Founder and Chairman, Africa Initiative for Governance (AIG), Aigboje Aig-Imoukhuede, and former Executive Chairman, Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS), Ifueko Omoigui-Okauru, have called for youth participation in the transformation of the public sector.

The duo, at the public lecture organised by AIG, emphasised on the importance of youth participation in transforming the sector.

Speaking on “Transforming the Public Sector in Nigeria: Reflections from My Leadership of the FIRS,” Omoigui-Okauru said:

“Leading reform or, indeed, any other organisational activity is a team sport. The strength of the institution is in the strength of the team – past, present and future.”

Aig-Imoukhuede agreed with the former FIRS boss, when he admitted that the strength of the FIRS team is apparent, even 10 years after her departure.

The AIG founder explained that the hope and future of the nation lies in the contributions of young people and those who are truly committed to Nigeria’s development.

He said, “The situation is urgent, we will further expand our scholarships and fellowships and intensify our investments to build a critical mass of capable leaders who can move our nation forward.

“Nigeria’s transformation lies in the hands of its youth, who will go on to lead the public and private sectors, and no stone must be left unturned, as we invest in them and build their capacity to rebuild and lead a great nation.”

According to him, the 2019/20 AIG Fellowship was awarded to Omoigui-Okauru in recognition of her outstanding contributions to public service, as the Executive Chairman of Nigeria’s Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS).

“She spearheaded comprehensive tax reforms, culminating in the development of Nigeria’s first national tax policy, the modification of tax legislation and a remarkable improvement in the effectiveness of tax collection. Her achievements remain a reference point almost a decade after her tenure in office,” he added.

He explained that AIG grieved with the nation over the loss of life and property, following recent days of social unrest.

“We must use this momentary period of darkness as impetus to usher in a new dawn of enlightenment and progress. This is the time to envision what we want our nation to be and to move forward by building and empowering Nigeria’s next generation of leaders,” he said.

What you should know

The AIG scholarship programme awards five scholarships annually to promising future leaders to undertake a Master’s degree in Public Policy (MPP) at the University of Oxford’s Blavatnik School of Government.

This September, undeterred by COVID-19 challenges, it embarked on the national selection process to identify the 2021/22 AIG scholars for Nigeria and Ghana.

The founder said, “Recent events in Nigeria have threatened completion of the scholar selection exercise. We however regard these scholarships as being more important now than ever and will marshal whatever resources are required to complete the exercise in time to meet the closure date for BSG’s MPP application window. Shortlisted candidates will be required to follow stringent health and safety protocols.”

Billions of dollars flow daily into the crypto-verse, as investors try to get more value from their invested buck.

Nairametrics decided to highlight crypto assets that are likely to make investors and traders smile to the bank.

The first pick is ZCash (ZEC). It’s on Nairametrics’ top pick, on the basis that it will be undergoing its first halving this November. This means that its inflation level would be reduced to about 13%.

It also means that the inflation correction due to Zcash’s halving may likely give the temporary bump.

Ethereum makes the list based on the fact that investors have increased their buying pressure on the second most valuable crypto by market value, coupled with the bias that the number of Ethereum $ETH Number of Addresses Holding 0.1+ coins just reached an ATH of 3,590,870.

Previous ATH of 3,590,669 was observed on 30 October, 2020.

📈 #Ethereum $ETH Number of Addresses Holding 0.1+ coins just reached an ATH of 3,590,870

Previous ATH of 3,590,669 was observed on 30 October 2020

View metric:https://t.co/rW81qhwy4d pic.twitter.com/csNHWnBIL6

— glassnode alerts (@glassnodealerts) October 31, 2020

The third pick is Cardano (ADA), on sentiments that it’s heading towards its smart contract release, sometime in November, leading to a significant amount of applications built on Cardano by this time 2021. This means that more developers will see it as an attractive medium for building their desired apps.

And of course, the most valuable crypto in the crypto-verse, Bitcoin. This pick is for obvious reasons: it remains the most liquid crypto, and has been attracting high institutional interest, most recently from PayPal, which means that it might just be a matter of time before the crypto asset becomes the number one choice asset for safe haven.

Also, miners are earning fees at record highs as recent reports from Glassnode, a crypto analytic firm, reveals. Bitcoin miners’ revenue from fees (1d MA) just reached a 2-year high of 0.296.

The previous 2-year high of 0.295 was observed on 30 October, 2020.

📈 #Bitcoin $BTC Miner Revenue from Fees (1d MA) just reached a 2-year high of 0.296

Previous 2-year high of 0.295 was observed on 30 October 2020

View metric:https://t.co/d4U9MP8vqn pic.twitter.com/FSh6rfvwdZ

— glassnode alerts (@glassnodealerts) October 31, 2020

Disclaimer: Nairametrics, with the help of other leading financial data providers, through their price assessments performance in percentage terms, ranked the financial assets at specific categories.

The objective is to give the needed insight of top-performing financial assets around the world, and should not be seen as a piece of investment advice or guide, as Nairametrics advises one to seek the services of a certified financial advisor for such services.

Therefore, Nairametrics doesn’t bear any responsibility for any trading loss you might incur as a result of using this data.

The world’s fastest-growing video conferencing service company, Zoom, has seen its market valuation rocket past $130 billion—more than 3 times the value of the Nigerian Stock Exchange.

Zoom has attracted high demand growth for its service, especially since COVID-19 changed the way the world works. As one of the pioneers of modern work-from-home tools, millions of organizations around the world have adopted the application as their preferred communication tool in the workplace, particularly video conferencing.

What we know: At the time of drafting this report, Zoom sported a market valuation of $131 billion, compared to the Nigerian Stock market with a value presently standing at $42.1 billion (N16 trillion), using the official exchange rate of N380 to $1.

• Zoom’s enviable performance began in early 2020, when it printed a market capitalization of just $19 billion. While Zoom posted $1.35 billion in revenue over the past 12 months, the Nigerian Stocks bourse, in comparison, printed a market capitalization of $39.1 Billion (N14.87 trillion) at the end of January, according to data obtained from Nairalytics (financial data arm of Nairametrics).
• The bullish run got intensified for the tech company, particularly in Q2 that ended  August 31, when it posted an impressive earning result of $663.5 million in revenue (far beating analysts’ prediction of $500.5 million)—and it still firing on all cylinders.
• Such gains seen in Zoom’s stock price have added so much wealth to its investors, that Zoom founder, Eric Yuan, has seen his own fortune rise more than 551% year to date, with a valuation put at about $23.2 billion, according to data seen from Bloomberg Billionaire Index.

Eric Yuan is presently the chairman and CEO of Zoom Video Communications, the world’s biggest provider of video conferencing software to the business.

On the other hand, Nigerian stocks also defied expectations and produced positive returns, with every month in the third quarter, printing positive returns as buying pressure increased across the market spectrum. The Nigerian stock market’s performance was triggered by the Industrial Index emerging as the biggest gainer, up by 8.14% followed by the most liquid index, banking index (10.08%), and the Consumer Index printing (2.74%), still market capitalization hovered below $40 billion.

Zoom has now boosted its revenue forecasts to $690 million for the present quarter (through the end of October), and also increased its financial guidance for the full fiscal year, through Jan 2021, to about $2.4 billion in revenue, up from $623 million for the year through January 2020, as it takes into account the demand for remote work solutions for businesses reaching a record high.

The exponential valuation seen in the world’s biggest video company had been enhanced by the fact that a significant amount of businesses and individuals now work remotely, on the bias of the world’s most disruptive biological pathogen COVID-19’s continued spread, triggering global investors to increase their buying pressure on the American communications technology company, which is barely less 10 years old in operation.

Bottom-line: Covid-19 may have caused a lot of damage to the global economy since it was declared a pandemic in the first quarter of the year, but not for remote working app companies like Zoom, Slack, and Microsoft Teams.

• The US stock markets assign significant value to companies that can grow exponentially, as they believe these are companies that will continue to dominate the future of work.
• Just like US tech stocks, stocks on the Nigerian Stock Exchange have also gained significantly in the latter part of this year.
• However, rather than gaining from higher revenues growth, they have relied on Meffynomics (lower interest rate in a high inflation economy) to attract portfolio inflows from local investors.