Investors Update: $10m Solar Deal with Nigerian Breweries

CrossBoundary Energy bags $10m solar deal with Nigerian Breweries

Highlights

• Nigerian Breweries Plc and CrossBoundary Energy have signed a $10 million solar power deal to develop the largest renewable energy project in Nigeria’s commercial and industrial sector.
• The agreement will see CrossBoundary Energy build two solar and battery storage hybrid projects for Nigerian Breweries’ plants in Ibadan, Oyo State and Ama, Enugu State.
• CrossBoundary Energy will fully finance the development and construction of the renewable energy facilities and will operate both facilities as part of a 15-year solar services agreement with NB Plc.

Source: Nairametrics

Our Takeaway

As African economies grow, the demand for energy by companies, homeowners, and industries increases by the day. This comes with challenges of climate change and energy depletion, however, many innovators and investors believe renewable energy can help Africa counter these challenges. While financiers mostly are skeptical about funding ventures in the renewable energy space and companies still largely cynical about it, efforts by Africa’s leading solar providers like CrossBoundary, Sun King, Daystar Power, and Havenhill suggest the perception toward the renewable energy opportunity in Africa could be changing.

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Dangote, BUA Cement shareholders have gained >$900m this week

Highlights

• Despite the current sell-down in the Nigerian stock market, the shares of Dangote Cement Plc and BUA Cement Plc recorded a combined gain of N400 billion (over $900 million) in the first three days of this month. 
• Dangote, a leading cement manufacturer listed on the industrial goods sub-sector of the NGX, led with a gain of about N332 billion during the three days after its stock grew by 8.84% to close at N240 per share from N220.50 on November 1. 
• BUA followed with a gain of about N68 billion after a 2.87% surge to N72.00 per share from N70, per a Nairametrics report.

Source: Nairametrics

Our Takeaway

On the rally seen in the stock prices of two of Nigeria’s largest industrial companies, some investment analysts explain that dividend-paying stocks with good fundamentals would continue to do well, given their decent third-quarter financial performances. Also, the share prices of some industrial goods stocks are dropping, making them more attractive. Hence, this is the time for investors to accumulate the stocks to reap capital gains and bigger dividends as the economy adjusts.

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SA ed-tech startup FoondaMate launches operations in Nigeria

Highlights

• South Africa’s FoondaMate has launched operations in Nigeria to democratize learning and close education inequality gaps with its AI-powered study chatbot.
• Founded in August 2020, FoondaMate offers a chat-based, AI-powered learning bot that helps students get fast, easy, and safe access to study materials and help via open chat platforms such as WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger.
• In May the startup raised $2 million in seed funding for expansion and has started doing so with the launch of a Nigeria-specific WhatsApp number, focusing on helping secondary school students do homework and prepare for their secondary school leaving exams.

Source: disrupt-africa

Our Takeaway

A combination of the high cost of mobile data and no computers or Wi-Fi leaves over 90% of African students stranded and without access to the internet. FoondaMate’s online learning model is thus quite revolutionary and has already been used by over 900,000 students across more than 30 African, Latin American, and Asian countries. Its uptake is spurred by the fact it is available in more than 11 different languages.