On Saturday, 16 January, 2021, experts, business executives and human resources practitioners would converge on the online venue of a book launch written by Ismail Tiamiyu, the Team Lead of the Research and Development Unit of Farm Konnect. The book titled Moral Licensing Syndrome which focuses on an overlooked office or workplace phenomenon examines the pros, cons and solutions to the issue that commonly confuse administrators and managers.
This is made known in a press statement released by the writer, Ismail Tiamiyu, who will play host to an array of guests that will grace the occasion. Leading other guests to the book launch is Prof. Ndubuisi Ekekwe, the US based Nigerian professor who is the founder of Famiscro and Tekedia Institute in Boston, United States. Ndubuisi would serve as the chairman of the occasion. The enigmatic Human Resource practitioner and author, Lara Yeku, would do a review of the book giving industry perspectives on the contributions of the newly published book to the handling of the office space phenomenon.
The Chief Launcher is Founder and CEO of FarmKonnect, Nigeria, Azeez Oluwole Saheed. He would lead other co-launchers to give the book the needed boost. Also expected at the online occasion are Sheriff Popoola, Senior HR Executive 9Mobile; Mr. Engr. Hamzat Ismail Abiodun, Team Lead, Deepwater Well Operations, Shell; Mr. Sunday Saanu, Media Adviser at the Office of the Vice Chancellor, University of Ibadan; Mobolaji Bamidele, a John Maxwell Certified Coach and Motivational Speaker amongst other dignitaries.
In an earlier interview, the author, Ismail Tiamiyu, has said that the new book is his own contribution towards organizational peace and harmony as the Moral Licensing Syndrome has the capacity to reduce work place efficiency and productivity. He said “the book is my own way of contributing to knowledge and resolving problems usually generated by Moral Licensing Syndrome in the workplace. I aspire to direct the attention of administrators, employers and managers toward some organisational practises that are often taken for granted but are actually integral to promoting growth-driven processes and resolving Moral Licensing Syndrome in organizations.”
The author, Ismail Tiamiyu, is a graduate of Sociology from the University of Ibadan, Nigeria. He is a researcher who has passion for writing. He is currently the Research and Development Officer at FarmKonnect, Nigeria, a leading Agritech company in Nigeria. He is usually motivated to always seek to understand human behaviours and appraise issues through sociological imagination.
He is the world’s richest man, and he is his generation finest innovator. He has brought a new basis of competition in the electric vehicle sub-sector, and he is changing the ordinance of manned and unmanned space transportation. Elon Musk is seated alone because there is really no one to compare him with.
There has never been in the history of the world where a man focuses on dealing with many big problems, at once, and making tons of money doing so. He is peerless, and the world is better that he is here.
But his work has been largely esoteric when it comes to places like Africa, the land of his birth. But that is changing very soon. Yes, Elon’s other company – SpaceX, the rocket one – is nowshipping his Starlink kits to selected customers in Europe: “Hall had been getting download speeds of only 0.5 megabits per second with BT internet, he said. Now with Starlink, he’s averaging 85 Mbps. “Within the hour we ran a Zoom quiz with grandchildren — it was wonderful,” he said.”
Elon Musk’s Starlink satellite internet service has been approved by the UK regulator Ofcom.
Starlink, from Musk’s aerospace company, SpaceX, will compete with the likes of BT Group and OneWeb to provide internet to people across the UK.
People in the UK have already started receiving the Starlink kit.
One user told Insider that he received his Starlink equipment on New Year’s Eve and that his download speed jumped from 0.5 megabits per second to 85 Mbps.
Like I have said, immersive connectivity is coming to placeslike Nigeria by 2022 as I see products like Starlink having the capacity to reach many at scale. The UK government has approved Starlink. I expect the South African government to do so this year. And very soon, it would become the denominator in Africa.
The GSM players disrupted CDMA after the CDMAs had punted landlines in Nigeria. Satellite internet will give heat to GSM players in coming years. The good news: customers will win! May the best product WIN.
No one can say the founders of Agritech companies have their passion and skills translated to businesses in a wrong country. They discovered lack of information, insufficient financial support to smallholder farmers, market access and transportation challenges as frictions that must be fixed for everyone to have food and for the manufacturing industry to have ram materials for production. Throughout the developing world, Agritech companies operate with the framework of connecting investors with the smallholder farmers in the rural areas. When investors subscribed to agricultural production and distribution package, the financial proceeds are remitted to the farmers for farming and distribution activities.
Usually, investors are assured of security of their money and return. According to various sources, return on investment could be as high as 35%. In our analysis of 20 companies using average and static approaches, 30.05% was found as ROI. This promise remains unrealistic when one considers economic recession, unstable macroeconomic and microeconomic policies, and how the COVID-19 pandemic is testing the promise. The pandemic has led to a number of uncertainties in many industries without the exemption of agriculture industry. Investors thought that the sector may save them from the harsh impacts of the recession and the pandemic. Despite the uncertainties, Onyeka Akumah, co-founder and CEO of Nigeria’s Farmcrowdy believes that the potential for sizeable returns for investors in Agri-tech startups are as big as the sector.
Since Nigeria is experiencing a number of economic downturns, which have been used by local and international bodies for classifying the country among low-growth economies, our analyst hypothesized the companies’ ROI in this regard. This was done with a view of finding linkages between real and nominal Gross Domestic Product contribution [using crop production, livestock and fishing categories being used by the National Bureau of Statistics for measuring agriculture industry contribution to overall GDP], and ROI [average and static approach] of some companies.
Groupfarma, Farmsponsor, Requid, Thrive Agric, Farmcrowdy, Farmpower, Farm Agric FarmKart, Goldvest, Foxygreen, Kenfarms & Agrovet, Shopagric, Farmnow, Farm4me, Farmkonnect, Abadini, Green fold, Farmtrove, DivaRice and Eatrich are analysed. Our analyst also analysed real and nominal GDP growth of crop production, livestock and fishing. These categories were used because select companies are providing solutions that resonate with the categories. While using the real and nominal GDP growth, attention was paid to the current and constant basic prices. Nominal GDP is the market value of goods and services produced in an economy, unadjusted for inflation. Real GDP is nominal GDP, adjusted for inflation to reflect changes in real output. Trends in the GDP deflator are similar to changes in the Consumer Price Index, which is a different way of measuring inflation.
From 2019 Q1-Q4 to 2020 Q1-Q3, analysis reveals N20.5 million as average of the current basic price of all categories [crop production, livestock and fishing], while it was N1.8 million for constant basic price. Analysis of the select 20 companies’ ROI shows that on average the brands promise 30.05% within the average of 8 months and 2 weeks farm cycle. While other brands seem to have normalised solutions [common solutions], FarmKonnect has a number of unique packages which could not be analysed with other 19 brands. Therefore, for the benefit of a strong inclusion in the average and static ROI approach, standard package of FarmKonnect was factored into the analysis.
Our analysis indicates that these companies had less than 50% capacity to pay the average ROI [30.05%] when the current and constant basic prices were considered. With the current basic price of the chosen measurement categories of the agriculture industry, the companies 15.02% capacity of paying the return and capital. It was over 48% for constant basic price. Analysis further reveals that the 48% capacity threshold was lower than the return on investment promised by Farm4me [73%], Requid [60%], Kenfarms & Agrovet [55.66%], and higher than what Farmtrove [38.25%], Abadini [30.83%], Shopagric [26.08%], Farmcrowdy [25.5%], Groupfarma [24%] Goldvest [20.04%] and Farmkonnect [30%] proposed to investors.
The impact of the two basic prices in the future is presented on Exhibit 2. Examination of the payment capacity within the context of the farm cycle period shows that one month of farming activities increases likelihood of paying the return by 13.4%. However, out of 140 months and 3 weeks of farming cycle, analysis shows that these companies only had a capacity of paying in 21 months. This result indicates that Nigerian Agritech companies have been defaulting in paying ROI to investors since July, 2019. This is further justified with our check which reveals that the public had significant interest in return on investment along with Thrive Agric and Farmcrowdy more than others.
Exhibit 1: Average Nominal and Real GDP in Million [2019-2020]
Source: National Bureau of Statistics, 2019-2020; Infoprations Analysis, 2021
Exhibit 2: Real and Nominal GDP versus Return on Investment Projected Linkage
Source: National Bureau of Statistics, 2019-2020; Infoprations Analysis, 2021
Exhibit 3: Return on Investment and Farming Cycle in the Future
With the current farming cycle months [use for payment in month] and consideration of the ROI of the selected companies, investors would not have their capital and returns in January, February and March, 2021. During these months, our analysis suggests that the players will have some challenges due to the ongoing pandemic and economic recession. However, in April 2021, analysis indicates less issues with the payment. If policies and measures being formulated and implemented by the government at state and federal levels fail to yield positive results for the agriculture industry, analysed companies would not be able to fulfill their promise in May, 2021. But, in June 2021, our analysis suggests a positive situation for the players.
The Implications and the Need for Regulation
The emerging insights have many implications for the sector, especially promise ROI of companies. It has emerged that players need to factor the two basic prices into their ROI percent formulation framework. This is more imperative for the players that provide solutions that resonate with crop production, livestock and fishing. It is obvious that the current economic uncertainties being driven by the recession and the pandemic are having significant impacts in the sector. Therefore, the current ROI should be adjusted to fix the reality of the business environment. Before the sector is turned to the Ponzi Scheme sector, the government needs to devise means of regulating activities of the players and investors. The Securities and Exchange Commission, and the Corporate Affairs Commission are needed for sustainable investor protection.
He is a dean of mastering sales in Africa. He knows the mechanics and pillars of sales excellence. He has written about them and taught them in leading companies in Africa, and beyond. Banks know him, MNCs always have him, and startups follow his philosophy: build quality contacts, connect, and sell at scale.
He is coming to Tekedia Mini-MBA to help our members acquire one of the most important capabilities in business: selling things! He wrote the book – The Critical Pillars of Sales Excellence: How to Prospect, Sell and Win Customers.
Ferdinand Ibezim, a Tekedia Institute Faculty, will teach Mastering The Art of Sales Excellence in Tekedia Mini-MBA. Innovators and growth champions, you need to attend this class to master the physics of sales; the videos are amazing and you would be sold to start selling! When salesmen deliver sales classes, markets move.
Learning sales – yes, how to sell things – is science at Tekedia Institute. Register and join. Class begins Feb 8.
Tekedia Institute is proud to announce that Late Most Supreme Apostle Matthew Omodayo Owotuga Foundation, in honor of Late Most Supreme Apostle Omodayo Owotuga, who passed about a decade ago, has endowed a scholarship fund in the Institute. The Foundation trustees noted that this act of generosity and benevolence was born out of commemorating and promoting the legacy of Late Most Supreme Apostle Omodayo Owotuga. Twenty five people would be sponsored yearly, starting this year.
As an Institute, we are humbled on how citizens, institutions and communities have found us as a trusted partner to support and empower people through knowledge. Thank you.
In our scholarship administration, we work with external organizations like Youth Up to help us select the right people to attend Tekedia Mini-MBA and Tekedia Advanced Diploma programs.
For 2021, we expect more people to graduate from Tekedia Institute than any university in Africa. And we also expect to offer more scholarships than most institutions as corporate organizations and individuals continue to support our vision: to discover and make scholars, noble, bright, and useful.
If you operate a non-profit which serves less privileged including orphans and motherless children, or you run an early childhood school, in a rural community in Africa, we have scholarships to help prepare your staff.
Tekedia Mini-MBA is an innovation management 12-week program, optimized for business execution and growth, with digital operational overlay. It runs 100% online. People from 35 countries now attend it. All contents are self-paced, recorded and archived which means participants do not have to be at any scheduled time to consume contents.
