With the success of Jumia on its public listing in the NYSE, a new exit playbook has opened in Africa. Yes, after recording 75% surge on day 1, and hitting $3.9 billion, African founders need to study the mechanics of going to America. Had Jumia listed in Lagos, it would not have crossed $400 million market cap.

Jumia had a great day on the New York Stock Exchange on Friday. The ecommerce  company surged more than 75% on its first day as a public company. People, Jumia at market cap of $3.9 billion, is now worth more than GTBank, Nigeria’s largest bank by market cap. The stock opened at $14.50 per share and ended at $25.46.

Interswitch has been over-cautious for years. Now, it is time. I expect Andela to join this party in 3 years even as Interswitch hits the market within 24 months. Cellulant will be on the way. I can predict that everyone will be going to America.

Jumia has shown that relations have been normalized – Africa can be a huge source of growth for the Street players in NYSE. Simply, there is no reason not to do it in an exchange where the liquidity is evidently unbounded.

That’s why they went there, where you have plenty moneymen, with no artificial ceiling on how much you can grow at a go. With this kind of surge, Jumia can be smiling while losing money over here; the guys there think differently. Good luck to Jumia, we expect more money to be poured into Africa, that’s actually the one that concerns us…

I have added five slides this morning in our Innovation Workshop for African startups and founders. The lead to the session is Going to America – the Jumia Playbook. Besides building for pure buyout, exiting via IPO in the beautiful America is a crystal possibility because relations have been normalized with the Street. And if Jumia holds up after reporting two quarters, I will add a new one – primary listing in U.S. with secondary listing in Nigeria or South Africa to manage the political fallout that will evidently befall Jumia in coming months. Yes, most local regulators will ask it to come and list in Africa. It must be planning for that as secondary listing.

I will be sharing selected public speeches on this page.

Interview with NTA Nigeria (2021)

2019 the Platform titled “The Growth of Nations”

At Deeper Life YPF 2021

This is my keynote at the Champions of Talent Development (CTD) 2020 Conference. My presentation was titled “Business and Learning Agility”. I spoke on Wednesday October 14, 2020.

2019 FUTO Biennial Lecture

2019 Big Data & Business Analytics Conference, Lagos, Nigeria, March 2019.

2017 Tony Elumelu Foundation Entrepreneurship Forum plenary, Lagos, Nigeria.

ABWxD ’10 – Ndubuisi Ekekwe from A Better World By Design on Vimeo.

DHL continues the mission of integrated logistics, finding ways for Africans to buy things from major Western retailers. It just launched DHL Africa eShop to make it easier for African dwellers, in eleven countries, to buy items from Macy’s, Carters, Neiman Marcus and other brands. It is partnering with MallforAfrica to execute this – MallforAfrica’s Link Commerce service will anchor the local payments, procurement and delivery.

DHL Express has announced the launch of its new mobile and desktop app aimed at improving the online shopping experience for Africa-based consumers. The exciting new platform, DHL Africa eShop, enables customers to shop directly from more than 200 US- and UK-based online retailers, with all shipments delivered by DHL Express, to the shopper’s door. DHL Africa eShop will be available in 11 African markets to start – South Africa, Nigeria, Kenya, Mauritius, Ghana, Senegal, Rwanda, Malawi, Botswana, Sierra Leone and Uganda.This solution was developed in partnership with Link Commerce – a division of Mall for Africa.

[…]

Despite the growing demand, many US and UK-based retailers do not offer shipping to African countries, owing to the perceived logistical challenges involved such as high last-mile delivery costs and fraud concerns. However, DHL Express was the first express operator to set up in Africa over 40 years ago, so we are well positioned to offer innovative and reliable solutions for on the continent.” (Press release)