2017 NEW YEAR RESOLUTIONS FOR ENTREPRENUERS

Welcome to the new year everyone! No
matter how challenging 2016 may have
been (and I know it was a rough one for
many of us), the beauty of the rollover
into a new year is that with it comes a
fresh sense of promise and possibility.
As such, I’m sure many of you reading
this have, like so many others, decided to
partake in the time-honored tradition of
setting New Year’s resolutions. That
traditional practice by which you create
for yourself a list of goals to achieve or
good habits to establish in the next 365
days.
At some point during the holiday
festivities, parties, and countless
gatherings with friends and family,
you’ve probably found a moment to stop
and psonder what you want this new trip
around the sun to look like.
Especially as an entrepreneur, you likely
have many lofty goals on that list of
yours. Probably a couple about being more
productive, maybe even one or two about
how you’re going to expand or improve
your business. Some of you might even
have a resolution that this is going to be
the year you take the plunge and start
your own business.
But before you head back to that office
and start working, let’s make sure you
have the right goals in the first place.
Because if you really want to make a
difference this year, your New Year’s
resolutions should be all about how you can
start crushing your goals today rather
than what you want the end of your year
to look like. A great New Year’s resolution
should be about equipping you with the
habits and mindset you need to succeed
for life, and not just for the next 365
days.

SETTING GREAT RESOLUTIONS
The biggest trouble with New Year’s
resolutions is the fact that most of them
fail before January even ends. One
study even claims that only a measly 8%
of all resolutions will be fulfilled or
considered successful.
You know what it’s like. You start off the
year feeling great, the first week is a
success and so is the second week. But by
the third week, you’re starting to slip and
before you know it you’ve given up
entirely. And you find yourself hatefully
staring at that list taped your fridge and
wondering if there’s something wrong with
you.
Don’t worry, there’s nothing wrong with
you. It’s been scientifically proven that
the human brain is just terrible at making
plans and following through with them.
Often it has to do with the fact that we’re
not setting the right goals in the first
place.
So before you even set out to make your
list of resolutions, commit to setting clear
and achievable goals for yourself. Take a
step back and be honest with yourself
about what you can realistically achieve.
It’s all well and good to shoot for the
moon, but not if it means halfway through
your journey you start hating yourself for
not getting as far as you thought you
would.
We wrote at length about how to set
effective goals in last year’s New Year’s
post, which you can check out here .
With that in mind, here are four New
Year’s resolutions that every
entrepreneur needs to make for a
successful 2017 !

RESOLUTION 1: I WILL ASK MORE QUESTIONS
When I was a kid I always found myself in
awe of adults, because they always just
seemed to know everything . I remember
pestering my parents and teachers all the
time with questions upon questions
because they always seemed to have the
right answers all the time.
As I grew older, I began to stop asking
questions. Somewhere along the way, I
started believing that asking questions
was somehow a sign of failure. That asking
questions would make me inconvenience
my friends and family and make me
appear weak or needy. It just felt like I
always needed to have the right answer
too.
After all, great entrepreneurs like Steve
Jobs , Elon Musk, and Richard
Branson never had to ask any questions
did they?
Nothing could be further from the truth.
As an entrepreneur, you’re often taught
that you need to be self-reliant, to be
decisive, and at some point you might
have convinced yourself that to be an
effective leader you need to be one with
all the answers. All that pressure can
often stop us from doing something that
all children instinctively understand— if
you don’t know something, just ask.
Whether it’s asking for advice, asking for
feedback, or just plain asking for help,
learning to ask questions is one of the
most valuable skills any entrepreneur can
master.
Learning to become comfortable asking
questions means that you now have a tool
to drastically improve your knowledge,
resources, and even your network. Look,
contrary to what your ego might tell you,
it’s practically impossible to do everything
by yourself. If you want to survive as an
entrepreneur, you need to know who you
can turn to when you need it.
Not asking questions doesn’t make you
look smart. In fact, it just makes you
look arrogant. If you’ve ever been on a
road trip with someone who refuses to ask
for directions, you know exactly what I
mean.
On my family road trips, our favorite
games to play are “heated argument”
and “the GPS is lying.”
Great entrepreneurs and leaders
instinctively know that it’s not their job to
have all the answers, but instead to have
the right questions and be unafraid to
ask them. This year, make it your mission
to learn how to start asking questions
again. Don’t be afraid to ask someone to
explain something more clearly, or to ask
for help and advice when you need it.
At the end of this year’s meetings, or
business interactions, or even casual
conversations, ask yourself briefly before
wrapping up, what did I not fully grasp
that I should have asked about but
didn’t? What information am I missing
that I’ll wish I had later?
While great entrepreneurs and leaders
might not have all the answers, they do,
however, always know the right questions .
It’s a skill to master over time.

RESOLUTION 2: I WILL WORK ON MY BUSINESS, NOT JUST IN IT
It doesn’t matter if you’ve just started a
business, are looking to start one, or are
a tried-and-true veteran. In order to
truly make entrepreneurial strides this
year, you need to learn how to work
on your business.
If, like many early stage entrepreneurs,
you’re the only person working on your
business, you can start falling into the
trap of thinking that everything relies on
you. And to a certain degree, that’s true,
especially when you’re just starting out.
But in order to build a truly successful
business, you’re going to need to learn
how to create a company that can exist
without you entirely.
After all, the reason most of us become
entrepreneurs in the first place is because
we want to escape the grind and find the
freedom in working for ourselves. So why
would you trade one grind for another,
only this time you have an infinitely
harsher and less forgiving boss?
If you really want to dramatically scale
up your business, you need to avoid the
trap of thinking you have to do it alone.
The most common mistake entrepreneurs
make when trying to take their businesses
to the next level is thinking that they
simply have to work harder, or work
longer hours.
But the problem with that is, as Michael
Gerber points out in his seminal book The
E Myth, it’s not scalable.
You have natural limitations on your time
and energy. If your business relies
entirely on the amount of work you can
put in then it will inevitably hit a wall that
you will not be able to get past, regardless
of how hard you work.
It might be true that no one knows your
business better than you, or even that no
one is as efficient as you. But the time
you spend doing jobs that other people
could be doing is time not spent running
and improving your business.
Seriously spend some time creating a
Business Model Canvas of what you want
your business to look like at the end of the
year. Force yourself to look at your
business objectively and figure out what
you needs to happen in order for you to
achieve this goal.
Once you’ve filled it out, take a step back
and highlight the key things that only you
can do . Be realistic with yourself. If
something can be automated then you
should automate it. If you need to hire a
virtual assistant , then do so. If there’s
any tech or resources out there you can
use, seriously consider it.
Let go of the reins a little this year and
thank me later when Christmas rolls
around.

RESOLUTION 3: I WILL MAKE NETWORKING A TOP PRIORITY
Networking is by far one of the most
valuable tools you can have in your
arsenal. Knowing the right person can
open up huge opportunities to grow your
entrepreneurial career, get in touch with
influencers, and find the mentors you
need. It has been proven time and time
again that who you surround and
associate yourself with drastically
influences your likelihood of success in
any given field.
Entrepreneurial guru Tim Ferriss says the
catalyst of his current success was his
networking efforts one fateful weekend
at the SXSW conference in 2007.
Everyone seems to know how important
networking is, but a shockingly low number
of entrepreneurs choose to get out there
and actually do it. Or, at the very least,
many of us are going about it in the wrong
way.
Now I’m not asking you to suddenly turn
into a power networker this year, or to
immediately plug yourself into multiple
mastermind groups. Nope, all I’m asking
you to do is to make it a New Year’s
resolution that you’ll take networking
much more seriously .
One of the biggest reasons you should
start investing time into developing your
network now is so you don’t have to do it
later when you really need the support. A
mistake that many young entrepreneurs
make is that they only start building their
network just before they need something.
In that scenario, unless you happen to be
gifted with the type of charm that could
make George Clooney blush, chances are
people are going to notice that you’re only
talking to them because you want
something. Which is never a good first
impression to make.
If you’re familiar with people giving you
the ‘Simon Cowell’ then you’re doing
networking wrong.
Generally speaking, people don’t like
feeling used. By taking the time to
network now, starting in January, you
develop relationships when you have
nothing to pitch or sell. Then you’re far
more likely to develop the key
relationships and support systems you
need for when you actually do encounter
a problem.
The best thing you can do right now is to
get out there and meet people in whatever
way suits you best.
If you’re a bit more extroverted, then
check out local entrepreneurship and
networking events in your area through
sites like Meetup or Eventbrite .
If you happen to be more
introverted, then just jump on any social
network and start joining online
entrepreneurship communities . If you
want a bit more of that Foundr flavor,
then check out Foundr Club , our own
private entrepreneurship community,
when you get a chance.
Regardless of your own personal approach
to social situations , there are many ways
you can step up your networking game this
year.

RESOLUTION 4: I WILL MAKE MORE TIME FOR MYSELF
Last, and certainly not least, this will be
the year you’re going to start making
more time for yourself.
When your business starts and stops with
you, it can feel like you’re under a
constant amount of pressure to always be
working. As an entrepreneur, you
probably have the kind of mentality where
taking a break from work actually feels
uncomfortable, because there’s always
something that needs to be done.
Chances are, you’re quite familiar with
the routine of pulling over 60 hours a
week, and have seen your fair share of
all-nighters.
Most people will experience serious
burnout at least once in their lives. Those
with an entrepreneurial attitude are
likely to experience it more than once. If
you’re reading this article, I’m sure
you’re familiar with that sickening feeling
of exhaustion and stress.
Once you’ve hit burnout, your body just
stops, and once you stop, your whole
business shudders to a halt. Then that
feeling of being overwhelmed turns into
thoughts of self-doubt, harsh criticism,
and it can even manifest itself into panic
attacks.
What I would challenge you to do this year
is to make sure you don’t experience
burnout. Not even a little. In order for
that to happen, you need to learn how to
be okay with making time for yourself.
And no, personal time does not mean any
time you’re not at work. Personal time
isn’t just sitting on the couch and
browsing Netflix so you can pass the time,
or feeling stressed because of
commitments with friends and family.
When I say make time for yourself, I
mean find at least a couple hours a week
to do something you truly enjoy .
Something where there’s no pressure, no
stress, but something that you truly have
a passion for and invigorates you.
Basically I want you to place the same
amount of importance on your hobbies as
you do with your business.
What you choose to do might be very
different than someone else. I, for one,
strongly recommend that you pick up a
creative hobby if possible. That can be
anything from learning about photography
to picking up a musical instrument.
After all, it’s been scientifically
proven that those who engage in creative
hobbies outside of work are not only
happier, but perform 15-30% better at
work when compared to those who don’t
have one.
Now this might feel uncomfortable at
first, and some of you might even feel a
little guilty. But think of it this way—if
the success of your business relies on
whether or not you can work, then
investing time to make sure your physical
and mental well-being is taken care of is,
in fact, making an investment into your
business!

CONCLUSION
As you embark on these resolutions, I
would offer you one parting piece of
advice. Don’t be too hard on yourselves! I
think one of the big problems with New
Year’s resolutions is that they begin with
blaring optimism, and crumble into
despair at the first sign of failure.
I encourage you to find that middle
ground in which you’re not putting the
weight of the world on your shoulders, but
you’re also not convinced all is lost. If you
slip up, make it a learning experience and
try again. Resolutions, self-improvement,
success, these things happen through
practice, persistence, and patience. Keep
your head up!
I know you’re going to crush it this year,
Foundr family, and that 2017 holds
tremendous success for us. But what
resolutions did we forget? What are you
determined to do this year?

source: foundr

AWODUN IS THE MVP IN KWARA STATE- OLASUPO ABIDEEN OPEYEMI

It is one thing for one to work smartly and assiduously to achieve something; it is another to use the achieved resources as the case maybe to fetch in more opportunities. There is no doubt in the fact that Nigerians are hard-working, and they so much cherish the products of their sweat. It’s however not understandable how hard-working people live and settle conveniently in a state where almost nothing works when, in advanced countries, hard work is matched with convenience. Then, we want to ask ourselves where the convenience that is supposed to match our hard work as Nigerians lie? States have been fashioned out under the democratic rule to reduce the burden on the federal leadership, even though federal governments still have responsibilities to carry out in these states. In countries where things work, certain productive measures are being institutionalised in the state level which make the state independent financially; and when this happens, a whole lot can be done in the state to bring convenience to meet people’s toils. Kwara state is one of the 36 states in Nigeria and one of the states that works diplomatically and dynamically around improving the lives of her people in no small way, while also helping the state continue on the path of progress. The continuation of the process of revamping the Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) of the State made the administration of the present Governor, Dr Abdulfatah Ahmed, go the full hug. This he did by putting together the Kwara State Revenue Administration Bill which was sent to the House of Assembly last year. The bill was successfully passed by the House of Assembly and was signed into law by His Excellency, Governor Abdulfatah Ahmed, on the 22nd of June, 2015. The government found the creation of KWIRS an opportunity to gain more revenue to meet their expenditures around developing the State and making her people’s toil convenient. It would also liberate the State from the shackles of being broke, as federal allocation to the State among others is dwindling.   If KWIRS must live up to its standard, then it should have capable hands working for the sole reason of its creation. The government in town then found this institution not only qualified hands, but men whose integrity nothing can buy, under the leadership of Dr Muritala O. Awodun, the man who has been turning things around positively. The mission of this revolutionized cause which is to mobilize revenue for the strategic development of Kwara State would definitely meet challenges as Nigerians are not blessed with the patience of having to sacrifice the money they work hard to gain without seeing anything for it. What remains thus is how this cause would materialise. The leadership of KWIRS set out to meet traditional leaders to help them with the campaign for people to pay their tax to help the State climb heights of progress. They met traditional leaders like the Emir of Ilorin, the Emir of Kaima among many other traditional rulers who supported them on the cause by promising to pay their taxes too. This strategy didn’t only win them the support of the traditional rulers, but their people were also convinced on the benefits paying tax would bring. If you toil hard to get what you need, and you contribute a token from your hard-earned money to the development of your state, you get that token back in manifold, this is the idea KWIRS pitched to the public. One important thing Nigerians fail to appreciate is the fact that tax collection is very crucial for any State or Nation that wants to progress. The collected taxes are channelled at ensuring the progress of the state and the well-being of her people. KWIRS has vowed that it would serve the residents of Kwara State in the most convenient strategies which will add value and integrity to the revenue mobilization process and actualize the developmental objectives of the government. What else should one expect? But in a country where almost nothing works, nobody wants to drop their money only to see nothing. And who are we to blame Nigerians who think this way? The core values of KWIRS have continued to guide their services as honesty, integrity, responsibility and trust are the lights that glow from the image they present to the society. This institution led by Dr Muritala O. Awodun has continued to live up to its standard by working assiduously in ensuring they meet up with targets that would help residents  of Kwara State live meaningfully. This man and his team have collected a total of ₦8.09 billion into the coffers of the State for the first half of 2016 alone. It’s important to note this figure is higher than the total ₦7.2 billion collected for 2015 by the defunct Board of Internal Revenue in the State. It is also interesting to know that PAYE collection has increased from ₦200 million to ₦450 million. With no mincing and missing of words, Awodun is the real MVP and he deserves an award. Indigenes in Kwara state have in no small measure benefitted from this profitable exercise, ranging from road repair to rebuilding of shopping outlets and other developmental objectives of the government they have breathed life into. It can thus be concluded that paying tax at the right time would only bring about convenience for our toils, as this would help government put in place necessary things to improve the standard of living of the people, which no doubt brings convenience to the people, even as they toil to earn their living.  

Olasupo Abideen Opeyemi is a Youth Leader, Business Consultant and Digital Marketer. He is the Executive Director, Brain Builders International- A United Nation accredited Non Governmental Organisation(www.brainbuilders.com.ng). He can be reached on +2347068775529 or abideenolasupo@gmail.com

AMBODE URGES YOUTHS TO SHUN CULTISM

…Urges Youths To Shun Kidnapping, Rape, Other Crimes
Lagos State Governor, Mr. Akinwunmi Ambode on Tuesday
announced readiness of the State Government to offer
amnesty to cultists willing to renounce their membership of
cult groups and turn a new leaf.
Governor Ambode, who stated this in Ikorodu at the ongoing
One Lagos Fiesta, said his administration has perfected plans
to use 2017 to rehabilitate all those involved in one form of
criminality or the other and are ready to be law abiding, with
the view to making them live normal lives and contribute
meaningfully to the society.
While noting with concern the rising spate of cultism and
other crimes especially in the Ikorodu axis, the Governor said
in as much as the government has capacity to deal with such
crimes, he nevertheless said amnesty is being offered to
encourage those willing to turn away from their old ways and
embrace new lives.
“In the last few months, we have been having a lot of
challenges with cultism in Ikorodu area and a lot of issues
that relate to kidnapping. So, we are going to strike a deal
tonight, we are going to say no to cultism and then we are
going to encourage all of you. Anybody who is a cult member,
we are going to offer you amnesty. I want to use the whole of
2017 to rehabilitate all those who have been doing bad things;
we are going to provide money and we are going to provide
jobs.
“We are going to encourage ourselves; wherever you find
somebody that is not doing anything well, you can either tell
the monarch here or come to us, we will give you protection;
we offer you money and then we are going to offer you
automatic jobs. So, we all agree to say no to domestic
violence, kidnapping, rape and no to cultism. Once you sign
on, we would offer you anything that you want,” Governor
Ambode said.
The Governor also stressed the importance of education and
hard work to the youths, and urged them to strive very hard
to be educated, and thereafter pursue their dreams.
While referring to an entertainer, Folarin Falana popularly
known as Falz, who is a lawyer, the Governor said it was
highly essential for the young ones to be educated before
thinking of other things in life.
“What I brought to you tonight is to let you know that
education is very important. You can be who you want to be.
If I was not a Governor, I would be an accountant; if I was
not an accountant, maybe I would have been an entertainer
because I love music, I love arts, I love entertainment and
that is why I want to encourage all of you, firstly, we must all
be educated and then you can now use you creative talents to
be who you want to be,” he said.
Addressing the mammoth crowd who came out in droves for
the fiesta including monarchs, members of the State
Executive Council, among others, Governor Ambode also
urged parents to talk to their children on the need to shun all
forms of crime and violence, assuring that the State
Government would continue to device strategies and policies
to give greater opportunities to the youths.

GLO EMERGES AS LEADER IN NEW DATA SUBSCRIPTIONS IN THE YEAR 2016

Report from the telecoms regulator, the Nigerian Communications Commission
(NCC), has revealed that Globacom has again maintained its supremacy in the
data sector, having emerged the only operator to garner an increase in
internet subscriptions in the month of October, 2016.
This was revealed in the latest review published on the NCC website, and it
showed that the network grew its internet customer base to 27,185,552 million
in October from 26,887,929 in September. This indicates an increase of
297,623 during the month.
According to observers, Globacom’s consistent dominance of the sub sector is
partly attributable to the nationwide rollout of the 4G LTE advanced network
in October , 2016. With the launch of the service, millions of subscribers on the
Glo network are able to enjoy instant efficient broadband internet
connectivity.
The Commission stated on its website that the total number of internet users
on the networks of the four major operators shrank by 378,015 from 93.5m in
September to 93.1m in October.
It was MTN and Etisalat that accounted for the reductions in the number of
customers surfing the net in the country during the period, while Airtel did
not record any increase as its figures for the two months were the same.
The report showed that MTN had 32,464,779 million subscribers browsing the
internet on its network in October, which is a decrease of 306,480 internet
subscribers from the September figure of 32,771,259.
NCC documented that Airtel had 18,832,238 million internet users in October,
the same figure it recorded in September. On its part, Etisalat had 14,693,492
million data customers in October, showing a loss of 369,158 compared to the
15,062,650 million users it recorded in the preceding month of September.
On the other hand, the CDMA sector lost 13,664 internet users, after recording
38,309 in October compared to the 51,973 figure recorded in September.

ZOBO DRINK; HERBAL AND MEDICINAL

Consumption of ‘Zobo’ drink is very effective in the management of hypertension due to its anti-hypertensive properties, says Dr. Ochuko
Erukainure, a nutritional biochemist.
Erukainure, a senior research officer with the Federal Institute of Industrial Research (FIIRO) , Oshodi, Lagos State, disclosed this to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lagos.
According him, zobo drink also known as hibiscus drink also helps in reducing cholesterol level, high blood pressure, diabetes and constipation in the human system.
“Zobo drink contains between 15 per cent and 30 per cent organic acids such as: citric acid, maleic acid, and tartaric acid. It also contains acidic polysaccharides and flavonoid glycosides, such as cyanide and delphine. Zobo
drink helps to lower blood pressure as it contains an enzyme inhibitor which blocks the production of amylase,’’ he said.
According to him, amylase is an enzyme that breaks down complex sugars and starches,
Erukainure also said that drinking a cup of zobo after every meal would help to reduce the absorption of dietary carbohydrates and assist in weight loss.
“It is rich in Vitamin C and makes a wonderful herbal remedy to fight off colds and infections as well as help to retain fluid in the body system,’’ Erukainure said.
The senior researcher advised consumers not to add sugar to their zobo drink so that its natural essence could be well-preserved and not contaminated by other non-natural essences.
Erukainure, however, advised pregnant women against consuming zobo drink saying some studies had shown that such could lead to miscarriage. “Its safety during breast feeding is unknown and, therefore, it is best to
avoid zobo drink then also.’’
Erukainure said that patients diagnosed with low blood-pressure should not to drink it and if they should, they should consult their doctors before doing so.
The senior researcher also said that some pregnant women were allergic to
consuming zobo drink as it might lead to their developing itchy red eyes, sinus or hay fever.

NIGERIAN YOUNG TECHPRENUERS RAISES OVER $1M

Paystack , one of Nigeria’s most hotly
anticipated tech start-ups, has just secured $1.3M Seed investment from both international and homegrown investors. The investors include 1Tencent , Comcast Ventures and Singularity Investments , with participation from Spark , M&S Partners, Tokyo Founders Fund , Blue Rinc Capital, Pave Investments, KIBS-CFY Partners,
Michael Siebel, Justin Kan, Olumide Soyombo, Leonard Stiegeler and a number of Angels. The company, founded by Shola Akinlade and Ezra Olubi, initially caught the eye of industry commentators as it was one the first Nigerian tech company to be accepted into the world-famous Y Combinator progam, based in Silicon Valley. Since then, having taken Paystack through Private beta, and securing $120,000 early-stage investment from Y Combinator, Akinlade [CEO] and Olubi [CTO] have quietly been building the company, working to secure
this Seed investment round, whilst also building a network of partner merchants in Nigeria, over 1,500, who are now using the platform to accept online payments.
I spoke to Paystack’s CEO, Shola Akinlade,
to find out how the company is working to
fix Nigeria’s fragmented online payments
system.

Q: Introduce us to Paystack – how did the
idea come about?

A: We started Paystack because we knew online
payments in Africa were essentially broken and someone definitely had to do the hard work of fixing it. Ezra Olubi [Paystack Co- founder and CTO] and I graduated from Babcock University 10 years ago, and after that, I worked on Precurio, a collaboration software for businesses in emerging markets which was downloaded over 150,000 times and made available in six languages. Ezra on the other hand, started off working in payments with Eyowo, and then went on to become the CTO of Jobberman, and Delivery Science. But we were both from solidly tech backgrounds. Sometime in 2014, I was helping a few banks with financial software and realised I had a great chance of solving the payments problem; firstly because I had built world-class software before, and now,
I had a little access to the financial industry. I started speaking with people in the tech ecosystem and then put up a waiting list, which was really just a call for those who wanted to try out what we were working on. Within one month, we had over 300 people join the waiting list. From this, we felt that we had tapped into an issue that was experienced by many, so we grew the idea from there. The challenge was to
solve the issue of online payments in Africa, somehow connecting the super- fragmented aspects of the sector. What we did was develop multi-channel payment options for merchants across the country, enabling them to accept payments from around the world, via credit card, debit card, and direct bank transfer on web and mobile. It’s taken two years of non-stop hard work to grow it from idea stage, to
the product we have today.

Q: You were accepted into the tech accelerator
Y Combinator at an early stage. What was the process and how did it help your
company?

A:  Y Combinator is amazing. I had applied for
the tech accelerator with my first company, in 2007 and, sadly, didn’t get in. I applied again last year with Paystack and got invited to Silicon Valley for a 10-minute interview. We packed our bags, took our laptops, got on a plane, shared our vision with YC applications team, showed them what we were building and, to our surprise, we got in, making us the first Nigerian company to be accepted into the program. The YC program basically changed our
company’s trajectory. They funded us with
$120k and advised us to focus on building our product and talking to our customers, noting that almost everything else involved in building our ideas and company, would be a distraction. They helped us focus on the detail; the core structure of the company that was going to help us scale. YC also helped with fundraising, as at the end of Y Combinator, there’s a Demo Day where each company has to present to the top
early stage investors in the world. It seems we were able to capture the attention of investors who understood the scale of the challenge, as well as our solution for fixing the problem of payments in Africa, as we were able to raise our seed round on the back of Demo Day.

Q:  You’ve just come out of beta, but you already have over 1,500 Nigerian companies
using your service – how have you been able
to grow so quickly?

A:  Paystack opened up its beta in January,
and in less than a year we’ve processed well
over 1 Billion Naira. It’s really people telling other people about what we offer, how we can help them build their business, by using paystack. We’re already working with some of Nigeria’s top platforms, such as iROKOtv , Jobberman, Payporte, and Hotels.ng – now we want to continue to build out our list of homegrown companies. When we tell people that they can start receiving payments within 30 minutes from sign-up, I think many are initially, a little cynical. So many merchants in Nigeria have faced so many challenges with
receiving payments over the years, I think perhaps they thought it sounded a little too
good to be true. But they had faith, they
tried us out, our product worked for them.
Our customers have been our evangelists,
and that has really helped us grow quickly.
Y Combinator told us to talk to our customers and we did. It seems that our customers then went on to talk about us.

Q:   You’ve just announced that you have closed
on seed funding of $1.3M – how will you be
investing this into the company?

A:   We will use the investment to build out our
engineering team, grow our sales and marketing operations and accelerate our
product development. It’s exciting because
more than ever, we feel like we now have
the capacity to solve the problem of making
online payments in Africa – ensuring a
smooth interaction between merchants and
customers.

Q:  Raising investment / seed funding for an
African start-up in this economic climate cannot be easy. Can you give us an idea of the current investment landscape?

A:  Funding is difficult and distracting for
early stage businesses. We had over 60 calls
and meetings and only about 15 were positive. However, I’m excited that Silicon Valley is now paying attention to African companies, with Mark Zuckerberg, Y Combinator and 500 startups all betting on African startups this year. I’m optimistic that as long as African startups keep building great businesses, funding will continue to flow in our direction.

Q:  You recently announced that Paystack has
built an online payments gateway for one of the world’s largest e-commerce companies, Shopify. How did this meeting of two minds occur?

A:  We had been getting requests from
customers that wanted us to build a direct
integration for Shopify and so we decided
to build it. While we were building it, I think people were also telling Shopify that they needed to get Paystack in Nigeria and so the partnerships team reached out to us and really helped us get this done smoothly. This is super interesting because businesses can now setup an ecommerce store in hours using Shopify and start accepting payments that same hour with
Paystack. That’s the power of collaboration.
What can Paystack offer online merchants
and sellers that the likes of Paypal or other
international fintech companies can’t?
Payments are really fragmented in Africa
and Nigeria, because people pay in different ways here and our problems are a bit different from the rest of the world.
Paystack offers support for local payment
methods, like Verve Cards, USSD payments
like GTBank’s *737#, and direct bank
connections. More than that, I think we
are just better positioned to meet the
needs of the Nigerian merchant and that’s
why were are able to build features like the
transaction timelines to help them visualize
and understand card failure rates, or payment pages to help them accept payments without a developer, and we will continue to go deeper. We understand the challenges of the African fintech market and we feel that we are best placed, as Africans, to solve said challenges.

Q:   Paystack is available in Nigeria at the
moment – do you have any plans to scale
the company outside of Nigeria and across
Africa?

A:    Oh yes, we are already having early
conversations in Ghana and should support
a few more countries in 2017. 2016 has been
a brilliant year for us, and we’re happy to
close it out with this funding announcement, but we’re also always thinking several steps ahead, and building out across the continent is absolutely critical to our growth strategy. The entire African payments market is, I believe, up
for grabs.

Q:   There’s a lot of buzz around fintech in
Africa at the moment, what does the wider
market and growth potential look like for
Paystack and other fintech start-ups.

A:   The growth potential for fintech is
enormous. Nigerian businesses collected
about $150B last year, most of which was collected offline. However the digital economy on the continent is growing fast, and Nigeria alone currently sees 6 million new Internet users every year. Such a high proportion of payments are still conducted offline, but with more people coming online every year, the growth trajectory is staggering. It’s easy to see that there will be more digital transactions this year than last year, and this is a trend that will
continue for a very long time.

Source: http://www.forbes.com/sites/
mfonobongnsehe/2016/12/19/nigerian-
fintech-startup-paystack-raises-1-3-
million/#281c15334c6e

2017 NEW YEAR RESOLUTION FROM J.J OMOJUWA

For 2017, identify friends who will always stand with you when others come for you publicly - whether you are wrong or right - you need them.

Make sure such friends have the guts and the capacity to tell you the truth privately. But you need friends that can swim the tide with you.

If you are doing anything of significance, there will be days when a mob comes at you - whether you are wrong or right - don't wither.

On days like that, some will mean well, but there will be many who will see such as an opportunity to express their hatred for you those are the days you need your friends to stand up for you publicly. If they don't, don't make excuses for them. They are likely fake!

None of us is perfect but once a mob comes against one of us for any reason, we cannot stand with the mob and claim to be well wishers.

Anyway, do what works for you but any day a friend of mine stands with the mob against me, that friendship dies that day! In Jesus name too!

We won't fight. I won't stop taking your calls. I know how to kill a friendship without withdrawing my physical presence.

You don't need too many friends. And you need to define what you call "friendship" afresh so you don't make leeches your soldiers!

There is a time and place for everything. Whatever fault of mine you can't tell me privately as a friend, saying it publicly is betrayal!!!

Be ready to walk away from people who think that without them the sun will not shine on you and the earth will not rotate for you.

The best decision of my life was "walking away." Especially when walking away was me walking into uncertainty from convenience.

That that we walked away from who thought the world revolved around his wishes, that we can look back on and send some help. God is great!

Everyone around you matters. No one around you is indispensable. You don't know how strong you are until being strong is all you've got left.