Nigeria’s Vice President Office Free Equity Funding – Just Apply, Stop Politics. Ends May 5th

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May 4, 2018

Good People,

The Office of the Vice President, Federal Republic of Nigeria, is awarding equity free funding to entrepreneurs in southeast and northcentral. The hard deadline is tomorrow.

North Central

Any Individual or start up who has an idea or a solution in Agriculture and Governance as it affects the North-Central Region or the nation as a whole. Your state of residence or startup must be located in any one of these states; FCT, Benue, Plateau, Kwara, Kogi, Nasarawa or Niger.

South East

Any Individual or start up who has an idea or a solution in Commerce or Fintech as it affects the South-Eastern Region or the nation as a whole.Your state of residence or startup must be located in any one of these states;Enugu, Imo, Anambra, Abia or Ebonyi

I have got a note that response from this call for application is still LOW. Yes, some politicians are telling youth not to apply. They want to frustrate the APC government so that the government does not have any easy win. I do not understand this, honestly.

Please ignore those politicians – they do not like you. These politicians have children who possibly do not need help as they are somewhere in UK, U.S. or China studying or working. Do not listen to them.

This is your money. It belongs to you. It is not Vice President’s money. It is Nigerian money. It is totally irrelevant who is sharing it. Your politician does not like you if he says you should ignore government.

I do not need this money because I have other sources. But I want you to apply today. If you need help on anything that could help you like website [I have no clue what they want], email my webmaster. She can help.

IDEA STAGE APPLICATION

Apply Here

EARLY STAGE APPLICATION

Apply Here

Deadline – APPLY 7 APRIL – 5 MAY 2018

Go ahead and apply. And good luck.

$2.5 Billion Swap Deal – Do You Have Your Chinese Visa?

By

Ndubuisi Ekekwe

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May 3, 2018

7

I was a banker and I know good deals when I see them. China is on a mission: surgically displace London and New York as the global centers of commerce. London scored an own goal with Brexit [why bother the man who wants to run into his house to carry a bag to the palace?]. People, leave London alone; they do not want the world and certainly they do not deserve to enjoy fees on global movement of money. New York? Ask Mr. Trump his plans.

As UK and U.S. look inwards, China is creating a new nexus in the world. The convergence is Beijing which will assume its old position. In the last ten centuries, China has dominated global GDP in at least 7 of them – India had one, UK got effervescence and US ruled the 20th century when it took over from UK late 1890.

China has signed a deal with Nigeria on currency swap. It is a big one at $2.5 billion.

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) on Wednesday announced the execution of a $2.5 billion bilateral currency swap agreement with the Peoples Bank of China (PBoC) to boost local currency liquidity in the economy.

CBN governor, Godwin Emefiele, led the Nigerian delegation to sign the agreement on behalf of the federal government, while PBoC Governor, Yi Gang, led the Chinese team at a ceremony in Beijing, China, at the end of negotiations on Friday, April 27.

{…}

“With the operationalisation of this agreement, it will make it easier for most Nigerian manufacturers, especially small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and cottage industries in manufacturing and export businesses to import raw materials, spare-parts and simple machinery to undertake their businesses.

“They will take advantage of available RMB liquidity from Nigerian banks without being exposed to the difficulties of seeking other scarce foreign currencies, which attract higher interest rate charges,” he said.

Simply, if you want to buy something from China, you do not need to look for U.S. dollars. You give your bank Naira, and the bank of your Chinese customer will give the company RMB (Chinese money). No money moves across the border as our central bank and the Chinese equivalent will handle all. With that, no one will bother London and New York because no money moved across any bother. That is the new Silk Road [The Belt and Road Initiative] China is building. It will come through displacement of the old trade routes.

“Indeed, the deal will protect Nigerian business people from the harsh effects of third currency fluctuations. With this, Nigeria becomes the third African country to have such an agreement in place with the PBoC,” [CBN spokesman[ said.

Implications

With the ease this swap deal will bring to Nigerian companies, there is no reason for any company to buy something which can be found in China in any other place. Going forward, dealing with Chinese partners would be as simple as paying a local Nigerian company. This is significant and more Nigerian importers and manufacturers will certainly bias to buy from China. All the troubles of dollars, pounds sterling and euro will fade at least in one area.

Business Idea #11 – Digital System for Informal Sector Tax Collection (Remita for Tax)

By

Ndubuisi Ekekwe

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May 3, 2018

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The ideas are archived here.

The Problem

According to a recent report by Economic Confidential, a publication, most Nigerian states are not economically viable. The report showed that only three states in the entire Northern region have IGR (internally generated revenue, IGR) above 20 per cent. They are Kwara, Kano, and Kaduna States. Ten states in the South recorded over 20 per cent IGR in 2017. They are Lagos, Ogun, Rivers, Edo, Enugu, Delta, Cross River, Anambra, Oyo and Abia States. With dwindling receipts on crude oil sales, most Nigerian states have a big problem: improve IGR or become insolvent.

The Opportunity

It is evident that states have to improve IGR. Today, the strategy has focused mainly on big companies and ventures within the corporate Nigeria – i.e. companies registered with CAC and operating with known locations. In other words, medium scale enterprises and the top leading entities are the ones paying most of the taxes. The carpenters, mechanics, tailors, farmers, etc are largely ignored. Unfortunately, most of those participants, usually in the informal sector, are making money. Furthermore, government has not improved how to collect taxes from most web companies. Today, you can be living and running a business in Nigeria with your bank account where all payments are received in Silicon Valley Bank through Stripe Atlas.

Action Roadmap

Build a tax collection system that makes it possible for state governments to collect the right components of their taxes from hotels, carpenters, tailors, web companies, etc. Think of Remita for tax collection. IGR includes Pay-As-You-Earn Tax (PAYE), Direct Assessment, Road Taxes, and revenues from Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDA)s. You have to figure out how to make sure states can collect the money without crippling the companies. It must not include intrusive system but something that can even use mobile money or SMS to ensure these informal sector participants pay.

Active Investor #4 – EchoVC

By

Ndubuisi Ekekwe

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May 3, 2018

0

The daily entries are archived here.

Business Name: EchoVC Partners

Business Description: EchoVC Partners is a seed and early stage venture capital firm focused on financing and cross-pollinating leading technologies, teams, business models and knowledge across North America, Africa and SE Asia. Average investment size ranges from $25,000 to several million dollars depending on the stage of opportunity and capital needs of the business. Our team focuses on capitalizing on the benefits that geodiversity and knowledge transfer provide to successfully fund the best entrepreneurs and companies in the geographic markets we serve. We are interested in finding and funding amazing teams to build, deliver and scale services and products that matter to local and eventually global audiences. Our segments of interest include: Consumer Internet and Services, SmartGraph and SmartData, Mobile, Digital Media, Content and Advertising, E/M-commerce, Software, Tech-enabled Services and Enterprise Infrastructure.

Business Focus: Multi-sector

Location: Lagos

Selected Recent African Deals: Hotels.ng, Printivo, LifeBank

Website: www.echovc.com

Contact: http://www.echovc.com/submit-a-proposal/

Factor: This firm is managed by Nigeria’s Eghosa Omoigui

Obafemi Awolowo University Shut for Alleged Tax Default

By

Ndubuisi Ekekwe

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May 2, 2018

0

According to Premium Times, Obafemi Awolowo University has been shut down for alleged tax default. This is very interesting. It shows a new Nigeria is coming up. First, OAU is a quasi non-profit and second, it is a federal university. That Osun State can close it for tax purposes is an indication that internally generated revenue (IGR) is now a hardball. Any state that cannot improve its IGR will certainly struggle.

The Osun State Internal Revenue Service has closed down the Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile Ife, over alleged N1.8 billion tax debt to the state government.

The institution was shut down Wednesday morning by the officials of the state revenue (IRS) led by Oladipo Babatunde after obtaining a court order to seal the school.

Mr. Babatunde has, however, said that the institution will be reopened when the management is ready to pay its tax debt.

The IRS sealed the university Senate building, administrative block, the bursary department and the university main gate which interrupted easy flow of vehicles and registration of fresh students who resumed on Sunday.

The state government had earlier issued seven days ultimatum to the companies accused of owing the state well over N12.5 billion as un-remitted taxes.

As I noted few days ago, the central purse is shrinking which means states cannot depend on the federal government to run their services. They need to invent new ways to ensure companies pay taxes. I expect states to develop better ways of collecting taxes from the informal sector which remains largely out of the tax system.

IGR includes Pay-As-You-Earn Tax (PAYE), Direct Assessment, Road Taxes, and revenues from Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDA)s. In coming months, for the sake of survival, state governments would deploy arsenals to deepen the efficiency of collecting these taxes and fees. You do not close OAU if you are not serious in improving IGR.

Meanwhile, if you are paying attention, you would have noticed that Nigeria’s federal, state and LGAs governments increasingly have lesser to sharefrom NNPC generated revenue from crude oil business.

The federal government, states and local governments shared N626.8 billion for the month of April. …Giving a breakdown of the revenue accrued in March, Mr Idris said N480.59 billion was received as gross statutory revenue, lower than N557.94 billion received in March by N77.34 billion

Non-Economically Viable States

We do note that many states are not economically viable. Now that depending on the federal government will not cover their financial obligations, things will change.

Economic Confidential noted few days ago that about 17 states in Nigeria cannot really open doors for business without the federal government support. This clearly shows that states must innovate to diversify their sources of revenues. And as they do, they must ensure that the quest for revenues would not cripple the few companies that operate in the locations. Where the balance is not optimal, most of the companies will depart triggering more challenges for the states. Yes, collect only taxes and fees backed by the law and do not exploit companies.

The Economic Confidential has released its Annual States Viability Index (ASVI) which shows that 17 states are insolvent as their Internally Generated Revenues (IGR) in 2017 were far below 10 per cent of their receipts from the Federation Account Allocations (FAA) in the same year.

The index proved that without the monthly disbursement from the Federation Account Allocation Committee (FAAC), many states remain unviable, and cannot survive without the federally collected revenue, mostly from the oil sector.

Economic Confidential Annual State Viability Index (ASVI) 2017
Ranking of States by Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) Compared to Federation Account Allocation (FAA) in 2017

Source: www.EconomicConfidential.com

The Economic Confidential ASVI further showed that only three states in the entire Northern region have IGR above 20 per cent. They are Kwara, Kano, and Kaduna States. Meanwhile ten states in the South recorded over 20 per cent IGR in 2017. They are Lagos, Ogun, Rivers, Edo, Enugu, Delta, Cross River, Anambra, Oyo and Abia States.

Nigeria’s Vice President Office Free Equity Funding – Just Apply, Stop Politics. Ends May 5th

North Central

South East

IDEA STAGE APPLICATION

Apply Here

EARLY STAGE APPLICATION

Deadline – APPLY 7 APRIL – 5 MAY 2018

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