Sapphire Ventures closes $1 billion fund to back startups

Venture capital firm Sapphire Ventures has closed a $1 billion fund to invest in technology startups, becoming the latest investment firm to join a record-breaking clip of venture fundraising.
Sapphire Ventures, which in 2011 spun out of technology firm SAP but still relies on that company as its sole funding source, has backed high-profile startups such as Square, Box and Fitbit and plans to use the new fund to invest in growth-stage technology startups, the firm said on Wednesday.
The $1 billion pot is Sapphire Ventures’ third and largest fund and nearly doubles the assets the firm has under management to $2.4 billion.
“It’s been a good five years,” said Nino Marakovic, chief executive and managing director of Sapphire Ventures.

Agip train SMEs on capacity growth initiatives

To build the capacity of Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) in the oil and gas sector across the Niger Delta, the Nigeria Agip Oil Company (NAOC/ENI), said over 730 vendors have been trained so far under its capacity development initiatives programmes.
Disclosing this at the opening ceremony of a two-day Business Leadership Workshop organised by the oil giant for small and medium scale business vendors, the Vice Chairman/Managing Director, Massimo Insula, said it was geared towards entrenching small and medium scale businesses for community content and sustainability.
Represented by Manager, Nigeria Content Coordination District, Albert Ijuiwe, said the workshop is designed to be an inspirational programme for business excellence as part of efforts to build their capacities.

Nigeria loses out on global energy investment chart

Total global investment in the energy sector has declined from the $2 trillion recorded in the preceding year to $1.8 trillion in 2015, says the World Energy Investment 2016 of the International Energy Agency (IEA).
The disclosure comes as sources at the Ministry of Power said government was doing everything it could to ensure payment of a N93 billion electricity debt owed distribution companies by Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) before the end of the year.
A source said the Minister of Power, Works and Housing, Babatunde Fashola, received report on the debt in his office on Wednesday, adding that the Debt Management Office (DMO) had initiated a pay-off plan.
The Association of Nigerian Electricity Distributors (ANED) put the MDAs’ debt at about N78.7 billion, with the Nigerian Army as single largest debtor to distribution companies, having

AMCON links debtors with private investors

Debts buying firm, Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria, said it has begun linking prospective foreign investors with debtors, with a view to salvaging their businesses.
The development comes as AMCON disclosed that the Federal Government had no intention to force mergers and acquisition on operators in the troubled aviation industry.
AMCON’s Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer, Ahmed Kuru, said: “Some of them (debtors) don’t have capability; some don’t have cash and some don’t have the right temperament. So, we’re bringing them (investors and debtors) together. Instead of taking over the businesses, the three of us can come together and allow professionals run the businesses.”
He revealed that AMCON was in talks with a lot of prospective investors in this regard. “All that is required is have an understanding. You know, due diligence takes time and it also takes time to identify the area you want to go into. We’re talking to quite a lot of investors, especially from

Budget: FG to raise $1bn via Eurobond in November

In order to finance the 2016 budget, the Federal Government is to raise $1bn through the issuance of Eurobonds by November, investigation has shown.
The amount to be raised from the international bonds market is part of the $4.5bn that the Federal Government plans to borrow from the market in three years.
Authoritative sources said on Wednesday that the government was watching events in the international capital market to know the best opportune time to approach it to raise the fund.
Further investigation revealed that the international capital market had become very attractive to the Federal Government because of the dearth of foreign exchange in the country as a result of poor earnings from the nation’s major forex earner, crude oil.
It was also learnt that most of the monies expected from external borrowings to finance the 2016

FirstNation shifts resumption of operations

The FirstNation Airways has postponed resumption of its flight operations, earlier scheduled for Sept. 15, by a few days.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the airline had on Aug. 17 suspended operations to enable the aircraft in its fleet undergo engine maintenance.
NAN, however, gathered from the airline’s ticket stand at the Murtala Muhammed Airport 2, Lagos, that it might return to operations on Sept. 17.
A reliable source told NAN that the equipment needed to fix the airplanes was only released by the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) a few days ago.
The source said: “The airline had anticipated that all customs formalities would have been done last week Friday before the Sallah holidays.
“It is hoped that the team of engineers would finish work on the engines before Sept. 16 as the airline plans to resume operations immediately after the engines are fixed.’’
Capt. Chimara Imediegwu, the FirstNation Airway’s Director of Flight Operations, had on Sept. 6, told newsmen that a team of engineers were coming to Nigeria to service the planes.

Nigeria losing $8bn in tourism revenue – RenCap

The Global Chief Economist, Renaissance Capital, Mr. Charles Robertson, says Nigeria is losing at least $8bn in tourism receipts.
Robertson, who stated this in an emailed note on Wednesday, stressed the need for improvements in airport quality and visa policy.
He said, “Why is Ghana 25 times more successful than Nigeria in attracting tourism revenues? Indeed, why is Nigeria the second least successful African country in attracting tourism receipts out of the 43 we have data for (only the DRC is worse)?
“One deterrent is the visa process, which we argue is sometimes an example of countries putting pride before economics. It can be an unpleasant experience for an east European or African to get a visa to visit the EU or US – and so it’s not surprising that some emerging markets and frontier countries make it hard for people in richer countries to visit them.”
According to him, patriotic countries like Turkey and Croatia do not jeopardise the economic benefits of tourism by insisting on visa reciprocity.
Robertson said, “We argue that deterring tourists is an economic mistake, especially when the EM

Telcos, banks, others stake N143.1bn on print media adverts in 10yrs

Firms in the telecommunications and banking industry have accounted for the bulk of N142.1 billion earned advertising income for Newspapers in Nigeria between 2006 and December 2015 according to latest figures released by mediaReach OMD, despite lagging behind the television and Out of Home (OOH) media.
According to a special edition of mediafacts in the last ten years, by mediaReach OMD titled: mediafacts Nigeria 10 Year Trend Review (2006 to 2016), the N4.4 billion advert income in 2006 moved up to N4.8 and N4.9 billion in 2007 and 2008 respectively. The newspapers got N15.8 billion in 2009 and N16.5 billion in 2010.
The figure declined to N15.4 in 2011 and slipped further to N9.0 billion in 2012. The downward slope however changed in 2013 with an advert income of N18.5 billion and rose to its peak in 2014, hitting N25.8. The figure went down by N2.1billion in 2015 when the newspapers received N23.7 billion.