contractions in the second and third quarters, GDP growth turned positive in Q4 2020 and growth reached 0.5 percent (y/y) in Q1 2021, supported by agriculture and services sectors.

“Nevertheless, the employment level continues to fall dramatically and, together with other socio-economic indicators, is far below pre-pandemic levels. Inflation slightly decelerated in May but remained elevated at 17.9 percent, owing to high food price inflation.

“With the recovery in oil prices and remittance flows, the strong pressures on the balance of payments have somewhat abated, although imports are rebounding faster than exports and foreign investor appetite remains subdued resulting in continued FX shortage.”

It added that the IMF mission appreciated the authorities and other counterparts for the open and thoughtful discussions and excellent cooperation.

My question is this: Why are we going back to this? What is the justification after we swore that it was all over?

My understanding was that Nigeria was phasing this out. Now that it is coming back – why, and what have we learnt for it to be back. I understand that the government does not want the burden of fuel cost on the poor. But that is why we need to get the National Identity Management Commission working so that we can deliver support to the needy in a more targeted ways via the National Identity Numbers.

At Tekedia Live, the live session of Tekedia Mini-MBA, I will discuss “Building Great Companies and Brands”. My cases will be Indomie Noodles and Apple corporation.  I will explain four characteristics I have seen in great brands and companies, connecting them to the Grand Playbook of Business lecture. 

To become an enduring category-king in your business sector, you must possess these characteristics. With them, the firms build moats to protect their castles.

• Perceptively innovative: you are always innovating. You never rest, always pushing for better products, services and experiences. You outperform competitors with new solutions for unmet needs.
• Evidently inspired: you inspire your users. You are modern, trustworthy and inspirational, you have a larger purpose, helping people live out their own values and beliefs.
• Ruthlessly pragmatic: your customers depend on you and you have their backs, making life easier by delivering consistent experiences. You make good on your promises.
• Customer obsessed: customers cannot imagine living without you. You know what matters to customers, finding new ways to meet their most important. needs.

Time is 7pm WAT; Zoom link in the Board.

Good People, its economic anointing is something else: the most catalytic and impactful company in the world right now, when it comes to building digital technology companies, is an American company named Y Combinator. I have never seen anything like that. A startup looks for $200k on Monday but on Tuesday, YC accepts it, and magically, everyone wants to give it money to the extent that the problem becomes how to politely decline these investors.

A pure inverse system: the investors you have been writing with no-show and interest now become the ones asking for your bank accounts. Yes, they begin to beg you. Why? Some men in America have chosen to give you $125k in return for 7% of your company!

My question today is this: how can someone create something as powerful as YC for Africa? I am not talking of cloning YC website or its business model; I am talking of asymmetric impacts when someone endorses a startup. 

And if you look at the whole thing: the easiest way to become a paper $millionaire in Africa is to be accepted into YC. Of course, after the acceptance, you still have to compete and win in markets. But one thing is evident – there is a massive herding in the world of startups, and America has created a supreme club, and the impacts are everywhere from Nairobi to Lagos and beyond.

Some of the great technology companies in Nigeria like Flutterwave and Paystack graduated from YC. So, the results speak for this company.

So excited to share that I will be speaking in AXA Mansard’s Out of the Box 2021 event. It comes up next month, and it would be an amazing one for the category-king  in Nigeria’s insurance sector. Thank you for extending the invitation and thank you for the partnership and the support you have given us in Tekedia Institute Mini-MBA.  We appreciate Axa Mansard – you will find new markets and win more territories.