We have two more days to conclude Tekedia Mini-MBA edition 4. At 7pm WAT today,  Tekedia Live will focus on “The Call to Business Execution”. Largely, it is ACTION time and we need to go to the markets, and apply the constructs, capabilities and frameworks we have mastered. Until it is done, it has not been done.

How do we get things done? How do we execute in markets? I hope to meet in class in about two hours.

Thur, May 6 | 7pm – 8.30pm WAT  | The Call to Business Execution – Ndubuisi Ekekwe . Zoom link in the Board.

Registration for the next edition of Tekedia Mini-MBA (June 7 – Sept 1, 2021) continues here . It is $140 (or N50k) for the 12-week program which is self-paced and wholly online. Join us.

Paystack, a Nigerian fintech startup, which recently was acquired by Stripe, is planning to expand its services to South Africa, an indication of further growth since its acquisition seven months ago.

The startup has come from a little beginning to become a notable payment platform in the global stage. In 2018 when Paystack raised $8 million in Series A funding, led by Stripe and others, it was only powering 15% of all online payments in Nigeria. With a customer-base of more than 10,000 businesses on its platform, Paystack’s next line of action was to expand to African countries. It started with Ghana.

Ever since then, the company has seen significant growth, increasing its customer-base in Nigeria to 60,000, powering around 50% of all online payments. The customers which include MTN, SPAR and UPS, use the company’s software to collect payments globally.

Techcrunch reported that the South African launch was preceded by a six-month pilot, which means the project kickstarted a month after Stripe acquired it. And also, Stripe is gearing toward a hotly anticipated IPO, which is fueling its aggressive expansion to other markets.

It is also seen as a reason why the company acquired Paystack as it was seeking a foothold in Africa. Before acquiring Paystack, the company added 17 countries to its platform in 18 months, but none from Africa.

In March, Stripe raised $600 million in additional rounds to expand its services in Europe, putting its valuation at $95 billion.

“The company will use the capital to invest in its European operations, and its Dublin headquarters in particular, support surging demand from enterprise heavyweights across Europe, and expand its Global Payments and Treasury Network,” Stripe said in a statement.

While Europe offers a huge market for Stripe, the fintech boom in Africa presents growth opportunities that the company cannot ignore.

“There is an enormous opportunity. In absolute numbers, Africa may be smaller right now than other regions, but online commerce will grow about 30% every year. And even with wider global declines, online shoppers are growing twice as fast. Stripe thinks on a longer time horizon than others because we are an infrastructure company. We are thinking of what the world will look like in 2040-2050,” CEO Patrick Collison said.

Nigeria, Ghana and now South Africa make up the 42 countries where Stripe is operational, and the company hopes to ride on the back of Paystack to penetrate more markets in Africa.

“South Africa is one of the continent’s most important markets, and our launch here is a significant milestone in our mission to accelerate commerce across Africa,” said Paystack CEO Shola Akinlade of the expansion. “We’re excited to continue building the financial infrastructure that empowers ambitious businesses in Africa, helps them scale and connects them to global markets.”

However, the new market presents Paystack with a new challenge different from what it had to deal with in West Africa, where it worked with different businesses and grow a local team to handle on-the-ground operations during the six-month pilot.

In South Africa, fintech companies like Yoco and DPO, who are already dominating the market, are ready to give Paystack a run for their money. The move into South Africa thus sets the Nigerian startup up for a fierce competition. But the company’s product marketer said the new market is wide enough to accommodate everyone.

“The opportunity for innovation in the South African payment space is far from saturated. Today, for instance, digital payments make up less than half of all transactions in the country,” Abdulrahman Jogbojogbo, product marketer at Paystack said. “So, the presence of competition is not only welcome; it’s encouraged. The more innovative plays there are, the faster it’ll be to realize our goal of having an integrated African market.”

Khadijah Abu, head of product expansion, added that “for many businesses in South Africa, we know that accepting payments online can be cumbersome. Our pilot in South Africa was hyper-focused on removing barriers to entry, eliminating tedious paperwork, providing world-class API documentation to developers, and making it a lot simpler for businesses to accept payments online.”

While working in a company, we had a Technical Fellow, the highest and most respected title any engineer could have in the company. Fellows are legends because they are the company; some earn more than the CEO. They are men and women who have made impacts through technical quality and engineering prowess. They hold powers which some CEOs may not command. Any Board from Google to IBM to Apple, and indeed top-grade technical companies, will prefer to fire a CEO than annoy the Committee of Fellows.

For this Fellow, some electrical circuits in most textbooks are named after him. I never met him in person but I passed through his office. He did not use computers and he did not use CAD tools to design circuits. But whenever he faxes circuits from his home, many PhDs would become busy: the high priest has sent new circuits and now we need to go ahead and integrate.

That takes me to Eden Hazard who left Chelsea to Real Madrid. Last night, his former team made him irrelevant. Eden was largely of no impact. Recall when David Beckham left ManU for Real Madrid, the legendary “bending” struggled. Recall Ronaldo,  from Real Madrid to Juventus, and how those magical moments before goalposts dimmed.

In careers, most times, we do not appreciate the support our institutions give us. Like the Fellow who could work from home and communicate to PhDs via fax, a new company might not have been ideal for him. Before you get carried away on your excellence, check if the new place can nurture and accommodate what makes you amazing.  Of course, that depends if you understand that there are many assists to your success which may not be available in other places.

The Belgian’s move to Real Madrid has been a bit of a disaster so far and footage of the 30-year-old’s reaction to losing the Champions League semi-final will only anger the club’s passionate fans further.

After the full-time whistle had been blown, Hazard re-entered the pitch and decided to have a laugh with Chelsea pair Edouard Mendy and Kurt Zouma in front of the television cameras.

LinkedIn Comment on Feed

Comment #1: Nice one, Sir
But, in the case of Hazard, he felt he had given his all for Chelsea Football Club and needed to take a new career step, pursuing his dream and working alongside his idol, Zinedine Zidane. We can not fault him for following through with his career ambitions as we all have one,
Cristiano Ronaldo felt he was no longer valued at Real Madrid. He felt expendable, so he had to leave.
David Beckham had a feud with his manager Alex Ferguson over his celebrity lifestyle which the manager saw as a distraction to his contributions to the team. So, he had to leave.
Sir Ndubuisi Ekekwe, true, the grass is not always greener on the other side, but I felt these guys moved for justifiable reasons perhaps bar David Beckham ?

My Response: CO, you may need to re-read this piece, again. No one said you cannot work with your idol. No one said you cannot be a celebrity and have issues with your boss. Here, I am discussing results and nothing more. I did not fault them – I simply used them as cases on the intangibles. Many moves turn out well of course; I simply said, shine your eyes as you move.

Manchester City on Tuesday broke the UEFA Champions League final jinx, reaching the prestigious league final for the first time in their history. It has been a top priority for City’s Abu Dhabi-based hierarchy, since they doled out millions of pounds to secure the majority ownership of the Manchester club in 2008.

In February 2016, Pep Guardiola was anointed to deliver the Champions League trophy to the Manchester side, but his wand has failed to perform the magic that leads to the final.

Guardiola has come under heavy criticism for his huge spending aimed at getting City on the list of Champions League winners. It was fueled by his five-year heart-breaking failures.

Man City has spent over £500m ($707m) since Pep took over, a sum believed to deserve a double of Champions League honor.

Since 2016, the closest the Pep team has come to the Champions League trophy was quarter finals, making their two-leg win over Paris Saint Germain (PSG) an unforgettable moment for the club, and the fans who have waited so long.

When Man City’s Algerian midfielder Mahrez netted two goals against PSG in Tuesday’s showdown, it sealed the club’s hope of going to Istanbul.

Mahrez scored the opener in the 11th minute from a tight angle in the area following a rebound by PSG’s defense.

Man City, who previously won the first leg 2-1 in Paris, secured the 2-0 victory to make their way to the final in Istanbul.

“To reach the final of this competition is so difficult. It is the toughest one, the quality of the opponent and the composure you have to have to suffer the toughest moments.

“We did it. We made an incredible Champions League season and now deserve to be there in the final,” Guardiola said.

While there is more work to do to don the crown, reaching the final for the first time is a major milestone in City’s pedigree, a club who for many years was considered an underdog.

Meanwhile, City’s English rivals, Chelsea secured a 2.0 win against Spanish giants Real Madrid, to set up an all English final.

The Blues held Los Blancos to a 1-1 draw in Madrid, during the first leg of their encounter to keep the chances for both teams wide open. However, scoring two unreplied goals in England sealed their quest to reach the final.

Qualifying for the final is an incredible feat for Thomas Tuchel, who inherited a poorly-rated Chelsea from former midfielder Frank Lampard, earlier in January.

“I’m very happy we’ve achieved this. I’m very grateful to have the opportunity to live my life in football and this passion as a profession. So grateful to do it on this level and to get to another final, I’m very grateful for that,” Tuchel told BT Sport.

Chelsea having won the elite trophy before casts enormous pressure on City that is yet to touch it, and has been on spending spree to get on the list of winners.

Although the London club is considered the underdog in the duel given Man City’s current form, Tuchel’s incredible back-to-back Champions League final record with two different clubs (PSG 2019/20) and now Chelsea, shows his team cannot be taken for granted.

It will be the third time two English teams will meet in the final. It happened in 2008 (Chelsea v Manchester United) and 2019 (Liverpool v Tottenham). And it’s only the eighth time two teams from the same nation will be contesting the final, with Spanish teams also doing so a joint record three times – 2000 (Real Madrid vs Valencia) and 2014 & 2016 (Real Madrid vs Atletico Madrid).

Chelsea’s female team is also set up for a final against Barcelona’s female team, making it the first time both male and female teams of a club are reaching the final of Champions League in the same season.

Nigeria will get better and I am very Bullish on the long-term outlook of the nation. You may say that I am biased. Yes, I am biased because Nigeria has all the critical pieces to outperform. And those pieces will get to work soon. 

In the next few years, I expect the following things to happen, not because our political leaders want to do them, but because they will play hail mary (as in American football) to avert a severe paralysis. Expect the following:

• Nigeria will have state police because distrust has built into the national police. The interview by the Osun state senator where he noted that Police arrest hunters more than AK-47-carrying herdsmen is a turning point.
• Fiscal federalism will evolve and states will control their resources and pay taxes to the federal government.
• With the fiscal federalism done, a new charter will emerge: decentralization of energy generation, transmission and distribution.

Why do I think these changes will happen? Nigeria is opening up to reality now. Yes, according to Nairametrics,  Nigeria “has indicated that it plans to cut down on its personnel costs and merge Ministries, Department and Agencies (MDAs) due to persistent low revenue”. Yes, Nigeria which has avoided that report from Steve Oronsaye Committee is returning back to the basis because there is no money.

She said that current government spending cut has become imperative because, “We still see government expenditure increase to a terrain twice higher than our revenue.

 We need to work together, all agencies of the government to cut down our cost. We need to cut down unnecessary expenditures. Expenditures that we can do without.

Our budgets are filled year in year out with projects that we see over and over again and also projects that are not necessary.

Mr President has directed that the salaries committee that I chair, work together with the Head of Service and other members of the committee to review the government payrolls in terms of stepping down on cost.”

The minister said that government would look to merge 2 agencies with the same mandate.

The Director-General Budget Office, Ben Akabueze, had earlier said that low revenue collection and high recurrent costs have resulted in actual capital expenditure below N2 trillion ($4.88 billion) a year for a decade.

People, it is typical human nature: scarcity has always pushed humans to make hard choices. Nigeria in the next few years will be making hard choices because what made us siddon-looks are falling apart.  From fiscal federalism  which can ignite productivity to state police, unemployment and insecurity will push the federal government to try new things. Of course, we need to pass through the moments. But I tell you that things will be better in the near future.

The minister of Finance was crystal clear on what needs to be done: ‘She said that current government spending cut has become imperative because, “We still see government expenditure increase to a terrain twice higher than our revenue.  We need to work together, all agencies of the government to cut down our cost. We need to cut down unnecessary expenditures.”‘ Can she be bold to make it happen while we wait for the other policy changes?