I took time to browse through more than 100 comments on a piece on Tekedia titled “Nigeria Strikes The Perceived Choiceless MultiChoice (DStv, GOTv)”. Broadly, most are toxic. Some were directed at me for ever preaching the free market principle in the midst of an unbounded monopolist from South Africa. But the bulk went to MutiChoice and its brands – DStv and GOtv. Many of the commenters were fanatical: “leave Nigeria, MultiChoice” could be used to summarize the feelings. Of course, some defended my hypothesis of a free market and allowing market forces to work.

That is a big problem for MultiChoice. What is happening here is that MultiChoice is winning their purses and wallets but losing the customers. It is a very dangerous trajectory for any brand, and if the company does not fix it, it has no future as a company in Nigeria. Simply, when MultiChoice came, it turned consumers into customers and then got many into the level of fandom through its European football product. But over time, most of those fans are falling back to customers and even consumers. Yet, because there was no other option, they stayed as consumers, paying, even when they have lost it all with the company selling to them.

My recommendation to MultiChoice is to do reassessment of its business, and see how it could fix this paralysis. It needs to win the hearts of the customers even as it wins the wallets to protect its castle. For all the improving financials, MultiChoice has a problem in Nigeria: it is serving dissatisfied customers and that is not leverageable.

Comment on LinkedIn Feed

MultiChoice’s biggest problem is that it’s the only one, so it’s very easy to throw all the missiles to it.

MTN is not loved more than MultiChoice, the difference is that when you feel you are angry with MTN, you move to Glo, Airtel, or even 9Mobile; and by the time you go round and realise that MTN is not really as terrible as you cast it, you come back and become more humbled consumer, while still murmuring under your breath.

What do you think would happen if MTN were to remain the only telecom service provider in Nigeria? Obviously everything it does would be evil, because there’s no other avenue to check if it’s killing you or extending your life. As long as you are the only entity offering a service that many people need, naturally you will have many haters and detractors, it doesn’t matter how great you serve them. Humans enjoy having options, they never like being reduced to single choice.

Asking MultiChoice to fix the issue is asking it to do the impossible: keep customers happy, while remaining above water. You cannot achieve both, as long as you are the only provider.

In all of these, Nigeria is the problem, but since everyday people don’t know how to fight Nigeria, they normally direct the anger to companies.

Selected Comments…

U dont know what Dstv has done to us in this country. Dstv has push other Companies out of the country. But they dont want any other to come in. The issue with Dstv and the Government is DStv don’t want other digital TV to come and if they must come they should buy the right from them to show some sports. Like what is happening to Star time. If u will recall Italian league was viewed on star time immediately Ronaldo signed for Juventus they collected it back from star time and begin to show it. Is this good for Nigerians. When they go others will come. They want to be the God of sport and other should come in and be subjected to them. That is where the issue is? Forget all this economic story.

This writer must be their PR man.This is Nigeria not South Africa.

This is a rather jaundiced, myopic and parochial view.
Content is data, and data is just as tangible an asset as infrastructure.

If monopolies restrict access to it to the extent that the growth of competitors and of the wider industry is threatened then the role of any diligent regulator should be to decentralise that access.

If DSTV opts to retreat from Nigeria one can only expect that they be heading to a very enjoyable retirement having made ten times more money in Nigeria than they would have made anywhere else in Africa unchallenged for the past 25 years.

Exponential growth in any industry does not come through monopolising the key assets and profiteering from exorbitant access fees.

Rather it comes from opening up access to participants and creating more players in each market layer.

My brother, the problem with the exclusive-rights model is that once DSTV has won the bid if any other player is able to raise money the next month and is willing to invest in the same industry they are completely barred from entry. Everybody is put at the mercy of DSTV. Either you pay what they ask or you go home, even if you have a completely different business model or are targetting a different segment of the market than they are.

Just because you have made the initial investment in the asset does not mean other players must be restricted from access to use that asset. This is parochial thinking.

When regulators break up monopolies the industry and the wider economy is usually better off. Look around you and around the world. It has been proven over the past 30years.

Content is data, and data ought to be shared. That is the type of economy that we need in Nigeria today.

Nigeria Explains The Unification of MultiChoice (DStv, GOtv), NTA, IrokoTV, etc [Video]

These young people will do well. They jointly wrote us for our edition 2, asking for support to attend Tekedia Mini-MBA. There was no way any person could refuse an offer from many students, jointly writing, to have an opportunity to attend your course. We have tracked how they are developing, and they are impressive. Tekedia Institute is proud to support the amazing young people in FutureScope Academy. Last week, the course on AI developed by Microsoft business leader, Wale Olokodana, was opened for a secondary school which asked for access. If your school needs support, let us know. Our programs are delivered by business leaders and they bring practical elements that truly help learners.

Good morning Tekedia,

It has been a wonderful time of learning and innovative mind-blowing exposure to solving identified problems and converting values for means of exchange. Tekedia has been so helpful and worthwhile. With this, FutureScope Academy decided to include two more students, because we want them to have this same learning curve and experience that will help them turn innovative in their quest of being problem solvers in the society.

We are forever indebted to Tekedia for giving our students the  opportunity to enjoy world class learning. Thank you for putting value ahead of money. We believe the favour you granted us to be knowledgeable, informed, “change agents” in the society will come back to lift our great nation up and make Tekedia proud.

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Download the full document – Guidelines for Online Hailing Business Operation of Taxi in Lagos State, 2020 (PDF). We received the complete document and are happy to share with the community. From TC Daily, a good summary below:

Come August 20, Guideline for On-Line Hailing Business Operation of Taxi in Lagos will come into effect. It is the Lagos State government’s approach towards regulating the ride-hailing sector in the commercial city and has been the cause of concern since last year when its existence was first hinted at. Both motorcycle and taxi operators have been at regulatory loggerheads with the state government since 2018. In January, the state government announced the ban of motorcycles, including the tech-enabled operators, from major areas in the state to the outrage of users and the operators. There was a peaceful march afterwards to protest the ruling. As was speculated then, the law now mandates operators to acquire a provisional license at N10 million (about US$26,000) per 1,000 vehicles or less; N25 million (US$65,000) for a fleet above 1,000 and renew annually at N5 million and N10 million respectively. The state government is also asking for a 10% service tax on every ride the operators complete (Source: TC Daily)

e-HAILING TAXI OPERATION

4.1       TAXI/OPERATOR’S DOCUMENTATION

1. Service Entity Permit Provisional Licence Application/Renewal

No entity shall operate as a Support Entity in Lagos State without first having obtained a Support Entity Permit from the Licencing Authority.

1. The Service Entity Permit must apply for Operator’s Provisional Licence prior to operation and a payable fee of ?10,000,000.00 (Ten Million Naira only) for 1000 (One Thousand) units of E-hailing
2. The Service Entity Permit must apply for Operator’s Provisional Licence prior to operation and a payable fee of ?25,000,000.00 (Twenty-Five Million Naira only) for 1001 and above (One Thousand and One above) units of e-Hailing

• The Service Entity Permit Provisional Licence is subject to annual renewal with a renewable fee of ?5,000,000.00 (Five Million Naira only) for every 1000 (One Thousand) unit of E-Hailing

1. The Service Entity Permit Provisional Licence is subject to annual renewal with a renewable fee of ?10,000,000.00 (Ten Million Naira only) for every 1001 and above (One Thousand and One above) unit of E-Hailing
2. All Operators of e-Hailing Taxi Services must pay the State Government 10% Service tax on each transaction paid by the passengers to the operators.
3. The Service Entity Permit must commence the renewal process 3 (Three) months before expiration of the existing

• The Service Entity Permit must have a quarterly meeting with the Ministry of Transportation for Operational updates and
• The Service Entity Permit must operator under a particular franchise as no single operator/operation will be

1. On payment of the permit fee, the Licensing Authority shall issue a Support Entity Permit to the
2. All Operators of e-hailing taxi services must give the Ministry access to their database.
3. All Operators of e-hailing taxi services must abide to rules and regulation guiding Lagos State Public Transportation System.

The Lagos’ 10% Service Tax on Uber, Bolt, etc with up to N25 Million License Fee

“I studied the innovation flowchart one of the participants developed for DSTV and the digital transformation process designed for a laundry business, then designed for a logistics coy and inventory software coy.

The good news is that it has put me in front of both CEOs and I have two job offers on my table- one as a Business Development Manager and the other as the Operations Manager.” Tekedia Mini-MBA Member

Leaders are looking for innovation makers for their companies. Tekedia Mini-MBA is educating young people on the mechanics of innovation and business growth. One young man just shared via Linkedin that he has two job offers, and he is going for one. Our strategy remains: companies do not necessarily care about your degrees these days, they want to see what you can do. If you go through our process, you would be transformed, and be ready to win. That is our promise.

Walk into that interview room, and drop a playbook for that company. Explain to them how a future of digital and broad innovation can unlock growth. Put into practice our courses and see that Offer letter with your name.

Join the largest management training school in Africa right now. Most others are locked down or on strike, our members are creating the future.

Facebook has unveiled a new playbook that could become the most disruptive in the digital global economy: Facebook Financial. Sure, there is nothing new about Facebook trying to become your payment company. But what is new here is that Facebook has created a new division to take care of all things digital payments. This new division “will run all payments projects, including Facebook Pay,” concatenating across its ecosystems of Facebook, Messenger, WhatsApp and Instagram.

Now, you can send money to friends and family via Facebook Pay and also pay for goods and services via Facebook Pay. Simply, when you are in the Facebook Inc ecosystem, you do not need to leave, for PayPal, Stripe, etc, to pay for things. This paytech completes a key piece Facebook needs for its ecommerce business; the logistics component remains.

Keeping Facebook users inside those apps for payments, rather than having them slip out to use Apple Pay, Google Pay, Venmo, PayPal, Zelle, or other digital currency platforms, will help the company’s advertising bottom line. “As payments grow across Messenger and WhatsApp, and as we’re able to roll that out in more places, I think that that will only grow as a trend,” Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said on the company’s latest earnings call, according to MarketWatch.

The Novi unit and Facebook’s embattled Libra cryptocurrency will fall under the Facebook Financial umbrella. Facebook has had to shift plans for Libra after months of regulatory pressure and financial partners bailing on the effort.

Technically, Facebook Inc can do anything it wants to do because it is now a big planet of more than 4 billion people across its ecosystems. It has the demand in a world of unbounded supply, giving it the edge to create and launch these new products easily. The person who controls demand (the users) is in a greater position than one who creates supply, in the web economy.

As a global leading ICT utility, I expect Facebook Pay to support the integration and interface of largely consumer payment, and as it does that, more digital commerce will move to Facebook. This company has a Multi Play strategy, well ahead of the double play. Yes, if advertisers want to revolt, its “tax” on payment transactions will keep adding the digits for Facebook shareholders.