SpaceX raised $1.9B at a valuation of $46B. The rocket company founded by Elon Musk is the most valued U.S. unicorn – a privately held startup company valued at over $1 billion – and 3rd highest in the world. The global #1 and #2 are both Chinese; ByteDance at $140B and Didi Chuxing at $56B respectively. Those two are cumulatively more than the next eight added. If you look at these companies, one thing is evident: the path into the castle of wealth goes through technology in most of the world’s leading economies.
This is indeed the age of technology. From this plot, the technology sector, biased with healthcare, continues to dominate, well ahead of energy and financial sectors. Of course, this is not what we have in developing economies like Nigeria. We never really have an energy sector since our participation is largely at the downstream level.
Also, the healthcare sector is muted with no upstream players. So, any comparison could be between the technology sector and the financial sector. Interestingly, in terms of profitability, in absolute naira, the financial sector has done well, even as it continues to bleed market cap in the Nigerian Stock Exchange.
In the tech nexus, there is nothing else, if you remove MTN and Airtel Africa since Nigerian investors have never believed in local tech equities. From Chams to CWG, NCR to eTranzact, these firms have not outperformed.
Simply, a local equivalent of this plot would be everything going downwards!
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