Nasir El-Rufai may no longer be the Kaduna State governor and has missed a controversial ministerial appointment, but he certainly has not lost his zest for taking on big projects. The former governor is going into the private sector with a loud statement.

El-Rufa plans to launch a $100 million venture capital fund for startups in Nigeria, particularly those in the Kaduna tech ecosystem. He plans to match his ambitions with actions. He is willing to stake $2 million of his money for the offtake of the fund. He plans to convince investors to provide the remaining funding. The investors will mostly be those “who believe in us but don’t have the capacity or the time to do the analysis and evaluation. But they trust our judgment and they will come with us.”

He was in Marrakech in November for the Africa Investment Forum where he spoke to BusinessDay.

The former governor who played a significant role in the emergence of the current Nigerian president as the party’s candidate, seems to have put his disappointments behind him.

In Marrakech, there was no trace of the man who became the target of much social media trolling. The El-Rufai that showed up in Marrakech was looking spritely and took part in all the sessions of the Africa Investment Forum, a multi-stakeholder, multi-disciplinary platform with the vision to channel capital towards critical sectors to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals, the African Development Bank’s High 5s, and the African Union’s Agenda 2063.

According to him, he wants to set up a venture capital fund or private equity that will invest in young Nigerians with innovative ideas. It doesn’t matter what segment of the economy the ideas are. It could be in agriculture. ICT or the creative industry, so long as it has the potential to add value to the world, these are the ideas that El-Rufai and his fund will target.

During his tenure as governor of Kaduna, El-Rufai said he met many students in Kaduna who had great ideas and were creating innovations. However, many of them did not have someone to mentor them and help those ideas grow.

“What young people need is essentially mentoring and financing to get things going. They develop the idea and see whether it is viable. And we will open doors for them because they don’t have contact. They don’t know or have access to ministers, presidents, or regulatory agencies. We do. We know the minefields that they have to navigate. We know that they need to give them appointments and we can provide them with the startup funding and in return we take an equity position.

We don’t want to take your business; we want to develop it. But if we take the risk on you, we will take a percentage of the business,” El-Rufai said.

He is working with select private sector partners, including Eyo Ekpo, co-founder of Excredite Consulting Limited, and their primary focus is on Nigeria but the ambition is Africa because he projects from a report that Africa will be supplying the world with a significant portion of the workforce it needs by 2050.

According to a report by the Guardian, by 2050, Africa’s population is expected to reach 2.5 billion, which is about 25 percent of the world’s population.

El-Rufai says such projections call for more investments in the younger demographic. However, his fund will not just be focusing on new startups, there is also a plan to engage established companies with management problems that are still viable. The VC fund will invest in such companies, get them sorted out and take them to exit.

“We don’t intend to remain in any business. We want to catalyse growth in these startups,” he said.

One of the goals of being at the African Investment Conference was to seek continental partnerships, and investors and to explore opportunities with climate-focused investors.

“Nigeria has a lot to offer Africa and the world. Our population, entrepreneurial capability, the innovation of our young people and their boldness and courage to find success. We just felt that we have a duty to encourage,” he said.

The first fund will be investing for three to four years. The fund is expected to launch early next year and the company will be headquartered in Abuja. This is to diversify the funding beyond Lagos because there is already a lot of interest in funding innovation in Lagos. El-Rufai and his partners want to spur startup funding interest in ecosystems in Kaduna, Abuja and other parts of the country.

[Businessday]

Gold hits record highs, bitcoin at 41k as market bulls came in prepared for the last month of the year.

The flagship crypto asset topped $41,500 in the early hours of Monday for the first time since early May 2022, while Ethereum rose above $2,200 amid a broad but modest rally in the crypto market.

Gold hit a record high, market analysts anticipate that the global bullion rush is expected to continue, with spot prices reaching $2,100 in the first trading session of the week

Prices for the yellow metal rose for the second consecutive month as the Israeli-Palestinian conflict increased demand for safe havens and expectations for interest rate cuts provided further support. The precious metal tends to perform well during times of economic and geopolitical uncertainty due to its status as a reliable store of value.

A recent survey by the World Gold Council showed growing pessimism about the US dollar as a reserve currency, with 24% of central banks intending to increase their gold reserves over the next 12 months.

Consequently, Bitcoin has been toying with the $40,000 mark for the past few days, but it finally broke above $40K early Monday morning, marking a day rise of 4% at the time of writing, according to Binance data.  Ethereum is trading at $2,205 and has risen by a similar percentage over the past 24 hours.

Bitcoin’s value has more than doubled this year, with most of the gains occurring in recent weeks as investors speculate about the possible approval of a U.S. ETF that directly tracks the price of the crypto asset.

Although Grayscale prevailed in a significant legal struggle against the regulator to have its application for a spot ETF approved, the Securities and Exchange Commission has not indicated that it plans to approve a spot ETF soon.

Recent remarks from Fed Chair Jerome Powell, who noted a greater need for balance between maintaining tight monetary conditions and still encouraging a gentle landing for the US economy, were perceived by markets as being noticeably less hawkish.

Due to this, traders started pricing in a 90%+ possibility that the Fed will hold rates until December and a 60%+ chance that rates will be lowered by March 2024. The Fed will convene on December 12 and 13.

Increased interest rates reduce demand for the yellow metal, which bears no interest, while bonds and other assets with greater yields become more profitable.

However, the job market seems to be in good shape and U.S. inflation is still far higher than the Fed’s 2% annual target. More hints on the latter are anticipated in the non-farm payrolls report, which is coming this Friday.

Despite giving up much of its intraday gains, the precious metal is currently trading below $2,100, up about 0.70% on the day. In an environment where the daily chart is overbought, a slight increase in US Treasury bond rates helps the US Dollar (USD) draw in some buyers and compels bulls to take some profits off the table.

Nevertheless, the non-yielding yellow metal may continue to benefit from growing predictions that the Federal Reserve (Fed) is finished raising interest rates and may start to loosen its monetary policy by the first half of 2024.

[Nairametrics]

Following President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s request for a speedy passage of the 2024 budget, the National Assembly has laid out plans to meet the December 31 target for the passage and signing of the 2024 Appropriation Bill.

Naija News reports that Tinubu had urged the lawmakers to give it speedy passage to ensure the continuation of the January to December financial cycle.

To continue the cycle, NASS has summoned ministers, heads of departments and agencies, security chiefs, and chief executive officers of institutions to which funding is appropriated for a parley tomorrow.

Speaking to The Nation, Chairman of the Senate Appropriation, Solomon Olamilekan Adeola, said a no-nonsense approach will be adopted to pass the N27.6 trillion Budget of Renewed Hope.

The Senate committee chairman warned that heads of ministries, departments, and agencies (MDAs) who fail to defend their votes would run on zero allocation next year.

He said: “We are sitting as a joint committee (Senate and House of Representatives), and what this means is that only one report will come from the Appropriation Committee.

“Unlike in the past when we had to sit together for harmonisation and concurrence, what we will have from the joint committees is the harmonised report. This will save considerable time.

“What we don’t expect from the Executive is the introduction of a new item that had not been accommodated in the budget that is already with us for consideration.

“The strategies we have adopted will make the deadline achievable.

“President Tinubu himself is aware of the exigency of time, and he has warned his ministers and heads of MDAs to cooperate with us.

“We believe that nobody from the executive arm of government will flout the directive on this.

“If any agency fails to defend its vote, nothing will be appropriated for such agency for next year.

“We need maximum cooperation from the heads of the MDAs to achieve the set target.

“Any minister who fails to honour our invitation will operate on zero allocation next year.

“So, we are putting a lot of sacrifice into the task to deliver the budget on schedule. This is the only way to sustain the January – December budget cycle.”

A one-day retreat will be held tomorrow with members of the Senate standing committees and their House of Representatives counterparts expected to attend.

“They are going to have something like a retreat on Tuesday, to be attended by all Senate and House of Representatives committee chairmen and all heads of MDAs.

“The planned retreat by the Senate Committee on Appropriations will enable an interaction on the quick passage of the budget before the National Assembly goes on recess for the Yuletide,” a source said.

On the invitation list are chief executives and heads of MDAs; Service chiefs (Army, Navy, and Air Force); Inspector-General of Police (IGP); Commandant-General of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC); and Comptrollers-General of the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) and Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS).

An analyst on the Channels TV Sunday Politics Show, Jideofor Adibe, who is a Professor of Political Science has knocked the Presidency over its “bloated” number of delegates at the COP28 Climate Summit in Dubai, the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

Adibe said that 1411 Nigerian delegates that accompanied President Tinubu to the ongoing Climate Summit in Dubai cast doubt on the Federal Government’s ‘compassion’ for the suffering masses.

The professor said that going with over a thousand delegates to the summit was a clear depiction of the high cost of governance that the President has repeatedly vowed to cut down.

He said, “Amid the binge on loans and borrowings, and the increasing hardship and increasing emigration of Nigerians, these things happening, is not just that it raises the question about fidelity to cutting down the cost of governance, but also the question of whether there is even compassion for suffering Nigerians because if there is compassion for what is going on in the country at the moment, people (government officials) should also be sensitive to the optics about the whole thing.”

Adibe asserted that the government funded the transportation of the delegates from Nigeria to Dubai.

Also, the analyst said that the government will pay daily “Estacodes of about $900” for the delegates, as well as hotel costs for them for about two weeks of the summit.

According to the professor, delegates that ought to accompany the President should be experts on specific roles and no more than three ministers should accompany the president to international events such as the COP 28 Climate Summit in Dubai.

Adibe urged President Tinubu to walk the talk of cutting down the cost of government by sanctioning officials responsible for the large delegation in Dubai.

Meanwhile, data from Statisense has revealed that Nigeria’s GDP ranks lower than 12 countries with fewer COP28 delegates.

Nigeria sent 1,411 delegates to COP28 while maintaining a $477.37 billion gross domestic product (GDP). Indonesia follows closely with 1,229 delegates, marking a substantial $1.32 trillion in economic size.

Japan took 1,067 delegates boasting a significant $4.24 trillion in economic strength. Turkey has 1,045 delegates, representing an economic volume of $905.84 billion.

India follows with 948 delegates, showcasing an impressive economic worth of $3.39 trillion. France with 800 delegates has a robust $2.78 trillion in economic value.

The USA has 770 delegates with an immense economic scale of $25.46 trillion. Canada with 742, has a $2.14 trillion economy.

Israel has 718 delegates but possesses a considerable economic volume of $525 billion.  The UK, with 697 delegates, exhibits a substantial economic scale of $3.08 trillion. South Korea follows closely with 689 delegates, and showcases an economic value of $1.67 trillion.

Russia secured 590 delegates, showcasing a significant economic worth of $2.24 trillion. Meanwhile, Italy has 533 delegates boasting an economic scale of $2.01 trillion.

According to Carbon Brief, this year’s COP28 climate summit in the UAE has the highest number of registered delegates ever. Over 97,000 people have badges to attend the conference in Dubai, which is almost twice as many as last year’s COP27 in Egypt.

[NationalDaily]