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A medical doctor at the University of Ibadan Teaching Hospital testified in our Zoom session that after the management saw her confidence on the use of business terms, they appointed her to lead an important industry project. The Governor of Anambra state hired his innovation guy from our school.

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PayPal Holdings Inc will announce later on Tuesday that it has started allowing U.S. consumers to use their cryptocurrency holdings to pay at millions of its online merchants globally, a move that could significantly boost use of digital assets in everyday commerce, Reuters reported.

Customers who hold bitcoin, ether, bitcoin cash and litecoin in PayPal digital wallets will now be able to convert their holdings into fiat currencies at checkouts to make purchases, the company said.

The service, which PayPal revealed it was working on late last year, will be available at all of its 29 million merchants in the coming months, the company said.

“This is the first time you can seamlessly use cryptocurrencies in the same way as a credit card or a debit card inside your PayPal wallet,” President and CEO Dan Schulman told Reuters ahead of a formal announcement.

Checkout with Crypto builds on the ability for PayPal users to buy, sell and hold cryptocurrencies, which the San Jose, California-based payments company launched in October.

The offering made PayPal one of the largest mainstream financial companies to open its network to cryptocurrencies and helped fuel a rally in virtual coin prices.

Bitcoin has nearly doubled in value since the start of this year, boosted by increased interest from larger financial firms that are betting on greater adoption and see it as a hedge against inflation.

PayPal’s launch comes less than a week after Tesla Inc said it would start accepting bitcoin payments for its cars. Unlike PayPal transactions where merchants will be receiving fiat currency, Tesla said it will hold the bitcoin used as payment.

Still, while the nascent asset is gaining traction among mainstream investors, it has yet to become a widespread form of payment, due in part to its continued volatility.

PayPal hopes its service can change that, as by settling the transaction in fiat currency, merchants will not take on the volatility risk.

“We think it is a transitional point where cryptocurrencies move from being predominantly an asset class that you buy, hold and or sell to now becoming a legitimate funding source to make transactions in the real world at millions of merchants,” Schulman said.

The company will charge no transaction fee to checkout with crypto and only one type of coin can be used for each purchase, it said.

Visa, another payment giant said on Monday it will allow the use of the cryptocurrency USD Coin to settle transactions on its payment network, an indication of growing acceptance of bitcoin in mainstream financial industry, despite its volatility.

The decision to accept cryptos by financial institutions and firms is as a result of increasing demand from consumers around.

The growing acceptance thus spells economic misfortune for countries like Nigeria that have forbidden regulated financial institutions from participating in the boom. Nigeria’s decision on cryptocurrency means the largest economy in Africa will be sidelined by multinational firms adopting the blockchain payment system.

Cryptocurrency has a market valued at more than $1 trillion. With technology suitable for the booming fintech sector, experts have advised the Nigerian government to work out regulatory framework for the emerging market.

As of December, Nigeria has the second largest crypto market that is increasingly being threatened by the ban. If the decision is not rescinded soon, the large market share will be lost, sending a wrong message about the country’s tech economy mindset and sending many promising blockchain startups out of business.

It is a very good one, TLG Capital, a UK-based investment institution is partnering with Fidelity Bank Plc to invest in SMEs in Nigeria. The ticket size is $20 million and it is largely agnostic of sectors with education, consumer businesses, healthcare, logistics and transportation represented. TLG Capital will be represented by TLG Africa Growth Impact Fund (ADIF), its Africa investment vehicle.

Fidelity is the name and we are hoping it makes it flexible for SMEs by demanding  limited collateral. If that cannot happen, nothing big will happen.

Private Equity firm, TLG Capital has announced that it would be investing together with Fidelity Bank Plc, an amount to the tune of $20 million on SMEs in Nigeria.

The funds will be channelled through TLG’s Africa Growth Impact Fund (ADIF), towards the development of SMEs in the country. Notably, the fund will be directed to SMEs that are focused on healthcare, education, consumer sectors, amongst others.

Is your business on speed or velocity? The most important decision a business can make is committing to a business model. You can be an efficient operator but if you are operating at the wrong section of the curve, you will not thrive. But someone, who is just average, but operating at the correct section will capture value. Go with velocity, it is speed with a direction! Velocity brings a new basis of competition and makes fandom possible. Blessed is that company whose customers are fans! Innovate and make fans by discovering your path to the purses and hearts of your customers.

More than two-fifths of businesses around the world have increased their innovation budgets in the last year, according to the second edition of the Mastercard-sponsored Become Index, a long-term research initiative carried out by Harvard Business Review Analytic Services (HBR-AS).

The latest survey found 42% of businesses are spending more on innovation due to the inexorable pull of digitization. Interestingly, though, only 53% of executives surveyed said their organizations place a high priority on innovation—and nearly two-thirds said the uncertain economic outlook was a challenge for their innovation plans.

“Many organizations have proven they can be fast, agile, and emerge stronger to whatever awaits next, but there are some gaps in what businesses saw important and what consumers need during and after the pandemic,” said HBR-AS managing director Alex Clemente. “I believe business and society are now forced to redefine what it means to be innovative. And businesses everywhere should re-evaluate if the new-found velocity and pace of change can be sustained.” (Fortune Newsletter)

But remember, innovation must not be just from technology. Yes, it could come via branding and other means. Think “Intel Inside” and how it changed the perception of customers on laptops and desktops. And we are learning a rumoured “Voltswagen”, for Volkswagen, to make the point that the European car brand is all for volts (yes, electric vehicle).