I have a preference for investing in informal markets as far as Africa is concerned. Me thinks the real Africa market is the one that’s underserved and underpenetrated not the already saturated one.

Made more money for my employer by allocating funds to brick and mortar businesses than tech that’s supposed to be the in thing especially in Naija. I avoid tech sometimes with their unreasonably bloated valuations and cs Nigerian tech tend to play a lot in formal markets.

What people don’t realize is that companies that painstakingly explore the blue ocean potential in the traditional markets and serve customers that competition ignores typically add earnings stream that has limited competition.

When you get first mover advantage for a business with earnings tied to the bottom of the pyramid in Africa? Absolute best. Look at MPESA. Companies like MPESA can never fail. These are companies that took their time to acquire customers & gain brand loyalty where others ignored

They take their time for understand customer behavior a lot better before launching any product. Companies like this play with limited competition in a market that’s 2x bigger than the formal markets

The business of PE/VC is typically about investing in a business way below their intrinsic value, growing with them then exiting at juicy multiples but the biggest issue i has with the PE model especially in Nigeria is dearth of quality deals and scale that matches fund structure

The typical consequence is PE firms raising hundreds of millions of dollars and investing in quality business that other PE firms are also pursuing at an over priced entry point for a business you intend exiting within 5-7 years. Madness

I’ll probably talk about this extensively in a medium post. Need to head home now.

*Back to mekwe Twitter*

Just seeing all my typos. Sorry about them. Man is sleep-deprived.