Author: Opinion

The reason there is so much interest in Latin America as an investment destination is that there is little value left in seed and early stage companies in North America, Europe and even India.

Over the coming years LatAm will also lose its appeal as valuations start to exceed value. There is therefore no doubt that the next geographical location in which this arbitrage will be practised is sub-Saharan Africa.…

Yet for SME and corporate lending, credit decisions remain an extended process as information is gathered manually and appraised over, sometimes, weeks, to establish the creditworthiness of the borrower.

The need to abandon such cumbersome processes has recently seen leading banks adopt technology, such as our CreditQuest, to automate credit origination, and manage credit workflow, appraisals, documents, customer ratings and credit decisions.

This kind of technology draws all current and historical credit data onto a unified platform, giving the bank’s analysts a true single customer view of credits and collaterals.…

In most OECD countries, commercialization of research and innovation is very commonplace and is a foundation to establish national, region and global tech and industrial titans.
Where is Africa with this strategy? And, how can Africa engage and attract its diaspora professionals to scale ground breaking research innovations that can scale and solve local problems?
Furthermore, these African researchers work on projects that have the potential to impact Africa and mankind. Think about all the lifesaving medications we take every day, yes, an African researcher may have research or an innovation in Life Science that could save thousands or even millions of lives per year. In tropic Africa, we have the largest biodiversity in the world – can an enzyme from a plant with the help from the latest Artificial Intelligence, come up with the next billion-dollar drug? …

PAGA, a payment processing company in Nigeria (similar to PAYPAL) started by Tayo Oviosu in 2009 is on track to potentially be the next unicorn as it processed $2.3 billion worth of transactions in 2020 and $8 billion during the past four years. The company is now expanding into Ethiopia and Mexico as part of its global growth plan.

Another future unicorn is CNG TRANSFER founded during the pandemic by Emmanuel Tochi and Vincent Omulo, a Nigerian and Kenyan, respectively. The startup’s flagship product is www.Transfy.io – a cross border intra-African money transfer platform built on blockchain enabling Africans to transparently move money from one country to another at no cost. Within a year of launch, they have already processed 100 million of Kenyan Shillings in Kenya alone while operational in Nigeria, Zambia, Botswana, South Africa, Rwanda and Ghana.…

Interesting market developments encircled WPP ScanGroup in this review period. The counter’s share price has been on a rally albeit a sharp decline in its bottom line (-1,191.1% y/y) in the just-released FY20 results.

The uptick – that comes after a sequential diminution – is on the back of the exoneration of the suspended senior management that boosted investor confidence given the fact that there was no adverse effect on the counter’s financial performance, position and/or operations linked to the aforementioned. We opine that the rally will continue in the near term to 2Q21 levels as investors accumulate on the earlier exited positions.…

These associations offer some information and services for free although one needs to become a member and pay a fee to access their full range of information, resources and services. By becoming a member of the peak body one can give his/her business credibility as membership proves to customers that you have met strict criteria and have certain qualifications and experience.

That is why we have strict criteria on who can become a member of our organisation in an industry inundated with fraudsters from all corners. …

Many years ago I used to bring small groups of troubled Britons to Uganda to help with some of the charitable construction work that we were doing deep in the rural communities in South West Uganda. The idea was that (as well as building structures for schools, water tanks, medical centres and maternity units) these failing yet entitled Europeans would learn just how lucky they were to be born in a developed country and gain an appreciation of where they ranked on the global opportunity league table. It worked in about 50% of cases and lives were transformed for which I am immensely grateful to God and the communities that we bothered! 

One of the first stops after the airport in Uganda was Mulago Hospital, the National Referral Hospital, and then a place of such misery and despair that it regularly brought allegedly hard British men to tears. It was …

Nairobi is the leading Fintech ecosystem city in Africa according to the 2021 Global Fintech Rankings published on 8^th July 2021 in which it jumped 26 places to the 37^th position globally beating both Lagos and Accra[1]. Kenya’s President, His Excellency Uhuru Kenya stated at a UK summit that “Nairobi International Financial Centre (NIFC) has come of age to be the leading financial hub on the continent”[2]. Kenya is making a major incursion to position itself as the financial hub of Africa on the back of its fintech advantage as President Uhuru Kenyatta signed a $184 million deal with Dominic Raab, Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs and First Secretary of State of the UK during his three-day official visit to that country[3]. Kenya’s leadership of the Fintech world in African gives it the impetus to be an international …

The Ghana.gov platform also serves the digitization and revenue-collection needs of other Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) and Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies (MMDAs)

As of mid-July, 2021, about 624,000 users have logged in to pay for 37 government services, comprising taxes, levies, royalties and stamp duties, directly into Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) accounts. …

Synergetic Trees is embarking on a drive to invest in people, jobs, and the economy. The benefits of trees will increase exponentially if properly invested in. We can call upon nature’s power to build the resilience of the Earth and its inhabitants.  In the not-so-distant past, we have created thousands of entrepreneurs through vehicle such as The Institute 4 Success, Working on Fire, The First National Bank Incubator, to name a few.  With Synergetic Trees serving as our global platform, we plan to create millions of jobs, according to Dr. Bahadur CEO of Synergetic Trees. 

“Someone is sitting in the shade today because someone planted a tree a long time ago.”

― Warren Buffett, American investor and philanthropist

Making a difference starts from within, starting with one job created at a time. As national governments worldwide grapple with the devastating consequences of COVID-19, policies are being implemented that …