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).

Everyone knows that this feed is my CNN, La Liga, NTA, BBC, Guardian and New York Times. I use it to tell the best people on earth who come here to support a village boy. Through the feed, we share stories of our companies, customers and partners. Sometimes, if you buy something from my company, in my excitement, I do come here to THANK you and ask more to emulate your good service to the world! 

But this my strategy could be at risk. Why? Nigeria has a new rule explained by the information minister, Lai Mohammed: “Let’s assume you have brought in La Liga, and during the matches, Guinness is advertised, we will compel you, we will compel Guinness to also advertise when we are playing a local league. That is the only way we can grow this industry but as can be expected, we have had very few supporters.”

“If you do an advert in South Africa, you put it on CNN and we look at that advert and we see that the advert was not made in Nigeria but actually made in South Africa, or you see that five times a day, it is on CNN, you pay half a million to us. The half a million will go to the Content Development Fund.”

Mr. Minister, do not fine me. It is a free market, I have the right to reach my “La Liga”, “CNN”, etc in the best way I can. Nigeria should not be regulating where companies think they need to put their messages when we cannot regulate which foreign hospitals politicians go for medical check-ups! Yes, local content should also apply to local medical treatments.

Lai Mohammed revealed that it is in line with the amended broadcasting codes that adverts of products that are meant for Nigerian audience must be aired in Nigeria.

“What is common today is to see products made in Nigeria but the advert for those products are actually probably done in South Africa or in the US. So, we amended the code to say that if a product you want to advertise in Nigeria territory is made in Nigeria, grown in Nigeria or processed in Nigeria, then you must make sure that the advert is also produced in Nigeria.

“We are not stopping you from making your production in America or South Africa but if you are going to advertise in Nigerian territory, you will pay a fine of N100,000. “In other words, if Gulder makes an advert in South Africa and it is shown on NTA, if it shows it 10 times a day, it will pay N100,000 fine 10 times.” “We went further to say that if a company should invest $1m in bringing EPL to Nigeria, that company must also be ready to spend 30 per cent of that $1m in producing a local content along the same line.

“In other words, if Maltina or Guinness decides to bring in EPL, which is English football, we have no problem with that. But they must also invest in covering our local league to the tune of 30 per cent of what he has paid,” the minister said. Lai Mohammed bemoans the manipulative tendencies of foreign companies which said is responsible for the lack of growth in the Nigeria Broadcast industry.

“The NBC has issued about 30 pay-TV licences but only one is managing to survive. Why? Because of these anti-competitive and manipulative tendencies of these foreign companies,” he said.

In our community service called Tekedia Mini-MBA, many learners asked for a course on Enterprise Marketing. This week, our course on Effective Enterprise Marketing went live – and the result has been superb. Yesterday, a company in Lagos watched the class in a boardroom with 27 of the staff attending our program. I was invited to call in.

This morning, I began a call with Terragon, trying to put to practice what myself has learnt from the course. This course will transform your business. It presents the physics on how to run B2B marketing, small and large scale!

Our faculty, Onyinye Ikenna-Emeka, is from the house of innovation – MTN Nigeria. And she leads the Enterprise Marketing unit as a General Manager. It makes sense to learn from the industry leader – first company to N1 trillion revenue mark in Nigeria!

Run an effective enterprise marketing playbook, learn from the best at Tekedia Institute.