This week went great – I became a shareholder and board member of an amazing fintech which is unifying payment in the worlds of bytes (digital) and atoms (offline). You will learn about this company next week. It is one of the fastest growing fintech companies in Africa today. Extremely brilliant young people with a simple mission: attack that 98% of $301 billion.

According to research done by The Fletcher School and Mastercard Center for Inclusive Growth, of the $301 billion of funds flows from consumers to businesses in Nigeria, 98 percent is still based on cash.

Yet, most firms are focusing too much on “clicks” neglecting “bricks”. If 98% of your revenue is coming from bricks today, you cannot neglect the physical. Do not listen to them when they say that today is mobile and online. Sure, the future promises mobile and online, but we have to survive today.

Do not be intimidated with the alarms on online disruption: the glory on the clicks is a promise. But “bricks” is on our hands. You are investing too much for clicks and your management is focusing largely exclusively on clicks. No one cares about the bricks. Unfortunately, the “bricks” customers are noticing. They are not happy in your stores.

Our goal is total unification, and we have a hybrid fintech: attacking that 98% for glory

To the makers of digital tomorrow, it is always a moment making it to the campus. Intel’s Ronler Acres campus in Hillsboro, USA, is amazing, building the pieces that make the world run and be transformed. In our electronics business, we remain honored to be working with Intel Corp for seven years now as Africa’s leading programmable microprocessor partner. I like coming to Hillsboro – it tells me how humans are creating that predictable future.

The problems we solve are not common day challenges but whenever the moment arises, Fasmicro Electronics is always ready. This mission has taken us to 37 countries in Africa.

The Intel® FPGA Training Partner Program enables engineers worldwide to receive high-quality training on Intel FPGA products. Intel FPGA Technical Training works closely with select companies who are designated members of the program.  These companies receive information regularly from Intel FPGA Technical Training to ensure they have the tools to teach the latest technologies. Please click on the links below for details.

Microelectronics >> unless it advances, the clicks stall.

MTN Nigeria has gone public – yes, I understand: there are varieties of going public. Nonetheless, when it went public, the valuation was 1.8 trillion naira ($5.8 billion using CBN rate).

MTN Group Ltd. will list its Nigeria unit in Lagos on Thursday in a move that will value the pan-African wireless carrier’s largest business at 1.8 trillion naira …).

The move is a step toward a partial sell down of the carrier’s majority 79% stake, and was agreed to as part of the settlement of a $1 billion regulatory fine three years ago. MTN Nigeria is the market leader in Africa’s most populous country, with about 60 million customers at the end of last year.

In my model, in June 2018, I arrived at $5.57 billion as the value of MTN Nigeria. Simply, I used the numbers from MTN Ghana to arrive at the pricing range in Nigeria after taking many factors into considerations. This was my conclusion: “That brings the market value of MTN Nigeria to be $5.57 billion.”  You may like to read that piece again.

MTN Ghana has 17.8 million subscribers and commands a market share of 47.6%. MTN Nigeria has 54.5 million subscribers with a market share above 35%. Neglecting the market positioning and focusing on the subscriber base, 35% of MTN Nigeria should give 3.06x of the $745 million from Ghana (i.e. $2.3 billion). With this number, MTN Nigeria would be worth $6.57 billion. But since MTN Nigeria does not have the same market positioning as it has in Ghana (48% vs 35% market share), we would drop $1 billion from the number. That brings the market value of MTN Nigeria to be $5.57 billion. Post-IPO, that would give it about 13% of the total value of the Nigerian Stock Exchange, depending on the exchange rate you use.

This is the value of MTN Nigeria

The greatest moment for any nation is when entrepreneurs rise.

Nigerian Decades of Entrepreneurship:

1990s – Banking

2000s – Voice telephony

2010s – Mobile internet

2020s – Digital applications

If you feel always right as a leader that no one can offer alternative perspectives in accomplishing your corporate mission, the corporate vision is lost.

Typically, during Q/A session in our discovery innovation workshop, if I see that Chairman and CEO are dominating proceedings, with minimal inputs from other directors, I would politely ask them to leave, temporarily.

Once that happens, magically, everyone will like to talk at the same time. Unless you can get those men and women to raise their hands even when you are around, you are not leading.

Yes, if your leadership cannot raise hands in your presence to chart business progress, they will raise to discuss your failures, in your absence.