Economy
AlikeAudience Recognised at the Marketech APAC 2024 Marketing Technology Awards
Omnichannel data audience company wins for Best Customer Data Platform, Best AI Marketing Solution, and Best Mobile Marketing Solution
SUNNYVALE, USA & HONG KONG SAR – Media OutReach Newswire – 3 December 2024 – AlikeAudience, a company directly integrated with major demand side platforms and data marketplaces worldwide that provides premium omnichannel audience data to brands, has announced its victory in three categories at this year’s Marketech APAC Marketing Technology Awards.
The gala awards night, held in Singapore on November 28, awarded AlikeAudience for Best Customer Data Platform, Best AI Marketing Solution, and Best Mobile Marketing Solution.
“The AlikeAudience team is proud to be recognized by the Marketech APAC team, and the top panel of industry judges,” said AlikeAudience Managing Director Jeremy Lo. “We believe the AdTech industry, particularly in the key area of data utilization, will increasingly rely on AI-powered, privacy-compliant solutions. AlikeAudience is at the forefront of this advancement, providing platform and tech-agnostic solutions to meet industry needs.”
AlikeAudience offers bespoke demographic, interest, and app data, and has more than seven thousand audience segments in the US and APAC across the key sectors of FMCG, automotive, e-commerce, entertainment, travel, and hospitality.
The company assembles its audience data from a combination of location signals, app data, and demographic data and connects these data points with insights from market research to generate methodologies to deliver targetable segments for media activation.
Lo also said marketers in Asia must adapt their strategies for first, second, and third party data to effectively navigate diverse market dynamics and regulations.
“An innovative approach is essential to take advantage of technological advances,” Lo said. “With strong US coverage, AlikeAudience can apply global insights while localizing strategies to meet APAC advertisers’ data needs, helping future-proof their business.”
AlikeAudience was founded in Sunnyvale, California, in 2015, and operates in the US, Asia, and Australia.
Hashtag: #AlikeAudience
The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement.
About AlikeAudience
AlikeAudience is a data science company focused on omnichannel data activation. We enable advertisers to seamlessly connect with their target audiences through AI-powered, future-proof data solutions. See more at www.alikeaudience.com
Economy
AfDB to Give Nigerian SMEs $50m Loan Through BoI
By Adedapo Adesanya
The African Development Bank Group (AfDB) through its Affirmative Finance Action for Women in Africa (AFAWA) programme has pledged support towards a new $50 million financing agreement to provide financial and business support to women-led enterprises in Nigeria.
The African Guarantee Fund, which implements the AFAWA Guarantee for Growth programme, and the Bank of Industry (BoI) signed the $50 million loan portfolio guarantee framework at the Africa Investment Forum in Rabat recently.
Through the AfDB AFAWA has approved more than $2.4 billion in lending for Africa’s women-led small and medium enterprises, as well as partnered with 185 financial institutions responsible for disbursing the funds across 44 African countries.
The initiative has unlocked financing for more than 18,600 women-led small and medium enterprises. AFAWA is supported by the African Development Bank’s partners and donors: the Women’s Entrepreneurs Finance Initiative (We-Fi), G7 participating countries Canada, France, Germany and Italy as well as the Netherlands and Sweden.
The transaction will be phased out in three tranches over ten years and will significantly scale up lending from the BoI to small and medium enterprises in the country.
The new deal will support women-led businesses via the AFAWA Guarantee for Growth programme, which makes financing available for women entrepreneurs through de-risking and technical assistance measures.
“This strategic partnership illustrates the commitment of the African Development Bank, especially the Affirmative Finance Action for Women in Africa initiative, to empower women entrepreneurs and foster economic growth in Nigeria,” Mrs Beth Dunford, African Development Bank’s Vice President for Agriculture, Human and Social Development, told signing ceremony attendees.
“This is not just a financial transaction aimed at supporting and catalysing the growth of small and medium enterprises in Nigeria – it is a beacon of hope and progress for African businesses, particularly for those led and owned by women,” she added.
The partnership includes a comprehensive risk-sharing mechanism that focuses on supporting micro, small and medium enterprises, women-owned enterprises and “green businesses” that promote environmental sustainability and gender equity.
African Guarantee Fund Group Chief Executive Officer, Mr Jules Ngankam said, “This transaction with the leading development finance institution in Nigeria is a great milestone that will significantly impact Nigeria’s economy by unlocking up to $100 million in financing for small and medium enterprises. African Guarantee Fund will also provide tailored guarantees and technical assistance towards the special small and medium enterprise products offered by Bank of Industry that target women, youth and green businesses.”
“Bank of Industry is excited to leverage the guarantee framework of the African Guarantee Fund in promoting sustainable growth, gender equity, innovation and advancing more credit to small and medium enterprises in Nigeria in line with [Nigeria] President Bola Tinubu’s government’s Renewed Hope agenda,” said Mr Olasupo Olusi, Bank of Industry’s Managing Director and CEO.
Economy
FX Speculators Count Losses as Naira Appreciation Exceeds Expectations
By Adedapo Adesanya
Speculators in the Nigerian foreign exchange (forex) market are counting losses with the Naira appreciating heavily against the greenback across several windows in the last few days.
The development has been tied to the new foreign exchange framework introduced by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) recently as well as inflows from Nigerians living in the diaspora who are returning to the country for the festive season.
The apex bank had on Monday, December 2, launched the Electronic Foreign Exchange Matching System (EFEMS), an electronic platform introduced to tackle speculation and improve transparency in Nigeria’s foreign exchange market.
In a circular announcing the EFEMS platform, the apex bank explained that it facilitates spot foreign exchange transactions between the Naira and the US Dollar.
The platform, operated through Bloomberg’s BMatch system, requires a minimum trade value of $100,000, with incremental trade sizes of $50,000.
CBN also stated that the platform automatically matches buy and sell orders, promoting fairness and efficiency in FX trading.
The EFEMS system allows authorized dealers, including commercial banks, to place buy and sell orders in real time.
Transactions are automatically matched based on predetermined rules, ensuring swift execution and real-time visibility for market participants and regulators.
This has started bearing fruits with early signals indicating that speculators holding foreign currencies, particularly the US Dollar, have seen the value of their money drastically drop due to the appreciation of the local currency.
This is now forcing them to dump FX into the system and take the domestic currency alternative.
Business Post reports the Naira recorded a 3.3 per cent or N52.80 appreciation on the US Dollar in the Nigerian Autonomous Foreign Exchange Market (NAFEM) on Monday, December 9 to close at N1,552.50/$1 compared with the preceding session’s rate of N1,605.30/$1.
This is also seen in the parallel market with the local currency trading within a low of N1,590 per Dollar to N1,630/$1 on Tuesday afternoon.
This newspaper also learned that many speculators are offloading their foreign currencies in panic for the local currency to avoid losses, which might ease the pressure, but there are fears that the demand for FX might happen after the holidays.
Economy
Seplat to Double Oil Production With $800m Mobil Assets Acquisition
By Dipo Olowookere
Leading Nigerian energy company, Seplat Energy Plc, has disclosed that its acquisition of assets of Mobil Producing Nigeria Unlimited is expected to more than double its crude oil production to around 120,000 barrels per day.
Business Post reports that the transaction should be sealed by Thursday, December 12, 2024, with about $800 million to be pocketed by Mobil.
In 2022, Seplat deposited $128 million to Mobil for the transactions and will give the company the balance of $672 million after obtaining the approval of the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). This will be paid from available cash and debt facilities, with no new equity issuance required.
In a notice to the Nigerian Exchange (NGX) Limited on Monday, Seplat said the acquisition would provide a significant opportunity to further drive its growth and profitability, whilst contributing significantly to the Nigerian economy.
It based this projection on the fact that Mobil’s assets are of proven quality, located in one of the world’s leading hydrocarbon basins.
Seplat, which also trades its shares on the London Stock Exchange (LSE), said the assets it intends to take over from Mobil include OML 67, 68, 70 and 104.
It stated that ERC Equipoise (ERCE) prepared an independent Competent Person’s Report (CPR) on these assets and certified that, as of June 30, 2024, Mobil had 409 mmboe of 2P oil and gas reserves, after having produced 99 mmboe since January 1, 2021.
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