ThinkBusiness Today - May 19th

oE kaaro o, Ututu Oma, Barka da Safiya – Good morning, welcome to ThinkBusiness Nigeria.

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As you prepare to spend the weekend with family, friends, watch sports etc., please spare a thought and prayers for the people of Sudan, still caught in the fight for supremacy by two former allies. Since virtually the rest of the world evacuated their nationals, little is now heard of the five week old crisis.

Markets

• The benchmark NGX All-Share Index (ASI) dropped 471.43 (-0.9%) points to close at 52,109.43, representing a 1-week loss of 0.1%, a 4-week gain of 1.93%, and an overall year-to-date gain of 1.67%. Key share movement include Ardova (-9.88%) and AirtelAfrica (-6%).

• Oil prices slid 1.22% on Thursday. Brent futures dropped 1.22%, to settle at $76.02 a barrel. U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude fell 97 cents, or 1.3%, to settle at $71.86

• The Naira depreciated slightly at the parallel market by 0.81% to close at N752/$. It appreciated by 0.44% at I & E window, which closed at N463.

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National Headlines

• Airport Concession - The Federal Government of Nigeria has approved the concession of the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja and the Mallam Aminu Kano International Airport, Kano for 20 and 30 years, respectively. The government has thus reached a conclusion on 50% of the planned concession of Nigeria’s four major airports – Lagos, Abuja, PortHarcourt and Kano. Earlier, the government did not get a preferred bidder for the PortHarcourt airport, while the concession of the Lagos airport was halted by a federal high court in Lagos in a suit filed by SIFAX Group, one of the reserve bidder for the airport. The government says it expects to receive about US $800 million in various forms from the concession of the Abuja and Kano airports.

• “Japa” by all means? – The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) has released its 2022 report on survey on irregular migration in Nigeria – Awareness and Perception of Intending and Returned Migrants on the Dangers of Irregular Migration 2022 - https://nigerianstat.gov.ng/elibrary/read/1241322. 2400 households surveyed from six States in the six geopolitical zones in the country – Anambra, Benue, Edo, Gombe, Kano, and Lagos. With an average age of 27, with 51% of them possessing secondary education, the survey found that 47.9% of them returned to the country due to hardship – worse conditions than they were in Nigeria.

Global Headlines

• Two elephants in the room – The G7 – Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, UK, and US – leaders meet in Hiroshima Japan this weekend amidst serious global economic and security challenges. But it is two major countries “not in the room” that are expected to dominate conversations – China and Russia.

• Data and AI wars? – According to reports by CNBC, Twitter has written to Microsoft, both US and global technology giants, with claims it is “using its data in authorized ways”. Twitter is accusing Microsoft of using its social media company’s data in unauthorized ways and not disclosed in developing AI tools. It is one of the latest outcomes of the race for AI domination by technology giants.

What I read this week

Rule Breaker: Rebellious Leadership for the Future of Work

Author – Jackie Fast

I think it is fitting that I read and I’m sharing my thoughts on this book in the week that Hilda Baci broke the Guinness World Record (GWR) for marathon cooking, beating the record set in 2019 by Lata Tondon. Cooking for 100 hours at a stretch is the kind of rebellious leadership that Jackie wrote about in this fascinating book.

The first captivating sentence I read in the book was in the introduction. Jackie says, “We are all obsessed with how the world is becoming vastly different from the world we used to know. But it is not the how part that you need to be preoccupied with. It is the why part of the shift that is particularly important to you.

As one of my favourite preachers Pastor Emmanuel Oleka also said last week, “we do not have control over time and changes around us, but the ability to determine what happens overtime is within our grasp”.

So, Jackie’s message is simple. New leadership requires breaking all the rules. While this assertion is rarely new, it is the simple way Jackie, using her personal experience, breaks down the message that I find most interesting. Reading the book, it becomes clear that breaking the rules is not for “exceptional people”. It can be learnt, cultivated, and become habitual.

By continuously asking why, and in some cases, asking why not, Jackie demonstrated how she and the other examples in this terrific book have broken all the rules (certain assumptions and expectations) and achieving previously thought unachievable things. Jackie argued that we are now in a world with no boundaries, except those set by ourselves.

Finally, one of my favourite topics in business and life – execution. Jackie showed in her book that because life is usually in repetitions and patterns, the ability to continuously improve and doing things better will make us exceptional.