MTN went all the way when it partnered with Mastercard to link “MTN MoMo (Mobile Money) wallets, to help consumers and merchants engage with brands and businesses abroad through digital commerce, extending their reach to an international marketplace and unlocking a host of opportunities.” That deal made MTN a superb-fintech in 16 countries and with millions of users. In the digital space, one of the most important factors for success is demand. With millions within MTN’s space, the path to the castle is paved with gold.

In the race to win large shares in the growing fintech and e-commerce space in Africa, mobile network providers are taking to partnerships with existing payment companies.

In what seems like a step to expand the MTN MoMo partnership, MasterCard and MTN on Tuesday announced a strategic partnership to enable millions of consumers in 16 countries across Africa to make global e-commerce payments safely and securely.

The partnership is to be facilitated through a MasterCard virtual payment solution linked to MTN MoMo (Mobile Money) wallets, to help consumers and merchants engage with brands and businesses abroad through digital commerce, extending their reach to an international marketplace and unlocking a host of opportunities.

With that sword drawn by MTN, Airtel Africa is out with its own playbook: US-based investment firm TPG will invest $200 million in Airtel Africa’s mobile money business, a division which the company aims to take public in the next four years, Airtel said”. The Airtel Africa mobile money business is valued at $2.65 billion which makes it one of the biggest fintech companies in Africa. Nigeria’s Flutterwave and Interswitch are each valued around $1 billion. If MPESA is a separate company within Kenya’s Safaricom, it would command even more.

The transaction values Airtel Africa’s mobile money business at $2.65 billion on a cash and debt free basis. The Rise Fund will hold a minority stake in AMC BV upon completion of the Transaction, with Airtel Africa continuing to hold the remaining majority stake.

“The transaction is the latest step in the Group’s pursuit of strategic asset monetization and investment opportunities, and it is the aim of Airtel Africa to explore the potential listing of the mobile money business within four years,” Airtel said.

As I have noted in Harvard, the telcos are capturing new revenues via these mobile money operations, from their one oasis (the telecommunication operation). Provided they continue to deepen and win users on the telco operations, they have opportunities in the fintech units. Yet, to manage regulatory challenges, they may go orthogonal via some convoluted partnerships. If they can do disintermediation within their networks, some fintechs will have to change their playbooks.

“It was completed on time because no-one used corona as an excuse to delay it,” John Magufuli, the Tanzanian president who died this week said, a few weeks ago, as he commissioned a road project in Dar es Salaam. The Bulldozer as he was called never locked down his nation even at the peak of the Covid-19 pandemic. He died of “heart problems” but many do assume that he fell to coronavirus.

He fought corruption and got projects delivered on time. His hands-on leadership style was legendary because he verified even as he believed. He was the people’s man, and he fought for his nation.

But Magufuli never worked to build institutions. He simply built himself. He decimated the core foundations of modern society where even the Tanzanian scientists, press and doctors could not overcome his covid-free mantra. By testing goat meats and using the data to justify the denial of the virus, he risked many lives.

A strong man, for many, who fought the global mining companies, he left Tanzania where he found it: absence of institutions. In his ephemeral success, he exposed his biggest failures: absence of a national vision beyond Magufuli’s vision.

Magufuli was 61.

Join me three times every week live on Zoom when you register for Tekedia Mini-MBA. We are having a great conversation on business systems, developing capabilities to fix frictions in markets. #Glow #Grow #Glory. Tekedia Mini-MBA – registration for the next edition opens 

Uber will begin to classify its UK-based drivers as employees, making them eligible for those benefits regular employees get. This is a good move because the whole notion that two people will be doing the same thing, and one classified as regular and another independent, for payment, seems evidently not balanced. I recall those days in the bank when I was put to manage dozens of drivers, mailmen, Head Office receptionists, etc, in the bank’s Admin unit.

Nearly all of them were on contract but they were working even harder than me. What was my qualification: a degree from a university. For most, they had OND, HND of WASC. I was not sure I was better, but my paper certificate gave me so much power over some who had been on the job before I bought my JAMB university entrance form.

Uber has announced that it was classifying all of its 70,000 U.K.-based drivers as employees, making them eligible for benefits like holidays, pensions and a minimum wage. The move comes just weeks after losing a major legal battle that saw a group of drivers designated as employees. It’s a blow to the company which has fought legal and political battles around the globe to keep its drivers classified as independent contractors rather than employees, including a recent successful campaign in California.

Capitalism sinned against humanity on the invention of those classifications. I think we need to commend the UK government for standing up for its citizens. Uber will not collapse because of paying people living wages. In short the CEO praised the move, noting “we are turning a page on driver rights”. What would happen is this: men in yachts will not receive unnecessary extra money. The retail investors in Uber certainly understand that men and women deserve to be paid living wages.

Bringing it back to Nigeria, the Nigerian Labour Congress and the government must fix that loophole: it is inhuman and degrading when people are not paid the same for equal work. We are learning that title should not matter. Yes, it is work done that matters. Elon Musk, Tesla CEO, now wants to go with “Technoking of Tesla” while his CFO would be “Master of Coin”. To make it home, they filed with the US Securities and Exchange Commission on these new names. 

Ask him, provided they are doing the same job, I do not expect their compensations to drop. The same thing should happen in Nigeria whether a role has a contract or not, embedded on it!

Tesla Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk and Chief Financial Officer Zach Kirkhorn are shaking things up. The two will stay in their roles but the company informed the Security and Exchange Commission that they’ll adopt the titles of “Technoking of Tesla” and “Master of Coin,” respectively. The Wall Street Journal reports that the monikers may have something to do with Tesla’s interest in cryptocurrency. The company said this year that it had invested $1.5 billion in bitcoin and planned to accept it as a form of currency.

I am hoping that Nigeria redesigns its labour laws as we see amalgam of technology companies become extremely dominant, distorting the ordinance of labour. Stripe, a US payment company which bought Nigeria’s Paystack is now worth $95 billion, making it America’s most valued startup. 

Airbnb is valued at $123 billion and gaming start-up Roblox at $45 billion and these firms are extremely young! Flutterwave is a $1 billion pop. Across the world, they are growing. We want them to grow with men and women who make them special.