The critics love it:
This book is a very amazing piece. It presents concise, well thought-out and very clear insights on how to build companies with focus on solving problems not many people can solve and consequently, have government’s attention and support. Thank so much for this Prof. (source)
During this break, I recommend my book – The Dangote System – for you. It is rated E for everyone. Begin reading here.
By Paul Godwin
Economic Development originated in the Post War period of Reconstruction initiated by the US during the 1949 year inaugural speech, President Harry Truman identified the development of Under-Developed areas as a priority for the West. Economic Development is a term that Economists, Politicians and others have used frequently in the 21st century.
Economic growth and Human Development is a two-way relationship, moreover the first chain consists of Economic growth benefiting Human Development with GNP, specifically GNP increases human development by expenditure from families, government and organizations.
More than half of the people of Nigeria are living in conditions approaching misery, food is inadequate, diseases and Insecurity is ravaging the entire length and breadth with the Economic life primitive and stagnant. Apparently, Humanity possesses the knowledge and skills to relieve the sufferings, that’s if the government and private organizations can fashion out a workable framework to revamp the situation.
Nigeria’s government needs to focus on Human Capital Development and Redistribution that will push for Import Substitution Industrialization emphatically on Comparative advantage, the country has functioned mainly as resource providers to Wealthy industrialized countries thereby affecting the culmination of modernity in our Economy.
We envisage a program of Development based on the concepts of Democratic fair dealings, greater production is the key to prosperity, peace the key to greater production with a wider and rigorous application of Modern Scientific and Technical knowledge.
More approach needed to be implemented on small Startups in the country which can stimulate incentives that will make Capital available to the citizens, the drive of the World now shift on Digital maximization, best the government could do is to make available frameworks to see to it’s optimal utilization.
An upcoming new course in Tekedia Mini-MBA – Blockchain, Cryptocurrency & Decentralized Finance – just got better. We are adding a Session Lab on blockchain, cryptocurrency and decentralized finance (DeFi) to enable our members learn, in real-time, how the techs work.
Bitfxt, BitDeFi and BoundlessPay will coordinate the session for our Institute. Also, Infoprive, a leading cybersecurity startup in Lagos, will also provide a Session Lab on cybersecurity and digital forensics.
Session Labs are new additions in our program designed to give members practical insights on some courses. A Microsoft executive teaches our AI & cloud course; we are also exploring that space. Yes, a Session Lab on AI.
Tekedia Institute aspires to offer the most-practical and -relevant education in business management and leadership development in our region. To register for the next edition, click here.
Facebook wants to be your “bank” through the blockchain and alternative money universe. Google wants to be your “bank” by making it possible for you to open a bank account on its platform, abstracting its bank partners which legally have to power everything for compliance. What is happening here is evident: controlling and maintaining demand in the 21st century will go through the path of financial services and money. In other words, if you are part of the network into how someone spends and uses his or her money, you are sure to get the attention of that person. That explains why fintech remains one of the most fascinating sectors in the world of modern venture funding.
The business of finance is even more fascinating in the emerging world. Yes, one of the biggest frictions remains how to pay and be paid, outside the nexus of cash transactions. That explains why Gojek, which began life as a bike sharing app, wants to co-own a bank. Yes, “Indonesian internet giant Gojek paid about $160 million to increase its stake in PT Bank Jago, making its biggest investment in financial services to date.” The playbook is simple: connect the millions of Gojek users into a banking ecosystem and capture value directly, instead of funneling it into a bank where you get nothing. That is a clear double play strategy.
GoPay, Gojek’s payments and financial services arm, bought almost 1.96 billion shares at 1,150 rupiah apiece, according to a stock exchange filing. The internet firm used call options to acquire its stake, completing the deal at a steep discount to Friday’s close of 3,900 rupiah and paying about 2.25 trillion rupiah ($159.5 million) in total. Combined with an existing stake of 4.14%, the additional investment takes Gojek’s holding in Bank Jago to 22.16%.
The move reflects the company’s ambition of accelerating its forays into financial technology. Gojek — Indonesia’s most valuable startup, backed by Facebook Inc. and PayPal Holdings Inc. — aims to let users open bank accounts with Jago and then manage their finances through its app, according to an emailed statement. GoPay has been trying to extend digital financial services to merchants and drivers since 2017.
Gojek wants to capture more value just as MultiChoice/DStv’s BBNaija which invested in BetKing wanted to capture value in betting. The company had noted that betting sites were capturing more value on its shows, as people bet on contestants being cut. So, by bringing BetKing home, it could make it an official partner and capture more value.
Tomorrow at Tekedia Live, I will lead our live session. During my monologue part, I will discuss Scaling through Partnerships. As I do that, I will illustrate how MultiChoice is executing a winning strategy, and what we can learn from the firm. Also, I will discuss the latest deal where the entertainment giant in Africa acquired 20% of BetKing for $81 million.
Many of our Tekedia members would have understood the strategic play in that acquisition: Double Play Strategy; I will explain at deeper levels. Essentially, the best consumer money-making business in BBNaija is the gambling part in which betters wager who among the housemates would be cut as the show progresses.
These playbooks are about playing at the edges which offer “extra”, as noted in our 2021 Outlook video.
As the price of bitcoin defiantly surges in the face of COVID-19 economic turmoil, investors are racing to secure a share of the boom in the U.S. and Europe. More countries around the world are also changing their rules to allow investment in the digital asset.
Hong Kong on Thursday issued its first-ever crypto license to OSL Digital Securities to commence cryptocurrency trading.
While many affluent countries are yet to embrace the digital coin, Nigeria, Africa’s largest economy surprisingly leads the way.
Bitcoin trading platform Paxful analyzed the coin’s transaction flow for the past five years (2015-2020), to find that Nigeria traded more than $566 million worth of bitcoin during the period. It thus becomes the world’s second largest peer-to-peer (P2P) bitcoin market after the U.S. which traded $3.75 billion in the same period.
Paxful’s analysis noted that Nigeria traded the equivalent of 60,215.7 BTC, a transaction record that puts it ahead of other countries apart from the United States with trade volume of 535,660.3 BTC.
Paxful’s co-founder and Chief Executive Officer Ray Yussef attributed the success to cross-border challenges that the West African country has been facing.
“Africa’s largest economy has problems and restrictions in sending and receiving money from inside and outside its borders,” he said.
Bitcoin transactions have given Nigerians a way out of the country’s tight money laundering laws. High volume money transfers are converted to bitcoin to evade government’s money laundering consequences, and there has been an increase in the use of bitcoin in everyday businesses in Nigeria.
Nigeria’s central bank keeps pushing policies to protect the naira from increasing dollar dominance. Some of these policies limit to the barest minimum, the amount of money a Nigerian bank card can dispense abroad or while using international POS.
As bitcoin becomes popular among Nigerians, the number of people who trade the digital currency for a living increases. Data from Coin Dance indicated a yearly increase of not less than 19% in bitcoin trade since 2015.
Nigeria’s highest volume of trade was recorded in 2020 during the lockdown when a 30% spike took place. Paxful said between January to September, it recorded a 137% increase in new registrations from Nigeria.
The popularity of bitcoin in Nigeria was also noted during the End SARS nationwide protests that the Nigerian government attempted to quell by restricting protesters’ access to financial services. To beat the hurdle, the innovative young minds quickly switched to bitcoin to receive donations. Bitcoin accounted for nearly $400,000 raised in donations.
In 2020 alone, more Nigerians have signed up to cryptocurrency trading platforms as it offers a path to earning a living and saves them from the regulatory bottlenecks that hinder financial transactions in Nigeria’s mainstream financial institutions.
“People want to be able to buy and sell, transact internationally and the more the traditional channels are being restricted the more people trade crypto and mainly bitcoin. And the best thing about it is that it’s almost impossible to stop. If you block the exchange it moves to peer-to-peer platforms that are non-custodial,” said Eleanya Eke, co-founder of BuyCoins Africa.
Other African countries like Kenya and Zimbabwe, who share common institutional financial challenges with Nigeria have also experienced an increase in bitcoin transactions, although they’re behind Nigeria in volume of trade.
International crypto exchange platforms like Binance, SouthXchange, Luno and Paxful are popular among Nigerians and so are local ones such as BuyCoins, Birrions and Quidax. There are also Telegram and WhatsApp based exchange platforms that have put bitcoin trading at the tip of people’s fingers.
The recent surge in bitcoin price has become another force driving the increase in the volume of the coin trade in Nigeria. As Wall Street investors rally around the digital asset, its growth is attracting the flotsam and jetsam.