Congratulations to Bank of Industry for closing the $1 billion loan: “The transaction is aimed at further improving the capacity of the bank to continue to effectively support Micro, Small, Medium and Large enterprises (across key sectors) of the Nigerian economy with affordable loans of medium to long-term tenor, alongside moratorium benefits…The facility will be disbursed in Naira at single digit interest rates to borrowers with bankable projects.”.

 Between 2015 and October 2020, the Bank of Industry with the support of its various stakeholders disbursed over ?945 billion to 3,013,087 enterprises, thus creating over 6.87 million estimated direct and indirect jobs.

With the successful conclusion of this deal, the Board and management of Bank of Industry is confident that the bank is now better positioned to catalyze domestic production and facilitate job creation on a transformational scale, enhance local industry competitiveness, attract domestic and foreign investments, integrate our local industries into domestic, regional and global value chains, grow our export earnings and positively impact the overall economic development of Nigeria in line with its mandate and especially in light of the planned commencement of the African Continental Free Trade Agreement (AfCFTA) in January 2021.

This is a good deal. I will add that BOI adds a new layer in its operations: keep $10 million of that money for venture funding where founders and entrepreneurs do not have to provide collaterals to get the funds. Rather, BOI takes equity in the companies on behalf of the Nigerian people. Israeli has done this venture playbook successfully. 

More so, BOI needs to deepen its interests in digital and web companies. The current model is biased for “physical” businesses. The fact remains that most great digital businesses begin online and over time go “physical”. So, we do not have to be fixated at what is happening during the early phases. 

Amazon is as meatspace as Walmart with Whole Foods. Konga and Jumia are  big physical businesses. These businesses might not have been qualified to access BOI’s funds when they were being started. That re-calibration is important.

Time to open that Excel and check those unloved stocks in the Nigerian Stock Exchange. The Nigerian bourse has returned about 40% this year and it is closing as one of the best performing exchanges in the world. The curve is even going parabolic, and that is amazing. May it continue to rise as Nigeria does not want any stock-pulling gravitational force! 

Yet, looking at the NSE and NYSE (the American version), you see the soul of the world: massive wealth being created even when the broad citizenries are going through severe pains. One of the key winners in NSE is BUA Cement Plc.

The shares of BUA Cement Plc have gained N618 billion since the opening of trade on the Nigerian Stock Exchange for Q4 2020, as investors position for the shares owing to its relative valuation and impressive growth prospects.

This was uncovered by Nairametrics after tracking the performance of the shares of BUA Cement Plc on the floor of the Nigerian Stock Exchange, since October 2nd, 2020 when the market opened for trade for Q4 2020.

[…]

According to data tracked and analysed by Nairalytics, the research arm of Nairametrics, BUA Cement remains the fourth most capitalized company on the Nigerian Stock Exchange, with a market capitalization of N2.03 trillion.

The Cement manufacturer stands ahead of Nestle with a market capitalization of N1.2 trillion, and behind Airtel, a telecommunication behemoth that maintains a market capitalization of N3.2 trillion.

For valuation and profitability, the company stays ahead of Lafarge Africa Plc, another important player in the cement sector, and behind Dangote Cement Plc, the industry leader.

The US is battling coronavirus and economic paralysis, Nigeria has taken insecurity and lack of order to another level. Yet, the stock markets are rising! The world needs to be reshaped.

He gave the world the Pythagoras theorem, that one your sports teacher used to determine the 90-degree edge of the football field, in the village school which did not have a formal measurement tool. In the Great Debate, he made a really strong point: the world is nothing but numbers. Pythagoras is still speaking. His “numbers” are now called data.

If the world is made up of numbers, it does mean that if you cannot measure anything, you are wasting your time on it. Your business is numbers, and you must measure it in order to make progress.

From the  Great Library of Alexandria  to the The House of Wisdom (Grand Library of Baghdad), the ancient world was ruled by those who could make sense of numbers. The Great Al-Khwarizmi, the Father of Algebra, and the man whose name is “algorithm”, preached the message of numbers. As the director of the House of Wisdom, he pioneered algebra and went to Mecca to shape commerce. He told men- unless you can make sense of numbers, you cannot be a good merchant.

As we move into 2021, invest to understand the numbers in your business and your career. Watch this keynote I gave on “Unlocking Business Agility with Learning & Numbers”.

I am wishing everyone a great new year ahead. It would be a year of accelerated growth.