Jay Jay Okocha is in trouble: a judge has ordered his arrest for non-payment of taxes to Lagos state government [technically for not submitting documents for government to know how much he will pay on taxes!]. With no standard football pitch in any major Nigerian prison, it will be a nightmare for Austin Okocha. The taxman is awake in Nigeria as that is the only productive unit in government – the revenue is growing at double digit.

A Lagos Division of the Lagos State High Court in Igbosere has issued a bench warrant for the arrest of former Super Eagles star, Austin Okocha, over tax evasion charges.

Mr Okocha – or Jay Jay Okocha as he is popularly known – has repeatedly failed to appear before the court to answer why he allegedly failed to pay his income taxes.

Adedayo Akintoye, the judge, issued the warrant for the arrest of the former Eagles captain on January 29 and thereafter adjourned until February 19.

However, on February 19, the prosecution had not effected the arrest forcing the judge to, again, adjourn till April 15 and ordering that the warrant be executed by then.

The football star is facing a three-count charge instituted by the Lagos State Ministry of Justice bordering on failure to furnish his income returns and nonpayment of tax.

Yet, as government does its work, many things are changing. It follows those popular Chinua Achebe words: “Eneke the bird says that since men have learnt to shoot without missing, he has learnt to fly without perching.” Simply, some companies are restructuring, moving headquarters to Mauritius.

Today, nearly all the investing companies in Nigeria (venture capital firms, private equity firms), have moved headquarters to Mauritius. Yes, they are no more Nigerian companies even though 100% of their operations are done in Nigeria.

Tax. Tax. Tax – I said the three-letter word, three times! Jay Jay needs not dribble here: he should allow Nigeria to score.

Who can motivate your team? Before Ole Gunnar Solskjaer arrived, Manchester United was talking of shipping Pogba, but today he is doing great things for the Red Devils, as I noted few days ago. Until you find what can motivate or who can motivate your team, you may struggle to take that mission to the mountaintop. Simply, you must find the Solskjaer in that business.

Arianna Huffington, Founder of Huffington Post, quoting my work, wrote: “Writing in the Harvard Business Review, Ndubuisi Ekekwe, founder of the non-profit African Institution of Technology, notes how over-connectedness is actually bad for the bottom line. “We’re also jeopardizing long-term productivity by eliminating predictable time off that ensures balance in our lives,” he writes.”

Yes, to get to the mountaintop, you need to motivate, making sure that the motivation is linked to workplace performance. Based on many research works, workplace performance has positively correlated with work-life balance despite the point Elon Musk made via a recent letter to Tesla employees.

Yet, it goes beyond motivation. The key question for you is this: are you motivating the right people in the firm? Until you can motivate the right people, your mission will certainly fail. Yes, you must recruit, train, and then Call to Mission the right people to find success.

The disciples and indeed the Apostles practically executed the mission they were called. But I can assume that at the beginning none might have expected it the way it happened. From companies to nations, those that answer great missions typically shape everything. But sometimes they do pay severe personal penalties. At different levels, a Call to Mission requires extremely committed people. Even in your business, you must have that capacity to find and recruit people that can help you execute a great mission. You must prepare them. Equip them. And push them to come and get glory. Our Jesus has a great template on how to accomplish missions: build and prepare an extremely committed team.

The Call to Mission

On the feed on OyaPay exit, a community member dropped a great line “… businesses don’t usually fold because of lack of capital. They usually fold because of lack of cash flow.” If you have managed a business, no matter how small, you will understand the potency of that line. When people say Cash is King, they do not necessarily mean physical cash in your drawers or cash registers. They mean the capacity to have liquidity through superior cash flow framework.

I will add one line at the other end of it: the most important cost that matters in scaling (online) businesses is marginal cost. (From Wikipedia, in economics, marginal cost is the change in the total cost that arises when the quantity produced is incremented by one unit; that is, it is the cost of producing one more unit of a good.) If you take care of that cost, you will find new markets and territories. Remember, in a perfect internet market, marginal cost is near-zero, meaning that web products tend towards being free. So, if you want to scale and thrive on the web, the marginal cost (practically, your transaction cost and distribution cost) of your product must be close to zero. Sure, I do not expect you to sell at zero!

This is the heart of the freemium model where you get many things free, which is possible because of the aggregation construct, where companies provide those digital products and then create an ecosystem to sell adverts. The firms benefit more than the suppliers by providing the platforms [Facebook makes money for photos supplied by families. Sure you like the Likes]. As shown in the Figure, great companies deliver the near-zero marginal price for high quality product, making it challenging for anyone that carries a non-zero marginal price to compete, exacerbated if the product is even not top-grade. This is one of the biggest challenges digital entrepreneurs face.

As you watch the marginal cost and have a laser-focused attention to cash flow, you will not meet surprises in that business.

Marginal Cost And How To Price Digital Products

LinkedIn Comment on Feed

• To succeed in any business, three key skills are essential: knowledge of product, marketing and finance. The truth is that not many business owners and entrepreneurs understand how important the third component is; and that is where majority of the problems lies. Consumers will always demand for cheaper prices or even free offerings, while producers – in their bid to appear ‘nice’ and outdo competitors, go on to plan their own downfall, by offering deals and going on expansion drives that are clearly unsustainable. You cannot have access to free money forever, so your business should be able to take care of its financial needs. Just know that when the party is over, consumers will always move on, while you are left alone to rue your past misdeeds.
• Yes, cash flow and marginal cost are lifelines that must be kept at optimal levels as business structures navigate growth. Keeping a balanced scorecard between funding, payment and sales models is essential if the outlook must remain positive. However, there is another risk factor that must be managed-Profits. Yes, misrepresentation of short term profits is a big risk. Embarking on an aggressive growth plan by leveraging short term profits as an indication of cash flow adequacy will certainly pile up opex and marginal cost. To this end, if funding options are no at near zero rates, good start ups run the risk of kissing the dust. In Africa, caution is the deal maker!
• You’re so right. Cashflow is so important that it’s sometimes necessary to sacrifice potential profits for cashflow i.e. for money to come in faster. We in the real estate industry are especially faced with this dilemma on a daily basis. In general, it’s good for businesses to understand this and plan for it

I will be speaking to international press including BBC during the Business Analytics Conference next month in Lagos which I will keynote. As I make it into Lagos for this event, I also want to meet the young people who have signed-on for the Tekedia Business Innovation Webinar. I have asked my colleagues in our business to tell you where we can all meet.

Join me for Tekedia Business Innovation Webinar on Friday March 22, 2019 (repeat, Saturday March 23, 2019). For $15 (or N5,000), you attend and also get access to the exclusive parts of Tekedia.com, reading my book – Africa’s Sankofa Innovation.

Certainly, when I was getting into the job market in early 2000s as a university graduate, things were simply better. Banks did mass interviews weekly that some people had multiple job offers within weeks of graduations. But things have changed since then.

Yet, our governments are working. I am confident everyone understands that Nigeria missed golden opportunities in 1960 to build a solid foundation for sustained prosperity of our nation.

Nonetheless, do not lose hope – there is abundance in the future. It is my desire to meet many of you when I make it into town.  In the midst of these paralyses, Nigeria remains a huge promise:  that is why I am always here sometimes two times in a month from America.

THEME:     Big Data, Analytics and African Development
VENUE:     Radisson Blu Hotel, Ikeja-Lagos, Nigeria
DATE:       March 5th – 6th, 2019

Why Nigeria Is The Best Place To INVEST

LinkedIn Comment on Feed

1. Comment. Whether Nigeria missed golden opportunities in 60s or not, it’s now immaterial. Of course we can comfortably blame those before us for messing up, but if we do not do anything significant now, in 40 years to come, our own “messing up” would be bigger.

There was no internet in the 60s, and there were fewer graduates then, so while we blame our fathers and grandfathers, our own blame is piling up. It is not enough to excel at individual level, but in our old age, if you cannot point where you contributed towards a better Nigeria and Africa, then be ready to tell your children and grandchildren what you did with your time; and do not tell them lies.

If you blame your father and grandfather for not making enough money, to prepare a better future for you, just ensure that you build empires before exiting; else do not expect even a paragraph to be written for you, on the good side of history.

2. Question: Definitely I agree with you that Nigeria remains a huge promise. Thank you for also pointing out how a bit easy it was for you long ago when you started your career, but it’s not an excuse for young people like us, we still have to push, we have to make a better living and one day be in your position to talk to people, I take my time to go through great people’s (eg you) profile on LinkedIn and I don’t forget to check their graduation year and how they have gradually climbed the success ladder. In as much as Nigeria missed a golden opportunity, it doesn’t stop we young youths to strive and also.make a difference. I will definitely love to meet you…. I gain alot from your post.

My Response: You are already inspiring many – Nigeria admires your courage, excellence and vision. Largely, there is never a better time to plant a corn than now. The fact is this: in my time, we did think those before had it easier. So, that is human nature. Charles Darwin traced it to the “quest” to survive. But yet, things are getting better yearly. In my time, there was no opportunity for a 2-year college grad to receive funding from venture capitalists from U.S. Today, Lagos has $millionaires who are less than 30 years old! The future is always better.