The Giant, or not? 🇳🇬
Nigeria's internet affordability status The mystery in Zimbabwe's inflation rate Coinbase's IPO Smartphone Market report
Last week had me musing about how there are hardly incubation programs for small businesses in Nigeria. We have a couple of these programs for startups, but hardly do we for traditional businesses.
I searched for a while, and didn't find.
I even tweeted about it here
Well, I eventually stumbled on one called "Capital Fellowship". You can check it out here
If you know of any more, please do let me know by replying to this email. I would be happy to document them.
The Giant of Africa has the least affordable internet in the world
Surfshark's 2020 global report on digital quality of life (DQL) was released last week, and this report ranked Nigeria as the country with the least affordable internet service in the world. 😯
What is Surfshark? Surfshark is a virtual private network provider.
How was Nigeria ranked?
The ranking was done in terms of internet affordability and rates. Out of the 85 indexed countries, Nigeria ranked 85th. A Wow?
The firm curated the amount of time people would have to work to afford the cheapest mobile and data plans available in the country. Can you guess how long?
Surfshark stated that Nigerians have to work for 27 minutes 55 seconds to afford 1 GB of mobile internet against the global average of 10 minutes. That's a near 18 minutes gap.
At the bottom of the internet affordability index with Nigeria, is Columbia and Honduras.
How did Africa fare generally?
Six African countries were studied in the report, and South Africa ranked the highest and took the 34th position, next is Tunisia at the 64th position, Algeria, at the 66th, Morocco, 71st, and Kenya at the 74th.
Zimbabwe's Inflation Troubles
An inflation rate that can get you a plate of food at a Buka? That would be Zimbabwe's.
Zimbabwe's February inflation rate stood at 321.59% year-on-year, according to Zimbabwe's national statistics agency in a new report last Thursday.
I guess you just did an "Ah!" Well, it isn’t so out of the ordinary for Zimbabwe.
Why that high?
In Africa, Zimbabwe is the country with the highest inflation rate, and has the second highest in the world, only next to Venezuela.
Zimbabwe's inflation problem didn't start today, neither did it start in 2021. Though the number looks that high, do you know that Zimbabwe is actually in a recovery phase?
Let’s go down history a little.
About a decade ago, Zimbabwe recorded the second-highest incidence of hyperinflation in history and got the country into a serious financial crisis. Zimbabwe’s inflation rate for November 2008 was a overwhelming 79,600,000,000% (In words, 79.6 billion percent). You just screamed, Huh?
Hyperinflation is used to describe situations where the prices of all goods and services rise uncontrollably over a defined period. In other words, hyperinflation is an extremely rapid inflation.
Zimbabwe’s inflation troubles got to the point where a foreign currency was used as a medium of exchange instead of the Zimbabwean dollar. So yes, a gradual recovery it is.
Coinbase's has filed for an IPO
The world’s most valuable cryptocurrency exchange, Coinbase, has filed for an Initial Public Offering (IPO) with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
Side note: An IPO is the offering of shares to the public by a private company. This is done to raise capital by bringing in public investors.
Coinbase was founded about nine years ago and the exchange allows users to buy and sell cryptocurrencies Like Bitcoin, Ethereum, and the rest of them.
What more?
Coinbase would be going public via a direct listing, and the company will list its shares on the Nasdaq under the stock ticker "COIN."
Though, Coinbase hasn’t yet provided an official date for its IPO, however, existing shareholders have the opportunity to sell their shares pre-IPO via the Nasdaq Private Market. Some reports have suggested the date to be early in 2021.
How does this affect you?
Imagine the success of your shares is tied to an increase in the growth, popularity, as well as the trading volume of Cryptocurrencies. Cool, or not?
Well, that's the projection for an investor at Coinbase, as shared by Randy Carver, the president and CEO of Carver Financial Services in Ohio.
So, this would mean that buying a share in Coinbase can be tagged a way to participate indirectly in cryptocurrencies.
The Smartphone Market in 2020: Crown Samsung King?
Did you buy a new Smartphone in 2020? Well, I did.
And despite that (haha), a report released by Gartner in the previous week, stated that Smartphone sales declined 12.5% in full-year 2020. This would probably be hung on the pandemic again, yes?
The worthy-of-note from the report.
First is that, in the fourth quarter of 2020, Apple shipped more smartphones than any other brand. The iPhone 12 magic? It's the first time Apple has been atop the smartphone market since 2016, the report said.
Yet, Samsung still ledsthe smartphone market in 2020, although it generally experienced a 14.6% decline.
Amongst the top five smartphone vendors ranked in the report, only Apple and Xiaomi experienced growth.
Knowledge Bank📕
Real Return
Real return is the actual payback on an investment, after factoring in the effect of inflation. It is an indication of the actual purchasing power of a given amount of money per time.
The real rate of return is calculated by subtracting the inflation rate from the proposed interest rate.
For instance, if my Investment plan offers me an interest rate of 10% per annum, with Nigeria's inflation rate currently at 14.4%, it means my real return is -4.%. That is synonymous to a loss. That means that the 10% return isn't a real return. It is rather a nominal return. Real return is what you get when you factor in the inflation rate.
So check your investments, are you making a real return on them?
Recommended Reads📝
Beginners Guide to Cryptocurrency
Crypto Ban in Nigeria: The past, present.
An uphill battle: entrepreneur explains how she built a dry fruit snack brand in Nigeria
If you read up until this point, you have done so well. Thank you!
This is my first letter, and so I'm highly open to your feedback. Feel free to reply me here or DM me on twitter to tell me about your read. I am looking forward ❤️
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I would write to you again in two weeks!