West and Central Africa’s largest airline, Air Peace, sets record – orders new Embraer aircrafts for US$2.12 billion. While those PowerPoint consultants are talking thrash about Nigeria, we have a nation rising to the mountain-top. You do not invest $2.12 billion via aviation if an economy does not have life. I have always tracked the state of health of Nigeria by climbing those tall buildings in Marina Lagos, whenever in town, to see shipping traffic. Irrespective of whatever they write in Economist or show on CNN, if I see the ships coming and leaving, benchmarking my last count, I make my call. Nigeria has shown consistent promise.

Sure, we need to do better in Nigeria but to write Nigeria off is sheer stupidity. People confuse Nigeria with our politicians without knowing that Nigeria has the finest entrepreneurial minds in Africa. and can make real impacts globally if our politicians can show up.

Nigeria is emerging. Congrats Mazi Onyema. You are serving your nation well.

WEST and Central Africa’s biggest airline, Air Peace, today set a continental record with a firm order for 10 brand new Embraer 195-E2 aircraft.

The deal which was unveiled today during Embraer Business Meeting with the Aviation World in Port Louis, Mauritius, makes Air Peace the first to order the brand of jets in the whole of Africa, thereby becoming the official launch customer of the brand of aircraft in Africa.

The order comprises purchase rights for a further 20 E195-E2 jets. The aircraft is a 124 seater jet in dual class and 146-seater jet in single class configurations respectively.

With all purchase rights exercised, the contract has a value of US$2.12 billion based on current list prices.

The carrier also set a regional record in September 2018 when it ordered 10 brand new aircraft from Boeing, increasing its fleet size then to about 37 aircraft. With the new order, Air Peace’s fleet size has increased to 67 aircraft.

Speaking on the latest order in faraway Port Louis, Air Peace Chairman/Chief Executive Officer, Mr Allen Onyema said: “Embraer’s new E195-E2 presents us with a marvel of an economic performance. It’s also great that we will be the first E2 operator on the African continent. We already have the ERJ145s in our fleet, so we understand the high standards of Embraer products.”

Paga celebrates ten years of serving Nigeria with digital payment. TC Daily, a newsletter, summarizes the numbers: “In 10 years, the company has grown to a team of 460 and counting, recruited over 20,000 agents, served over 12 million customers, process over 72 million transactions worth $4.6 billion in value.”

Today, April 3rd, 2019 marks 10 years from when I embarked on the Paga journey. A journey that began because of my frustration with carrying cash everywhere in Nigeria and not being able to make payments efficiently.

I did a video on Paga in 2017.

In today’s videocast, I discuss the rise of Paga. Paga is a fintech company based in Lagos, Nigeria. It started as a mobile money company but quickly pivoted when it realized that mobile money was not (quickly) taking shape in Nigeria. Paga is growing and is well positioned to become a very important financial institution in Nigeria. Its numbers, revealed by its Founder, are better than most public-traded Nigerian insurance companies and in coming years, I expect it to overtake most banks in profitability.

Nigeria’s MDaaS Global raises $1 million in equity funding, reports Ventureburn. The company, a healthtech, builds network of diagnostic and primary care facilities to provide convenient, high-quality, and affordable healthcare. It works under the brand name BeaconHealth, through which it builds and operates tech-enabled diagnostic centers in clinically-underserved communities, starting in Nigeria. The diagnostic centers offer radiology, cardiology, and lab services and are located in the neighborhoods where the patients live, emphasizing patient experience above all else.

MDaaS Global, a Lagos-based medtech startup that builds and operates diagnostic centres in Nigeria, has raised just over $1-million in equity funding, reveals a US Securities and Exchange Commission filling made yesterday (1 April).

The filling states that up to 12 investors were involved in the round which commenced on 15 March. According to the filling the total offering amount was $1 580 062, while the amount sold was $1 055 496, with $524 566 remaining to be sold.

It is not clear if the startup still intends to raise the remaining amount of $524 566.

MDaaS Global was founded in 2016 by CEO Oluwasoga Oni, CFO Genevieve Barnard Oni, supply chain manager Joe McCord and Nigeria country manager Opeyemi Ologun.

As it sojourns to IPO in NYSE, Jumia has picked $56 million from Mastercard Europe. It needs any boost it can get as it goes public for good. The business of ecommerce in Africa is a long-run game. All the investors must play that game.

Jumia, which will trade as “JMIA” on the NYSE, has also received a cash injection ahead of its public offering: in a private stock sale, the company has confirmed a $56 million private placement from Mastercard Europe. It means Mastercard will be buying shares at whatever price investors agree ahead of the float and gives Jumia a confidence boost ahead of an uncertain listing for a young company which positions itself both as an “emerging growth company” and a “foreign private issues” as defined under US securities regulations.

As with most companies ahead of a prospective listing, Jumia’s S1 filing covered several risk factors for investors to consider while it talked up its ambitions in Africa’s e-commerce space, including touting its four million active customers across 14 African countries. But as Quartz Africa noted, the risk factors offer just a hint of how costly it is to crack e-commerce across Africa. As of the end of last year, Jumia had accumulated losses of nearly $1 billion and had negative operating cash flows of $159.2 million, for the 12 months to Dec 31, 2018. Its annual losses have also grown annually widening to $195.2 million on revenue of just $149.6 million last year.

Yes, a game that requires looking at years and not months.

In this videocast, I discuss the future of e-commerce in Africa and why the sector is still anyone’s game to win despite the presence of key competitors. The loss-making sector demands someone with capital to boost logistics and accelerate scale to make money. Today’s leaders are not doing that yet, and can be easily disrupted and displaced. But there are challenges in competing in this sector because the environment and the fundamentals are toxic with largely no infrastructure to key in. The business competitive factor is not the internet or website but logistics. Winning this sector to become a category-king will be settled by a company that can invest, at scale, in logistics to serve more cities and countries.