Brands/Products
Kelechi Amadi, Mai Atafo to Mentor Isedowo, Progress Booster Winners
By Modupe Gbadeyanka
Some grantees of the 2021 empowerment initiatives of the Nigerian Breweries Plc have received expert mentorship for the expansion of their business ventures.
Recently, some small business owners, especially artisans, were given grants in the ongoing Isedowo and Progress Booster campaigns.
The beneficiaries were taken from the fashion designing and photography sectors and were trained by ace fashion designer Mai Atafo and renowned photographer Kelechi Amadi.
“I remember my journey into the art space as a photographer and painter, and there was a lot to unpack. A lot to learn,’ Mr Amadi enthused.
“Working with individuals who want to improve upon their skills is an energy that I identify. Though art is subjective, the building blocks cannot be overlooked.
“With these building blocks, one can work and improve to give some of their best art pieces. The prospect of archiving this with these talents is what excites me,” he added.
“I’m pleased that a platform like this exists. It is one thing to have a passion for making clothing, but it takes something extra to want to make standout pieces. I see the fire in these winners. I know they will progress at a good pace to fulfil their goals,” Mr Atafo said.
One of the beneficiaries, Justice Amadi, expressed his excitement about the training saying, “I am happy to be selected for this training, I see it as an opportunity to grow my career. Working with Kelechi Amadi has been my dream and I am grateful to Nigeria Breweries for making this come alive.”
Speaking about the journey so far, Ms Kehinde Kadiri, Portfolio Manager, Mainstream Lager, Nigerian Breweries Plc, described Isedowo and Progress Booster as major lifelines for most entrepreneurs in the region.
“We are pleased to see the number of people who are eager to get these grants to support their businesses,” she said.
Further expressing her delight especially with the addition of a mentorship program, Ms Kadiri mentioned that, “It is important to not just give people monetary support but to show them how they can utilize it and what better way than pairing them with experts who will not only help them improve their skills but share invaluable experiences from their successes and mistakes in the field.”
Progress Booster and Isedowo are empowerment initiatives that were set up to support consumers who are business owners and professionals within the Nigerian informal sector.
The initiatives set out to support them with grants, loans, and access to help them build business relationships with their informal trade associations.
Since the launch in 2017, the initiatives have grown to become a major source of support for craftsmen as well as a seal of approval and encouragement of hard work in the Southern part of Nigeria where both brands are focused.
This year alone, the initiatives have already awarded about 200 artisans across South Eastern and other South Western states while providing them with additional resources to help them get more out of their craft.
Within the last four years, Goldberg and Life Lager have been able to directly impact the businesses of over 1000 artisans through the progress booster and Isedowo programs, while also using the initiatives as touchpoints to reach most of its consumers across the South region where both brands have carved a niche for themselves as leading supporters of culture and tradition, and now entrepreneurship.
By Aduragbemi Omiyale
An institutional investor, First Ally Capital, has strengthened a leading Nigerian financial technology company, Mathesis Analytics, to scale its proprietary credit decisioning infrastructure.
It made this possible by injecting fresh capital into the firm, which specialises in AI-powered credit decisioning infrastructure, an action that will directly support the growth and scaling of Mathesis’ core mission of providing the intelligence and infrastructure needed to bridge the credit gap for millions of unscored or underscored individuals across Nigeria.
With this investment, Mathesis will enable financial institutions to confidently assess and extend credit to borrowers who lack a formal credit history by leveraging an expanded pool of alternative behavioural and transactional data.
To date, Mathesis’ systems have supported more than 8 million loans for over 2 million unique borrowers in Nigeria, and the company is actively deploying its infrastructure to establish a growing pan-African footprint.
With the investment from First Ally Capital, Mathesis is well positioned to transform how the credit ecosystem operates, driving financial inclusion in partnership with lenders across the continent.
A significant barrier to credit access in Nigeria, which prides itself on being Africa’s largest economy, is data fragmentation. Borrowers frequently build positive financial behaviours across multiple digital platforms by repaying microfinance loans, saving through fintech wallets, or servicing Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL) facilities.
However, under traditional credit infrastructure, these achievements remain invisible to new lenders.
Mathesis addresses this challenge through the concept of Personal Equity—the quantified expression of an individual’s financial behaviour aggregated across every institution with which they have transacted.
By translating these disparate signals into a precise, portable measure of creditworthiness, Mathesis creates a comprehensive credit identity that reflects the full breadth of a person’s financial life.
“True financial inclusion cannot be achieved in a vacuum; it requires structural collaboration in which lenders and fintech companies work as partners within the ecosystem.
“This investment from First Ally Capital validates our approach to reshaping credit infrastructure. By quantifying Personal Equity, we empower lenders to safely look beyond the constraints of formal credit histories and recognise a borrower’s true creditworthiness. This capital enables us to accelerate our pan-African expansion while maintaining the robust, institutional-grade infrastructure our partners rely on,” the chief executive of Mathesis Analytics, Winston Osuchukwu, stated.
On his part, the chief executive of First Ally Capital, Mr Ebenezer Olufowose, said, “At First Ally Capital, we pride ourselves on being a one-stop destination for financial solutions, offering a diverse portfolio of services ranging from investment banking and asset management to trusteeship, inclusive banking, and real estate.
“Our investment in Mathesis Analytics reflects our strong belief in the company’s vision and our commitment to supporting forward-thinking enterprises that deliver excellence.”
By Aduragbemi Omiyale
The chief executive of Canal+ Africa, Mr David Mignot, has disclosed that MultiChoice is now fully integrated into the media group.
Mr Mignot disclosed this via a statement issued on Thursday, noting that this development marks a new phase in the evolution of one of Africa’s leading pay television operators.
He noted that the integration positions MultiChoice within a global media organisation with an extensive international footprint.
“MultiChoice is now a full subsidiary of a truly international media group operating in 70 countries. The group was founded in France, is listed in London and Johannesburg, and has a strong African presence with operations in more than 45 countries,” Mr Mignot said.
The statement underscores the scale of the combined business, highlighting Canal+’s global reach alongside its significant investments across Africa.
The completion of the transaction is expected to strengthen MultiChoice’s position in the African media and entertainment market by giving it access to the broader resources, expertise and international capabilities of the Canal+ Group, while reinforcing the group’s commitment to the continent.
MultiChoice operates across sub-Saharan Africa through platforms including DStv and GOtv, serving millions of subscribers with entertainment, sports and news content.
By Adedapo Adesanya
FoodCourt, a Nigerian cloud kitchen startup backed by Y Combinator, has suspended operations after months of unpaid salaries and mounting debts to vendors triggered a staff strike and forced the company to halt customer orders, according to a report by TechCabal.
The publication reported that customers first noticed on March 4 that they could no longer place orders through the FoodCourt app after the company disabled ordering as kitchen workers, delivery personnel and branch staff embarked on strike over unpaid wages. The company also owed outstanding payments to vendors.
By April 19, FoodCourt had temporarily shut its last operating branch after suspending activities across its Lagos and Abuja locations while seeking fresh funding and restructuring the business, according to the report.
The company’s chief executive, Mr Henry Nneji, said the decision to pause operations was not caused by a single issue but by a combination of operational, organisational and working-capital challenges.
“It’s important to clarify that the decision to pause operations wasn’t driven by one single issue. We reached a point where it became clear that continuing to patch those issues while operating wasn’t the right long-term decision,” he said.
“The objective is to build a stronger business than the one that existed before the suspension. We fully intend to bring FoodCourt back,” he added in an emailed response.
The company acknowledged outstanding obligations to employees, vendors, riders and service providers, but declined to disclose the number of affected workers or the total amount owed. It said efforts were underway to resolve the liabilities as part of its restructuring process.
It was also reported that the startup’s financial difficulties worsened after expansion into additional locations increased operating costs, while its cloud kitchen model came under pressure from rising labour, logistics, food and marketing expenses.
Despite the shutdown, Mr Nneji said FoodCourt intends to relaunch after completing its restructuring, adding that the company believes demand for its products remains strong.
Founded in 2021 by Henry Nneji and Paul Adokiye Iruene, FoodCourt operates cloud kitchens under multiple virtual restaurant brands through its consumer app. According to TechCabal, the startup had previously disclosed raising $1.7 million, delivering more than one million meals and reaching $4.3 million in annual recurring revenue by the end of 2024.
