Onyinye Anyaegbu, the London-based co-founder and CEO of African art trading platform ARTSPLIT, sees art as an alternative investment.



The global art market is estimated to be worth a staggering $65.1 billion according to the Art Basel and UBS Global Art Market Report 2022 and Nigerian artists are finally gaining praise. With paintings of renowned artists like the late Ben Enwonwu, considered by most collectors to be the father of Nigerian modernism, fetching over $1.4 million at Sotheby’s and another going for $1.5 million at Bonhams, Nigerian art is in high demand globally and collectors and investors are actively acquiring works with the view of cashing in on the increasing demand.



According to figures from Bonhams, about 90% of the value of their auction sales in 2017 came from Nigerian artists. And poised to disrupt this new art economy is ARTSPLIT, a trading and social app providing users with an interactive space to participate in live auctions, bids, trades, portfolio management as well as access to invest and lease African artworks. According to the London-based co-founder and CEO of the platform, Onyinye Anyaegbu, this solution is a timely answer to an issue most collectors face.



“My brother came to me with this idea about Art. He just started his art journey and got introduced to being a collector and he was really enjoying it and he started collecting art as a great investment. And I was really fascinated by the whole African art space because of him. He told me the problem he had was that right now, as a collector even though you may have about $300,000 worth of art sitting at home, when you take it to the bank, you cannot leverage the art for anything financial,” says Anyaegbu.



“If you ever wanted liquidity you have to sell it out completely. As we spoke we realized that this is such a big collector problem and as Nigerian collectors are probably a bit more sophisticated and really that’s where it started from. As a collector, you collect all this amazing work and you don’t even have enough space for it and you cannot leverage the art for any financial instrument.”



The art trading platform for African art is providing collectors a way to get more out of their work by providing the opportunity to own shares also known as splits of prestigious African artworks that can be traded by collectors in real time.



“So, we figured what if you create a platform where you don’t lose your work but you get other people to invest in your platform and ARTSPLIT was born. The first milestone was the beta testing and seeing all our thoughts come to life in terms of the app technology. We spent a lot of time talking and mapping processes and experiences of how it should feel for a user. How do you trade, where do you trade from, and having a tech partner come in and take that and flip it into an app was amazing and that was a huge milestone for us,” avers Anyaegbu.



The app offers the community of collectors the flexibility of either co-ownership or full ownership with further opportunities for actual tangible ownership of these art works for a period of time.



“It does not end there. ARTSPLIT also provides opportunities for owners of investment grade African art to list their works, have them evaluated and sold to members of our community. You can decide to sell your work in full, or in splits (minimum of 10%) which will enable you to keep the ownership of your work and still benefit from trade of your work,” says Anyaegbu.



Five Nigerian artists took part in ARTSPLIT MOCONA, their split-and-lease online contemporary arts auction in July with bids amounting to $57,000 and with an average growth value of 14%. The auction profiled prominent Nigerian artists paving their way in the contemporary art scene including the likes of Abiodun Olaku, Duke Asidere, Edosa Ogiugo, El-Dragg Okwoju and Oliver Enwonwu.



Anyaegbu and her team are already on their fourth round of funding raising $2.5 million against a $5 million benchmark. ARTSPLIT with its team of art lovers is on a mission to raise the global profile of African art by building a community of collectors and investors as well as providing advisory and management services for art collection.

Screenshot 2022-11-01 at 07.59.31

App For Art’s Sake: Building A Community Of Collectors And Investors In Nigeria

Ekene Ngige discovered art in a cup of cappuccino and then used coffee as a medium to tell important African stories.



For as long as Ekene Ngige can remember, he has never allowed his limitations to dictate how successful he would be in life. Born in Lagos, Nigeria, Ngige experienced what he calls “a medical error” that left him paralyzed by the age of one. Faced with a disability that meant he could not walk, Ngige got his confidence from his parents who helped him stand tall in any room he was in and perhaps most importantly, taught him the power of self-belief.


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“They gave me that confidence. I have four elder brothers and one younger sister. I was able to join them in playing soccer on the streets or join them in dance competition and do crazy stuff like climbing trees etc. I couldn’t walk with my legs and I had scoliosis, but I didn’t feel like I had a disability, only except when kids were mocking me in school or my neighborhood. I always saw myself as normal and that is why I never separated myself from what other normal kids were doing. Even if I couldn’t do it as well as them, the way I would deliver it would be as good as I feel it should be,” says Ngige.



By the age of three that self-belief was already evident in Ngige’s ability to draw. From lesson boards to chalk boards or even in his textbooks, Ngige began to create remarkable portraits that started getting the attention of his art teachers and invariably led to him winning several awards at secondary school.



“My teacher actually gave me the nickname ‘Kene da Vinci’ like Leonardo da Vinci because I was his favorite arts student and I always won awards for the school. By the time I graduated from secondary school I knew I was going to be an artist,” says Ngige.



But the journey to becoming one of Nigeria’s top up and coming visual artists would take him on an interesting journey. First, came the love for animation. Ngige began exploring with several illustrations which led to him creating comic book characters. By the time he entered the Yaba College of Technology, that initial love for animation had evolved into the fine arts.



“I fell in love with oil painting, acrylic painting and water colors and from there, I had to choose which one to make a priority. It was difficult but I remember when I was in college, we had companies come to the art school to buy some of the art from us because it was cheaper, so the idea that I could actually sell my art in college and I could use that money to support my school fees and art materials encouraged me to be an artist professionally.”



A brief stint working with a television network in Nigeria after graduation followed where, Ngige would use the money he earned from his 9 to 5 to fund his real passion. Very soon he started getting noticed in the art community and was invited by an agent to take part in a joint exhibition to help him get more exposure for his art.


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“I had an agent that came to me to say they want some of my artwork to exhibit in joint exhibitions. So, by the time we had a series of exhibitions and I saw that my water color painting always stood out, I realized this is actually it, ‘Nigeria is beginning to appreciate art’ and so I decided to do more of that until I could do my own solo exhibition,” recalls Ngige.



In 2016 he realized his dream as his first solo exhibition sold out. But his real breakthrough happened when he discovered art in a cup of cappuccino.



“I was working with a new coffee brand that was launching in Nigeria and I was working on creating their logo so we were having meetings and having coffee. In the process of one of these meetings, [coffee spilled] on my notepad and I saw a different texture that I had never been able to achieve before. So, it came to my mind that maybe I should try and achieve this. So, I went back to my studio and tried it out and it was amazing and I could perceive coffee all over my art work and I loved it, says Ngige.



Since then his growing fanbase cannot simply get enough of his coffee-infused paintings. Ngige has sold several paintings to international clients who buy his coffee paintings anywhere from $5,000.



“I have been able to give greater value to coffee than just a beverage. I am now using a medium made in Africa to paint and the only foreign material about my artwork is my canvas and brush but the rest is African. So, I try to portray deep African stories with my coffee paintings.”



From highlighting the plight of impoverished children, to depicting vivid drawings of female empowerment as well as putting a spotlight on the series of violent attacks taking place across Nigeria, Ngige sees his art as more than just paintings to be enjoyed but rather a way of telling important African stories and creating awareness as a form of activism promoting peace and unity in Nigeria.

Ekene Ngige’s work using coffee2

Coffee With A Purpose: The Nigerian Artist Blending It Well

Foluso Ogunwale, the Founder and CEO of I-Fitness, wants to make sure Africa’s most populous country is also a healthy one.



ANY FAST- paced city with an urban populace comes with its share of lifestyle diseases and the need for a well-defined fitness and wellness culture.



Lagos is no different, yet in Africa’s biggest economy, there is room for more.



“If you look at the US, the fitness adoption is somewhere around 18% but in Nigeria and most African states you have about less than 1%. So, there is a huge gap,” says Foluso Ogunwale, Founder and CEO of I-Fitness, one of the fastest-growing fitness chains in Nigeria, going by his ambitious expansion plans.



Currently in 16 locations across Nigeria, I-Fitness aims to close in on four more spots bringing the total number to 20 by the fourth quarter of this year. After this, the brand is still looking to open in another 20 locations in 30 months. Ogunwale is a man on a mission to get Nigeria and the rest of Africa fit and healthy again.



“When you look at health and wellness and life expectancy, Nigeria and most African countries rank very low, I think Nigeria was in the 163rd position the last time I checked.”



Ogunwale is serious about being able to contribute meaningfully to the lives of Nigerians.



He stumbled on the idea of a fitness chain a couple of years ago when due to his stressful lifestyle in the cosmopolitan city of Lagos, he wanted a healthy way to unwind. At the time, the loss of a friend to diabetes at a very young age made Ogunwale even more health-conscious.



“I actually thought it would be nice to join a gym and so I walked into a gym that was close to my office in 2007 and when I got to the reception I was told the fee was around N700,000, which was about $4,000 at that time. And I thought it was ridiculous and they didn’t give me an option to pay in instalments. It had to be a one-off fee paying everything upfront.”



That experience cemented the idea to create a much more competitive fitness offering for Nigerians. The goal was to not make fitness a luxury product but rather one that was easily accessible to anyone with a decent job. Having already started and sold his first business, a mobile electronics business specializing in the sale of laptops, mobile phones and gadgets, which at its peak was turning over about $20 million a year, Ogunwale was no stranger to taking risks.



He had pivoted from a career in banking before starting his foray into electronics and after the acquisition of the business decided it was time to disrupt the fitness sector in Lagos.



“The fitness industry in Nigeria at the time did not exist. There were probably only one or two gyms in the whole of Lagos that were fairly decent. In a city of 22 million people, I wanted to find out how can we make this common, how can we retail luxury and how can we make fitness affordable, enjoyable and useful and make it fun at the same time,” says Ogunwale.



The next couple of months would prove to be his most challenging.



“Even the bank did not understand what it meant to be in the fitness industry. They knew me from my previous business that got acquired and they were even surprised with this new business idea. They asked me ‘why will you leave a very successful business to go and open a chain business?’ It was very tough to get off the ground but I was resilient.”



He sourced his first equipment from the old gym he used to be a member of, which, as luck would have it, was remodeling.



“I needed to push on and I needed to show proof of concept so I took on some very expensive loans just to show proof of concept that the fitness chain could work in Nigeria and potentially even move in other cities within West Africa and thankfully that paid off.”



He started the chain in 2015 and has a loyal clientele in different parts of the city.



“I joined I-Fitness because the location is right next to my work so I can pop in after work to de-stress before I go back home,” attests patron Blessing Kuti, a 25-year-old bank teller working in Lagos.



Driven by the need to create something of value that could potentially touch a lot of lives and be meaningful to so many people, Ogunwale and his fitness chain have plans to expand the message of health and wellness beyond the borders of Nigeria.



“The lives people live in Lagos is very strenuous and you are not thinking about things that lean towards luxury. You are more thinking about survival and coping with day-to-day stress. So, this for me was a wakeup call to say how can we touch a lot more lives and create an enabling environment to get people in the gym,” says Ogunwale.



Beyond the 40 locations, Ogunwale is looking at building a digital platform that will help a vast majority of Nigerians and Africans also access fitness online.

Screenshot 2022-10-17 at 20.56.46

The Nigerian Business That’s Working Out and Making Sure That Africa’s Most Populous Country is Also a Healthy One

AFRICAN STARTUPS ARE RAISING UNPRECEDENTED AMOUNTS AT RECORD SPEED. FOR NOW, THE CONTINENT IS THE ONLY REGION IN THE WORLD SEEING A RISE IN VENTURE CAPITAL FLOWS. PERSPECTIVES FROM WEST AFRICA.



AS FUNDING FOR STARTUPS FALLS ACROSS the globe, Africa it seems is undergoing a renaissance in this regard.



“We are seeing a time where funding for African startups rose to a massive $3.14 billion in the first six months of this year alone,” says Eric Idiahi, Co-Founder and Partner at Verod Capital, a leading West African private equity investor. “That is unprecedented and it really shows the interest in the continent!”



African entrepreneurs are raising money to solve pertinent socio-economic problems on the continent ranging from financial inclusion, providing access to healthcare for the underserved and vulnerable, and bridging the education gap.


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“Africa investment firms and angel networks have started putting money into African companies,” says Dr Akintoye Akindele, yet another West African entrepreneur, who is the Founder of investment vehicle Platform Capital in Nigeria.



“It took African entrepreneurs almost 10 months to raise $1 billion in 2019. It took the same group eight months to raise $1 billion in 2020. It took them four months to raise $1 billion in 2021 and it has taken them less than six weeks to raise $1 billion in 2022. That means capital is coming in faster into deals and last year for the first time in our history, African investors invested more than European investors. This is a major milestone.”



Akindele is himself focused on inviting investors “to see Africa the right way”.



“This is because we know the narrative that exists about Africa and the negative questions we get asked.”



The thesis of Platform Capital is that it deploys long-term capital to startups whose center of gravity is Africa.



“Africans need long-term, nurturing and patient capital. Four to five years is too short in Nigeria for a business to turn capital around and grow and deliver profit to capital providers. I believe from my experience that five to six years does not create enough alignment,” says Akindele.



Based on their extensive research and experience investing in over 100 portfolio companies with a valuation north of $1.5 billion, Platform Capital invests in businesses that will become top in their sectors in 15 years. Akindele also believes his investments should be sector-agnostic.



“I believe in Africa, we should not be choosing what we cannot invest in&#8230; whether it’s energy, telecom, agriculture, infrastructure or value-added services like gaming, I believe consumers need their basic needs met and then on the back of that we can evolve.”



Akindele’s primary focus is those sectors fundamental to the development of Africa.



“We invest in key areas that Africa needs to catch up on&#8230;so things like technology infrastructure, agriculture or food value chains. They form our anchor sectors and that represents about 60% of our portfolio. Then, when you have people who have electricity, food and water, they then go into the next sector like finance as well as education or healthcare&#8230;Then our final sector is robotics, artificial intelligence, such as one of our companies that do smell cyborgs,” says Akindele.



The company he is referring to is Koniku, a synthetic biotech company that creates ‘smell cyborgs’ that can detect a range of compounds in the air in real-time, and which recently partnered with Airbus to launch biotech solutions for aviation.



The company has so far reportedly raised $49.2 million in four rounds and is part of a long line of African startups bucking the trend of venture capital (VC) investment worldwide.



According to Yaa Agyare-Dwomoh, a consultant with growth strategy consulting and research firm Frost &amp; Sullivan, African VCs reached $1.8 billion, up 150% compared to $730 million in the same period in 2021 and was subsequently, also the only region in the world to record three-digit growth in the first quarter of 2022.



As the biggest catch-up market, Africa’s advantage lies in its need for innovative solutions to leapfrog years of underdevelopment. For some pioneers like Oshiorenoya Agabi, the Nigerian-born scientist based in Silicon Valley and Founder and CEO of Koniku, that need for innovation has brought the continent to the age of biotech solutions.



The company, which was founded in 2017, is using technology to combine traditional computer cells with living biological neurons.



“We are creating a device capable of thinking in the biological sense like a human by creating neurons that are sensitive to particles and are able detect smell. By this method, the solution can be used for particle detection for aviation, military or agricultural application,”says Agabi.



Apart from biotech, the figures show that it is fintech that attracted the largest funding by sector by far, mostly spurred by the need to extend banking and financial services to millions of unbanked and underbanked Africans across the continent. “Fintech is now the most popular sector for investments in Africa. In 2021, fintech funding broke the $1 billion funding barrier and continued to receive the largest amount of funding on the continent, representing 54% of all venture funding deals. In 2022, the fintech sector was responsible for the biggest deals securing two-thirds of the total funding for Africa’s technology firms,” says Dwomoh.



And this trend looks set to continue.



“Despite the global trend of tech companies struggling to raise money, African VCs are still raising money at record speed,” adds Akindele.



An unexpected side effect of the coronavirus pandemic has been the need for inclusive development in areas that fundamentally impacts society. This new trend known as impact investment has also consequently been on the rise in the African VC space.



Impact investing is based on the notion that when money is managed effectively, it has the added benefit of positively impacting the lives of people as well as creating a return on investment.



Africa is home to the youngest population in the world, with a median age of less than 20 years, and 70% of the population under the age of 30. According to the Global Impact Investing Network 2020 survey, almost half of global impact investment capital goes to the African continent.



Raised to appreciate poverty and wealth at the same time, Akindele is also a firm advocate of his investments positively making an impact on his portfolio companies. Platform Capital writes cheques anywhere from $10,000 to $10 million with most of the companies in the portfolio growing by 500% in terms of money raised, according to Akindele. As an African advocate, each investment the firm makes has to have an impact that



is transformational to the continent and its people and most importantly, makes a profit.



The new influx of money into Africa is just an attestation of everything entrepreneurs like him have consistently been working towards.

Smiling colleagues in conference room at workplace

VENTURE CAPITAL IN WEST AFRICA: The Funding Surge

<figure class="wp-block-pullquote has-text-align-center"><blockquote>“Do I need to start speaking in my local dialect before I can get business?”</blockquote></figure>



A new directive by the Advertising Regulatory Council of Nigeria bans the use of foreign models and voice-over artists in local advertising campaigns from October 1.



According to the council, all local advertisements, advertising and marketing communications material targeted or exposed on the Nigerian advertising space are to use only Nigerian models and voice-over artists.



“This is in line with the federal government&#8217;s policy of developing local talent, inclusive economic growth, and the need to take necessary steps and actions aimed at growing the Nigerian advertising industry,” says the regulatory body.



The move has sparked controversial debate within the global advertising space with some foreign media reportedly interpreting the ban on foreign models and accents as an attempt to cut ties with colonial mindsets in the country.



However, Segun Arinze, President of the Association of Voice-Over Artists in Nigeria, defends the move as a necessary measure to protect and grow local talent in Nigeria.



“When you travel to the West, you do not hear foreign accents being used in local advertising campaigns. In France, you hear French accents as voice-over artists, not an English one. For years, local professionals in our industry have lost business to brands looking for foreign accents and this has really harmed the earning potential of Nigerian models and artists. I believe this is a step in the right direction to help protect the industry and give local artists the opportunity to earn money from their craft,” says Arinze.



What is not clear about the new ban is how it affects Nigerians with foreign accents. The country has a number of professional voice-over artists who have relocated home from the diaspora or who have acquired foreign accents by watching Hollywood films and are in high demand on local radio stations that cater to the middle class.



“I am born and bred in Nigeria but I left the country when I was about 10 years old to the UK. I returned home in 2019 after living and working in London and decided to launch my media company where we create audio podcasts as well as radio jingles and advertisements for brands. I clearly have a British accent so how does this affect me? Do I need to start speaking in my local dialect before I can get business?” asks Temi Osagie, a media entrepreneur based in Lagos.



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow">“I believe this is a step in the right direction to help protect the industry and give local artists the opportunity to earn money from their craft.</blockquote>



Similar bans in Nigeria, like the prohibition of foreign rice, led to a boost in the local production of rice as well as an influx of young agricultural entrepreneurs in the country, however, there is still a wide demand for foreign rice which is now reportedly being smuggled into the country.



As to whether this recent ban will have a similar outcome remains to be seen.

Voiceover artist voice actor in vocal recording studio with larg diaphragm microphone and antipop shield.

Nigeria Ban On Foreign Models And Voice-Over Artists In Adverts To Take Effect From October 1, Move Aimed To Promote Local Talent

Kobina Ackon, popularly known as Wode Maya, is Ghana’s first YouTuber to hit over a million subscribers. His channel creating positive African content has won him followers and a fortune.



AT JUST 23 YEARS OLD, AMERICAN YOUTUBE megastar Jimmy Donaldson, better known as MrBeast, has reportedly amassed over 10 billion views on his YouTube channel, and taken home a staggering $54 million in 2021 by posting hilarious and philanthropic content.



In 2019, CNBC reported that a survey done by Danish toy-maker Lego found that about a third of children aged between eight and 12 dream of becoming vloggers or YouTubers; the survey polled kids in the United States, China and the United Kingdom.



But that trend has now slowly also made its way into Africa. And young content creators on the continent are glued to their monitors and screens to catch up on all the social media action and monetize it, just like their global counterparts.



KobinaAckon, popularly known by the moniker Wode Maya,is one such African sensation – he is Ghana’s first YouTuber to hit over a million subscribers.



But Ackon never aspired to be a digital star. He had wanted to become an aeronautical engineer. He and his family had humble beginnings in the Western Region of Ghana, where they lived five siblings to one room and used rice bags as school bags. Ackon was taught from an early age the value of humility. After completing his secondary school education in Ghana, Ackon relocated to China to further his studies as an aeronautical engineer.



But contrary to what most people believe, success on YouTube did not come overnight for him. In fact, it was a slow and steady rise filled with trial and error tracking analytics that would guide him to the right blend of content to identify a niche that would give him six-figure success.



That said, the genesis of his YouTube channel was quite an by accident.



“I never wanted to be a YouTuber. During vacation, I couldn’t travel because I didn’t have money to go back to Ghana and so we spent our time in our dorms. So, a friend came to me and said ‘let’s go out and shoot a video’. I was the main character in that video.



“Afterwards, they gave me the video and I realized I didn’t have a pen drive or anywhere to save this video so I decided to save it on the internet and that is when I saved it on YouTube,” recalls Ackon. That video became a sensation amongst his friends and based on the positive feedback, Ackon decided to do another video detailing how he met his Chinese girlfriend. He got a 1,000 followers but unfortunately his subsequent efforts didn’t fare too well.



“I did more comedic videos and people said you are not funny and they stopped watching them. But I had a passion for it so I kept doing it and started doing more research on the platform. That is when I started consuming a lot of content on YouTube and realized I can actually be a millionaire on YouTube.”



But his Eureka moment would come after convincing his father to let him try content creation rather than engineering.



“So, I kept on pushing for two years and trying to make it work until my dad found one of my videos and got extremely mad at me and that is when my mum came in and said I can do whatever I want and she will take care of my dad. Two weeks later, my dad gave me his blessing and told me one thing that changed the game for me. He said you speak Chinese, so why don’t you use the Chinese language to bridge the gap between Africans and Chinese people and that was my breakthrough,” avers Ackon. He took his father’s advice and his channel grew to 8,000 subscribers. Ackon had found his niche and things began to slowly take off. He began making videos to help the Chinese better understand Africa and Africans and before long, he had peaked at about 100,000 subscribers.



But even then, something wasn’t adding up for Ackon.



“I felt like the videos I was doing was attracting Africans to China but China was not my country and I am trying to change the narrative of Africans living in China but it was still not working. So, I said to myself ‘let me come to Africa and preach about Africa to Chinese people’.”



That’s when he discovered that even Africansdidn’t know much about other countries on the continent. In 2018, he made the decision to start profiling the continent of Africa to not only the Chinese but to Africans both at home and in the diaspora. He received a loan from a Chinese friend who booked him on a pan-African tour of five countries.



“When I did that, within a month, I had 50,000 people following my channel. And it had taken me four years to get to 100,000 people. It showed me that a lot of people were yearning for African content,” says Ackon.



Today, with over 1.1 million subscribers, Ackonsays he is raking in anywhere from $20,000 to $50,000 a month from his YouTube channel. Most of his revenue comes from YouTube advertisements as well as from charging up to $10,000 a pop to profile Africa’s brightest entrepreneurs.Along the way, he has also picked up some invaluable pearls of wisdom from them.



“The youth of Africa don’t really have mentors and during Covid is when I had the chance to spend time with African entrepreneurs and they changed my life in the way of investment and I actually started investing in 2021. I had money but it was sitting in a bank and I didn’t know what to do with it because our parents taught us that if you have money, keep it in the bank, get married buy a house and buy a car and that is what I was doing. Until I met entrepreneurs and that is when I decided to invest in land, buy real estate and hired a team of about 10 people who work for me to expand the brand,” says Ackon.



His next milestone is to interview Africa’s richest man, Aliko Dangote, on how he built his wealth. He also wants his channel to only push out positive African narratives to the world.For now, he certainly has the world’s attention.

Untitled

CHANNELING FAME: Meet Ghana’s first YouTuber to hit over a million subscribers

Nigeria is currently facing a foreign currency crisis, which is taking a toll on the Nigerian aviation sector.



With Emirates airline announcing in August its suspension of flights to Nigeria from September 1 after being unable to repatriate $85 million of its revenue withheld in the country, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) released $265 million to foreign airlines to help ease the situation.



In light of these developments, Emirates has now announced it will reinstate flights to/from Lagos from September 11. On its site, it adds: “The airline welcomed the Central Bank of Nigeria’s move to release a portion of our blocked funds, and we continue to engage with the Nigerian authorities to ensure the repatriation of our outstanding and future funds may continue without hindrance.”



But though the move is seen as a welcome reprieve, the crisis is far from over.



A lack of foreign currency



With CBN’s official exchange rate standing at N415.37 to $1 for selling and N415.87 to $1 for buying as at the end of July 2022, compared to the black market rate, which currently stands at N680 to $1 for selling and about N720 to $1 for buying, accounting for a staggering 19% hike in just one month, Nigeria is currently facing a foreign currency (FX) crisis and this is taking a significant toll on the Nigerian aviation sector.



Like many industries decimated by the marauding Covid-19 pandemic, the aviation sector in Nigeria and all over the world was forced to come to a sudden halt. This had a knock-on effect on foreign investors in the country who fled to find solace on safer grounds as crude oil prices took a downward spiral.



“Oil prices have since stabilized but the problem is that foreign investors have not returned to Nigeria. Foreign investors bring an influx of forex into the country through foreign direct investment and without it, the country’s supply has essentially dried up,” says Ola Oladele, a financial markets expert in Lagos.



In an attempt to curtail the amount of FX available in the market, the CBN decided on a controversial move to stop selling FX to Bureau De Change operators in July 2021, forcing individuals and businesses who needed FX to only go to the banks. The problem is, there is not enough FX to go around and slowly but surely, the resulting effect is beginning to hamper operations in the aviation sector of Africa’s most populous economy.



FX impact on aviation



“This is a sad situation. Emirates have done everything they can to get their money out in the right way by collaborating with the International Air Transport Association (IATA), banks and even via the CBN. To help them limit their exposure to dollars which has been scarce in the Nigerian market for some time, they offered to pay for fuel in Naira but all has been in vain,” says Sindy Foster, an aviation analyst and founder of Avaero Capital Partners, a leading aviation and aerospace marketing agency.



In a Twitter thread, the IATA said “it is disappointed that the amount of airline money blocked from repatriation by the Nigerian government grew to $464 million in July 2022. IATA’s many warnings



that failure to restore timely repatriation will hurt Nigeria with reduced air connectivity are proving true with the withdrawal of Emirates from the market.”



“We are being forced to buy Jet A-1 fuel refined outside Nigeria at the cost of the current exchange rate and that is impossible to meet,” avers Simon Opoku, an aircraft engineer working with Arik.



The shortage of FX means Nigeria has restricted access to foreign currency for imports. The issue is, foreign airlines have a fiduciary duty to repatriate their earnings from international business back to their home country. In order to operate globally, airlines enter into an agreement with the IATA to sell tickets based on IATA approved rates and in exchange, they have the ability, through their bilateral partnership agreement, to repatriate their money back home anytime they choose.



The complication is, they have their money domiciled in their account in Naira but if they want to send the money out, they need to wait for the CBN to have the FX available or buy the FX from the black market at a loss.



According to Susan Akporiaye, President of the National Association of Nigeria Travel Agencies, airline funds have been trapped in the country since the last quarter of 2021.



“The fact that someone has money in their bank account in Naira because they have to sell tickets in the local currency and then when they try to repatriate they are given stories is just not going to work for the Nigerian aviation sector,” says Foster.

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Fight Or Flight: Nigeria’s FX Crisis And The Aviation Sector

Why Nigeria’s doctors are increasingly leaving the country for more lucrative opportunities abroad?



Dr Tola Amusan recalls the exact moment he decided to relocate his medical practice from Lagos, Nigeria, to New Jersey in the United States in 2010.



“I had been struggling to make ends meet after opening my plastic surgery business in Lagos. At the time the area was fairly new and there was a lot of stigma still attached to reconstructive surgery. But the biggest challenge was getting paid your value. I was earning around $33,000 per year and I recall speaking to a colleague in the United States who told me he was averaging about $250,000 a year. I knew there was something wrong,” avers Amusan.



Over the next five years, he embarked on the audacious journey of relocating stateside to continue his practice and has never looked back since.



“I can finally afford to give my family the quality of lifestyle they deserve simply because I changed locations. I think until the Nigerian government prioritizes the healthcare industry and makes certain provisions for its doctors, we will continue to see the brain drain that is currently happening in the country,” says Amusan.



According to the Chairman of the Nigerian Medical Association (NMA), Dr Ayotunde Fasunla, the brain drain crisis is among other factors, as a result of “lack of infrastructure, scarcity of funds for equipment and a lack of human capital in the healthcare sector”.



<figure class="wp-block-pullquote"><blockquote>“I think until the Nigerian government prioritizes the healthcare industry and makes certain provisions for its doctors, we will continue to see the brain drain that is currently happening in the country.”</blockquote></figure>



Innocent Ujah, NMA president, said on in his address at the virtual eighth biennial and scientific conference and annual general meeting of the Medical Women Association of Nigeria (MWAN), that out of 80,000 registered doctors in Nigeria, only about 40,000 were practising in Nigeria leading to a doctor-to-population ratio of about 5,000 persons to one doctor.



This figure is significantly higher than the recommended ratio of one doctor to 600 people stipulated by the United Nations World Health Organization (WHO).



“The only way to stop the outflow of health professionals from Nigeria to the West is for the government to improve the welfare of health professionals and provide top-class infrastructure to support those who have dedicated their lives to saving lives,” avers Amusan.

Doctor diagnose patient symptoms at the hospital

Outflow Of Health Professionals From Nigeria To The West

Mobile transactions in Nigeria hit N9.2 trillion in seven months of 2022.



In 2019, if you asked Victor Bello, an electronics trader in the bustling Computer Village of Lagos, Nigeria, if he would allow his customers to make non-cash transactions, he would have laughed and promptly shown you the door.



Bello believed in only monetary transactions for all sales and even though more and more of his customers tried to make payments via mobile or electronic payments, he simply refused.



“I had heard so many stories of people making payments via mobile transfers and later the merchants would not receive the money. I only trusted physical money that I could see and touch,” avers Bello.



Today, the story is completely different. About 90% of all his daily transactions are made via mobile transactions.



“When Covid hit, I was forced to accept mobile payments because nobody wanted to leave the house. The only way you could make money was to deliver your products and receive mobile payments because everyone was on lockdown,” recalls Bello.



The willingness to accommodate the new and innovative method of financial inclusion saved his business.



“Many of the economic challenges that Nigerians faced during the Covid pandemic were tackled with mobile money tools which provided access to finance especially for people who were previously unbanked in Nigeria,” says Bismarck Rewane, CEO of Financial Derivatives, a leading think tank in Nigeria.



According to GSMA’s State of the Industry Report on Mobile Money in 2021, sub-Saharan Africa accounted for the most growth in mobile money transactions with 43% of all new accounts.



The Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement System (NIBSS) revealed that mobile transactions by bank customers in Africa’s most populous economy peaked at N9.2 trillion ($21 billion) between January and July 2022. This accounts for an uptick in the 2021 amount of N8 trillion ($18 billion).



“When you consider the fact that there has also been an increase in telco subscribers in Nigeria to the tune of about 201 million, we begin to see the importance of mobile transactions. It is the most efficient way of making payments for goods and services,” avers Rewane.



According to the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), the total number of mobile subscriptions across the top four networks namely MTN, Airtel, Globacom and 9Mobile, rose by 10.9 million in the first half of 2022.

Cropped hand of customer paying through smart phone in city

Cashing In: Nigeria’s Surge In Mobile Payments

Reports are that Nigerians are increasingly considering cryptocurrency as a strategic investment.



Dele Bello vividly remembers relocating to Lagos from Warri, a town in Southern Nigeria, almost five years ago in search of greener pastures. After graduating from university, the dream of making it big in Lagos, Nigeria’s bustling cosmopolitan metropolis, was not only a way to pursue his dreams of making it as a software engineer but most importantly, a way of supporting his mother and sister back home.



However, things didn’t go according to plan. After sending out over 500 job applications and receiving no call backs, Bello found himself doing various odd jobs including at one point in time providing security services for a bank.



“I remember speaking to someone from the bank who initially introduced me to this thing called bitcoin and as someone with a computer science background I was immediately intrigued. I went home and began doing research into this and the rest is history,” says Bello.



That was the beginning of his breakthrough moment. With just $200 as an initial start, Bello is now a full-time bitcoin trader with over $400,000 worth of cryptocurrency. His mother and sister now live with him in the five-bedroom house he built in Magodo, a suburb in Lagos. Bello is one of millions of bitcoin evangelists in Nigeria, currently lauded as a global leader in bitcoin trade according to a report by the BBC.



Paxful, a leading peer-to-peer bitcoin marketplace, also considers Nigeria one of its most important markets with over 60,215 bitcoins traded between 2015 and 2020 accounting for almost $566 million. According to the platform, Nigeria is the second largest bitcoin market after the United States.



“I always say bitcoin is the miracle that will take Nigerian youths out of poverty. When the Nigerian government tried to shut us down during the EndSars protests, they blocked all forms of online payments and mobile money transactions to slow down the movement and guess what saved the day? Bitcoin,” avers Bello.



What makes Nigeria a particularly interesting cryptocurrency market is that in February 2021, its central bank banned commercial banks from dealing with cryptocurrencies claiming it was a “direct contravention of existing law”.



Despite the restrictions, cryptocurrency exchange platform, KuCoin claims that 33.4 million Nigerians still consider cryptocurrency as a strategic investment.



The country still ranked sixth in the 2021 Global Crypto Adoption Index which was published by blockchain analytics organization Chainalysis last year. The platform also reported that the cryptocurrency market in Africa grew by 1,200% in 2021.



The adoption rate of cryptocurrency is so rapid in Nigeria, that it made the central bank try to get in on the action. The eNaira, a digital form of the naira and the first national digital currency in Africa, according to Nigeria’s apex bank, was launched In October 2021. According to a speech by Nigeria’s President Muhammadu Buhari during the launch, the eNaira and the adoption of blockchain technology can boost the country’s GDP by $29 billion over the next 10 years.

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Nigerian creative Mo Abudu is bringing Wole Soyinka’s Death and the King’s Horseman as a film, directed by Biyi Bandele, who passed away early this month.



EbonyLife Group CEO, Mo Abudu, is bringing Professor Wole Soyinka’s 1975 stage play Death and the King’s Horseman as a feature adaptation, in a project with streaming service Netflix.



Nigerian playwright and iconic novelist Soyinka is the first Black winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature — and its first African winner.



The film, set to be the first Yoruba language movie ever to premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) in September 2022, is based on actual historical events that took place during British colonial rule in Nigeria.



“Our goal whenever we tell African stories is to be truly authentic and stay as close as possible to the original work. In this case, it was especially important because Professor Soyinka’s work is already well-known globally and he is one of the greatest literary talents of our time. It is a great honor to be trusted with telling this compelling African drama steeped in our local traditions,” says Abudu in an interview with FORBES AFRICA.



Soyinka’s play was adapted as a feature film by famed Nigerian playwright and director Biyi Bandele, who passed away on August 7, the month before its premiere.



The filmmaker had grabbed global headlines with his directorial work of the best-selling Chimamanda Adichie book Half of a Yellow Sun and the most recent Netflix series Blood Sisters.



“Biyi’s death was a complete shock and unexpected. We were all planning to make it to the TIFF and he was over the moon. He poured everything into this depiction and it is a real loss to the industry,” says Abudu, reportedly the first African to sign a multiple deal with Netflix in 2020.



Death and the King’s Horseman is expected to air after its screening at TIFF.

Mo Abudu, image supplied by EbonyLife

Iconic Nigerian Nobel Laureate’s Play To Come To Life

Nigerian billionaire Abdulsamad Rabiu and founder of BUA Group says Africa must remove its reliance on imports and add value to locally-produced food as much as possible.



Nigerian billionaire Abdulsamad Rabiu, the founder of BUA Group, a Nigerian conglomerate active in cement production, sugar refining and real estate, has embarked on an ambitious 20,000-hectare large-scale sugar plantation featuring other ancillary production facilities such as a sugar mill, sugar refinery, and ethanol and power plant in Africa’s biggest and most populous economy.



The Group currently has two “ultra-modern and automated mega sugar refineries” in Lagos and Port Harcourt in the country with a total combined installed refining capacity of 1.5 million metric tonnes, but say the new initiatives, for which it has secured more land in both Kogi State and Kwara State to establish sugar plantations in the future, will add significantly to the development of Nigeria’s local sugar industry.



“I am passionate about looking inwards and seeing what we can do as Africans,” says Rabiu in a recent interview with FORBES AFRICA.



“We realized that a large amount of money was being spent on importing raw sugar and we asked ourselves ‘why can’t we solve this problem and produce locally’?” adds the entrepreneur with a real time net worth of $5.7 billion according to Forbes.



Russia’s war on Ukraine has sparked a global food crisis and Nigeria, Africa’s most populous economy, traditionally reliant on food imports, is facing the brunt of this.



In a recent report published by the United Nations World Food Program, Nigeria, along with Ethiopia and South Sudan, are amongst the countries with the direst conditions. The report asserts that 19.5 million Nigerians are “facing high levels of acute food insecurity”.



Furthermore, when it comes to children under the age of five years, the report estimates that about 1.7 million will be prone to acute malnutrition by August this year, signifying a 34% rise from 2021 figures.



Reflecting on these numbers, Rabiu believes that there has to be a fundamental shift in Africa’s approach to food production.



“Eighty percent of the food we consume in Africa is imported so when you have a situation like the Russia-Ukraine war which has had a knock-on effect on food imports, where last year alone we imported over 55 million tonnes of wheat, the current crisis we are facing is bound to happen,” says Rabiu.



His concerns are shared by Akinwumi Adesina, President of the African Development Bank (AfDB) who in May this year approved a $1.5 billion facility to help over 20 million African farmers to produce 38 million tonnes of food.



“We are facing a situation where food prices are skyrocketing by the day. Wheat has gone up from $250 to about $600 per tonne; this accounts for a 60% increase in the past year,” says Rabiu.



The price hikes in importing wheat means a further increase in prices to consumers who are already struggling to make ends meet. According to Rabiu, the only way to avoid this situation in the future is to remove our reliance on imports and add value to locally produced food as much as possible.



“We need a concerted effort to increase our homegrown production,” says Rabiu.



Adesina and the AfDB are hoping that by making the credit facility available, African farmers can do exactly what Rabiu is suggesting and begin to increase the supply of food to curb impending disaster.

Abdulsamad Rabiu; image supplied

‘Concerted Effort To Increase Homegrown Production’: Nigerian Billionaire On Plans to Boost Local Sugar Industry

In June, Senegalese-born Khaby Lame became the most followed star on TikTok. The social media app’s market is particularly growing in Africa’s biggest economy with more influencers tuning to it to make a living.



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-style-large is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow">“During Covid I started posting videos on TikTok initially because I was bored.”</blockquote>



TikTok, owned by Chinese company ByteDance, has become one of the world’s most downloaded apps with more than 2 billion downloads according to figures from the platform.



In Africa too, the social media platform has made followers and fortunes for its many stars.



Senegalese-born Khaby Lame is one such example.



He became the most followed star on the social media app with 142.5 million followers in June this year, catapulting him from a humble factory worker living in Italy to landing glamorous and lucrative sponsorships with brands such as Hugo Boss.



His rise has resonated with Africans all over the world and the sensation to become the next big TikTok star has reached fever pitch particularly in Nigeria; little wonder for Africa’s biggest economy.



In recent years, the country is amongst the most active users of TikTok on the continent according to a report by international broadcaster Deutsche Welle.



In recent times, the ‘Don’t leave me’ challenge created by Nigerian TikTok star Josh2Funny became a viral sensation attracting the likes of Greek-Nigerian NBA superstar Giannis Antetokounmpo and other Hollywood celebrities.



With an unprecedented youth unemployment rate in Nigeria, social media has become a medium for Gen Z creators to earn a living. Spurred on by the negative effects of the coronavirus, TikTok reportedly attracted millions of users who wanted an escape from the lockdown.



According to TikTok, its market share in Nigeria peaked at about 50% in 2021.



“During Covid, I started posting videos on TikTok initially because I was bored. Then I realized people were gradually engaging with my content and it became a form of therapy for me because it helped me cope with the stress of being in lockdown every day,” says EmekaG, a TikTok creator in Lagos.



Like him, many young Nigerian creators are hoping to build their own unique brand on the social media platform to help them engage with brands and ultimately make a living as TikTok influencers.



The appeal of the platform lies in its micro-video sharing interface which allows users to create short, funny videos and share them on the platform as well as other apps like Instagram.

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Using innovative delivery and payment solutions in Lagos and Abuja and raising $2 million recently for their new platform KwikStore, founders Romain Poirot-Lellig, Olivier Decrock and Yinka Olayanju aim to empower SMEs and merchants scale their businesses.



Logistics plays a pivotal role in moving goods and services in Africa’s most populous economy, Nigeria, with over 200 million inhabitants. Everything from meals, groceries, documents and packages relies on the intricate network of couriers who make the country move.



However, different government policies over the past three years have created major roadblocks for the logistics sector. For example, when the government decided to ban ride hailing in Lagos State, many startups pivoted to motorbike delivery only to face further challenges like extortion from local government and exorbitant taxes.



In 2020, Nigeria’s Federal Ministry of Communications and the Digital Economy released guidelines which increased the licensing fees for courier and logistics companies, further exacerbating the issue.



Kwik, a logistics company based in the country, knowing all too well the challenges in the motorbike delivery sector, in March this year, raised $2 million to upgrade its services from motorbike delivery to an e-commerce solution to help its growing African B2B customers sell online via their smartphones.



Founded by Romain Poirot-Lellig, Olivier Decrock and Yinka Olayanju, Kwik’s new platform, KwikStore, is looking to address the gap in the market by using technology to streamline some of the difficulties moving documents or packages in sometimes-chaotic environments like Lagos.



“We are an on-demand, last mile delivery service with the goal of providing speedy delivery services within Lagos and Abuja. KwikStore is a free e-commerce solution that enables businesses or individuals to establish online stores, with little or no technical knowledge, from their phones. Our solution is fully integrated with all major payment solutions in Nigeria,” says Poirot-Lellig.



The company makes money by taking a percentage of the amount that customers pay for deliveries, and is also hoping that by introducing technology into the delivery business, it will empower SMEs and merchants to scale their business exponentially. The platform has over 100,000 businesses already signed up and using its delivery services.



“With the use of our innovative technology, you can check, track and even provide user feedback to clients, which in the long run builds trust,” adds Poirot-Lellig.

Romain Poirot-Lellig; image supplied

Quick Clicks And Scaling Businesses In Nigeria

Temilade Openiyi has had a slew of recent successes and is one of the few female producers in the Nigerian music scene grabbing the attention of global stars.



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-style-large is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow">“I would just sit and write about how I was feeling and the things I was going through. It could be about anything and it just came out in a poetic way. That is when I found out I had a passion for music and soon those poems became lyrics.”</blockquote>



In October 2021, Nigerian Afrobeats chart-topper Wizkid released Essence, which would go on to become one of the biggest Afrobeats’ songs also dominating global streaming charts. One of the magical components of Essence was the sultry vocals of Nigerian emerging artist Temilade Openiyi, known professionally as ‘Tems’.



This winner of the Best International Act at the 2022 BET Awards hails from the new movement of artistic expression in the Nigerian music scene known as Alté, meaning alternative, which is a fusion of Afrobeats, dancehall, reggae, hip hop and alternative R&amp;B. After gaining worldwide recognition with her hit singles Mr Rebel and Try Me, Essence’s success, which was further ignited by Canadian singer Justin Bieber jumping on the remix, made Tems a household name globally.



“I had no idea my life was about to change when I did that song. Every day since then is like a dream and I am super thankful for the opportunity I have for people to hear my work on a global scale,” says Tems to FORBES AFRICA.



The 26-year-old honed her musical prowess in Lagos, Nigeria, where she was born. She moved to the United Kingdom with her parents as a child but returned home after their divorce. With no friends and a solitary existence, Tems took to writing poems as an escape.



“I would just sit and write about how I was feeling and the things I was going through. It could be about anything and it just came out in a poetic way. That is when I found out I had a passion for music and soon those poems became lyrics,” avers Tems.



With no money, Tems broke barriers by producing her own beat making her one of the few female producers in the Nigerian music scene and soon started getting the attention of global music stars like Chris Brown, Alicia Keys and Adele.



Her track-record has led to other collaborations like the recent hit single Fountains by Drake and Future as well as most recently, being featured on the official EP of the new Black Panther: Wakanda Forever movie where she sings the cover of Bob Marley’s No Woman, No Cry, which got over 172 million views in just 24 hours.

Author: Peace Hyde

FORBES AFRICA SOCIAL MEDIA