We just concluded an amazing live session on the mechanics of starting a business with the understanding that you can be working at a company, and still help launch a new business, new subsidiary or new product line, within that company. Of course, you can also be independent and decide to pursue a mission of building something from scratch.

The fact is this: you need to have a clear problem you want to solve in the market, as an entrepreneur or an intrepreneur, and then go and solve it, deploying the capabilities you have.

In the session, our Guest Faculty, Charles Igbelokotor, B.Eng, MSc, CCBI, shared experiences, drawing from founding, INOVIDIA in London, UK. It was a very engaging conversation.

The recorded video is in Board 4. It is a very great insight on how to BEGIN, internally or externally, once you have identified that a market has a friction. We will continue the conversation this Saturday when I lead a session on “How To Scale a Business in Africa”.

Tekedia Institute Mini-MBA – for the wealth in markets and communities.

It is a big moment in Indonesia as two giants combine for one. Yes, the ecommerce giant Tokopedia will merge with ride-hailing Gojek to form GoTo. The value of the deal? $40 billion. That could be more than the whole value of the Nigerian Stock Exchange depending on your exchange rate. So, these two firms are really amazing.

The Indonesian e-commerce and ride-hailing start-ups have confirmed their proposed deal and will create a new entity called GoTo. The company could be valued at up to $40 billion, DealStreetAsia reports.

Something is brewing. Tekedia Capital is working to seed and fund the Flutterwave and Paystack of Nigeria’s insurance industry. To our investing Syndicate members, our next investment cycle will likely include this company, but it has to pass a critical phase in our playbook. I have taken the chairmanship of the Board and the team is A-grade, battle-tested and battle-ready, with deep capabilities to lead into that promise.  One of Nigeria’s largest insurers is prepaying.

We like this huge latent opportunity in Nigeria’s insurance sector – and we want to unlock it. Yes, banking has got Paystack and Flutterwave; insurance needs one!

Tekedia Capital – we fund NEXT Africa. Learn more here .

Good People, the 26th Nigerian Economic Summit Report is out. It is a beautiful one and if you want to understand the state of our nation, I ask you to read the report. The NESG Team does this well, blending private-sector practicality on the public-domain space. Yours truly contributed to the technology part, and the quote below is from the report. Download for free here 

We are taking the Igbo Apprenticeship System (IAS) to Harvard Business Review – the world’s finest business publication – as  a compelling framework for a more equal world in this age where stakeholder capitalism is emerging over the traditional shareholder capitalism. Yes, Adam Smith economics should adapt for Umunneoma Economics. In this video, I spoke with BBC on Igbo making the same case that Africa has a winning economic thesis on IAS, and we can advance on it.

The fastest wealth accumulation in African history happened in Southeast Nigeria. Any wealth held by any Igbo began with 20 pounds in 1970, after the war. Through IAS, those 20 pounds have grown to control Abuja real estate (more than 70%), industries, etc.

The IAS was propelled by Igbo leaders as young men began to leave home after the ruins of Biafra war. As the elders blessed them, they dropped a message: “onye aghala nwanne ya”[do not leave your brethren behind].

With that, as people made progress, they came back home to pick kinsmen, dividing and sharing opportunities in the cities. And with that playbook, a region that ideally should be the poorest region in Nigeria (they lost the war) is today regarded by the United Nations as the most secure on human development.

We need to modernize the IAS as it offers a playbook to advance Nigeria and broad continental Africa. Yes, that thing works and we can see the impacts across Nigeria. Put the IAS in Economics textbook in Nigeria!

Harvard Business Review Has Approved The Work On The Igbo Apprenticeship System