Afrobility: Africa Tech and Business Olumide Ogunsanwo and Bankole Makanju

Overview: Today, we’re going to explore IHS Towers - the African telecommunications infrastructure company. We’ll discuss the story across the following areas: 


Telecom tower infrastructure context 


IHS Towers' early history


Product & monetization strategy


Competitive positioning & potential exit options


Overall outlook



This episode was recorded on May 5, 2024

Companies discussed: IHS Towers, MTN, Airtel, Telkom, Orange, Etisalat / 9 Mobile, American Tower Company, Globacom, Libancell, Helios Towers Nigeria, Telkom, Vodacom, Goldman Sachs, (IFC), Public Investment Corporation of South Africa, Ecobank, Investec, Standard Bank.

Business concepts discussed: Tower Infrastructure, Shared communication infrastructure, Tower Leasing and Ownership Models, Market Expansion, Sale and Leaseback, Local vs Global Strategy, Capital-intensive business models, Currency devaluation

Conversation highlights:


(01:50) - What IHS does and why we’re talking about it


(04:37) - How Towers work


(12:47) - How Telcos work with Towers in Nigeria and parts of Africa


(23:22) - IHS Founding and Early History


(34:19) - Funding


(39:32) - Growth and International Expansion


(47:26) - IHS IPO and trends post IPO


(55:50) - Product Strategy & Monetization


(1:08:30) - Competition


(1:16:22) - Bankole’s overall thoughts and outlook


(1:24:06) - Olumide’s overall thoughts and outlook


(1:30:24) - Recommendations and small wins





Olumide’s recommendations & small wins:


Interested in investing in Africa Tech with Olumide: Read about Adamantium fund & contact me at olumide@afrobility.com. Founders looking for funding: If you're a B2B founder working on Education, Health, Finance or food, please contact me for funding at olumide@afrobility.com


Checkout my FIREDOM book = FIRE (Financial Independence, Retire Early) + Freedom = personal finance and financial independence book. Website, Read: Substack Newsletter & Buy: Print, eBook or Audiobook)


Recommendation: Incredible Dance routine video to Sisa Song by King Promise: I love it so much I'm not sure how to put it into words. 1 minute of greatness


Recommendation: Chris Brown “Sensational” live performance : Watching Chris Brown dance is watching a master of his craft.


Recommendation: J. Cole - Let Nas Down


Recommendation: Nas - Make Nas Proud


Recommendation: Nas & Eminem - EPMD 2


Recommendation: Nas - Rare


Small win: Went back to reading older books to reset my reading palate





Bankole’s recommendations & small wins:


Recommendation: The Search for the Perfect Door - YouTube && Unusual Electric Car Features in Nigeria - Bloomberg


Small win: Running sprints 


Other content: Palito FM Autoscan Radio



Listeners: We’d love to hear from you. Email info@afrobility.com with feedback!

Founders & Operators: We'd love to hear about what you're working on, email us at info@afrobility.com

Investors: It would be great to link up with you. Contact us at info@afrobility.com

Join our insider mailing list where we get feedback on new episodes & find all episodes on Afrobility.com

Overview: Today, we’re going to explore eTranzact - the African payments and switching platform. We’ll discuss the story across the following areas:


First, Nigerian payments context 


Second, eTranzact's early history


Third, Product & monetization strategy


Fourth, Competitive positioning 


Fifth, Overall outlook



This episode was recorded on Feb 11, 2024

Companies discussed: eTranzact, Interswitch, Unified Payment Services Limited (UPSL), Systemspecs (Remita), Paystack, Flutterwave, Moniepoint, Paga, OPay, MTN & Airtel.

Business concepts discussed: Mobile money, Payments Collections, Payments ecosystem, payments partnerships strategy, card networks, payments infrastructure, low-end disruption, banking regulation & payments M&A strategy





Conversation highlights:


(00:57) - What is eTranzact and why we’re talking about it


(07:43) - Context of Nigeria’s payment sector before eTranzact


(16:45) - eTranzact founding story


(35:46) - Growth and geographic expansion


(45:10) - Product strategy


(01:02:56) - Monetization strategy


(01:20:41) - Competition


(1:31:10) - Bankole’s overall thoughts and outlook


(1:34:38) - Olumide’s overall thoughts and outlook


(1:43:20 - Recommendations and small wins



Olumide’s recommendations & small wins:


Interested in investing in Africa Tech with Olumide: Read about Adamantium fund & contact me at olumide@afrobility.com. Founders looking for funding: If you're a B2B founder working on Education, Health, Finance or food, please contact me for funding at olumide@afrobility.com


Checkout my FIREDOM book = FIRE (Financial Independence, Retire Early) + Freedom = personal finance and financial independence book. Website, Read: Substack Newsletter & Buy: Print, eBook or Audiobook)


Recommendation: Never Enough (Loren Allred). Incredible. I can listen to it on repeat for the whole day. 


Recommendation: La Bachata (Maniel Turizo). Dope shit.


Recommendation: "Someone You Loved". Not the original but a fabulous cover. Best line, "I was getting kinda used to being someone you loved". Listen to the 3rd verse when they sing simultaneously. Incredible!


Recommendation: A Million Miles Away movie. It is a biographical drama film about the life of José Hernández, a Mexican-American migrant farm 


Small win: Booked Cirque Du Soleil show. Looking forward to it.





Bankole’s recommendations & small wins:


Recommendation: Comma - Burna Boy && Wolfram|Alpha as the Way to Bring Computational Knowledge Superpowers to ChatGPT


Small win: Clean shaven + the Nigerian AFCON semifinal win only to lose in the final a few hours after recording :( 


Other content: History of Web Acquiring in Nigeria && Atlas Copco on Invest Like The Best && An Empirical Examination of Why Mobile Money Schemes Ignite in Some Developing Countries but Flounder in Most 







Listeners: We’d love to hear from you. Email info@afrobility.com with feedback!

Founders & Operators: We'd love to hear about what you're working on, email us at info@afrobility.com

Investors: It would be great to link up with you. Contact us at info@afrobility.com

Join our insider mailing list where we get feedback on new episodes & find all episodes on Afrobility.com

Overview: Today, we’re going to explore Moove, the mobility fintech. We’ll discuss the story across the following areas:


African mobility and transportation context


Moove's launch & early history


Product & monetization strategy


Competitive positioning & potential exit options


Our overall outlook.



This episode was recorded on Jan 14, 2024

Companies discussed: Moove, Uber, Lyft, Autochek, Cars45, GoKada, Creditas, Swvl, Lori, Sendy & FairMoney

Business concepts discussed: Revenue-based financing, asset-based lending, Ridesharing & Mobility entrepreneurship

Conversation highlights:


(01:20) - What Moove does and why we’re talking about it


(06:57) - Context of mobility and public transportation in Nigeria


(21:50) - Founders’ background


(27:50) - Moove founding and early history


(32:16) - Fundraising


(43:20) - Growth and Geographical Expansion


(48:15) - Partnerships


(1:07:26) - Product and Monetization Strategy


(1:28:44) - Metrics


(1:33:50) - Competition and options for exit


(1:53:10) - Olumide’s overall thoughts and outlook


(2:09:07) - Bankole’s overall thoughts and outlook


(2:26:12) - Recommendations and small wins



Olumide’s recommendations & small wins:


Interested in investing in Africa Tech with Olumide: Read about Adamantium fund & contact me at olumide@afrobility.com. Founders looking for funding: If you're a B2B founder working on Education, Health, Finance or food, please contact me for funding at olumide@afrobility.com


Checkout my FIREDOM book = FIRE (Financial Independence, Retire Early) + Freedom = personal finance and financial independence book. Website, Read: Substack Newsletter & Buy: Print, eBook or Audiobook)


Recommendation: The Gap and The Gain (by Benjamin Hardy & Dan Sullivan: Book about mindset and approach to life, measuring success, fulfilment and happiness.


Recommendation: Be Useful: Seven Tools for Life (Arnold Schwarzenegger): Great book by the legend about principles to approach life to get what you want. At this point, I've read all his books and can recommend them all. Arnold records the audiobook end-to-end by himself so be ready for awesomeness


Small win: Completely revamped by Body Skincare after getting deep into research about this





Bankole’s recommendations & small wins:


Recommendation: Money Maze Podcast - Interview with the CEO of De Beers && We are different from all other humans in history && The Reality of the Danish Fairytale 


Small win: Successful visa application to South Africa


Other content: Nigeria’s Secured Lending Opportunity - bankole.org 



Listeners: We’d love to hear from you. Email info@afrobility.com with feedback!

Founders & Operators: We'd love to hear about what you're working on, email us at info@afrobility.com

Investors: It would be great to link up with you. Contact us at info@afrobility.com

Join our insider mailing list where we get feedback on new episodes & find all episodes on Afrobility.com

Overview: Today, we’re going to explore AFEX, the African commodities exchange. We’ll discuss the story across the following areas:


African Agriculture context


AFEX's launch & early history


Product & monetization strategy


Competitive positioning & potential exit options


Overall outlook.



This episode was recorded on Dec 24, 2023

Companies discussed: AFEX, EAX (East African Commodity Exchange), Tony Elumelu Foundation, Heirs Holdings, Apollo Agriculture, NCX, Cargill, Louis Dreyfuss, 50 Ventures & Berggruen Charitable Trust

Business concepts discussed: Agriculture technology (AgTech, AgriTech or AgroTech), Agribusiness marketplaces, farming financing, Farmer market access opportunities, Agriculture insurance strategy, Commodity trading & Internal Entrepreneurship (Incubated company strategy).

Conversation highlights:


(01:10) - What Afex is and why we’re talking about it


(08:36) - Context of agriculture in Africa


(21:49) - AFEX Founding story


(33:28) - Fundraising


(39:56) - Growth, geographical expansion and partnerships


(49:42) - Product strategy, monetization and growth


(59:14) - Cost structure, revenue and margins


(1:10:00) - Business and user metrics


(1:13:14) - Competition and options for exit


(1:21:02) - Bankole’s overall thoughts and outlook


(1:34:25) - Olumide’s overall thoughts and outlook


(1:47:45) - Recommendations and small wins







Olumide’s recommendations & small wins:


Interested in investing in Africa Tech with Olumide: Read about Adamantium fund & contact me at olumide@afrobility.com. Founders looking for funding: If you're a B2B founder working on Education, Health, Finance or food, please contact me for funding at olumide@afrobility.com


Checkout my FIREDOM book = FIRE (Financial Independence, Retire Early) + Freedom = personal finance and financial independence book. Website, Read: Substack Newsletter & Buy: Print, eBook or Audiobook)


Recommendation: I went back and re-read some of my classic books: How I found freedom in an Unfree world (Harry Browne), Don't Sweat the Small Stuff and It's All Small Stuff (Richard Carlson) & A Guide to the Good Life - The Ancient Art of Stoic Joy (William B. Irvine)


Small win: Hiking with new friends in St Thomas. Cool





Bankole’s recommendations & small wins:


Recommendation: FiveBooks.Com - FiveBooks.com shares lists of the best five books on many topics, chosen by experts in that area


Recommendation: Jeff Bezos on Lex Fridman Podcast. A rare Jeff Bezos long form interview. 


Small win: Running while listening to Big 7 - Burna Boy


Fact check: Tony Elumelu narrates How He Went from Second Class Lower Degree to Nigeria's Billionaire


Other content: FT ranking: Africa's Fastest Growing Companies 2023 & AFEX Nigeria loses maize worth N85m to 'police raid' 







Listeners: We’d love to hear from you. Email info@afrobility.com with feedback!

Founders & Operators: We'd love to hear about what you're working on, email us at info@afrobility.com

Investors: It would be great to link up with you. Contact us at info@afrobility.com

Join our insider mailing list where we get feedback on new episodes & find all episodes on Afrobility.com

Overview: Today, we’re going to talk about Nomba (formerly known as Kudi) , the FinTech payments solutions provider. We’ll explore the story across the following areas:


African & Nigerian SME context


Nomba's early history 


Product & monetization strategy


Competitive positioning & potential exit options


Our overall outlook.



This episode was recorded on December 3, 2023

Companies discussed: Nomba (Kudi), MoniePoint (TeamApt), Yoco, Kuda Bank, Flutterwave, Paystack, Stripe, Safaricom, Brass Banking, TradeDepot, Sabi, Paystack, Flutterwave, MTN, Airtel, Bumpa, Vendease, Orda, OPay, OnePipe, Paga, FairMoney, Omnibiz, Interswitch & Kippa

Business concepts discussed: SME Agency Banking, Informal retail, banking, Open banking & Mobile Money, Merchants solutions, Points-of-Sale devices, SME Lending & hardware and software bundling

Conversation highlights:


(01:25) - Nomba context


(06:29) - Context of African SMEs and Informal retail


(19:10) - Founding story and founders’ background


(29:02) - Fundraising


(43:07) - Partnerships, Geographical expansion and Team


(47:55) - User metrics


(52:55) - Product and Monetization strategy


(1:02:24) - Competition and options for exit


(1:12:35) - Olumide’s overall thoughts and outlook


(1:18:50) - Bankole’s overall thoughts and outlook


(1:24:40) - Recommendation and small wins 





Olumide’s recommendations & small wins:


Interested in investing in Africa Tech with Olumide: Read about Adamantium fund & contact me at olumide@afrobility.com. Founders looking for funding: If you're a B2B founder working on Education, Health, Finance or food, please contact me for funding at olumide@afrobility.com




Checkout my FIREDOM book = FIRE (Financial Independence, Retire Early) + Freedom = personal finance and financial independence book. Website, Read: Substack Newsletter & Buy: Print, eBook or Audiobook)


Recommendation: Jay-Z at Madison  Square Garden. Incredible. He performs so many of his hit songs with an ensemble of other artists. I was jumping of my chair rapping along.


Recommendation: Charlie Munger died last week.. What a hero. What a legend. What a mind. I love the guy. I can recommend all his books and videos





Bankole’s recommendations & small wins:


Recommendation: Constellation Software on Business Breakdowns


Small win: Running in Paris and Ray-Ban Meta glasses







Listeners: We’d love to hear from you. Email info@afrobility.com with feedback!

Founders & Operators: We'd love to hear about what you're working on, email us at info@afrobility.com

Investors: It would be great to link up with you. Contact us at info@afrobility.com

Join our insider mailing list where we get feedback on new episodes & find all episodes on Afrobility.com

Overview: Today, we’re going to explore TymeBank - the South African neobank. We’ll discuss the story across  the following areas:


African & Nigerian banking context


TymeBank's launch, early history, growth & fundraising


Product & monetization strategy


Competitive positioning & potential exit options


Overall outlook.



Companies discussed: TymeBank, African Rainbow Capital (ARC), MTN, Kuda Bank, Chipper Cash, FairMoney, Carbon, Discovery Bank, Branch, Pick N Pay, TakeAlot, Commonwealth Bank of Australia, Bank Zero, Naspers & NuBank

Business concepts discussed: International expansion, Startups and Distribution, Deposit banking, International expansion, Data sovereignty,

Conversation highlights:


(00:30) - TymeBank context


(08:15) - Context of African Banking 


(24:20) - TymeBank founding story


(52:20) - Fundraising


(55:01) - Growth and geographical expansion


(1:20:03) - Product & Monetization  Strategy


(1:50:08) - Competition and options for Exit


(2:00:33) - Bankole’s  overall thoughts and outlook


(2:10:38) - Olumide’s overall thoughts and outlook


(2:15:00) - Recommendations and small wins





Olumide’s recommendations & small wins:


Interested in investing in Africa Tech with Olumide: Read about Adamantium fund & contact me at olumide@afrobility.com. Founders looking for funding: If you're a B2B founder working on Education, Health, Finance or food, please contact me for funding at olumide@afrobility.com


Checkout my FIREDOM book = FIRE (Financial Independence, Retire Early) + Freedom = personal finance and financial independence book. Website, Read: Substack Newsletter & Buy: Print, eBook or Audiobook)


Recommendation: AI 2041: Ten Visions for Our Future (Kai-Fu Lee): Great book about the potential of AI told across 10 stories


Recommendation: Dangote (song by Burna Boy). Incredible song


Recommendation: Good Bad Boy (song by Lil Kesh). Catchy and smooth chorus. With a deeper meaning about searching for companionship 


Small win: I was in NYC book launch for FIREDOM Book launch. Dope.







Bankole’s recommendations & small wins:


Recommendation: Plunder by Brendan Ballou - A book on the excesses of Private Equity. PE is an example of well-intentioned policy having (unintentional?) downstream impact.


Recommendation:  Business Breakdown Podcast on Mobile Gaming: The uneven distribution of paying customers in mobile gaming reminds me of emerging market telco companies


Small win: Quest 3 Headset! VR is coming along nicely.


Other content:  TymeBank Holdings 2022 Financial Statement & Substack on the history of Tyme Global





Listeners: We’d love to hear from you. Email info@afrobility.com with feedback!

Founders & Operators: We'd love to hear about what you're working on, email us at info@afrobility.com

Investors: It would be great to link up with you. Contact us at info@afrobility.com

Join our insider mailing list where we get feedback on new episodes & find all episodes on Afrobility.com