Economy
Grooming Start-ups To Survive Nigerian Ecosystem
By Olukayode Kolawole
Starting a business in Nigeria, like many other countries, usually comes with many road bumps. It is not just enough to have a brilliant idea that can be built into a mega business; more is required than just a good thought process.
More often than not, entrepreneurs would always believe that raising enough capital to run a business is the most important factor.
After all, we all at a time attended that Economics class where we were taught that money is the most important element to drive a business to success.
At Jumia Travel, we believe there are other elements that are as important as capital for a business to grow.
Some of these will include, but not limited to, creating a comfortable environment for start-up owners and investors to relate, providing essential support to ensure that the business survives and caters to the socio-economic environment by creating jobs, providing substantial dose of mentorship, business advisory supports, peer learning network and enriching the development process for these start-ups.
There are a number of platforms created by individuals and some by a group of individuals who are committed to helping others grow their businesses.
These platforms have been created to provide necessary expert support in different areas that are affected by the businesses i.e. marketing, innovation, customer service, branding etc.
To mention but a few, Lagos Start-up, Start-up Friday, IC-Cube Start-up Conference & Exhibition, Nigeria Small Business Summit and Start-up Lagos Conference are some of the platforms that have provided start-ups with the needed intellectual infrastructure supports.
Just last week, the second edition of the Lagos Start-up Week was held at Oriental Hotel Lagos. It was a weeklong of activities – from paper presentation to panel discussions and Q&A sessions.
As a supporter of SMEs, Jumia Travel was among the many sponsors of the event.
As a form of recognition of its leadership position in the ecommerce industry, the company’s Managing Director in Nigeria Kushal Dutta was invited as a panellist to speak on the “The Future of Ecommerce, Retail and Payments in Nigeria”.
During the panel discussion, Kushal made some interesting revelations about digital penetration.
For instance, he made a distinction between internet penetration and e-commerce penetration.
According to Kushal, these two are often misconstrued to be same.
The success of e-commerce largely depends on internet penetration because if people don’t have access to the internet, it becomes impossible for them to transact on any ecommerce platform.
He stressed that because of the high penetration of the internet, it’s profitable to spend money on online promotions as it has the potential to impact ROI measurably through online sales.
A comparative look at the internet users in Nigeria between 2015 and 2016 clearly shows that the country is ripe for ecommerce businesses to thrive, if we were to judge by access to the internet.
As at July 1, 2016, there were about 86,219,965 internet users in Nigeria which is about 46.1% of the entire population.
The percentage is expected to grow by 2.63% by 2017 whereas there were only about 82,094,998 internet users in 2015 which represented 45.1% of the population.
A lot of aspiring entrepreneurs should look at venturing into ecommerce business as it’s evident that internet penetration in the country is growing astronomically.
Kushal also advised the participants against looking for investors when the business idea has not been properly thought through and no scalable model is already in place with a well-defined market.
This, he said, might prevent investors from investing their capital in the business.
He made reference to MTN’s involvement in Jumia’s business as a result of the scalable business plan that the organization has put in place. MTN was able to key into the vision after it saw its profitability circle as a business.
Even though the current climate of the Nigerian economy has been quite unconducive due to a number of reasons but top on the list the recession, aspiring entrepreneurs should be encouraged and groomed into becoming successful business owners.
True, there are platforms cropping up every day to cater to these needs. Yet, more and more collaboration still needs to be done. At least, that’s what we believe at Jumia Travel.
Olukayode Kolawole is the Head of PR & Marketing at Jumia Travel NG.
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By Modupe Gbadeyanka
The federal government, the 36 states of the federation and the 774 local government areas have received N1.727 trillion from the Federal Accounts Allocation Committee (FAAC) for December 2024.
The funds were disbursed to the three tiers of government from the revenue generated by the nation in November 2024.
At the December meeting of FAAC held in Abuja, it was stated that the amount distributed comprised distributable statutory revenue of N455.354 billion, distributable Value Added Tax (VAT) revenue of N585.700 billion, Electronic Money Transfer Levy (EMTL) revenue of N15.046 billion and Exchange Difference revenue of N671.392 billion.
According to a statement signed on Friday by the Director of Press and Public Relations for FAAC, Mr Bawa Mokwa, the money generated last month was about N3.143 trillion, with N103.307 billion used for cost of collection and N1.312 trillion for transfers, interventions and refunds.
It was disclosed that gross statutory revenue of N1.827 trillion was received compared with the N1.336 trillion recorded a month earlier.
The statement said gross revenue of N628.972 billion was available from VAT versus N668.291 billion in the preceding month.
The organisation stated that last month, oil and gas royalty and CET levies recorded significant increases, while excise duty, VAT, import duty, Petroleum Profit Tax (PPT), Companies Income Tax (CIT) and EMTL decreased considerably.
As for the sharing, FAAC disclosed that from the N1.727 trillion, the central government got N581.856 billion, the states received N549.792 billion, the councils took N402.553 billion, while the benefiting states got N193.291 billion as 13 per cent derivation revenue.
From the N585.700 billion VAT earnings, the national government got N87.855 billion, the states received N292.850 billion and the local councils were given N204.995 billion.
Also, from the N455.354 billion distributable statutory revenue, the federal government was given N175.690 billion, the states got N89.113 billion, the local governments had N68.702 billion, and the benefiting states received N121.849 billion as 13 per cent derivation revenue.
In addition, from the N15.046 billion EMTL revenue, FAAC shared N2.257 billion to the federal government, disbursed N7.523 billion to the states and transferred N5.266 billion to the local councils.
Further, from the N671.392 billion Exchange Difference earnings, it gave central government N316.054 billion, the states N160.306 billion, the local government areas N123.590 billion, and the oil-producing states N71.442 billion as 13 per cent derivation revenue.
By Adedapo Adesanya
The NASD Over-the-Counter (OTC) Securities Exchange recorded a 0.65 per cent gain on Friday, December 13, boosted by three equities admitted on the trading platform.
On the last trading session of the week, Okitipupa Plc appreciated by N2.70 to settle at N29.74 per share versus Thursday’s closing price of N27.04 per share, FrieslandCampina Wamco Nigeria Plc added N2.49 to end the session at N42.85 per unit compared with the previous day’s N40.36 per unit, and Afriland Properties Plc gained 50 Kobo to close at N16.30 per share, in contrast to the preceding session’s N15.80 per share.
Consequently, the market capitalisation added N6.89 billion to settle at N1.062 trillion compared with the preceding day’s N1.055 trillion and the NASD Unlisted Security Index (NSI) gained 19.66 points to wrap the session at 3,032.16 points compared with 3,012.50 points recorded in the previous session.
Yesterday, the volume of securities traded by investors increased by 171.6 per cent to 1.2 million units from the 447,905 units recorded a day earlier, but the value of shares traded by the market participants declined by 19.3 per cent to N2.4 million from the N3.02 million achieved a day earlier, and the number of deals went down by 14.3 per cent to 18 deals from 21 deals.
At the close of business, Geo-Fluids Plc was the most active stock by volume on a year-to-date basis with a turnover of 1.7 billion units worth N3.9 billion, followed by Okitipupa Plc with the sale of 752.2 million units valued at N7.8 billion, and Afriland Properties Plc with 297.3 million units sold for N5.3 million.
In the same vein, Aradel Holdings Plc remained the most active stock by value on a year-to-date basis with the sale of 108.7 million units for N89.2 billion, trailed by Okitipupa Plc with 752.2 million units valued at N7.8 billion, and Afriland Properties Plc with a turnover of 297.3 million units worth N5.3 billion.
By Adedapo Adesanya
The Naira appreciated further against the United States Dollar at the Nigerian Autonomous Foreign Exchange Market (NAFEM) by N1.50 or 0.09 per cent to close at N1,533.00/$1 on Friday, December 13 versus the N1,534.50/$1 it was transacted on Thursday.
The local currency has continued to benefit from the Electronic Foreign Exchange Matching System (EFEMS) introduced by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) this month.
The implementation of the forex system comes with diverse implications for all segments of the financial markets that deal with FX, including the rebound in the value of the Naira across markets.
The system instantly reflects data on all FX transactions conducted in the interbank market and approved by the CBN.
Market analysts say the publication of real-time prices and buy-sell orders data from this system has lent support to the Naira in the official market and tackled speculation.
In the official market yesterday, the domestic currency improved its value against the Pound Sterling by N12.58 to wrap the session at N1,942.19/£1 compared with the previous day’s N1,954.77/£1 and against the Euro, it gained N2.44 to close at N1,612.85/€1 versus Thursday’s closing price of N1,610.41/€1.
At the black market, the Nigerian Naira appreciated against the greenback on Friday by N30 to sell for N1,650/$1 compared with the preceding session’s value of N1,680/$1.
Meanwhile, the cryptocurrency market was largely positive as investors banked on recent signals, including fresh support from US President-elect, Mr Donald Trump, as well as interest rate cuts by the European Central Bank (ECB).
Ripple (XRP) added 7.3 per cent to sell at $2.49, Binance Coin (BNB) rose by 3.5 per cent to $728.28, Cardano (ADA) expanded by 2.4 per cent to trade at $1.11, Litecoin (LTC) increased by 2.3 per cent to $122.56, Bitcoin (BTC) gained 1.9 per cent to settle at $101,766.17, Dogecoin (DOGE) jumped by 1.2 per cent to $0.4064, Solana (SOL) soared by 0.7 per cent to $226.15 and Ethereum (ETH) advanced by 0.6 per cent to $3,925.35, while the US Dollar Tether (USDT) and the US Dollar Coin (USDC) remained unchanged at $1.00 each.
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