ROI: NCDMB receives $1m from NEDOGAS - ITREALMS

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The Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB) has received a cheque of $1 million from Nedogas Development Company Limited (NDCL), as part of the return on investment (ROI) on one of the board’s strategic investments.

The cheque was presented by the Chairman of the company, Engr. Emeka Ene when he visited the Nigerian Content Tower in Yenagoa Bayelsa State, and was received by the Executive Secretary, Engr. Felix Omatsola Ogbe alongsidd other members of the Board’s management.

Mba-Uzoukwu: High net worth Nigerians should invest in startups

ITRealms:

The Information Technology (IT) entrepreneur and vice chairman of Demo Africa 2015 edition, Mr. Chinenye Mba-Uzoukwu, has urged high net-worth individuals (HNIs) in Nigeria to start investing in technology startups, arguing that returns on investment (RoI) in technology businesses has proven to be one of the most attractive in the world, reports ITRealms.

Managing director/CEO of InfoGraphics Nigeria, Mba-Uzoukwu, noted that most studies have shown that rapid growth start-ups generate the most new jobs in an economy and require the highest amount of equity risk capital. He quoted Craig Mullett from the Branison Group as stating that a 2005 study of 37 countries showed that out of various sources of funding including debt, private equity, venture capital and angel investor capital, “only angel investor capital significantly positively influenced the propensity to be entrepreneurs.”

While all successful entrepreneurial hubs such as Silicon Valley, Boston, New York, Tel Aiv, Bangalore and Warsaw all have developed angel investor networks, which incubated start-ups rely for financing, contacts and strategy advice, Nigerian HNIs are slow in stepping up to create the platforms and enterprises of tomorrow. 

“Interestingly Nigeria HNIs appear unaware of, disbelieving of, and/or uninterested in the latent potential of local technopreneurs despite the relatively low entry barriers to investors and a burgeoning start-up community. We recognize that the tech industry is still in early stage development,” he said.

Mba-Uzoukwu also said that they must be intentional and aggressively so in looking inwards if we are to find sustainable and uniquely suited solutions to the challenges facing our country in the context of a 21st century global economy. Demo Africa is a great step and a new class of indigenous Nigerian investors must rise up and be counted because technology offers the most realistic stairway to a brighter future for Africa.”

While informing that Demo Africa connects African startups to the global ecosystem, he said the initiative “is the place where the most innovative companies from African countries get a platform to launch their products and announce to Africa and the world what they have developed.”

A successful entrepreneur with proven capability, Mba-Uzoukwu explained that several options are available to potential investors under engagement models, which range from business angels to venture capital and private equity, for funding technology startups.

 “Whether it is purely a financial investment or a business decision to diversify business portfolio or an eagerness to join the next big game-changer, it seems pretty obvious that every savvy investor should have a technology company in his portfolio.  Local investors who shun technology businesses today will definitely see the earliest pickings taken by their Western counterparts at ridiculously low valuations despite the apparent high risk,” Mba-Uzoukwu cautioned.

While describing technology as the fourth wave that should not be missed if Africa would hope for economic transformation, he likened the likes of Konga and Paga as signposts of things to come with Nigerian entrepreneurs requiring an infusion of foreign blood in order to scale in the absence of local HNI interest.

He explained that investing in start-ups would soon be a serious investment option from banks to corporate organisations and individual investors. “By simple logic, if you have cash and have already made investments in real-estate, shares, other financial instruments, gold and possibly your own enterprise too, what can you do with any residual cash that you have? Invest in a start-up stands out as a good option – given that Nigeria is now a fertile ground for ideas and innovation, and being an entrepreneur is cool. And if you are wondering if any have been successful, just look at Interswitch, Hotelsng, M-Tech, IrokoTV, and Jobberman.”

According to him, the technology start-up industry has never been more vibrant with ideas and willingness to tread the uncharted waters and a burning desire to bring change to the communities in which they exist.  “There is a smoldering fire in the eyes of Nigerian youths that view technology as a means of self-expression, actualization and a driver for creating the Nigeria of their dreams.

“Socially-committed, deeply convicted and determined to see the fullest expression of their values and ideas in the markets they have in focus. They want the double-impact – to make it big and to make it happen. High net worth Nigerians should support them. Look around you – there will be an entrepreneur near you and that is the exciting thing about Nigeria. Therefore, if you don’t have the next big idea or experience or inclination to start your own venture, you can play a part in the start-up community by funding them,” he said.

 
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Return on Investment: US-DOE gives IDC 3-year grant

ITRealms:

 

The United States Department of Energy's (DOE) Office of Science and National Nuclear Security Administration has awarded the International Data Corporation (IDC) a three-year grant to conduct a full study of Returns on Investments (ROI) in high performance computing (HPC), reports ITRealms.

Confirming this to ITRealms, the Marketing Manager at IDC for Middle East and Africa, Anulekha Shetty, said that the full study follows IDC's successful completion of a 2013 pilot study on this topic for DOE.

In the pilot study, Shetty told ITRealms tahat IDC created the first economic models for predicting ROI associated with HPC, both in the form of innovation and financial returns. IDC tested these models on over 200 real-world examples and went through four iterations of the models.

For the full study, the marketing manager noted, IDC will use the economic models to quantify and classify ROI from thousands of examples IDC collects.

Shetty quoted the Earl Joseph, Programme Vice President, High Performance Computing at IDC as saying that the macroeconomic model depicts how HPC investments result in economic advancements.

The innovation index provides, according to Joseph, is a means for measuring and comparing innovation levels among nations based on their levels of applying HPC computing resources toward scientific, technological, and economic advancement.

"Nations and companies around the world increasingly recognize that HPC contributes enormously to science, industrial competitiveness, national security, and the quality of human life," said Joseph, who assured the full study will more deeply quantify these contributions in relation to the investments that made them possible.

The predictive macroeconomic models will take into consideration how research and development investments are currently justified and how results are measured in each of the government, academic, and industry market segments IDC has closely tracked for more than two decades, Joseph said.

Also commenting, Steve Conway, Research Vice President, High Performance Computing at IDC said they are creating tools and data that governments, universities, and companies can use to help make future HPC funding and purchasing decisions.

"Our goal for this grant award is to refine the predictive models to ensure that they correlate well with real-world practices and with a wide range of sample data representing real-world innovations," he declared.

+Remmy Nweke (ITRealms)  @IDC
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