Alexander O. Onukwue
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Small and medium scale enterprises in Africa receive about $70bn of credit each year. But the International Finance Corporation estimates that the gap exceeds $300bn.
Why does the gap exist?
Michael Famoroti, chief economist at Stears gave two reasons during a recent TechCabal Live event on financing renewable energy companies in Africa.
First, there is an information problem.
Credit providers seem to lack enough information with which to assess the risk worthiness of many borrowers. This problem exists at the retail level as most bank customers who have tried to take personal loans will be aware.
MTN’s Q1 results show fintech progress
MTN Nigeria recently released its financial report for the first quarter of 2021, and there’s a lot to unpack from the results.
Policies have consequences: When the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) said in December 2020 that it was suspending new SIM card registrations, it seemed like everyone, but the regulator could see the second-order effects.
MTN’s Q1 results show one of those effects as the telco’s mobile subscribers declined by 5 million. It’s not peculiar to MTN alone; other telcos have suffered churn because while they’ve lost customers, they weren’t able to register new ones for months.
Ditching power adapter and earphones
“It really comes down to one word: courage. The courage to move on, do something new, that betters all of us. And our team has tremendous courage.”
Backstory: Four years ago, Apple caused quite a stir with this statement when it announced it would be removing the headphone jack from its phones. A move that ushered the launch of the wireless Airpods.
Other phone makers, most notably, Sony and Nokia removed the headphone jack from their high-end phones the next year and others have continued to do so since then.
Also.
In September 2020, during the launch of the iPhone 12, Apple announced that it would not be including power adapters with their newest iphone. The reason: It’s better for the environment, and there’s a likelihood that a customer already has an Apple power adapter charger at home.