A brilliant work on innovation from Jumoke Okunlola of Forte Upstream Services Limited (FUSL). Reading through her capstone for the award of Tekedia Institute CBIS , you will see a mastery of the new economy:
– “Software is the currency of the emerging knowledge society”,
“The bedrock of innovation is ideas. Ideas are the fuel for the engine of growth in the knowledge economy. The economics of ideas represent a fundamental shift away from the economics of goods. Ideas have two very distinct characteristics. First, when an individual has an idea and develops it, it can be made available to others. Ideas can be used simultaneously.”
Then, she connects the ideas, innovation and performance. I remain excited on how we are co-learning with young people to advance the wealth in firms and prosperity of nations. Happy to sign that CBIS certificate. Nice work.
Chukwuemeka Nwagwu Bsc, Msc has a very good income tax chart – the Dangote Cement vs Nigeria banks. Yes, there is physics in markets, and if you do the needful, all the constructs postulated by earliest thinkers on natural philosophy will work on your balance sheets. Simply, the Dangote Cement (not even Dangote Group) is close to paying as much income tax as all the banks in Nigeria combined. In short, if you remove the WHT (on bank services) which some banks bundle as their own tax, Dangote Cement does better.
Sure, not many will see it that way: conglomerates capture huge value because they fix market frictions which are upstream. That is the message of my book – “The Dangote System: Techniques for Building Conglomerates” – which if you have not read, I will challenge you to read it.
As I always say, Dangote is a good force for Nigeria. But the reason why some do not admire him is that he is alone. In most markets, there would be ten Dangotes. Unfortunately, it is not Aliko Dangote’s fault that other pioneers are not here!
Can someone pick energy? Can another pick healthcare? There are many other ways: banks are flashy but when it matters, they out-compete and destroy the alpha. Even in America, the leading companies of the age are not banks!
Without any grand notice, Tesla is no longer accepting or selling bitcoin. The chief evangelist of the company, Elon Musk, cited the “rapidly increasing use of fossil fuels” for mining and transactions, and the cryptocurrency plunged. Now, Elon has just seeded another business for his empire: mining Bitcoin with renewable energy. Watch out, in the next coming months, SolarCity, his partly renewable energy business, will have things for that market need.
Tesla has stopped accepting bitcoin as payment for its cars out of concern that it will contribute to greater consumption of fossil fuels, according to a statement CEO Elon Musk tweeted Wednesday. Tesla had only just started accepting bitcoin in late March.
Musk also said that Tesla will no longer sell any more of the $1.5 billion stash of bitcoin it purchased earlier this year. Tesla sold some of that bitcoin in the first quarter of 2021, which wound up helping pad the company’s quarterly profit figures.
Why not? If holding Bitcoin is going to be tobacco-lized – yes, extremely dangerous and immoral because of fossil-based mining – the only solution would be buying SolarCity CoinMiner [I made that up]. And that is another perception demand opportunity for his generation’s finest innovator. Tesla will resume buying the coin if the mining process becomes cleaner.
My point is this; the message from Musk is evident: from JP Morgan to Fidelity, Goldman Sachs to any firm, you cannot claim you love and want to help the climate if you run trading desks on Bitcoin, when you know that it is breaking the planet due to dangerous mining. This call from Tesla will shape how environmentalists will go after corporations holding and buying Bitcoin.
Expect “Bitcoin Destroys the Planet” banners. BTC will have a fight to get out of this “green attack” from its best crusader.
SoftBank, the Japanese rainmaker and investor, is having one of the greatest moments in its history. Just recently, the world mocked the company for its aggressive investment model. But today, the sun has risen in Softbank’s headquarters in Japan.
Yes, the IPOs within SoftBank’s assets are some of the world’s most anticipated: China’s ByteDance and Didi Chuxing, Singapore’s Grab, Indonesia’s Tokopedia, and India’s Paytm and PolicyBazaar. People, is there really any risk in these technology companies when they hit the inflection market cap of $2 billion which typically triggers SoftBank to pump capital?
Masayoshi Son’s SoftBank Group has reaped $45.8 billion net income for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2021, the highest of any Japanese company—ever. Its fourth quarter alone saw $17.7 billion in profit. The annual sum, fueled by a global tech rally, represents a spectacular rebound from its record $8.8 billion loss in the previous year that was compounded by investment hits from the pandemic and holdings in the troubled WeWork.
As that happens, the Nigeria Sovereign Investment Authority is letting the nation know that it recorded “a total of N160.06 billion in comprehensive income in 2020, representing a 343% growth compared to N36.15 billion recorded in 2019”. That is a commendable number; Nigeria can bring alpha.
The growth was attributed to strong performance from its investments in international capital markets, improved contribution from subsidiaries and affiliates and exchange rate gain from foreign currency positions despite challenges of the coronavirus pandemic.
This disclosure was made by the Managing Director of NSIA, Mr Uche Orji, at a virtual media conference on the presentation of the NSIA’s 2020 Audited Financial Statements and Performance Review on Tuesday in Abuja.
Orji said that the authority achieved 33% growth in Net Assets amounting to N772.75 billion as against N579.54 billion in the previous year.
More so, the Nigerian Customs Service (NCS) Apapa Area Command was not left out as it reported a revenue of N65.4 billion for the month of April—an increase of N25.6 billion compared to the same period last year. You may wonder: money everywhere but none for the common man! Why is that so?
Softbank investments (source: Yahoo Finance) / data may not be recent.
Good People, I just accepted the invitation of Finance and Business 2030 (FinBiz2030) to keynote this year’s event. Launched in London, FinBiz2030 is a joint initiative of One Young World and Chartered Accountants Worldwide. Nigeria’s high priest on keeping good balance sheets and P&Ls, The Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria (ICAN), is the host. Join us on Saturday, 12 June 2021 for a conversation on business sustainability, resilience and innovation. Nations rise when pioneering innovators emerge!
