As I have noted here many times, the most innovative unit in Nigeria’s bureaucracy is the tax agency. I mean, give those men and women credit; they are innovating and moving really fast to hit revenue collection milestones. You are free to call them wizards of finding what belongs to the commonwealth!

According to NAN, Nigeria hit big numbers on tax collection: “The Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) says it collected N4.9 trillion as tax revenue in the 2020 fiscal year”. Abdullahi Ahmad, FIRS’ director of communications, made this known in a statement. With that, FIRS hit 98% of its  N5.1 trillion target, very commendable even with the paralysis from covid-19. More so, the non-oil tax collection was 9% better than 2019 numbers. How you wish, we can execute on growth policies with the same precision, and boost economic growth, and accelerate purchasing power of the citizens. Give it to the FIRS, anything they are doing is working!

Meanwhile, the federal government of Nigeria raised N2.36 trillion from the fixed income segment of the Nigerian Stock Exchange in 2020. That was the largest by any entity as the nation hit the market to source capital to fund infrastructure projects and finance fiscal deficits, NAN reports.

The Chief Executive Officer of NSE, Oscar Onyema, said this at the 2020 market recap/2021 outlook event on Tuesday in Lagos.

Mr Onyema said the government accounted for about 92 per cent of total bond issuances on the NSE in a bid to finance fiscal and infrastructure deficits.

He said corporate organisations also leveraged the low yield environment to fund their expansion programmes and to pursue debt refinancing, raising a total of N192 billion in 2020.

Mr Onyema said capital raising activities in the fixed income market increased significantly in 2020.

Possibly, from this money, the government will pay N5,000 monthly to  one million households, over 6 months. That is where I have issues: they are yet to reach my village since 1999 with these free money. I mean, no one from my village has ever collected these freebies. It would be nice to know how these households are selected. Sure – no one desires such money, but yet the distribution should be transparent.

Following the successful activation of the Economic Sustainability Plan’s (ESP) Cash Transfer scheme aimed at delivering financial support to at least 1 million urban-based households using technology, the Buhari administration’s vision of reducing extreme poverty by lifting at least 20 million Nigerians out of poverty in the next two years is now within reach, according to Vice President Yemi Osinbajo.

More so, the President of the nation has also challenged FIRS to ensure that foreign companies operating in Nigeria pay their fair share of tax. 

“It is not enough that our citizens and local businesses pay their fair share of taxes. Equally, foreign businesses must also not be allowed to continue to exploit our markets and economy without paying appropriate taxes. Accordingly, the FIRS has my mandate to speedily put all measures in place to fully implement programmes to stamp out Base Erosion and Profit Shifting in all their ramifications and generally automate its tax processes.

“In line with this, I have directed all government agencies and business enterprises to grant FIRS access to their systems for seamless connection. FIRS must ensure that its deployment of technology for automation is done in line with international best practices. In particular, FIRS can borrow a leaf from other countries which have successfully automated their tax processes.’’

Nigeria needs all the money it can get as it would soon need to pay for Covid-19 vaccines: “Nigeria and other African countries will have to pay between $3 and $10 per COVID-19 vaccine dose to access 270 million shots secured by the African Union. This is according to a proposal on the plan prepared by the African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank), Reuters reported Wednesday.”

Besides Covid-19 vaccines, Nigeria plans to extend teachers’ retirement age. If that becomes law, the retirement age of teachers will move from 60 to 65 years, even as service years move from 35 to 40 years, notes Premium Times. That is a huge cost element as Nigeria plans to keep the experienced teachers, usually more expensive, over replacing them early, with new hires at entry levels.

A few days ago, I wrote that Amazon was partnering with Airtel to offer affordable streaming services in India: “If you look at it, the competition has shifted from pure contents to distribution. In the pure analog world, ‘content is king’, but in the digital space, besides the content, you need superb distribution as digital makes everyone local and global at the same time, shaping the order of competition. Why? In a world of unbounded supply, made possible by the web, people want the least friction for whatever you want them to use…anyone who can figure out distribution in SVOD will win a big part of the opportunity in Africa.”

Interestingly, Showmax, a business of MultiChoice, is responding immediately by blunting that potential Amazon Prime threat in the making. The company is teaming up with MTN Nigeria to “launch a special data deal for mobile subscribers. ..A Showmax Mobile subscription gives access to the full Showmax catalogue on a data-enabled mobile device” at a very competitive rate. Simply, Showmax will pay for the data costs to MTN, and with that, it is reducing the distribution frictions for users.

“Mobile streaming is an important consideration throughout Africa,” says Yolisa Phahle, CEO for General Entertainment and Connected Video at MultiChoice Group, “which is why Showmax offers mobile-only versions of Showmax subscriptions. We’re proud to have an extensive collection of the continent’s most-loved original African content to share with MTN’s customers and to introduce them to the world of streaming on Showmax.”

As I have written, to win the 21st century digital business, you must work to fix distribution costs since to a large extent, winning demand is more strategic than supply. In the SVOD (stream video on demand), a big part of the cost remains the broadband cost, and if you can reduce that for users, you will unlock more scaling. Of course, you must calibrate to ensure that you also capture value while helping the users.

The Amazon’s Playbook with Telcos; MultiChoice (DStv, Showmax) on Alert

Welcome Alpha Mead Group to Tekedia Institute. Thank you so much. Alpha Mead Group  is a diversified real estate services company, offering property and facilities management, real estate and infrastructure development, training, security systems and more. Over the next few months, we will be co-learning and co-sharing with this category-king company in Africa’s real estate sector.

Alpha Mead Group is a Total Real Estate Solutions Company established to provide robust business support services to local and international Real Estate investors or owners with interests in Facilities Management, Real Estate Development and Advisory, Security Systems and Technologies, Training, Healthcare Management and Real Estate Financing Services.

Working with local and international technical partners, our operational approach is to help our customers achieve business process efficiency, people productivity, environmental responsibilities, and better bottom line performance by blending our technical competence with the local capacities in the markets where we operate.

From Nigeria to Ghana, Cameroon to Senegal, South Africa to the UAE, and more than 10 other African countries; we combine the ease of technology, our knowledge of the local environments, and understanding of global best practices to deliver total real estate solutions that help you make real difference in the things that matter to you.

(picture: Chairman  Mutiu Sunmonu (CON) raises Alpha Mead plaque)

One of the worst aspects of Covid-19 was freezing the academic festivals of travelling the world and giving speeches. For 2019, Delta Airlines wrote to me that I made the top 5% of its global flyers. As the paralysis was emerging last year, I cancelled a speech in Tokyo and quickly froze a really amazing one in Canada. Project Management Institute (PMI) has become a global institution, and they wanted me to give a keynote in their global conference.

It was supposed to be a moment. But it did not happen! Since then, I have been paying more attention to PMI.

When it announced its FUTURE 50, I saw a name there: Taiwo Abraham. PMP .  The PMI Future 50 recognizes young project management professionals who are changing the future of work,  and transforming the workplace through collaboration, inclusion, and purpose.

But you know what? Taiwo teaches project management in Tekedia Institute https://school.tekedia.com/structure/. He provides the template on how to lead, execute and deliver great projects.

Project Managers, I invite you to come and learn from one of the leaders shaping the growth of project management in the world. Learn from the best. Study at Tekedia Mini-MBA.