Economy
Verdant Capital Urges MFS Africa, Baxi to Explore Nigerian SMEs Market
By Adedapo Adesanya
Following, MFS Africa acquisition of Baxi to expand its network into Nigeria, Africa’s largest economy and perhaps its most fintech dynamic market, Verdant Capital, which advised on the transaction has further pushed for the partnership to take on the crucial Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs).
Nigeria is also the largest remittance market in Africa representing one-third of intra-Africa remittance flows and is home to the largest number of SMEs.
Verdant Capital views the two businesses as highly complementary. It noted that Baxi simplifies and integrates online and offline payments for SMEs and merchants in Nigeria through its omnichannel distribution network while MFS Africa simplifies cross-border payments, integrating payments via one hub.
Strong agent networks are the crucial interface for fintech to reach Nigeria’s 100 million financially unserved or underserved population.
Verdant noted that it is crucial that the new association supports and nurtures SMEs as it was crucial to Nigeria’s economy with their 50 per cent contribution to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and provide 76 per cent of jobs.
With its presence in all 36 Nigerian states, Baxi fills a critical gap by providing informal SMEs and other unbanked Nigerians access to financial services. Verdant Capital is proud to support the leading businesses that support SMEs across the Continent.
The transaction further extends Verdant Capital’s track record of advising on transactions shaping the fintech sector in Africa.
The sale of Baxi is Verdant Capital’s fifth successful fintech transaction of the year, which cover West, East and South Africa. They include advising Retail Capital, a leading tech-enabled SME-financier in South Africa on a $10 million capital raise and Zeepay, a leading Pan-African digital remittance and mobile payments business on its $8 million Series-A.
Others include the acquisition of Mangwee in Zambia; and Tugende, a leading tech-enabled SME-financier in East Africa on its $10 million Series-A.
In part because of its successful track record in transactions in the fintech sector, as well as because of its leading private equity franchise, Verdant Capital was named the best independent advisor of the year, Pan-Africa, by Africa Global Funds, for the second year running in October 2021.
Founded in 2014 by Degbola Abudu and Folu Majekodunmi, Baxi is one of Nigeria’s largest independent SME-focused electronic payment networks. It provides a comprehensive range of services to the last mile including cash-in/cash-out, account opening, money transfer and bill payment.
Through its network of more than 90,000 agents, Baxi processed over $1 billion in transactions in the first nine months of 2021.
Following the close of the transaction, MFS Africa plans to build Baxi into a key node on its digital payment network, allowing customers to make regional and global payments to and from Nigeria.
MFS Africa also intends to expand Baxi’s proposition for offline SMEs to select markets within MFS Africa’s footprint of 320 million mobile wallets across more than 35 African countries.
By Adedapo Adesanya
The Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI) has urged the Nigeria Revenue Service (NRS) to grant a one-month extension for the filing of Company Income Tax (CIT) returns.
The appeal followed widespread technical glitches that occurred on the newly introduced Rev360 tax platform, which restricted organisations from meeting the June 30 deadline.
The Director General of the think tank, Mrs Chinyere Almona, in a statement, also appealed to the NRS to waive penalties for companies that were unable to file their returns by the Tuesday statutory deadline due to the portal’s failure.
Mrs Almona explained that the prolonged downtime experienced on the Rev360 platform on the deadline day prevented thousands of companies from completing their tax filings, noting that though some businesses waited until the last minute to file their returns, the widespread system failure could not be blamed on taxpayers.
“Rev360 inaugurated about two months ago, suffered prolonged downtime on Tuesday, leaving thousands of companies unable to file with only hours to spare.
“This is a platform failure, not a taxpayer failure,” she said.
The LCCI director general noted that while teething challenges were expected with a newly deployed digital platform, inaugurating it close to a major statutory deadline exposed businesses to avoidable risks.
According to her, the heavy volume of last-minute users reveals shortcomings in the platform’s capacity, resulting in login failures, validation errors and unsuccessful submissions when taxpayers need reliable access.
She, therefore, appealed to the tax body to immediately extend the CIT filing deadline by one month and waive all penalties for companies that attempted to file on or before the deadline but were prevented from doing so by the system outage.
The LCCI head also appealed to the revenue agency to urgently improve the platform’s capacity and reliability ahead of subsequent filing deadlines.
“The LCCI appeals to the NRS to announce the extension and penalty waiver as soon as possible to avoid apprehension and confusion within the business community,” Mrs Almona said.
She added that in the interest of ensuring a smooth implementation of the new tax administration system, granting an extension had become necessary. According to her, adopting a cautious regulatory approach during the rollout of the new platform will help build confidence among taxpayers while supporting compliance.
By Adedapo Adesanya
Four price decliners further weakened the NASD Over-the-Counter (OTC) Securities Exchange by 0.46 per cent on Thursday, July 2.
FrieslandCampina Wamco Nigeria Plc went down by N5.55 to N146.46 per unit from N152.01 per unit, Nitrox Industrial Gases Plc fell by N1.10 to N20.30 per share from N21.40 per share, UBN Property Plc lost 11 Kobo to sell at N1.99 per unit versus the previous day’s N2.10 per unit, and Mass Telecoms Innovation Plc depreciated by 4 Kobo to 32 Kobo per share from 36 Kobo per share.
Consequently, the NASD Unlisted Security Index (NSI) dropped 19.74 points to close at 4,248.46 points compared with Wednesday’s closing value of 4,268.20 points, while the market capitalisation decreased by N11.85 billion to N2.549 trillion from N2.561 trillion.
Yesterday, the volume of transactions went up by 92.9 per cent to 440,653 units from 229,238 units, and the number of deals rose by 77.8 per cent to 32 deals from 18 deals, while the value of trades contracted by 51.4 per cent to N10.5 million from N21.5 million.
At the close of trades, Great Nigeria Insurance (GNI) Plc remained the most active stock by value on a year-to-date basis, with 3.4 billion units traded for N8.4 billion, trailed by Infrastructure Credit Guarantee (Infracredit) Plc with 2.3 billion units valued at N6.5 billion, and Central Securities Clearing System (CSCS) Plc with 68.9 million units exchanged for N4.8 billion.
GNI Plc also closed the session as the most traded stock by volume on a year-to-date basis, with 3.4 billion units worth N8.4 billion, followed by Infracredit Plc with 2.3 billion units transacted for N6.5 billion, and Resourcery Plc with 1.1 billion units sold for N415.7 million.
By Dipo Olowookere
The selling pressure on the Nigerian Exchange (NGX) Limited persisted on Thursday, causing a further decline of 0.61 per cent.
Data from Customs Street showed that the insurance counter lost 2.46 per cent, the banking space declined by 2.15 per cent, the industrial goods sector crumbled by 1.00 per cent, the energy index fell by 0.23 per cent, and the consumer goods segment crashed by 0.08 per cent.
As a result, the All-Share Index (ASI) retreated by 1,368.10 points to 224,321.97 points from 225,690.07 points, and the market capitalisation moderated by N878 billion to N143.947 trillion from N144.825 trillion.
Trading data indicated investors bought and sold 855.4 million shares for N28.4 billion in 51,609 deals versus the 488.1 million shares worth N14.0 billion traded in 46,929 deals on Wednesday, showing a spike in the trading volume, value, and number of deals by 75.25 per cent, 102.86 per cent, and 9.97 per cent, respectively.
The busiest stock for the session was Sterling Holdings, with a turnover of 459.6 million units worth N3.7 billion, Zenith Bank exchanged 41.2 million units for N4.2 billion, Universal Insurance sold 30.2 million units valued at N25.2 million, Access Holdings traded 29.7 million units worth N654.9 million, and FCMB transacted 28.2 million units valued at N271.4 million.
Yesterday, 13 equities gained weight, while 34 equities shed weight, indicating a negative market breadth index and weak investor sentiment.
Guinea Insurance lost 10.00 per cent to trade at 90 Kobo, International Energy Insurance slipped by 9.84 per cent to N5.22, The Initiates dropped 9.79 per cent to close at N23.50, Tantalizers declined by 9.52 per cent to N3.61, and NEM Insurance crashed by 9.25 per cent to N28.12.
On the flip side, Austin Laz gained 10.00 per cent to close at N3.63, Learn Africa also improved by 10.00 per cent to N9.90, DAAR Communications appreciated by 9.49 per cent to N1.50, UPDC soared by 9.09 per cent to N3.60, and Caverton flew higher by 8.51 per cent to N5.10.
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