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.

People, it is now visa to Bitcoin and the broad cryptocurrency world. Yes, the payment giant, Visa, will now “allow the use of cryptocurrency USD Coin to settle transitions on its payment network”, reports Reuters.

Visa Inc said on Monday it will allow the use of the cryptocurrency USD Coin to settle transactions on its payment network, the latest sign of growing acceptance of digital currencies by the mainstream financial industry. […]

“We see increasing demand from consumers across the world to be able to access, hold and use digital currencies and we’re seeing demand from our clients to be able to build products that provide that access for consumers,” Cuy Sheffield, head of crypto at Visa, said.

Nigeria remains disconnected from this future after the Central Bank of Nigeria cut-off exchanges from the banking systems. You may wonder – why fight a battle you have no chance of winning? Today, with this addition, many young Nigerians will see Visa as offering an additional value proposition than the local competitors. And if that continues, the gap will widen. What an own-goal by Team Nigeria!

Cryptocurrency has taken another leap towards the mainstream, with Visa announcing it will allow “the use of cryptocurrency USD Coin to settle transitions on its payment network,” Reuters reports. It’s the latest major financial firm to dabble in digital currency, with companies including Mastercard, BlackRock and BNY Mellon also accepting digital coins. Meanwhile, Tesla boss Elon Musk announced last week that customers can now purchase its electric vehicles using Bitcoin. Such moves signal the growing acceptance and “legitimacy” of electronic coins despite ongoing skepticism.

I have expected that we will wake up one day to read a simple line from the apex: these are the rules and anybody who wants to do cryptocurrency must observe them. Nigeria must have the capacity to make those rules! Yes, have rules to mitigate any systemic risk but allow young people to go and win, or fail, but get better next time.

The Central Bank of Nigeria ATTACKS Cryptocurrency in Nigeria With This Notice

A psychologist is coming to Tekedia Live. Yes, we are exploring new ways to make innovators and growth champions better in markets. Tekedia Faculty, Anthony Alagbile CPsychol, CPLP, will be live on Zoom tomorrow to discuss Organizational Psychology for Business Growth. I want to become better and I do hope you also want to.

• Tue, March 30 | 7 – 8.00pm WAT | Organizational psychology for business growth – Anthony Alagbile, President, Institute of Industrial & Organizational Psychology

Though philosophy is not the same thing as psychology, I tell you that the mastering of philosophy is knowledge. My best course as a first year undergraduate student in Federal University of Technology Owerri (FUTO) was Logic & Philosophy. Why? It was the only course that gave me the big picture of knowledge, beyond mathematics, physics, chemistry, etc. And the best part: it increased my vocabulary which became handy for the village square during holidays! Time has passed!

Now, it is business psychology. Get ready. Zoom link in the Board. Register for the next edition of Tekedia Mini-MBA.

At Tekedia Mini-MBA, this week focuses on Marketing, Sales Management & Business Objectives. The following faculty members are teaching us:

• Developing and Executing An Effective Enterprise Marketing Plan – Onyinye Ikenna-Emeka, General Manager, Enterprise Marketing, MTN Nigeria
•  Mastering The Art of Sales Excellence – Ferdinand Ibezim, MD/CEO, Selling Skills Support Services Limited
• Consumer Marketing in FMCG – Emmanuel Agu, Group Marketing Director, Jotna (the LaCasera Company)
• Sales Management, Marketing and Growth – Moby Onuoha, Queen’s

For Tekedia Live, we have the following:

• Tue, March 30 | 7 – 8.00pm WAT | Organizational psychology for business growth – Anthony Alagbile, President, Institute of Industrial & Organizational Psychology 
• Thur, April 1 | 11am – 12noon WAT | Personal Finance & Wealth Management – Japheth Jev, Founder, Japheth Consulting 
• Sat, April 3 | 7 – 8.30pm WAT | Building Modern Investment Portfolios in Africa, General Topic – Ndubuisi Ekekwe