Sahara Group sponsored Aso Villa Demo Day. Sahara Group Chief Executive, Tonye Cole, said the decision to sponsor the event was informed by the passion to invest in Nigeria’s future, through the youth of today.

Aso Villa Demo Day is aimed at promoting entrepreneurship, innovation, job creation and economic growth through the use of new and emerging technologies. This event will celebrate some of the best Nigerians in technology innovation and creativity and also feature inspiring talks from thought leaders and experts from different economic sectors in Nigeria.

Mr. Cole said the three winners, whose ideas were showcased at the event, would be guaranteed funding support by Sahara Group for their development.

He also assured the others to enjoy mentorship and guidance counselling through the Sahara Group’s extrapreneurship platform, which would match them with other people interested in their ideas and expertise.

Each of the winners, namely Tracology, a patented smart payment systems for utility companies; RecyclePoints, a waste recycling and social benefit venture for sustainable development, and Shuttlers, a multi-staff bus service to assist commuters resolve daily challenges around big cities, was given N3 million grant to develop their ideas.

The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) this week released the macro economic indices for the second quarter of 2016 to the bemusement of Nigerians and even the NBS itself as all key economic indices pointed to an economy is decline in all sectors. The Capital inflow, employment/unemployment rates, Gross Domestic Product and Inflation all turned out terribly negative and in the words of NBS, worse than expected. The nations GDP at constant basic prices shrunk in the second quarter of 2016 by 2.06% after it contracted 0.36 per cent in the first quarter of 2016. While most analysts and economists had already classified the economy as in a recession before the release of these figures, very few of them and economists expected the economy to contract to this disturbing low level.

The fall of crude oil prices has reduced drastically the government’s ability to spend and affected adversely the value of the Naira causing a severe shortage in foreign exchange required to keep the economy healthy. Revenues from crude oil sales still account for over 70% of governments revenue and the attacks by Niger Delta militants on oil installations has compounded an already bad situation for the nation’s economy. The government in the 2016 budget expected to generate revenue from the sale of 2.2 million barrels of crude oil daily, but the attacks on Oil installations have reduced daily output by over 700,000 barrels to 1.56 million barrels daily. The NBS yesterday said the inflation rate has risen to a 10 year high of 17.1% in July from 16.5% in June. Inflation on food items also rose to 15.8% in July from June figures of 15.3%. Nigeria’s Sovereign dollar bonds also experienced a downward spiral to its lowest value in weeks after the second quarter economic data was released by the NBS.

Though Jumia is not mentioned in the short press release. We are certain it is one of the biggest puzzle components while Rocket Internet is fading.

Special items, in particular due to impairments at Global Fashion Group S.A. (“GFG”), weighed on the results of Rocket Internet SE (“Rocket Internet” or the “Company”) in the first half of 2016. As a result of the last funding round for GFG, which was announced in April 2016 and which closed in July 2016, GFG wrote-off goodwill and intangible assets. GFG contributed negative EUR 383 million to the Rocket Internet’s first half year results. The result was further impacted by special items such as impairments, fair value adjustments and – to a lesser extent – positive special items. Overall, the consolidated loss for the first half of 2016 was EUR 617 million.

As a result of deconsolidation effects, group revenues in the first half of 2016 decreased to EUR 29 million compared to EUR 71 million in first half of 2015.

“Despite these special items, we remain committed to our goals”, says Oliver Samwer, CEO Rocket Internet. “We still expect at least three of our selected portfolio companies to turn profitable by the end of 2017, and that the aggregate EBITDA losses of the selected portfolio companies will have peaked in 2015. “

Rocket Internet will report detailed results for the first half of 2016 on September 22, 2016