iWeb Completes Acquisition of Nigerian Tingo Mobile
iWeb Inc., a technology development and services company, has announced the completion of the acquisition of 100% of Tingo Mobile, a Nigerian limited company, the company said in a statement today.
The acquisition has seen Tingo mobile filed to change its name to Tingo Inc., has applied to Finra to process its name change and allocate a new trading symbol to reflect its new business focus of Tingo Mobile Plc.
According to iWeb, the company completed the Tingo Mobile Purchase from Tingo International Holdings, Inc. in an all-stock deal for a consideration of 928 million Class A Common shares, and 65 million Class B common Shares valuing Tingo Mobile at US$3.7 Billion, one of the most valuable Fintech companies to ever emerge from Africa.
Consequent to the acquisition, iWeb also announced the appointments. Dozy Mmoubosi age 43, has been appointed as CEO of the public company replacing Anthony Moore who stepped down as CEO but who will remain in his role as Chairman.
Mr. Dozy Mmobuosi, Co-founded Tingo Mobile PLC (Nigeria) in the year 2001 and is the Group Chief Executive Officer. Mr. Mmobuosi has vast global experience in South- East Asia, China, United Arab Emirates, Bulgaria, the USA and the UK.
An adviser to corporate clients, steering the strategy and design of business plans (investments, acquisition, and organic growth) into new global markets –across three continents he has directed significant operating growth of Tingo with over $600 million in annual revenue.
In 2001 Mr. Mmobuosi founded Fair Deal Concepts Limited, now Tingo Mobile Plc (Nigeria). In 2002 he led the design and launch of Nigeria’s first SMS Banking Solution which a large bank still use today.
From 2013 Mr. Mmobuosi led a team of 123 Chinese and Nigerian engineers to setup 2 mobile phone assembly facilities in Nigeria. These facilities have produced over 20 million mobile devices which have been distributed across Nigeria.
Mr. Mmobuosi is currently co-sponsoring a special purpose acquisition company, or SPAC (Africa Acquisition Corp, Inc.), targeted at acquiring a natural resources company in Africa.
Aged 60, Dakshesh Patel, has been appointed as CFO of Tingo Inc., he is currently Group Chief Financial Officer of Tingo International Holdings, Inc. and has extensive experience in banking.
Mr. Patel was formerly Chief Financial Officer of NatWest’s Global Debt and Investment Banking division with 110 staff under his stewardship and structured and led the first CDO in Europe for the NatWest Corporate Debt book with two placements with a total value $10 billion.
Following the acquisition of Greenwich Capital in 1996, Mr. Patel assumed responsibility for all aspects of the finance function for both the capital markets and structured finance activities.
At NatWest, Patel was also the Finance Director of the Global Structured Finance & Investment Banking (NatWest Markets) responsible for a global team of 50 people and also served as Financial Controller, Banking & Specialised Finance (NatWest).
From 1991-1994 Mr. Patel was manager, leasing and tax (NatWest) where he set up a new leasing unit in conjunction with the business head. Mr. Patel also Co-founded Long bridge Capital, a finance consultancy operating in Europe, Africa and Asia, e-Logistics, a transport management business, and Yespay, a payment gateway acquired by Worldpay.
Dr. Chris Cleverly, has been appointed as President of Tingo Inc., Dr. Cleverly, age 54, after completing a law degree at Kings College London LLB, was called to the Bar in 1990, following which he established Trafalgar Chambers on Fleet Street, becoming “the youngest head of barristers’ chambers in the last century” according to the Sunday Times.
During this period Mr Cleverly was a regular presenter on Channel 4 and contributor to the other main channels, radio and newspapers. Since then he has been a board member of a number of companies in UK, India, China and Africa both listed on regulated exchanges and private in a number of sectors.
As CEO of Made In Africa Foundation, Dr. Cleverly was co-architect and founder of the $1.5 billion Africa50 funds with the African Development Bank which has been the lead investor in a number of large scale renewable energy projects.
He is also very experienced in the cryptocurrency space as CEO of blockchain payments gateway KamPay.io, advising blockchain protocol Cardano and as contributing writer to CoinTelegraph. Dr. Cleverly has advised a number of UK PLC’s on their entrance into African markets, including negotiation of oil blocks, mineral concessions and banking licences.
Tingo is a device and a service technology company focused on creating digitally inclusive ecosystems in the AgriTech and FinTech sectors in Africa.
TINGO posted total revenue figure of $616 million dollars in 2020 and an EBITDA of $220 million dollars (figures based on NGN/USD exchange rate of 360), TINGO is confident that these figures will be exceeded by its expansion across Africa and natural progression of the TINGO business in Nigeria.
Tingo Mobile is Nigeria’s leading technology and Device as a Service platform aimed at accelerating digital commerce, especially in Agri-Tech & Fin-Tech verticals in Nigeria.
Tingo helps farmers acquire mobile phones through a unique mobile phone leasing scheme, connecting them to mobile and data networks through its virtual mobile network and connecting farmers to markets, services, and resources via Nwassa, its digital AgriTech marketplace platform.
That commenced operations April 2021, Tingo also launched a beta version of Tingo Pay – a B2C FinTech app aimed at providing financial services including mobile wallets, payment processing and access to specialist lenders and insurers to users inside and outside of the agriculture value chain, and will soon be adding Cryptocurrency options such as Bitcoin, Ethereum, Cardano, and KamPay than will be traded via Coinfield.
Tingo Mobile has over 9 million subscribers and has supplied almost 30 million mobile devices since 2014 across four core business drivers which include Mobile Phone Leasing where Tingo has distributed almost 30 million mobile handsets since 2014 and will continue to replace the devices of its installed customer base every three years.
Another segment, Mobile Voice and Data Service where Tingo through a Mobile Virtual Network provides its customers with voice and data services. This includes Nwassa Platform, Tingo’s proprietary AgriTech platform supports Nigeria’s agricultural value chain with market access.
Tingo processes 500,000 daily transactions with a value of over $8 million, which provides its installed customer base with access to agricultural markets for its crop. Farmers and cooperatives are also supported with packaging, warehousing, and cargo logistics
In addition, the company provides its customers with digital wallet services, which enable them to send and receive domestic payments, monitor cash flow in real-time and securely hold money.
Tingo provides access to other third-party services such as utility bill payment, virtual airtime top-up, insurance services, and alternative lending solutions.
Tingo Pay: Since the launch of Nwassa platform Tingo has been a dominant player in the B2B FinTech vertical. Tingo has entered the B2C FinTech vertical to extend our B2B play to mass market use cases beyond agriculture.
Market Opportunity
Africa is the second-largest continent by landmass and population. The continent is also the youngest by far, with a median age of 18 years for its 1.3 billion people. Tingo believes the building blocks for growth in Africa’s agriculture industry are in place and that Tingo is well positioned in this space to participate in the upside.
Compelling fundamentals
Strong demographic potential: Sub-Saharan Africa’s population is growing at 2.7% a year, which is more than twice as fast as South Asia (1.2%) and Latin America (0.9%). That means Africa is adding the population of France (or Thailand) every two years. At the current growth rate, the continent’s population will double by 2050.
The median age across the continent is 18 years, thirteen years younger than the median age in South America the next youngest continent according to the World Bank. Africa’s youthfulness represents a significant opportunity for material growth in demand for agricultural commodities. This younger generation is also being born into a “networked” world and is more comfortable using technology to achieve their goals.
Improving business conditions: Africa’s governments are paying more attention to improving business conditions for entrepreneurs and small businesses on the continent. Sub-Saharan Africa’s World Bank Doing Business rank has improved by c.20 points from 45 in 2004 to 65 in 2020. Tingo believes this trend will continue and encourage the establishment of more new ventures across all economic sectors including the agriculture industry.
Investor appetite remains robust: Africa attracted $407 billion of Foreign Direct Investments between 2014 and 2018, about $80 billion per annum on average.
Investments are increasingly focused on services and industrial sectors. Only 20% of investments are in extractive industries – a clear reversal from as recently as 2008 when 55% of FDI was aimed at resource extraction, Tingo believes FDI into Africa will help resolve significant infrastructure constraints and position the Agric value chain for value creation.
Nigeria is the largest economy and the most populous country in Africa and is therefore central to the continent’s growth story.
Agriculture is central to African lives and livelihoods. 60% of sub-Saharan Africans are smallholder farmers and Agriculture accounts for 23% of the region’s GDP. In Nigeria, Agriculture employs 66% of the workforce and represents 26% of GDP.
Nigeria’s suboptimal agriculture productivity is driven by several factors including broken linkages with demand centres, the inefficient capital allocation for purchase of inputs, and underdeveloped and fragmented access to services. Tingo aims to play a key role in resolving each of these issues.
Access to technology: Tingo is a key access point to the digital economy for millions of rural farmers in Nigeria, by providing affordable access to mobile devices and the internet.
Access to markets: Tingo users can connect with vendors and suppliers for affordable access to inputs and services. Tingo also connects farmers with buyers who purchase crops every year.
Access to Financial Services: Through Tingo Pay, its proprietary mobile wallet application, users can execute several transactions. These include credits into the Tingo Pay wallet, and transfers from the Tingo Pay wallet for bill payments and peer to peer payments. Tingo will continue to add services to this application to meet customer needs.
Commenting on the deal, Dozy Mmobousi CEO, of Tingo said, “This merger represents international recognition and validation of the hard work and dedication of my team and I in building Tingo to the outstanding business we are today.
Through the years we have continued to support our customers across the entire agricultural value chain by creating an ecosystem that provides access to technology, digital financial services, agri-produce trading and distribution in Nigeria.
“We remain committed to ending poverty and hunger, achieving food security, improving nutrition and promoting sustainable agriculture. Our ecosystem also aims to promote digital and financial inclusion and create jobs that empower societies in Nigeria. This merger provides us with access to global debt and equity capital markets which will allow us to scale our proven model to support other countries across Africa.”
Also, Chris Cleverly, President of Tingo said, “TINGO is Africa’s largest digital agricultural ecosystem and with over 9 million active customers is a highly successful payment gateway.
“It is important that we embrace emerging technologies such as DeFi, Stable Tokens and disruptive eCommerce platforms as they are necessary to solve the issues that burden the world such as malnutrition and financial inclusion. African food security is Global food security, and we will use every legitimate tool at our disposal to ensure no child starves or society is destabilised through hunger.”
In his words, Anthony Moore, Chairman of Tingo said, “I am delighted that we have completed the Tingo acquisition and to congratulate as well as welcome Dozy Mmobuosi as CEO.
”It has been noted in recent years the rapid adoption and deployment of Blockchain by the Telecoms Industry and the global announcements almost weekly of the acceptance of Crypto, we feel the marriage of TINGO in Africa with the well-established “Coinfield”
Crypto Exchange that we have agreed to acquire will place us in a perfect position to implement this natural evolution to integrate Tingo’s 9,000,000 customers with Coinfield for Crypto Currency trading in Africa.
Africa is a Continent that is showing great readiness and willingness to adapt and adopt to new technologies and Binance the world’s largest Crypto Exchange recently released a report stating that Nigeria is the number one most attractive new market for Crypto trading in the World.
“With its young demographic, high smartphone penetration, lack of legacy infrastructure Africa has the greatest potential for blockchain and cryptocurrency of any region.
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Coinfield provides the know-how and has the history to deliver on this. TINGO with an already huge customer base will expand rapidly and will become the dominant digital payment platform in the world’s fastest growing economy”
