As promised after the publication of 30 Agro and Agtech Business Ideas for Africa that we would publish mechanisms to move most of the ideas into products, we are here sharing practical systems and processes with enablers on how anyone in Africa can get into this game. The driving philosophy is to execute locally and effectively transition […]
Watch French President Macron – Tony Elumelu Interactive Forum
I just finished watching the full session of French President Macron – Tony Elumelu Interactive Forum hosted by the Tony Elumelu Foundation. I am working here; the video played all through. Mr. President is simply brilliant. See the eloquence, the visioning process and his mastery of elemental components of nations. You can see a man who knows his world without advisors. See the way he handled the questions – Africa needs to improve our political leadership game. Honestly, watching French President should inspire you. Watch on click.
The video below…
Medcera Raised Capital Today – Prepare for your Medcera Patient Card
This morning I signed a term sheet for Medcera – my upcoming healthtech startup. A new investor, a director in one of the largest American corporations, invested and joined our mission. The conversation began about two weeks ago. The investor made it so simple by moving fast.
Medcera is a web-based EMR (electronic medical record) and EHR (electronic health record) system with patient portal. Our technology supports pharmacies, health insurers, labs, imaging centers, chemists, clinics, hospitals and indeed any entity in the healthcare sector.
Next month, Medcera will go live. You will login and see a portal that looks like the one below. There, you can organize your health records. Once you are in Medcera ecosystem, we will assign you a random code to make it easy for you to control your data as you visit a clinic, lab, pharmacy, health insurer, or hospital [we pray that you do not fall sick, of course. Yet, you do not need to be sick to visit hospitals].
Walk into a clinic which is within Medcera network, give them your Medcera code, they will not need to ask you medical historical questions because Medcera has your medical summary which our AI pulls from your hospital encounters, lab data, imaging results and more.
What’s more; you can manage your prescriptions and practically anything including paying your doctor, pharmacies, etc. Our vision is to remove medical errors, save costs and bring higher quality in patients’ outcomes.
You must keep your Medcera patient card private at all times. Every technology in Medcera is FREE for doctors, clinics, labs, imaging centers, dentists, patients, etc. We make money through health analytics which examines patterns at population level under the highest ethical and privacy frameworks with no access to any patient data. For example, we can tell you how many people were treated for malaria in Lagos yesterday even though we do not know the people. Also, we can tell you the most popular drug prescribed yesterday in Sokoto state even though we do not know to whom. Our AI systems can detect disease outbreaks fast through our correlation engines. It is a beautiful technology!
I will hope many of you would come onboard as we begin the journey to reduce frictions in our healthcare systems. We would go live on Aug 1, 2018 on Medcera.com.
Training
We will also launch a nationwide training program across cities to support entities as they adopt Medcera.
Contact: medcera@fasmicro.com
Nigeria’s Paylater Unveils PayVest, Fixed-Interest Investment Account
Paylater, a consumer lending startup in Nigeria, has launched a new product: “PayVest: a fixed-interest investment account.” This product can pay an interest rate in the range of 15.5% per year.
PayVest provides the flexibility, convenience and stability you need, at one of the best interest rates you’ll find available, anywhere. …
Fantastic Investment Terms
With annual interest rates of up to 15.5%*, you’ll struggle to find anything (legal) that matches PayVest’s return on investment. It’s comfortably above the inflation rate, thus ensuring you’re only ever earning money and not losing it. Single investments can range from N50,000 to N10 million.
In my last piece about this company, I noted that it could work with entities like Piggybank, an online saving portal, to pioneer new sectors in the Nigerian financial sector. I noted that these companies are competitors and also coopetitors, and together these entities can redesign our financial system. The thesis of my point is this: Piggybank is a saving startup, and Paylater could borrow from it to make loans since Piggybank has cash from its savers. Of course, there are regulatory reasons why the startups cannot handshake at this level. Nonetheless, for Paylater to continue to grow, it has to find CHEAP capital. Without cheap capital, its scalable advantage will drop.
Paylater is pioneering a new area in fintech along with other lending startups in Nigeria. Though their annual interest rates can vary from “31% to 213%”, for most people, it is better than nothing. Simply, they are meeting the needs of customers, left behind by banks. For the very fact that they are CBN regulated, it means that they have to disclose every element of their loan terms in ways that customers will understand.
With PayVest, it is working to fix that problem. Simply, if the PayVest vision works, Paylater will receive “investment” deposits from customers which will cost it up to 15.5% yearly. It will then take that money and lend to customers at above 31%. Just like that, the company has fixed a big challenge which is having enough money to lend. Also, with this structure, it may not need to take expensive capital from say banks. You see why the move is brilliant: PayVest will anchor a virtuoso circle which will make it possible that the Paylater system can support itself organically provided it continues to manage risks well.
This is what most hedge funds in U.S. do: they have reinsurance/insurance businesses which help them with cheap capital. Warren Buffett does same with Geico, an insurer, where he gets cheap capital from premiums and then use that capital to invest in long term deals. If you can control both arms, get cheap capital, invest with bigger spreads, you have a winner anytime.
PayVest has just raised capital for Paylater in the way great companies do: your customers FUND you. Yes, customers are the best investors.
French President Macron’s €1,000,000,000 Fund to Africa – Markets Over Govt Houses
The President of France, Mr. Emmanuel Macron, has announced a total of 1 billion euro investment fund for private sector players in Africa, to enable them scale up their business enterprises. The fund would anchor an initiative to gather African and Europeans titles and business players to build a business platform, to develop, leverage and accelerate the private sector. President Macron shared this as the special guest at an interactive business forum hosted by the Tony Elumelu Foundation in Lagos.
“We will participate with you to strengthen and to frame the financial ecosystem of West Africa.
“We decided to invest one billion euros, which means N500 billion in the African private sector through the French Development Agency to start the Digital Africa Initiative.”
He also challenged young African entrepreneurs from the Tony Elumelu Entrepreneurs, reminding them that “If you believe in your projects: just do it right now”. Yes indeed: remember the Fedex founder piece.
“Nobody should decide your future; you must arise and take responsibility for your continent. If Africa does not succeed, Europe and America will not,” he said.
“If you believe in your projects: just do it right now. If you want to do it, if you want to change this world, if you want to change your country, if you believe in your innovation, in your project, just make it visible, create, dare and do it right now. That’s the answer for this continent,” he stressed
I like this – it is time for the world to focus on building Africa from the private sector over giving money to governments. I am very confident that a solid financial structure would benefit Africa if the African businesses lead the relationships with Europe. The funds should be accessible to big and small companies plus startups in Africa. We want more funds going into markets than government houses.
Contents and quotes from Daily Trust report on this.