Few days ago, I received an invitation to attend a Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) event. When I got to the event, I was asked to check a list. Under profession, I crossed what they had there for me, and wrote “Farmer”.
A lady said “We did not have you here as a farmer?” I responded “I understand, but I am a farmer.” In our farming business, we have done everything to avoid the temptation of thinking that technology is more important than the agriculture we are working to improve. (There are many opportunities in the broad agricultural sector; I have presented 30 farming business ideas below. If you are a subscriber, the text version is here. In the subscription area, we have some mechanisms on the executions).
Yes, if our technology becomes the goal, instead of the improved farming productivity, we have failed in our missions. For us to serve farmers, technology must disappear, and agriculture must rise. Even though our technology must not just run agriculture but transform it, my goal is that having the spirit of a “farmer” will ensure we do not become unfocused, building technology solutions without any relevance to agricultural frictions.
Amid the resounding growth, African agriculture faces many challenges. The absence of standardized product grades, proof of ownership for commodities, and proper storage facilities limits agricultural potential. Access to markets and finance also pose significant barriers. We see these challenges as tremendous opportunities and intend to invest in Africa’s smallholder farmers over the long term to overcome them together
For all we do, these three stats remind us that provided we stay as Farmers, the vision will live on.
Broadly, in your business, is technology becoming the business or are you making sure it is kept in its position which is to run, improve and accelerate strategic corporate objectives?
Agusto & Co has ranked StanbicIBTC as the “Best Digital Bank in Nigeria”. UBA, Access and First Bank followed, not necessarily in order [Update: I have some concerns on this report]. The biggest revelation is GTBank which came fifth. Of course, GTBank is losing what made it the most beloved, accelerating its cap along the way. It needs to get itself together fast with the regular system down issues.
Akinola, who said the survey took five months and ended in August, listed the 10 banks, which the research focused on to include Access, Diamond, Ecobank, Fidelity, First Bank, GTB, Stanbic, UBA, Union and Zenith.
The four banks, which were however rated best include Stanbic IBTC, UBA, Access and First Bank. Out of these four, Stanbic IBTC scored the highest point, emerging the ‘Best Digital Bank in Nigeria.’ GTB ranked fifth in the survey, while Ecobank was placed 10th.
Akinola noted that the ‘5 Star’ rating assigned to StanbicIBTC Bank reflected ease of use, perceived security and very good troubleshooting & IT resolution on its different digital platforms.
According to her, from respondents’ views, StanbicIBTC has the most ease in navigating through primary platforms used such as mobile app, or web.
When you visit a digital bank and its products are creating more complaints, it gets into paralysis. It is a killer as you now “serve” customers without charging fees since you are fixing complains! Digital scales your troubles, pushing you to now have crowded bank halls purely to fix frictions which poor digital service created.
More than 98% of digital startups we work with in my practice have accounts with StanbicIBTC. That tells you how StanbicIBTC is winning as GTBank struggles with what I called Inversibility Construct: reversing physical experience in the digital space. It did it immensely, in the past (as I have noted many times), but lately the technology has not been operating smoothly.
Update
These are some comments from LinkedIn on this piece.
All Nigerian banks (Union Bank inclusive) are trying to catch up with the digital transformation, albeit there is not so much of a difference in the digital services each of them offers, but for the sake of position, I give it to Stanbic IBTC .
GTB used to be prime movers in delivering digital banking services, but ever since they became a marketplace with no defined trajectory, and dull in responding to customer complaints, they lost their place.
2. I have only GTBank account and I do everything online. I will not have basis for comparison with other banks. But GTBank is losing it gradually. Not surprised though, as they have 1001 services online. It’s gone beyond banking to more of a platform. Though that is supposed to be an advantage if we’ll harnessed
[This is the quote referred here: To “create a platform and partner anybody who has a service to offer. So that if as a customer, one comes into our ecosystem, you can do just anything. You could do your banking business, buy your tickets, insurance, travel; if you wanted a 10-day pay day loan, you can do it. So, really we want you to come into our ecosystem, maybe five times a day to do different things other than banking.” GTBank CEO]
In this piece, we share an article, on the evolution of digital farming, and why the future of farming is going to be anchored on robots. Within decades, farmers will be digital robots. According to the ancient Sumerians, the god Enil gave mankind the hoe. Ever since, we’ve been trying to spend less time and effort […]
I explained in the duality element that digital products which thrive are typically both products and platforms. It would be hopeless to build modern digital products without having a moat through platforms. Interestingly, the greatest digital ICT utilities have double plays in their business models: if Amazon decimates many brick-and-mortar stores, it would welcome many online to sell them cloud services. Alibaba welcomes you to its marketplace platforms, and you certainly have signed up for its (partly affiliated) payment processing solutions (Alipay) which command commissions.
Double Play is playing out right now: Samsung is predicting record profits as its chip business grows.
The South Korean electronics giant is forecasting operating profits of around 17.5 trillion won ($15.5bn; £11.9 bn), up 20.4% from a year ago. The guidance is above analyst estimates for the period, boosted by its thriving chip business.
The firm expects consolidated sales will reach around 65 trillion won in the three months to September, up 4.8% on last year. Shares were steady following the guidance update.
The South Korean firm has seen earnings surge in recent years largely due to demand for memory chips in mobile devices, but falling prices for some electronic components could hit further earnings growth.
Chips account for nearly 80% of its operating profit, according to Reuters.
Do you know the company that is making Samsung greater? Apple. Yes, that arch-rival is also the company that is feeding into the profitability of Samsung. As I explained in the One Oasis Strategy, there are just few firms in the world that can meet the quality and scale Apple needs. One of those firms is also the main competitor in Apple’s core business of mobile devices. The rivalry between iPhone vs. Samsung Galaxy is just for the newspapers: many things hold them together. The mobile devices are born from the same semiconductor factories.
For Samsung, provided Apple continues to place orders for chips, it would be fine irrespective of what happens in its mobile phone business where Samsung has been lagging: “Samsung posted lower-than-expected sales of its flagship Galaxy 9 smartphones”. But having the Galaxy series ensures that Samsung does not have to secure external orders before innovating in the chip business.
Yes, provided the chip business has an internal customer (the mobile device unit, the oasis in my strategy), Samsung will continue to commit resources as the oasis has removed most of the risks in investing billions of dollars to build new factories in the chip business. Yes, the mobile device unit (the oasis) makes the chip business better by being a “reliable customer”, irrespective of whatever happens externally. That is the heart of the one oasis and the center of Double Play Strategy in business.
I do not even see Samsung mobile unit as a rival to Apple’s iPhone, it’s a media thing anyway, the former should be more worried about Huawei, and not Apple.
Samsung has virtually perfected the art of chip making, so Apple will always come around, when looking for high quality chips at scale. And Samsung can afford to use its Galaxy series as a ‘testing ground’ for chip making, with all the confidence in the world.
Both Samsung and Apple have a business model that works so well, and innovation means different things to both. That’s why it sounds ridiculous when some people argue that Apple ‘does not innovate’, seeing innovation only from engineering lenses of course . But innovation is endless, and in Apple’s case, it does simple things in extraordinary ways that turn customers to fans. There’s more to Apple’s iPhone than Samsung chips inside, that’s where its mystery and seeming invincibility is located.
At the end of the day, both Samsung and Apple smile to the banks, and live happily ever after.
Note Nov 12 2022: .I coined the term from watching baseball. Double play, a pitcher’s best friend, occurs in baseball when two players in offense are ruled out within the same play. Think of using one stone to kill two birds. I translated that analogy to business strategy in Harvard. Many startup founders in Lagos will tell you about their double play. Of course, many have upgraded to multiple play.
About to board a UN Helicopter for a mission for UN
Have just mapped some dates in 2019 to help the United Nations on some issues across Africa. I have been one of the lead experts helping some of our most vulnerable economies on many fronts.
It is an interesting Call to be asked to walk into a room with leaders of nations and architect decisions that would affect millions of people. Whenever the UN helicopter gets ready to uplift me, I always remind myself that a generation of boys and girls could be uplifted along.
I am very optimistic about this continent. I do hope you are. Our generation must fix any challenge here. We need DO-TANKS and no more THINK-Tanks.
