Charles Udoh - Afrikan Heroes

Mali Is Set To Have A Startup Act

April 24, 2019

The story first came from Tunisia in May 2018, and now Mali. The Malian government has put in place machinery to begin the process of legislating for a new startup Act.

Mali’s Minister of Digital Economy, Arouna Modibo Touré recently declared that all is now set to enact a new Startup Act for Mali.

Key Insights Into What The Startup Act Is Going To Look Like

Mali’s Startup Act, if passed by Parliament without delay would be second in Africa after Tunisia passed its Startup Act in May 2018.
The Act is going to contain 23 Articles which will set an administrative, economic and fiscal environment favourable to young entrepreneurs who are usually confronted with numerous challenges like company creation and management as well as access to funding.
The Act is targeting startups which are less than four years old, which has Malian nationals owning about one-third of its equities and which have less than ten employees.
Companies of this nature will be provided with seed funding as well as the possibility for innovation grants.
Additionally, a start-up guarantee fund will also be created to help those startups raise about 80% of the funds they need.
Malian government would also help to promote it abroad.
The Act will also encourage startup incubators to be more rigorous in their choice of the various projects and in their coaching.
To make this happen, the Act will provide that for an incubator to be funded, 50% of its startups should have survived for two years. That’s a big deal!
The selection of coaching, mentoring and training professionals will be based on performances and only the best will survive. This will guarantee the success and quality of the firms in the market.
The Act also plans to create research and development laboratories in schools to grow the entrepreneurship sense of its youth. A special scholarship will then be awarded to any student carrying an innovative project.

Mali’s Startup Act is Similar to the Tunisian Startup Act.

Unarguably, Tunisia leads other African countries in bold startup legislations. The Tunisian Startup Act, passed in May, 2018, also reveals the following similarities with the Malian Startup Act.

Also Read: South African Real Estate Startups Shock Other African Startups With This New Move

Tunisian Startup Act defines startups as an entity having legal existence not exceeding eight (08) years from the date of its constitution,while Mali’s makes provision only for startups less than four years.
More than two-thirds (2/3) of Tunisian startups’ capital must be natural persons, venture capital investment companies, collective investment funds, investment, seed money and any other investment body according to the legislation in force or by foreign Startups to qualify as startups under the Act.
The business model envisaged by the Tunisian Startup Act is one that is highly innovative, utilizing cutting-edge technology.
Under the Act, any individual promoter of a Startup, public agent or employee of a private company, may benefit from the right to Startup Leave for creation of a Startup for a period of one year renewable once
Any promoter of a Startup may benefit from a Startup scholarship for a duration of one (01) year. Only three (03) shareholders and full-time employees in the relevant Startup may however benefit from the scholarship awarded.
Young graduates who create startups are free from taxation for three years.
The profits from the sale of the securities relating to the shares in the Startups are exempt from the capital gains tax.

Charles Rapulu Udoh

Charles Rapulu Udoh a Lagos-based Lawyer with special focus on Business Law, Intellectual Property Rights, Entertainment and Technology Law. He is also an award-winning writer. Working for notable organisations so far has exposed him to some of industry best practices in business, finance strategies, law, dispute resolution and data analytics both in Nigeria and across the world.

Ghanaian Startup mPharma Acquires Kenyan Second-largest Pharmacy Chain

April 23, 2019

Barely six years old, Ghanaian pharmacy start-up mPharma, which manages prescription drug inventory for pharmacies and their suppliers, is sealing a deal on Kenyaan second-largest pharmacy chain, Haltons.

With this transaction, mPharma is entering the East African regional market for the first time, meaning that the young Ghanaian company will now control 20 Haltons stores spread across Kenya’s capital Nairobi and the second most populated coastal city of Mombasa. Baring any last minutes changes and subject to Kenya’s Capital Markets Authority’s approval, the deal would be sealed for a whopping a $12 million Series B funding round led by 4DX Ventures, an Accra/San Francisco venture capital firm, and Nairobi-based Novastar Ventures.

So far, the sum of $9.7 million has been paid and the full round is expected to be completed in a couple of weeks with other investors including Unbound Ventures, the VC arm of India’s Bharti Mittal Family office, early Facebook investor Jim Breyer and former Novartis chief executive Daniel Vasella, who has joined MPharma’s board.

Key Facts To Note About The Deal

The startup raised $6.6 million in Nov 2017 after raising a seed round of $5 million in 2015.
MPharma was founded by Greg Rockson to primarily improve the efficiency of pharmaceutical supply chains in African countries.
Its proprietary Vendor Management Inventory (VMI) system is already being used in over 250 pharmacies in Ghana, Nigeria, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
Rockson said the unusual deal came about as part of conversations to market its VMI platform to the chain, but realized there was an opportunity to prove just how much the efficiencies of managing both front end and back end could help African pharmacies drive down their biggest costs: inventory.
The startup is taking control of Haltons from Fanisi Capital, a Mauritius-based private equity firm, but senior management at Haltons will retain a stake in the business.
Last year, Haltons raked in $1.5 million in revenue, Mary Ngige, Haltons’ managing director said.
mPharma is expected to meet a tough game in Kenya from the much bigger Goodlife Pharmacy which has 47 stores and is owned by South African investor Leapfrog Investments, which invested $22 million in 2016.
At one point in its history, Haltons was the biggest pharmacy chain in the whole of Kenya with more than 50 stores but slimmed down, closing unprofitable stores and working on improving its service delivery.
Ngige says the aim is for its new ownership and better systems to work on methods to bring back to Haltons’ past glory.
Ngige also says Haltons was attracted to the deal because the pharmacy desires to improve efficiency within its supply chain using better inventory management software which ultimately aligned with Halton’s own mission to improve drug accessibility and affordability. Consequently, they hope on mPharma’s business and their technology to help Haltons fine-tune their model and improve competitively.
In the short term, mPharma’s team is focused on expanding its VMI and QualityRx platforms to over 14,000 community pharmacies in Ghana, Nigeria and Kenya, using those platforms to leverage more market power with pharmaceutical companies and also use its “‘just-in-time” inventory management to lower prices for its retail customers.
mPharma is also preparing to partner with African governments in order to help improve drug availability through better centralized systems, in the long term.

Rockson Is Using the QualityRx Franchise Model.

Using the QualityRx franchise model, which replicates similar features seen with co-operative retailers in the US and Europe, employing common branding, inventory systems and collective purchasing, mPharma is attempting to shake the market up a bit.

Also See: South African Real Estate Startups Shock Other African Startups With This New Move

“We’ve not always been able to control the customer experience and fully address the issue of drug affordability with our pharmacy clients particularly because they manage their profit margins,” says Greg Rockson.

“Through our QualityRx service, we’re starting to invest in improving the customer experience and pricing that patients get from pharmacies. Haltons will serve as testing ground for us to develop patient-centered services we can provide to our franchise pharmacies. This way we can encourage lower margins and pass the savings on to the customers.”

Charles Rapulu Udoh

Charles Rapulu Udoh a Lagos-based Lawyer with special focus on Business Law, Intellectual Property Rights, Entertainment and Technology Law. He is also an award-winning writer. Working for notable organisations so far has exposed him to some of industry best practices in business, finance strategies, law, dispute resolution and data analytics both in Nigeria and across the world.

South African Real Estate Startups Shock Other African Startups With This New Move

With a population of close to 60 million people, a housing backlog of more than 2.5 million housing units, representing over 12 million people who are currently without adequate housing, smart startups in the South African Real Estate sector who are quick to innovate are cashing out big time. While other entrepreneurs are yet to know about this, a new wave of real estate entrepreneurs in South Africa is transforming the property industry through spell-binding innovation that have changed the way homes are bought, sold and rented in South Africa. Here is how the game has been changed.

Using Crowdfunding To Grow Real Estate

Real estate crowdfunding has grown exponentially since 2012 and is disrupting the real estate market in terms of raising capital. In 2015, over $34.4 billion was raised by individuals on crowdfunding platforms. While real estate crowdfunding statistics are not that common since it is a fairly new concept, trends show that it will continue growing. A property crowdfunding platform usually offers a diversified portfolio of projects. Projects can be short term projects like residential developments for selling or long term projects such as rental properties or tourist accommodations. Projects can also include full development as well as refurbishment projects or asset finance on existing properties, with the right business case. Through crowdfunding, you can contribute towards the development of any property, no matter how small. Once, developed, you are paid returns on your investment unlike donation-based crowdfunding where you not investing for returns.

The size of projects on the platform also varies from $ 200 000 to several million dollars. The success of the project depends entirely on the business case, the attractiveness of the project, and how the interest of the investor can be captured.

The high flexibility and customization of real estate crowdfunding has made it a popular option for real estate in South Africa. Websites like Realestatecrowdfunding.co.za, Reimag.za and RealtyAfrica.com offer a wide range of crowdfunding options. In South Africa, these crowdfunding websites are changing how consumers react to commercial real estate and are also supporting new developers to grow.

Using Virtual Property Agents to Grow Real Estate.

Virtual property agents are eliminating physical real estate agents and middlemen, by providing cost-effective and meaningful information about properties. You can get information about potential client, homeowner’s contact details and other deep personal information about them. Online Virtual Agent will also allow you to search valuable company details such as directorships, property ownership, contact details and addresses where companies are involved because the more you know, the more you sell! You can also get past or current ownership data, dwelling sizes, title deeds numbers, attorney files and more! It is the fastest way of finding property sellers and buyers in South Africa. According to Dan Hughes, CEO of Alpha Property Insight explains, “the average agent spends 80% of their business day doing admin and marketing their product, not negotiating and closing deals. (Virtual) Technology allows us to invert that statistic so that 80% of a professional’s time is spent negotiating and closing deals and only 20% is spent on administrative tasks.”

Most of these online Virtual Agents in South Africa are using 3D modeling and VR tools for virtual viewing of the property. This VR tools are already moving beyond pictures to offer 360-degree video in virtual property “tours”. A major advantage here is that VR can facilitate viewings 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, and will permit buyers to view multiple homes efficiently from the comfort of their own home or wherever they may be. This broadens the prospective viewings available to buyers and means that they might just find a home they didn’t initially ask to see. South African companies such as TheVirtualAgent.za, Gumtree.za and Steeple. are already leveraging this Proptech solution.

Using Cloud Computing and Social Media.

Real estate startups in South Africa are changing the style with the use of many digital channels and social media tools. Buyers and sellers now communicate with each other directly without middlemen, bypassing agents. Potential purchasers and sales teams can share a common view of property information as an interactive map, with administrators having access to detailed user analytics highlighting which units or sectors receive the most interest. The digital tools also provide certain functionality and interface, sometimes defining the property sales process from start to finish, and ensuring that every stage of the deal is measurable and available to all parties at any given time, regardless of geographic location. This is not only cost-effective, but provides real-time availability of property information. This has also reduced barriers to entry for newer and smaller companies to enter the real estate tech of South Africa. Companies like REDi, Propdata, are some of the companies leading this cause.

Also See: Dangote Refinery Plans To Reduce The West African Crude Oil Importation With 650, 000 Barrels Per Day

Making Site Inspection Easier.

Startups in South Africa are also leveraging the power of technology to make site inspection easier. For instance, Imfuna offers a range of mobile apps for digital inspection by construction inspectors, residential and commercial property inspectors, and rental property inspectors. For example, the Imfuna Construction Inspector’s web and app software for iPhone and Android dramatically enhance the construction site inspection process to give builders technology they can depend on. The Imfuna Construction Inspector can be used to observe and record multiple types of data about a property or building site’s condition, then produce a high-quality, branded PDF construction report that can be shared online.

In all, the real estate industry in South Africa is fast changing and smart startups can leverage this opportunity. Consumers are constantly looking out for cost-effective, easier ways of buying and selling property online.

Here is how one reviewer, captures the experience he had on PropertyFox ‘(It is) The new “Uber” of buying and selling Property.I am fortunate to both buy and sell a property through PropertyFox. A remarkably modern way of doing business saving you thousands of rands. I saved almost R135,000 on the sale of my property…’’

South Africans and entrepreneurs elsewhere can leverage these opportunities to explore the fast-revolutionizing real estate business.

Charles Rapulu Udoh

Charles Rapulu Udoh, a Lagos-based Lawyer with special focus on Business Law, Intellectual Property Rights, Entertainment and Technology Law. He is also an award-winning writer. Working for notable organisations so far has exposed him to some of industry best practices in business, finance strategies, law, dispute resolution and data analytics both in Nigeria and across the world.

Dangote Refinery Plans To Reduce The West African Crude Oil Importation With 650, 000 Barrels Per Day

April 22, 2019

The Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) has noted in its World Oil Outlook that the Dangote Refinery project could refine as much as 650,000 barrels of crude oil per day at full capacity upon completion. This, according to it, is expected to reduce the need for fuel imports in West Africa. This would mean that at that rate, Dangote Refinery when fully in operation, would refine close to 237.3 million barrels per year. Nigeria, alone, imported 22.5387 billion litres of petroleum products worth over N3.24 trillion from refineries abroad in 2017.

According to OPEC, in Africa, there are 50 refining projects, which, if all built, would add nearly five million barrels per day (bpd of new refining capacity to the continent.

The Group Executive Director, Strategy, Portfolio Development and Capital Projects, Dangote Industries Limited, Mr Devakumar Edwin, said OPEC was correct in its estimation, adding that all hands were on deck to deliver the refinery on time.

Key Facts To Note:

Dangote Group’s ongoing refining and petrochemicals project can meet 100 per cent of the domestic demand for petroleum products (petrol, diesel, kerosene and aviation fuel), in Nigeria leaving the surplus for export in line with OPEC’s expectation -Dangote Group said.
This year, the outlook represents a significant reversal from recent history. For the first time in many years, projected firm additions at 1.1 million bpd exceed West African regional demand growth for 2018 to 2023 at 0.7 million bpd.
This change relates primarily to one project in Nigeria now under construction, which is the Dangote Refinery.
Since the project is in West Africa, its implementation does not necessarily alter the situations in North and East/South Africa. What should happen, especially in West Africa, is a reduction in the need and opportunity for product imports.”
Last year’s World Oil Outlook hinted that, in Africa, ‘new projects could improve the situation somewhat toward the end of the period.’ This year, increasing confidence that the Dangote project in Nigeria will go ahead is indeed changing the picture.

Allowing for some uncertainty in the project’s start-up timetable, incremental potential in Africa is expected to continue to lag incremental demand-based requirements through 2020, after which the potential is for a balance or excess requirements.
A deficit of around 0.2 million barrels per day in 2019 to 2020 is estimated to swing to an excess of around 0.3 million bpd by 2022 to 2023.
It must be borne in mind that this regional outlook is unusual in that it hinges largely on a single project.”
The Dangote Refinery is expected to be finished in 2019, with production set to commence in 2020.

Also See: World Bank Invests $200m To Promote Entrepreneurship Projects In Egypt

Charles Rapulu Udoh

Charles Rapulu Udoh a Lagos-based Lawyer with special focus on Business Law, Intellectual Property Rights, Entertainment and Technology Law. He is also an award-winning writer. Working for notable organisations so far has exposed him to some of industry best practices in business, finance strategies, law, dispute resolution and data analytics both in Nigeria and across the world.

These Businesses Are Currently Free From Tax In Nigeria

You can’t consider the heavy job of having to fulfill numerous tax and levy obligations within the first year of being in business, at the same time struggling to raise more capital or manage the fast depleting funds within your disposal. Nigerian government has a lot of tax incentives, one of which is the incentive of Pioneer Status to help you reduce the burden of the first few years of being in business. The incentive of Pioneer Status is a tax strategy used by government across the world to encourage investments in industries that were either non-existent at all, or the country did not have sufficient presence for its economic development.

The Nigerian federal government has expanded the range of industries that would benefit from the Pioneer Status tax incentive under the Nigerian Industrial Revolution Plan, NIRP, and the Economic Recovery and Growth Plan, ERGP, by promoting the 27 industries and products in the approved status document.

The pioneer status applies to companies or startups in their first year of business or operations. Consequently, companies or businesses older than a year would not benefit from the pioneer status incentive. Again, businesses that have existed for several years in a particular sector may not enjoy the pioneer status, except such companies or startups branch into a new line of business covered under the list of 27 or more new industries and products.

Clearly, established companies such as Payporte, Konga or Jumia who are already leaders in the e-commerce business sector as well as those in the music industry would not enjoy tax exemption by the government under the new regime.

The Industries Covered By The Regime Include:

Agriculture:

Startups or new businesses under Nigerian agricultural sector, who are within the first one year of their business can get tax break for a period of three years or more. The areas covered under the agricultural sector include:

Processing and preservation of meat and poultry
Production of meat/poultry products
Processing of cocoa
Marine and Freshwater fishing and aquaculture.
Growing of all crops.

Manufacturing:

This is where Nigeria hopes to diversify its oil-dependent economy to. Areas covered under the manufacturing sector include:

Manufacture of starches and starch products
Manufacture of animal feeds
Tanning and dressing of leather
Manufacture of leather footwear, luggage and handbags
Manufacture of household and personal hygiene paper products, like tissue papers etc.
Manufacture of paints, vanishes and printing ink.
Manufacture of plastic products (builders’ plastic ware) and moulds
Manufacture of batteries and accumulators
Manufacture of steam generators
Manufacture of railway locomotives, wagons and rolling stock
Manufacture of metal-forming machinery and machine tools
Manufacture of machinery for metallurgy
Manufacture of machinery for food and beverage processing
Manufacture of machinery for textile, apparel and leather production;
Manufacture of machinery for paper paperboard production.
Manufacture of plastics and rubber machinery

Information Technology And Communication:

E-commerce services
Software development and publishing
Publishing of Books.
Telecommunication apart from GSM telecommunication

Entertainment:

Motion picture, video and television programme production, distribution, exhibition and photography;
Music production, publishing and distribution, such as Record Labels etc.

Environment:

Waste treatment, disposal and material recovery, such as recycling.

Also check: Practical Guides On How You Can Register A Business Name In Nigeria Yourself

Real Estate:

Real estate investment vehicles under the Investments and Securities Act, such as Real Estate Investment Trusts,REICs etc.
Construction and operation of non-residential buildings (Shopping malls, hotels;Office buildings; building for industrial production;warehouses; low and middle-income housing estates of single and multi-family buildings,etc)

Business :

Business Process Outsourcing

Securities:

Mortgage backed securities under the Investments and Securities Act

Mining:

Mining and processing of coal

Construction:

Construction and operation of water projects
Construction and operation of roads, railways and airports
Electric power generation,transmission and distribution, among other.
Construction of utilities generally.

Steps To Take To Obtain Pioneer Status Certification:

Make sure you apply within the first one year of doing business and that you fall within the categories described above.
Get your documents ready. Documents in this case include financial statements, certificate of incorporation and other incorporation forms, project documents such as Land Documents, Building drawings, Construction agreements, trademark certificate, title documents and invoices of assets of the company, Tax Identification Number, Tax Clearance Certificate, Bill of quantities and any other document pertaining to your projects.
Choose a date to make presentation to the Nigerian Investment Promotion Commission about your project. Furnish the Commission about your company as well as your financial statements.
Once presentation of your project has been made to the Commission, and NIPC is satisfied, you would then be requested to make payment of the application and due diligence fees. Make payment to the Commission.
At this stage, you would now make application to the Commission, attaching both the soft and hard copies of the relevant supporting documents. NIPC will review your application and conduct intense legal and compliance checks on your project, after which it fixes a date for a verification visit to your facility.
At this stage, once the NIPC declares your application successful, you will then be requested to make payment of the service charge. NIPC, thereafter, issues you with an Approval In Principle (AIP) once payment has been made, which you may collect in person, or have sent to you by courier. A copy of the AIP is forwarded by the Commission to the tax office and the Industrial Inspectorate Division.
The next stage is to complete an application form for Production Day Certificate (PDC) and submit same to the Industrial Inspectorate Division (IID) under the Federal Ministry of Trade and Investment alongside the soft and the hard copies of the necessary documents. IID will review the application and schedule an inspection visit to the site of the project for the purpose of determining the production day of the project.
Satisfied, the IID will send you a mail to that effect,as well as a copy of the Production Day Certificate, at the same time notifying the NIPC.
Once notified, the NIPC will issue you a Pioneer Status Incentive Certificate and send copies of the PSI Certificate to both the tax office (FIRS) and the IID
The whole process takes a minimum period of 25 weeks (approximately 6 months) to be completed.
You may however get yourself a tax consultant or a lawyer who does the work for you while you run your business.

Charles Rapulu Udoh

Charles Rapulu Udoh a Lagos-based Lawyer with special focus on Business Law, Intellectual Property Rights, Entertainment and Technology Law. He is also an award-winning writer. Working for notable organisations so far has exposed him to some of industry best practices in business, finance strategies, law, dispute resolution and data analytics both in Nigeria and across the world.

Practical Guides On How You Can Register A Business Name In Nigeria Yourself

Between June 2016 and July 2017, Nigerian Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) registered about 91,609 business names. While basic legal advice may be sought on the best form of business to register in Nigeria –whether as a company, business names, incorporated trustees or otherwise– here are quick practical guides on how you can register your business name in Nigeria without seeking for any assistance.

Step 1

Go to the CAC Portal and Sign Up:

On the CAC Portal (you may click here), sign up by creating an account. There are two types of account: ordinary accounts, which is accessible to everybody or accounts for accredited agents (accredited agents are professionals who are accredited to register business names and other categories of business on behalf of the Commission). Open an ordinary account or account for an accredited agent as the case may be.

Now here is the danger: type in your name correctly, in the order you would want it to appear officially if you are an ordinary account holder. Make sure you are not entering the wrong name or another person’s name, who is not the owner of the business name. Doing so would mean that the name would automatically appear as the owner of the business on the registration forms.

STEP 2:

Once You Are Logged On To The Portal, Choose and Reserve a Name.

This stage begins with reserving your business name and one other alternative name. Alternative names are necessary in case your preferred name is returned unavailable by the CAC. Once the CAC conducts a search in its database to ensure that the name is not already in use or that there is no similar name already in use and returns the name as approved, the approved name would be available for a 60-day period, at the end of which it expires and returns to the CAC database. Nothing prevents the name from being reserved by another person and registered by him unless you reserve the name again after paying a search fee to the Commission. Once the name has been reserved, you must begin the registration of your business name within the sixty days reservation period. The name search usually takes up to one hour or more.

NB: All payments to the Commission are made online; however any tax obligation is to be assessed at the tax office.

Step 2

Fill In the Business Name Registration Forms Correctly

Still on the same online portal, click on ‘New Registration’, which could be accessed from the ‘Company Registration’ Button. Then enter the ‘Availability Code’, which is usually an 11 digit number found by clicking and opening the ‘Approval Note’ opposite the new business name you have reserved. Once a fresh page shows up, begin immediately the process of filling in the online forms. Make sure that all the bits of information you provide are clear enough and are accurate. To avoid queries on your registration, do not enter fictitious or unbelievable details or address. The information required to be completed includes:

Approved Name of the Business
General Nature of the Business
Address of the Business
Name, Address, Occupation and other details of the Proprietor(s) of the Business
Signature of the Proprietors

Step 3

Once the Forms Having Been Correctly Filled, Proceed To Payment By Clicking on The Payment Button

Payment: The payment of all the fees may be made online or completed at a bank branch. Where the payment is made at a bank branch, make sure you generate a Remita Code with which you would confirm payment of the fees once you get home and log back to your CAC account.

Step 4

Submit Your Correctly Filled Forms Online

Once the payment has been approved, the filled documents would now be available for download. Once downloaded, handle with care and avoid any stain on the documents. Affix your passport photographs on the relevant places and append your clear signatures on the signature brackets. Notarise the documents before a Notary Public or a Commissioner for Oaths. Once you are sure that all the needful has been done, scan the documents and upload them here. On the new platform, enter the Availability Code of the business name and the branch office of the CAC where you would want to pick the Certified Trues Copies of the documents up from. Scroll down, choose from a range of documents you would want to upload and upload all the documents. Once you’re done, click on submit. Once the process is marked ‘documents submitted successfully’, then you’re done with whole the registration process. Within 5 working days, CAC either approves or returns queries on the application you submitted. Where queries are returned, treat them accordingly. Where approved, the CAC would notify you that the application has been approved. At this point, your Business Name Certificate is now ready for collection.

Step 5:

Collection of Certificate and Certified True Copies of Other Registration Documents.

Once approved, pick up all the documents you scanned and your ID card and proceed to the branch office of the CAC where you registered to pick the documents up from. No payment is made to collect the documents at the CAC office.

Related: Best Ways To Carry Out Market Research As A Startup

The registration process may last longer than 5 working days depending on the workload of the CAC at the time and the number of queries that were returned on your application for registration.

DISCLAIMER:

This advice does not displace the sound legal advice you may get from your legal counsel. Your legal counsel may offer you good advice on what type of business best suits your dreams and aspiration and which may prevent any legal issues, arising from the composition of your business or otherwise, in the future.

Good luck on your new journey!

Charles Rapulu Udoh

Charles Rapulu Udoh a Lagos-based Lawyer with special focus on Business Law, Intellectual Property Rights, Entertainment and Technology Law. He is also an award-winning writer. Working for notable organisations so far has exposed him to some of industry best practices in business, finance strategies, law, dispute resolution and data analytics both in Nigeria and across the world.

World Bank Invests $200M to Promote Entrepreneurship Projects in Egypt

April 21, 2019

Small and medium scale businesses in Egypt now have more access to credit, following the World Bank’s commitment of over $200-million to support the next generation of reforms in Egypt aimed at creating more opportunities for young people and women, according to a statement published by the website of the bank.

The project, tagged ‘Catalyzing Entrepreneurship for Job Creation ’ will focus on expanding the amount and access to credit for small and medium enterprises, which have proven to be a major source of growth and job creation in Egypt. The project is also designed to address the major obstacles that young people and women face when launching new businesses.

Targets of the Project:

This project targets women and youth-led businesses, first-time borrowers, and small businesses in less developed regions across Egypt.
It will also fund coaching opportunities for new businesses through the entrepreneurial life cycle to build the necessary skills and capacity for success.
Since Egypt’s financial system is dominated by banks lending primarily to mature businesses, the project aims to channel 145 million dollars mainly through non-bank financial institutions offering loans to small businesses.
The project will also aim to increase the supply of seed, early-stage, and venture capital going to riskier and innovative start-ups and young small and medium enterprises with high potential for growth and job creation.
Most importantly, the project will invest 50 million dollars in privately managed risk capital intermediaries, such as angel funds, accelerators, VC funds, and investment companies.

How To Access The Funds

To be able to access the World Bank funds, an applicant would have to submit a proposal to the World Bank country office in Egypt.
International players are particularly encouraged to apply. The funds will be distributed through a transparent and competitive selection process.
The aim is to leverage the technical capacity and know-how of the private sector in investing these funds.

Related: How International Organisations Are Helping Startups in Africa

The World Bank’s Investment in Egypt So Far

To date the World Bank’s investment in Egypt has created about 300,000 jobs, benefiting approximately 70,000 women and 56,000 youths.
The World Bank has a diverse package of support to Egypt focused on expanding social protection and social inclusion to all citizens, improving competitiveness and infrastructure in less developed parts of Egypt, developing a digital development strategy for the jobs of tomorrow, leveraging private sector investments for infrastructure, and reforms in the education and health sector to help build human capital.
The World Bank currently has a portfolio of 16 projects in Egypt with a total commitment of $6.69 billion.
The new program builds on the success of the ongoing ‘’Promoting Innovation for Inclusive Financial Access’’ project which provides small and medium businesses with access to finance and promotes private sector job creation across Egypt.

Charles Rapulu Udoh

Charles Rapulu Udoh a Lagos-based Lawyer with special focus on Business Law, Intellectual Property Rights, Entertainment and Technology Law. He is also an award-winning writer. Working for notable organisations so far has exposed him to some of industry best practices in business, finance strategies, law, dispute resolution and data analytics both in Nigeria and across the world.

How International Organisations Are Helping Startups In Africa

Access to credit is one of the major determinants of success for any startups in Africa. While banks peg their interest rates so high and more family members and friends are getting poorer and poorer and unable to help, there are, however, international grants and intervention funds that are targeted at startups. The following are some of them:

1.The International Finance Corporation (World Bank Group)

The IFC is a member of the World Bank Group and a development finance institution. Being the largest global institution targeting private sector institutions in developing countries, like Africa, companies or entrepreneurs desiring to establish new ventures or expand existing enterprises can approach IFC directly by submitting an investment proposal to the field office closest to the location of the proposed project

Investment Targets so far.

More than $25 billion has been invested by the IFC in African businesses and financial institutions, and its current portfolio (in 2017) exceeds $5 billion.
The IFC invested $3 million in Madagascar’s SMTP Group towards the expansion of its company’s poultry business in the country in 2015.
The IFC provided a $7.5 million equity in Zoona, a financial services business that provides in-country and cross-border money transfers in Zambia, Malawi and Mozambique in 2015
In 2018, it made $11.6 billion in long-term investments in 366 projects, and additionally mobilized nearly $11.7 billion to support the private sector in developing countries.

Click here for more information

2. Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is a private foundation founded by Bill Gates and his wife, Melinda in 2000.

The foundation is acclaimed to be the largest transparently run private foundation in the world, with an endowment fund of $50.7 billion as at 2017.

The foundation has three offices in Africa — in Ethiopia, Nigeria, and South Africa. The foundation also maintains presence in Kenya, Tanzania, Ghana, Senegal, Zambia, and Burkina Faso.

Investment So Far

The foundation awarded a grant of $4.48 million to Sidai Africa, a social enterprise operating in the livestock sector in Kenya in 2016.
In June 2017, $2.4 million grant was awarded to Sanergy, an organization that provides access to hygiene and sanitation solutions to people who live in urban slums.

3. Helios Investment Partners

Helios Investment Partners was founded in 2004. The private equity and Venture Capital firm focuses on Nigeria, South Africa, and Kenya.

Th firm manages over $3 billion funds in its care. It seeks to invest between $15 million and $200 million in an individual transaction.

Investment Targets So far:

The private equity firm has major focus on businesses in the financial services, power, distribution, utilities, telecommunications, travel, leisure, fast moving consumer goods, logistics, and Agro-allied sectors.
In 2010, the firm invested $92 million in Interswitch, a Nigerian payment services provider.
The firm also invested $10 million in OffGrid Electric, a solar energy company in Tanzania that is spreading across East Africa, in 2016.
MallforAfrica, Bayport,GB Foods, Starzs Investment among several others are some of its investments.

Click here to know more

4. African Women Development Funds (AWDF)

Although AWDF does not give grants to individuals, organisations have the opportunity of getting grants starting from $8000 to $50,000.

Investment So far:

AWDF funds only local, national, sub-regional and regional organisations in Africa working towards women’s empowerment in six thematic areas: Women’s Human Rights, Economic Empowerment and Livelihoods, Governance, Peace and Security, Reproductive Health and Rights, HIV/AIDS, Arts, Culture and Sports.
In 2018, $6.8 M was granted to 75 women’s groups in 23 countries.
The organization has provided about $41.8 million grants since its establishment in 2001.
To apply for a grant, follow this link

5. FMO Entrepreneurial Development Bank

Founded in 1970, FMO is a Dutch development bank that provides funds to entrepreneurs, companies, and projects from developing and emerging markets. FMO is a public-private partnership. The Dutch government has 51% ownership stakes in the company while 49% stakes are held by commercial banks, trade unions and other private-sector representatives.

Investment So far

FMO has funded several projects across Africa. Its help come by way of equity, loans and guarantees; capital market transactions; mezzanine and other tailor-made solutions; and long-term and short-term project financing.
FMO provides support to sectors with the highest possibilities of long-term impact. These sectors include: Financial Institutions, Energy and Agribusiness, and Food & Water.

To know more click here.

6. Investment AB Kinnevik

Investment AB Kinnevik is a Sweden-based company founded in 1936. It is one of the largest listed investment companies in Europe with total assets of over $7 billion.

Investment So far:

The firm’s investment in Africa include: Millicom, Tele2, Jumia, MTG, Konga, Bayport Financial Services, Rocket Internet, Iroko Partners and several others.
It is a leading investor in emerging markets like Africa.
Its primary areas of focus include entrepreneurs and businesses in the following business areas: Communications, Ecommerce & Marketplaces, Entertainment and Financial Services and others.

To know more click here

7. Tony Elumelu Entrepreneurship Program

Every year, the Tony Elumelu Entrepreneurship Program (TEEP) selects 1,000 entrepreneurs from across Africa for a program of training, mentoring and funding.

The program was founded by Mr. Tony Elumelu, a Nigerian entrepreneur

Investments So Far:

The aim of the fund is that over a ten-year period, the 10,000 start-ups and young businesses selected from across Africa will create one million new jobs and add $10 billion in revenues to Africa’s economy.
The focus of the TEEP Fund is on the citizens and legal residents of all 54 African countries.
Any for-profit business based in Africa with a less than three years existence period is qualified to apply for the funds. This is however not limited to new business ideas.
All participants in the program receive a $5,000 seed investment in their business.

To know more click here

8. African Development Foundation

The focus of the African Development Foundation (ADF), an independent Federal agency of the United States government, is to support African-led development that build community enterprises by providing them with seed capital and technical support.

Investment So Far:

USADF helps organizations and businesses in Africa to create and sustain jobs, improve income levels, achieve greater food security, and address human development needs.
In 2014 alone, the USADF gave out 336 grants worth over $50 million and impacted over 1.3 million people in Africa.
The USADF beams its light on Small holder Farmers, youths, women and girls, and recovering communities.
It provides grants of up to $250,000 directly to hard-to-reach and under-served community enterprises that are ready to do their part.

To apply for a grant, click this link

9. Omidyar Network

Founded by Pierre Omidyar, the billionaire and founder of eBay in 2013, the Omidyar Network invests in both for-profit and non-profit organisations across the world.

Investment So Far:

The Network has invested over $1.46 billion in several ventures across Africa through grants and equity investments.
In 2009, the firm invested $1.8 million in Bridge International Academies, a for-profit company that runs a network of low-cost primary schools in East Africa.
The Network gave $400,000 to BudgIT, a start-up that gives Nigerian citizens access to, breakdown of and understanding of public budgets in 2014.
The Network collaborated with Echo Venture Capital, in 2015, to invest about $1.2 million in Hotels.ng, a Nigerian online hotels listing and booking startup.
The firm’s primary focus is on businesses and organisations with high social impact potential. It can fund or grant businesses up to $4 million.

For more information click here

10. Seedstars World

The Switzerland-based Seedstars is a venture builder that organizes the annual Seedstars World competition, one of the biggest seed startup competitions for emerging markets.

Its activity spans 35+ countries around the world, whether in Africa, Asia, South America or the Middle East. It targets and invests in young startup businesses in these countries and regions.

Investment So Far:

Every year, participants from over 25 cities across Sub-Saharan Africa participate in a continental tour where they compete in local competitions.
A winner from each country gets invitation to attend the grand finale at the Seedstars Global Summit in Switzerland where they compete for up to $500,000 in equity investment and other multiple prizes.
Seedstars has invested $330,000 in SimplePay, a young Nigerian third-party payment processing company in 2014.
In 2016, Giraffe triumphed over 63 other startups from 55 countries to win the grand prize of $500,000 in equity investment funding. Giraffe is a South African company that makes low-cost automated recruitment solutions possible for South Africans.

To join Seedstars click here.

11. CDC

The CDC is founded in 1948. The CDC is the UK’s Development Finance Institution (DFI) which is wholly owned by the UK Government’s Department for International Development (DFID). It has a history of making successful investments in businesses which have become industry leaders.

Investment So far:

CDC supports businesses throughout Africa and South Asia, and its portfolio of investments is valued at over £3.9 billion (£3.8 billion in 2016)
In November 2013, CDC announced a US$18.1m investment into Feronia, an agricultural production and processing business focused on palm oil plantations and arable farming in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).
The CDC equity investments team aims to invest in established businesses with revenues of $10m+ and a track-record of profitability.
CDC considers start-ups or green-field projects only where there is a strong sponsor (individual or company) who will co-invest alongside CDC and has a strong track-record and delivery capability.
It focuses on: Infrastructure (especially power), Manufacturing, Health, Education, Food-processing and Construction.

For more click here

12. Acumen Fund

Acumen is not looking for equity investments in businesses. It is a charity organisation incorporated in 2001 with seed capital from the Rockefeller Foundation, Cisco Systems Foundation and three individual philanthropists.

Investment So Far:

Acumen Fund invests in entrepreneurs who have the capability to bring sustainable solutions to big problems.
Acumen Fund invests in fearless entrepreneurs and early stage innovators tackling the problems of poverty .
To qualify for investment, entrepreneurs must be located in, or have significant operation or impact in East Africa, West Africa, India, Pakistan or Latin America.
The Fund has invested over $110 Million in breakthrough innovations in over 102 companies across 13 countries,
To Apply for investment, follow this link:

Charles Rapulu Udoh

Charles Rapulu Udoh a Lagos-based Lawyer with special focus on Business Law, Intellectual Property Rights, Entertainment and Technology Law. He is also an award-winning writer. Working for notable organisations so far has exposed him to some of industry best practices in business, finance strategies, law, dispute resolution and data analytics both in Nigeria and across the world.

How Zoom Has Proven That Innovation Can Win Anytime

April 20, 2019

Zoom’s recent IPO success shows some deep insights about going to market in a crowded space and doing so well. When Eric Yuan started the company in 2011, he might have defined the company as a provider of HD video conferencing, online business meetings, webinars, and mobile capabilities, all in one collaborative solution. But then, following Zoom’s most recent SEC s1 Filing and its first IPO, in which its shares initially priced at $36 a share closed at $62 per share and the company suddenly raised nearly $350 million through the IPO, it appears that Eric’s dream is far from over.

In fact, from disclosures in the IPO prospectus, Zoom made $7.5 million in profit in 2018, making it the rare technology IPO that is profitable. To be clear, Zoom is making $1.8 gross profit for every $1 spent on sales and marketing.

Here are the reasons we think Zoom’s success story stands out.

1. Zoom is the Not The First Video Conferencing App

Before Zoom came into full operations in 2013, there are other video-conferencing app on the web-conferencing market. There is the BlueJeans which was founded in 2009; Lifesize which was founded in 2003; Adobe Connect, formerly Macromedia, which was released in 2012. CyberLink U Meeting, a Taiwanese multimedia software company, founded in 1996, even Skype among others.These companies are already players who have pitched their tents both in broad and niche industry areas.

2 Zoom Is A Simple Product

With Zoom, you can start or join a 100-person meeting with crystal-clear, face-to-face video, high quality screen sharing, and instant messaging — for free! The Award winning Zoom brings video conferencing, online meetings and group messaging into one easy-to-use application. Zoom platform offers a simple and consistent user experience across all meeting spaces whether it is on desktops, executive offices, open spaces, huddle rooms, and large conference rooms or on phones. This unified platform makes it possible for multiple use cases such as online meetings, large marketing and training webinars, business chat/instant messaging and presence, file sharing, and integration with third-party platforms to happen. Thus, Zoom’s strategy is to provide a product that can offer various similar services. Video conference is one, but meetings and webinars and others are another.

3. Freemium Helped Zoom to Spread Its Message Faster

With Zoom, Eric Yuan was out to test his product and it worked! Zoom’s video conferencing features are free for everyone to use. Pegging its 40 minutes conferencing limit is also as a result of intense research efforts. Zoom came down to the 40 minutes limits because it learned through the research that 45 minutes was the standard duration people are willing to go for in a video conference.

Even with the 40 minutes limit people have gone ahead to use their freemium model. Apart from Freemium model, Zoom has also used reward for word-of-mouth recommendation from customers to power up their customer acquisition.

According to Eric Yuan:

In our case, we really want to get the customers to test our product. This market is extremely crowded. It’s really hard to tell customers, “You’ve got to try Zoom.” Without a freemium product, I think you’re going to lose the opportunity to let many users to test your products.

We make our freemium product work so well. We give most of our features for free and one-to-one is no limitation. That’s why almost every day there are so many users coming to our website, free users. If they like our product, very soon they are going to pay for the subscription.

This approach has resulted to:

Over 3 million people participating in a Zoom meeting in 2013 alone. The number increased to 30 million in 2014, 100 million in 2015, and over 1million participants every single day.

4. With Zoom’s Success, Horizontal Saas Has Worked.

As a SaaS program, Zoom meetings are hosted software services, meaning it permits users access to the video conference software , to use the program over the internet instead of having to host the software program on the company’s own server. The horizontal model means that a lot of other similar services, across different industries could be provided using Zoom. In this case, it is the responsibility of Zoom to maintain and update the software, as well as maintain their server to host meetings. Zoom also provides security for this process and ensure that the software is executed regularly. This reduces the cost of hosting online meetings for businesses, and makes Zoom meetings ideal for hosting small business video meetings.

Zoom also makes it possible for the host to not to worry about the technical aspects of the software, and focus instead on planning and hosting the meeting.

Related: Nigerian Breweries PLC Issues Commercial Papers

Zoom’s success at its first IPO shows that horizontal Saas has indeed worked. Concur, the first Saas company to go public could not go beyond the crash of 2001.

5. Zoom is Empowering other AI platforms like Fireflies.ai

With Zoom, other AI platforms are becoming integrated to the whole video conferencing experience. Fireflies.ai recently launched a conversational AI web app that transcribes meetings, highlights portions worthy of keeping in your notes, identifies call participants, and even automates assignments doled out in a meeting. The Fireflies service is integrated with a number of workplace communication apps including Slack, Skype for Business, Zoom, BlueJeans, and Google Hangouts Meet, and it can log notes in CRM systems like HubSpot and Salesforce. Fireflies can be invited to join your calendar to automatically record calls, but can also transcribe and offer insights from prerecorded audio. It is not likely that these AI platforms would want Zoom, and other similar brands to go soon. They would have to join in blowing the trumpet.

These are reasons Zoom is an unrelenting product of the future.

Charles Rapulu Udoh

Charles Rapulu Udoh a Lagos-based Lawyer with special focus on Business Law, Intellectual Property Rights, Entertainment and Technology Law. He is also an award-winning writer. Working for notable organisations so far has exposed him to some of industry best practices in business, finance strategies, law, dispute resolution and data analytics both in Nigeria and across the world.

Best Ways To Carry Out Market Research As A Startup

Without aggressive research and market survey efforts before starting your business, you may be wading through unclear waters. Jeff Bezos’ confidence in succeeding came from a little research on internet business possibilities at D.E Shaw & Co. The research showed that web usage was growing at a staggering rate of 2,300 percent a year, as result of the growing availability of Internet browsers then.

According to Jeff, something that is growing 2,300 percent a year ‘is invisible today and ubiquitous tomorrow.’ He was further surprised that of all products that could be sold on the Web (including computer softwares, office supplies, clothing and apparel, music, among other 20 possibilities), books moved from being the bottom of the list to the very top, with music following in second place. Books stayed because of their wide availability, logistics and a host of other factors. Without such research, Amazon.com would not have found its mission, and would probably have been strangulated by stiff competitions in the long-run. It was able to innovate because it knew all along where it was going to. Here are a few things to note about the best ways to carry your market research as a startup.

Research Your Industry and Obtain Key Market data

Choose your specific industry, mining, sales, retailing, ecommerce
Carry out extensive market research yourself or through a professional. Sometimes, the use of trained professional researchers is recommended since they are often skilled and know all the techniques of research that would adequately cover all the fields of your research. They can also explain the collated data to you, in ways that are both dispassionate and objective.
Deplore the Internet Use the Internet to search for already collated data in your industry within your locality. You may consider using the following tricks. Enter words on search engines, such as, “X market size pdf”; “X market outlook pdf”; or “X market trends pdf”. Using ‘pdf’ allows you to gain useful industry knowledge, insights and reports. This may be useful but most times may not remotely represent your needs.

Research And Study Your Market Segments, Customers or Clients Purchasing Patterns or Psychology.

At this stage, you are a bit closer to what you are looking for. Industries target this method because most times, it accurately captures their interests.
This would also help you gain clearer insights about the purchasing pattern of your customers.
There are so many research firms that may help you do this more precisely. Where you can’t afford any, you can resort to already published reports online.
Research companies such NPD Group or Nielsen sometimes publishes periodic survey data online.
To research online, simply type in keywords like “survey”, year “2018”, “pdf”, customer info “small business owners”.

Research About Your Competitors

There persons or companies that are already in business like you. Most of them have assumed comfortable market shares.
Turning blind eyes to your competitors could be very deadly because they would often give you a clearer view about the nature of the market you are going into, the concentration of competitors in your locality and the type of services or products they produce.
Here, you need to find more about your competitors’ market share, including their marketing and pricing strategies.
The best and the easiest ways to do so would be research online.
You can Google your competitors online. Try using keywords such as: market shares, market players, market leaders, industry leaders, market share, revenue statistics, loss statistics, why company x succeeds more company x vs company x.
You may obtain data from the Stock Exchange or any trading point, especially if the company is a public company because it has much of its data in the public domain.
To find more information about the revenue of companies on Google, you can use Yahoo Finance or other platforms especially if the company is a public company. Use the Company’s symbol or logo to conduct the search.
Where the company is not a public company but a big one, you can Go to Google and search for “Company X revenues”, “Company X annual revenue”. Or search for “X market companies’ revenue streams”.
For medium or small sized business, you may use Hoovers. However, you can use this name if you know the real name of the companies. You can find the registered names at the foot of their companies’ websites, if they have. Companies usually go by such names as XYZ LLC , or XYY LTD. When this is not possible, you can try and find out who owns the website. You can proceed with Hoovers after you have obtained the name.

Research about Competitor Market Share

You can calculate market shares if you find top 100 companies on this market and its revenues. Most times, information about market shares is not always available or satisfactory.

Related: 5 Best Ways Any Startup Can Use To Attract Investors

Competitor Pricing Research

Information about pricing can always be found on the companies’ website.
You can try out on a few consumer websites where they are not available. Consumer websites such as https://www.toptenreviews.com/ include pricing for each product they compare. For software company pricing use https://www.capterra.com.
You may also rely on groups or the social media to solicit for different pricing from consumers in your industry.

Competitor Marketing Strategy Research

You can find information on case studies and articles in the media as sometimes founders share their marketing secrets.
You can also collate data by attending events or shareholders’ meeting of competitor companies and asking a few insiders.

Charles Rapulu Udoh

Charles Rapulu Udoh a Lagos-based Lawyer with special focus on Business Law, Intellectual Property Rights, Entertainment and Technology Law. He is also an award-winning writer. Working for notable organisations so far has exposed him to some of industry best practices in business, finance strategies, law, dispute resolution and data analytics both in Nigeria and across the world.