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Inside Mauritius Where A Majority of South Africans Are Migrating To And Their Reasons     |     More Funds – Now Available For Nigerian Small And Medium Enterprises     |     Franchise Association of South Africa Reveals Why Franchises Are Now Choosing Shopping Centres Or Malls Locations.     |     Beyond Eric Yuan’s Zoom: How He Went Out All Alone     |     MTN Nigeria Prepares To List On The Nigerian Stock Exchange, Converts To A Public Company     |     Business Schools: Flights To Success For Entrepreneurs?     |     Lifting the Veil Behind Marketing For Startups: Reasons Much of Your Budget Should Go Into Marketing.     |     Mali Is Set To Have A Startup Act     |     Ghanaian Startup mPharma Acquires Kenyan Second-largest Pharmacy Chain     |     6 Reasons Every Startup Must Read Daily     |    
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Inside Mauritius Where A Majority of South Africans Are Migrating To And Their Reasons

April 26, 2019

The island of Mauritius, with a population of just 1.2 million people is not only good for business, but is almost crime free. This is probably why a majority of high net worth of South Africans are migrating there. Below, we examine the reasons for this migration.

Foreigners Can Own Landed Property In Mauritius And Get Automatic Residence Permit

Following the passage of the the Non-Citizen (Property) Restriction Act into law by the Mauritian government, any non-citizen (whether individual, corporate or trust) of Mauritius can purchase immovable property (such as land for commercial purposes) subject to obtaining the approval of the Prime Minister’s Office, channeled through the Board of Investment of Mauritius. Prior to this law, only non-citizens of Mauritius who have permits to invest, work or live in Mauritius could purchase specific types of immovable property in Mauritius.

Even when the non-citizen is not yet in Mauritius, but in South Africa, the purchase of a residential unit acquired under the Mauritian Property Development Scheme (PDS)or Smart City Scheme can give the non-citizen an automatic right to residence in Mauritius without applying for any further permit to reside, provided that the property’s purchase price is above USD 500,000.

Other Ways of Getting Automatic Residence Permit Are:

Occupation Permit (OP) :

  • When you plan to work in Mauritius, you would also get an automatic residence permit, provided that you make an Initial investment of $100,000 in a business activity that should generate an annual turnover of at least MUR2 million ( $58,000) for the first year and cumulative turnover of at least MUR10 million for the subsequent two years.

Permanent Residence Scheme (PRS)

  • Foreign nationals investing more than $500,000 into the Permanent Resident Investment Fund (PRIF) for a period of 10 years are eligible for permanent residence, along with their spouse and children under 18 years of age. For children over 18, an additional deposit of $100,000 per person is required.
  • Other means of entering the country include a retirement non-citizen permit, and a foreign investor permit.
  • This has made the island country become highly sought-after by South African property buyers, some for residency purposes, but mostly for holiday/second homes, retirement and relocation.

Lending Rate

Banks in Mauritius peg their lending interest rate at 8.50 percent as of February, 2019. The average Lending Rate in Mauritius from 1998 to 2019 is 9.78 percent, meaning that lending rate in Mauritius has never gone beyond 9 percent over more than a twenty-year period and is not likely to ever go beyond that in the coming years. 

Aside lending rate, the country also boasts of top-class infrastructure including an excellent banking sector, strong economic growth and a favourable investment and tax climate and is regarded as one of the easiest places to do business in.

Doing Business In Mauritius

It takes just 2 days to register a business in Mauritius. All you have to do is provide the following the information:Name of the company/commercial partnership;Company file number/Commercial partnership files number;The Business name (if any);The general nature of business and its location; Date or proposed date of commencement of business; Address of the principal place of business; Postal address; Workforce of the applicant; Telephone number, fax number and email address and pay as low as 100 Rupees ($1.43) and you are good to go.

Other business reasons of moving to Mauritius include, economic growth, good schooling, low crime rates, and is politically stable, and has an unemployment rate of 6.80%.

Taxes:

Unlike South Africa, the business environment is tax-effective. Under the Mauritian Global Business sector, a foreign company can fall in either one of two categories: GBC1 or GBC2.

Also See: Franchise Association of South Africa Reveals Why Franchises Are Now Choosing Shopping Centres Or Mall Locations

A Global Business Company (GBC 2)

A Global Business Company (GBC 2) is a company that has its office in Mauritius, but does business outside Mauritius. At all times, the company has the Management Company acting as Registered Agent in Mauritius. The GBC 2 is non-resident for tax purposes and therefore is a tax exempt entity and cannot avail itself of the relief under the Double Taxation Treaty in force in Mauritius. Thus, a GBC2 company pays no corporate tax; no withholding tax on dividends; no interest and royalties; no Capital Gains tax; and has no access to Double Taxation Avoidance Treaty.

A Global Business Company 1(GBC 1)

A Global Business Company 1(GBC 1) can be in the form of a Trust, Sociéty and Partnership. This includes small and medium scale businesses. A GBC 1 is considered to be tax resident in Mauritius and is subject to corporate tax at 15%. Tax advantages for GBC 1 in Mauritius are that there is no capital gains tax and also no withholding tax on dividends, interest and royalties paid or estate duties.

The expanding network of Double Taxation Treaties has further reinforced Mauritius as a tax efficient jurisdiction and is also one of the prime reasons explaining the growing investment in GBC 1. Activities commonly undertaken by a GBC 1 requiring no specialized license are Investment Holding, Trading and International Consultancy and it normally takes an average of 3–4 weeks to incorporate a GBC 1 with such standard activities.

Theo Pietersen, MD of South African Real Estate company, Seeff in Mauritius, gave an insight that more South Africans may be on their way to the island of Mauritius for the singular reason that the property on the island is regarded as an excellent investment and if you invest early, you can generally benefit from excellent capital growth.

Mauritius is made up of an ethnically and religiously diverse mix of people of Indians, Africans, French and Chinese heritage. The business people of Mauritius today are predominantly from Europe, South Africa, India and China.

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.

More Funds – Now Available For Nigerian Small And Medium Enterprises

April 25, 2019

The Central Bank of Nigeria has again released the sum of $210,000 million on the Nigerian Interbank Market in continuation of its mediation in the inter-bank foreign exchange market, to sustain the availability of cash in that segment of the market.

Fashion Designer In Studio

From the figures released by the CBN:

  1. Authorized dealers in the wholesale segment of the market, as in previous deals, were offered the sum of $100million. 
  2. Those in the Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) segment got a boost of $55 million. 
  3. Customers purchasing foreign exchange for invisibles such as tuition fees, medical payments and Basic Travel Allowance (BTA), among others, were also allotted a total of $55 million.
Related: Nigerian Forex Market Gets $210m CBN Boost

This has not in any way, however, changed the exchange rate of the Naira as it is still on N360/$1 in the BDC segment of the market, Thursday morning.

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.

Franchise Association of South Africa Reveals Why Franchises Are Now Choosing Shopping Centres Or Malls Locations.

Location determines the life of every business. According to the latest Franchise Association of South African survey, more franchises are choosing to be located at a shopping centre or mall.


Morne Cronje, Head of Franchising at FNB Business says:

“Before choosing a location, you should first consider the nature of your business and the ideal strategy for attracting customers. Doing your homework and research before choosing a location can determine the success or failure of your business,”

Cronje goes ahead to state that more franchises are now being located at shopping centres or malls in South Africa, because of the following reasons:

Also See: South African Real Estate Startups Shock Other African Startups With This New Move
  • Load shedding: Power outages form part of the main issues faced by businesses in our economy. Given that most shopping centres have invested in power generators, one of the benefits of having your franchise at a mall is that it shields your business operations from power cuts.In fact, during these past few weeks of power outages, we have seen an increase in people visiting food courts to dine at various malls around the country.
  • More foot traffic: With your franchise being located at a mall, you immediately attract more customers and also gain their trust in your products and services.
  • Security: Your franchise has 24/7 security supplied. As a result, this attracts and also makes customers feel safer. The cost of security will also be shared amongst all the stores in the mall, which means it is not all on you like a stand-alone store.
  • Good infrastructure: Shopping centres or malls generally have great infrastructure and the buildings are thoroughly maintained. The franchise doesn’t have to stress about maintaining the premises. Furthermore, shops are required to adhere to certain quality standard which benefits the brand.
  • Landlord relationship: During economic tough times, having a good relationship with a landlord is very important because it will enable you to have an honest conversation to negotiate leases and payment terms.
  • Facilities: Shopping centres and malls provide a number of public services and facilities which provide convenience for consumers while shopping, such as parking space, restrooms, baby changing stations and facilities for people living with disabilities. Although renting space at an upmarket mall or shopping centre can initially be costly, businesses tend to benefit in the long term due to the advantage of a superior location and value-added benefits afforded to both consumers and businesses,” says Cronje.
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.

Beyond Eric Yuan’s Zoom: How He Went Out All Alone

While Zoom stole the show at its First Public Offering and investors smiled home, feeling better that at last here is a technology company that can work, Zoom’s CEO, Eric Yuan, is the man to laugh last. That the company was valued at $9.2 billion from the IPO and that Yuan is now a new billionaire in town is not a story to be dismissed. Eric Yuan who recently shared his most private life with Forbes Magazine, shared deep insights about what we did not previously know about the 49-year-old billionaire.

From Burning Down His Neighbor’s Cottage to Being Denied Travel Visa

Life has been tough, but not to the degree we see it in Yuan’s case. On a normal day in Chinese eastern Shandong Province, in fourth grade, Yuan was supposed to be home playing or stuck to his parents’ TV set, but he would choose to go on a holy cause of making the planet better and safer by collecting construction scraps to recycle his parents’ broken-down chopper. The aim was not to rid the environment of wreckage, but of course — as you would expect from all serious minded entrepreneurs —  to make profit. But then the facility needed only metal to be reconstructed and sold, and Yuan having none of those, decided to set the whole thing on fire, which would have almost caught and razed down his neighbor’s home but for the quick response from firefighters. This is just the beginning of the frustration in his life. Years later, he would be at the US embassy (after a Mathematics and Computer Science degree from the Shandong University of Science &Technology and a marriage at the age of 22) applying for grant of visa and having his visa applications denied for 8 times.

“I told myself, okay, great. I’ll do all I can until you tell me that I can never come here anymore. Otherwise, I’m not going to stop,” Yuan said, in annoyance.

Failure To Innovate Is Another’s Opportunity.

Yuan won! In the summer of 1997, he started work in a two-year-old Webex, based in California, which went public in July of 2000 and was acquired by Cisco for $3.2 billion in 2007. Yuan was very sad about this move by Webex, nevertheless. He finally left Webex (then Cisco’s acquisition) because his bosses at Cisco wouldn’t let him rebuild Webex, leaving behind a job so lucrative that he was managing 800 people. Yuan’s reasons:

“Someday, someone is going to build something on the cloud, and it is going to kill me,” Yuan told Bill Tai, a venture investor who became one of the first backers of Zoom. “Cisco was more focused on social networking, trying to make an enterprise Facebook,” he said.

“ Three years after I left, they realized what I said was right.”

Concerning the loss of the security of his job and earning, Yuan told his wife:

“I know it’s (going to be) a long journey and (is going to be) very hard, but if I don’t try it, I’ll regret it.”

Within months, Yuan found out that he would shoot his shot at video conferencing business against Microsoft’s Skype, Google’s Hangouts, Cisco leading the market share, and other multiple startups already on ground. The idea of video-conferencing for Yuan “would require flawless execution to win,” said one investor who did not invest in Zoom.

Related: How Zoom Has Proven That Innovation Can Win Any Time

When Zoom launched, it had several key differences from the crowd. 

  • Its lightweight Web client could figure out almost instantly what kind of device you were using, meaning Zoom did not use different versions for Mac or PC. 
  • It also presented a software layer that shielded any bugs that usually follow updates from web browsers like Chrome, Firefox or Safari.
  • Zoom could do business even at 40% data loss, so it would still work on a very slow internet connection. 
  • And at $9.99 per host per month ($14.99 today), it undercut its rivals. Zoom customer service chief Jim Mercer was then working at competitor GoToMeeting when a colleague opened a Zoom account to see what the hype was about. “One click, we were in, and there were 25 feeds of participants at the same time,” he says. “We were like, ‘What is this voodoo? How are they doing it?’ ”

So Much Has To Depend On Trust and Goodwill At The Start-off Stage.

Leaving Cisco for Zoom, Yuan had to confront the hurdle of every startup: money! To get his first set of 30 engineers for Zoom, he had to convince his friends, including investors to write him $250,000 checks. He was able to get more — $3 million from Webex CEO, Subrah Iyar — before he could get Zoom (then Saasbee) started. 

The success of the business under Yuan meant Zoom would further raise $6.5 million from Li Ka-shing’s Horizons Ventures, $30 million round from Emergence Capital in 2015 and $115 million Series D round in early 2017 by Sequoia, making the company worth $1 billion. Eric Yuan’s personality would become so influential that Zoom did not even work hard to prove that it is worth its claim. According to Zoom’s partner in Sequoia, Carl Eschenbach,

“We were going through all the due diligence, and I remember saying there have to be a thousand Eric Yuans in the world, because everyone we spoke to, they knew Eric, big or small.” 

Building A Product Is One, Believing In It Is Another

Yuan surprised partners at Emergence when he turned up for his pitch event there and instantly insisted that every investor download the Zoom app and join him for a live video conference of the presentation, says partner Santi Subotovsky. This shock would come again later that year at large corporations. Eric Yuan never missed any opportunity to practice what he preaches. He makes sure every investor in the room had downloaded the Zoom App before proceeding, whenever he raised money from venture capital investors.

“Customers have always said, ‘Eric, we’ll become your very important customer, you’ve got to visit us,’” says Yuan. “I say, ‘Fine, I’m going to visit you, but let’s have a Zoom call first.’’

Don’t Celebrate Yet; Success May Just Be Temporary

After the IPO on Monday, it appears Yuan is not taking his new found billionaire status to his head. 

Although, Eric Yuan shares his office with his product chief and friend Oded Gal, a fellow Webexveteran he hired away from BlueJeans Network three years ago, he is rarely there. He is either off for a new product launch, or he has taken up a temporary desk with a team he wants to focus on by sitting side-by-side with them. Yuan has mostly been with the engineers since Zoom announced a voice product in October, now called Zoom Phone. Zoom Phone is one of several major product lines Zoom has boasted of in recent months, alongside an update to its conference room bundle called Zoom Rooms. Though an increasing number of Zoom’s users log in via smartphone–one out of six today, Yuan says–many big firms still depend on hardwired conference rooms. Zoom provides the software; partners like Dell, Logitech and Polycom supply the TVs, cameras and speakers. 

In the meantime, don’t expect Yuan to let his newfound billionaire status go to his head. Back in his cubicle the Monday after the IPO, he kept strolling down the Zoom Twitter account for customer testimonials to retweet. Employees, who showed up around the world for the IPO ceremony to wave to their boss over a live feed in Times Square tweeted— what else?

“You go celebrate one day, and that’s it,” Yuan says, of a mentor who told him IPO is like graduating from high school “You don’t want high school to be the peak of your performance, right?”

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.

MTN Nigeria Prepares To List On The Nigerian Stock Exchange, Converts To A Public Company

April 24, 2019
MTN

Investors should get their money ready as MTN Nigeria has finally converted from a private to a public company and is now ready to invite members of the public to subscribe to its shares. The conversion is to fulfill the requirement of the Nigerian Stock Exchange whose guidelines say that to be qualified to list in Nigeria, a company must be registered as a public limited company with no restrictions on the transfer of fully paid shares; have a minimum of three (3) years’ operating track record; have a pre-tax profit from continuing operation of not less than N300million cumulatively for the last three (3) fiscal years and a minimum of N100 million in two (2) of these years.

A Look At The New MTN Nigeria Plc

  • In March 2019, MTN announced its earnings for the 2018 financial year, recording growth above inflation in full service revenue of 17.2 per cent and the addition of nearly six million new subscribers to the network.
  • The company announced Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation and Amortisation (EBITDA) of N453.1bn and expanded EBITDA margins to 43.6 per cent (excluding the CBN resolution amount).
  • The company also added 4.5 million active data customers in 2018, delivering data revenue growth of 39.3 per cent and expanding to 18.7 million the number of people that it connects to the possibilities that the Internet provides.
  • The company just acquired more 607,462 new internet users in February, increasing MTN’s data subscription to 46,538,633 as against 45,931,171 in January.
  • MTN said the proposed listing on the NSE would create a new telecoms asset class for investors and provide a wider group of Nigerians with a chance to participate in the MTN investment opportunity.
  • MTN is not going to list through IPO, but by introduction in the first half of 2019. Listing by introduction means MTN is not offering its shares to the public yet. 
  • The President/Chief Executive Officer, MTN Group, Mr. Rob Shuter, disclosed at the MTN Group’s investor update conference call in February of what listing by introduction means.

“It means that we will list the company in the initial phases without any public offer or sell-down or initial public offering. I think this will enable us to get the company listed whilst the market still digests the implications of what has happened over the last few months,”

He added, “We will in phase two be doing a project to increase the Nigerian participation in MTN Nigeria, targeting more a free float of around 35 per cent than the free float we have today which is around 20 per cent. So, we aim to conclude at least the listing by introduction in the first half of 2019, pretty much as soon as we can, and then subject to market conditions, appetite and demand we would in phase two do the sell-down.”

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

After the phase one, which would be completed by the first half of 2019, the shares would be open to Nigerian investors as part of the second phase of the listing.

The upcoming listing is a key milestone for the MTN Group and is part of its commitment to localisation in the markets in which it operates.
MTN Nigeria has previously been a registered private company in Nigeria. This listing would mean that much more information about the company would now be open to the public. 

  • Listing by Introduction
  • To be able to list by introduction, the company would usually have raised capital prior to applying to list, and also must meet the listing requirements — including a minimum number of public shareholders (300 to list on the Main Board; 51 to list on the Alternative Securities Market (ASeM) and minimum public float (20% for the Main Board; 15% for ASeM). ASeM provides a platform for small and mid-sized fast growth companies to raise critical long term capital at relatively low cost to realize their business potential.
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.

Business Schools: Flights To Success For Entrepreneurs?

With over 20 business schools in Nigeria alone, and more than 15 in Ghana and nearly 30 registered business schools in South Africa, 3000 in India and indeed 13,000 business schools on Earth, it does appear that business school is becoming quite such a must-do for many. You would ask: but Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg never finished colleges not to talk of attending business schools? How about Richard Branson, Dangote or Oprah Winfrey? In fact,there is a staggering three-year low in the number of applications to full-time MBA programs. Critics of business school now use such jokes that MBA — Master of Business Administration — really stands for: “Mediocre But Arrogant”, “Management by Accident”, “More Bad Advice”, “Master Bullshit Artist” among others. Below, we discuss a few points about why we think Business School is or is not a hoax.

Enlarging Your Network

The six degrees of separation means that you are five persons away from meeting the most influential persons in town. You may argue that running a successful business would put you in a vantage point to meet more resourceful acquaintances without attending a business school, but building a successful business may be quicker because of current acquaintances. Jeff Bezos, the world’s richest man, had no extra certifications apart from his 1986 Princeton degree in electrical engineering and computer science, but e-commerce was a business that would require sound knowledge of programming, warehousing, book-keeping and a host of other sophisticated disciplines. There was no way Bezos’s dream of revolutionizing America’s book industry would fully materialize without him first understanding how folks in the American book industry think and work. Just a four-day course session on book-selling at the Benson Hotel, Portland, Oregon took care of that. That four day session would turn out to be one of the most useful study sessions he had ever been to, because he learned new things about customer service in the bookselling business and built a life-changing network of business associates and acquaintances, including top leaders in the highly influential American Book Sellers Association. Although, this is not a good case for attending business schools, it does however appear that meeting the right people in similar industries can go along way. Alumni associations also endure beyond business school days.

A Third Of World’s Best Performing CEOs Have Been To Business Schools.

Don’t get me wrong, the founders of top successful brands in the World: Facebook, Microsoft, Apple, Dangote, did not attend any business school before starting out there companies, yet their brands are some of the most valuable in the world. But here is this report from Harvard Business Review: Only 32 of the 100 top-performing CEOs have an MBA. That is about 32% of the number. So then, you may ask again what happens to the remaining 68% of the number? Definitely, the odds are that you don’t always need an MBA to achieve any significant business success. On the other hand, you don’t have to also go very far down the list to find a CEO with an MBA. Francois-Henri Pinault of Kering is the highest-ranked CEO with an MBA. The HEC alumnus is 4th on the list. Others are Shantanu Narayen (#12) of Adobe Systems; Brad Smith (#16) of Intuit, and Hamid Moghadam (#17) of Prologis; Stanford’s Carlos Brito of Anheuser-Busch InBev; UCLA’s Laurence Fink of Blackrock, Harvard’s Jaime Dimon of JPMorgan Chase; IESE’s Luis Maroto Amadeus IT; Columbia’s Nancy McKinstry of Wolters Kluwer.

Get Paid More Before You Become An Entrepreneur Or In Case Your Startup Fails

Although business schools in America do not represent what happens around the world, they may however give an inkling about the value attached to business schools all around the world. The above picture shows that people who atttended business schools, for instance, at Yale SOM, have 77% percent chance of getting jobs immediately after graduation, and could take home salaries as high as $149, 964 per annum. Again, a 2016 study has shown that graduate business school alumni earn a median base salary of $2.5 million over 20 years post-graduation — $1 million more than if they had not attended business school. However, even this fact is not entirely reliable because how much you are paid sometimes depend on which business school you attended -the one in New Jersey or the other one in Milwaukee- and what companies you are working for. Again, this does not extend to other countries in the world. In Nigeria for instance, the basic salary for managers in one of the big fours is $35,000 per annum. This includes, of course whether there is an MBA certificate or not. Bigger corporations may pay more than that anyway. It is safe to argue therefore that in developing countries, business schools may serve the need to make CVs more attractive. However, while you can still get a better job with it, please do.

Business Schools Concentrate Courses Useful to Running A Successful Business

Unarguably, the idea of a business school is to bring together topics useful for running successful business such as accounting, administration, strategy, economics, entrepreneurship, finance, human resource management, management science, management information systems, international business, logistics, marketing, organizational psychology, organizational behavior, public relations, research methods and real estate among others. While this is perhaps the only business-related discipline that does that, much is still left unsaid about how all of that works in reality. It cannot be denied however that apart from adopting some intensive methods of teaching such as case method or skills-based approach, most business schools also go to the extent of using the business games approach which sometimes lead to the training of players in business skills (hard and/or soft). Consider Matthew Prince and Michelle Zatlyn, alumni of Harvard Business School, who used their five-day immersion trip to Silicon Valley while they were at Havard Business School to fine-tune their vision of starting an internet company, CloudFlare, which is now valued at over a billion dollars.

Most Business Schools Run Business Plan Competitions; You Can Test -Run Your Business Plans or Ideas One More Time

Although good business plans may work whether tested in business plans competitions in all business schools or not, you may have one more time to test whether it can objectively work before starting off your business. All top business schools have a business plan competition. The competitions may offer you the opportunity to get feedback on your startup and to identify any gaps in your business model. In essence, it may be a rehearsal ground of some sorts where you get to practice your business pitch and develop yourself before major pitch events. Most of the times, price money may be won which can go a long way in helping you get your business off the ground.

Most Business School Are After Your Pockets And Give You Nothing

In 2013 alone, top 20 US MBA programmes already charged at least $100,000 (£72,000). London Business School once advertised a tuition fee of £84,500 for its MBA. While most business schools exist to rip you off, some however offer some form of financial support and incentives through loan forgiveness programs. Recently, support is being extended to entrepreneurs who are forfeiting high-paying positions to launch businesses. Harvard Business School’s Loan Reduction Program is one such example. Again, being part of a business school many expose you to different avenues of finance than other entrepreneurs. Some business schools may actually go as far as investing their resources or funds into student ventures or may link you up with venture capitalists, angel investors or business incubator programs. However, these may be true in some jurisdictions, but very false in most. You are left to do the research yourself.

You May Find Co-founders At Business School

This is not the reason you are going to a business school anyway, but there is a probability that you may just find a person who shares in your dreams and business idea. Many entrepreneurs have met their co-founders in their business school classes. In business schools, you are surrounded by other individuals who aspire to become entrepreneurs like you. Business school also presents many opportunities for you to work together on projects with the proposed co-founder before jumping into your venture together. You may learn one more thing about him before joining hands to co-found a business. Matthew Prince and Michelle Zatlyn, alumni of Harvard Business School crystalized their vision to start an internet company, CloudFlare, which is now valued at over a billion dollars while at the Harvard Business School.

Mentorship and guidance. 

You may get mentorship and guidance from the vast array of networks you have. Again, being part of a business school community may also allow you access to some inner circles of networks of successful and experienced entrepreneurs who may volunteer their their time to mentor you. 

Bottom Line

Attending a business school is one thing, but to actually succeed in a business is a combination of factors beyond the parameters of a business school. At the end, you are always left to steer the course of your life. Whether a business school is actually a hoax or not is left for you to decide.

Cahrles 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.

Lifting the Veil Behind Marketing For Startups: Reasons Much of Your Budget Should Go Into Marketing.

Even with limited funds, startups can hardly survive without intense, aggressive marketing. According to a 2018–2019 Gartner Research study, companies are now spending roughly 11% of their annual budget on overall marketing. The study concluded that “The largest companies…those with more than $10 billion in annual revenue — have the largest appetite for digital advertising, averaging 11.6% of the marketing budget,” while those “with annual revenues of $500 million to $1 billion allocated 8.5% of their marketing budget to digital advertising.” Percent of revenue by different industries on marketing include: Education: 18.5%;Consumer services: 10.7%; Transportation: 4.1%; Consumer Packaged Goods: 8.1%; Service Consulting: 3.4%; Tech/Software/Biotech: 9.7%;Communications/Media: 17.8%; Healthcare: 9.5%; Banking/Finance/Insurance: 5.3%;Retail/Wholesale: 4.7%; Energy: 0.5%; Mining/Construction: 1%. With these in mind, here are the reasons where marketing is inevitable for your startups.

Gradually Building a Customer Base

Consistent quality advertising increases consumer loyalty for your product, service or idea. Advertising seeks to maintain the current customer base by reinforcing purchasing behavior with additional information about the benefits of brands. The goal of advertising is to build and reinforce relationships with customers, prospects, retailers and important stakeholders.

Promotion of Your Products or Services

George Felton, author of “Advertising: Concept and Copy’’, believes that without marketing, you have got nothing to offer. Promoting your business could take the shape of flyers, media commercials, billboards or handbills, and the content adheres to the rules of journalism by identifying who, what, when, where and why of your products or services.

You Can Get A Fair Test Of How Your Products or Services Compare with Competitors’

Gerard Tellis, the author of “Effective Advertising: Understanding When, How, and Why Advertising Works,’’ says that marketing offers your target audience the chance to evaluate whether your product or service measures up against your competitors’. Marketing in this area would help you to consider possible areas of improvement on your products or services, and adjust accordingly.

See Also: 6 Reasons Every Startup Must Read Daily

You Get A Chance To Know How Effective Your Pricing Strategy Is.

With marketing, you get to expose your goods and their prices to the public. Marketing lets you know what your competitors are doing, when the next sale is, and how you can receive the latest pay which is the best value for your money.

Marketing Is All About Generating Leads For Startups

The demand generated by advertising, public relations, and sales promotion “pulls” the goods or services through channels of distribution, notes “Reference for Business.” One of the powerful functions of marketing is to arouse consumers to demand specific products, services and ideas through ad campaigns that target the audiences that are most likely to buy them.” Products, services and concepts are sold in volume, if consumers actually need them.

Brand Building 

With good marketing you build brands and develop goodwill with time. But that is never really going to happen if brand identity is not communicated to the public via advertising. Consistent, result-oriented marketing builds on your brand identity and develops good or bad will for you with time.

You Offer One More New Trend

Previewing new trends is a technique employed by advertisers that capitalizes on consumers’ desires to “keep up with the Jones” by owning the latest and greatest product, service or idea. Yours may be the next trend in town, who knows?

Customer Awareness

The more people know your products, the better. With targeted marketing, you can raise the awareness of your customers at target demographics about issues they may be ignorant about. The health industry is often a case in point. Billboards are everywhere about flu and disease outbreak.

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.

Mali Is Set To Have A Startup Act

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.


Mali’s Minister of Digital Economy, Arouna Modibo Touré

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.

Greg Rockson of mPharma

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.

6 Reasons Every Startup Must Read Daily

Startups are newly founded companies that are just beginning to develop, just as toddlers need six classes of food to develop strong immune systems so do startups with reading as one of the nutrients required for their necessary growth.

Reading is always attributed to students and academia but rarely attributed to startups. Reading is referred to as one of the basic tools of success in life because it increases your confidence and makes you fit for the tasks ahead. An average startup needs to read at least once a week to survive challenges of life.

The importance of reading cannot be overemphasized especially for the
growth of startups; reading gives startups the wings to fly and necessary techniques to have a soft landing.

An average startup needs to read at least once a week to survive challenges of life.

Often, as easy as reading sounds, it is one of the most difficult tasks to carry out but it becomes quite easy when the reasons for reading are valid and the reasons include:

  1. Constant learning
  2. New Ideas
  3. Business Skills
  4. Global Competition
  5. Inspiration and Motivation
  6. Building Relationships

Constant Learning

Learning is a daily activity that can be achieved through reading. Reading frequently enables startups to learn how to solve problems and think critically in the most dynamic way. Learning via reading helps startups to learn from the experience of others most especially experiences from businesses which have grown from being startups to successful business empires. Reading gives startups blueprints of businesses they aspire to go into.

New Ideas

Reading helps to connect more ideas on what you already know to some ideas on your mind to give birth (bring to reality) new products or services. Reading helps to validate most ideas of startups; many ideas startups develop aside from some original seed ideas give startups abilities to climb the ladder of success and growth speedily. 

Business Skills

The ability for startups to open their gates to business is good; the acquiring of business skills and improvement of previous business skills are more important and they can mostly be gotten through reading. The acquisition of these skills increase the longevity of startups.

Global Competition

Given that startups start operating from their local markets, most startups have the vision to operate in the global market and become global competitors.

Startups can do investigations about the feasibility of conquering a foreign market without going over themselves.  

Inspiration and Motivation

Starting and running startups daily is not a walk in the park. The trials, difficulties, and mistakes a startup goes through are huge; only a startup that reads daily can overcome.

Reading gives you an insight into what other startups went through and what they are still going through. It inspires startups to wield through the storm and motivates them to do exploits even with their present challenges.

Building Relationships

 Hard work, dedication and long hours are good traits in startups but the ability for startups to build and sustain relationships with different human resources that contribute positively to them is key for the survival of any business and this can be achieved through reading.

Reading is wealth. No doubt, different challenges of business could be solved through reading. Constant reading keeps startups steps away from liquidation.

See also: 7 Reasons Africa Is A Fertile Ground For Startups
Chisom Okeke

Chisom Okeke, popularly known as “Somly” is a graduate of Accounting from the University of Benin, Benin City. She is a phenomenal writer and an “Agripreneur” whose focus is to change the narrative of the agricultural sector by providing timely agricultural information and opportunities available in the agricultural sector. She is also a virtual assistant and the anchor of Somly Writes. You can connect with her via Social Media, Facebook – Okeke Chisom; Instagram – okeke_somly; Twitter – somly

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