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.

By Nnamdi Odumody

Tranos Contracting is an indigenous firm which was founded 11 years ago by Jude Abalaka to provide engineering, fabrication, maintenance and project management as well as manufacturing of high quality products in power generation, energy distribution, control, and automation enclosures. This focus has made the company to be highly sought after by local and foreign companies.

It has set world-class standards in safety, quality and efficiency through its various design and fabrication processes with state of the art equipment and resource, enabling it to carry out innovative design, manufacturing and fabrication which compete with international standards.

Its product line includes telecom power solutions, sound proof enclosures for generator companies, packaged substations for power distribution, diesel generators, battery cabinets, distribution boards for telecom companies, switches and sockets for domestic and commercial use, warehouse racks, accessories for solar panels, etc.

Tranos product line falls into the business to business category which is its main focus while its business to consumer range is done on special requests.

Tranos capabilities have seen it producing power solutions for 11 percent of the 25,000 functional telecommunications base stations scattered across Nigeria.

In 2018, it developed a new product line of switches and sockets designed to meet the demands of any device connection whether local, UK or US standards.

Tranos invests heavily in R&D to develop innovative solutions in the shortest possible time for its clients and sources over 50 percent of its raw materials locally while its products are designed to suit the local market.