FBN Holdings Plc has announced the completion of its divestment from FBN Insurance Ltd. According to a public disclosure that was sent to the Nigerian Stock Exchange, FBN Holdings’ previously-held 65% stake in FBN Insurance was completely sold to Sanlam Emerging Markets (Proprietary) Ltd. The effective divestment date was June 1st, 2020.

Following the divestment, Sanlam Emerging Markets (Proprietary) Ltd will now take over full ownership of the insurance company and its subsidiary —  FBN General Insurance Ltd. No mention was made about how much the transaction was valued at.

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In the meantime, both FBN Holdings and Sanlam Emerging Markets Ltd have “activated the Shareholders Agreement which provided pre-emptive rights to Sanlam,” the statement said.

In a separate statement that was made available to Nairametrics, FBN Holdings’ CEO, U.K Eke (MFR), was quoted to have said:

“The divestment is in line with the Group’s medium to long term strategic objectives. This will ultimately improve our shareholders’ wellbeing and deliver greater value to all the stakeholders.”

Heinie Werth, the CEO of Sanlam Emerging Markets (Proprietary) Limited, also commented. He said:

“Over the years we have enjoyed a mutually beneficial partnership with FBNH, and we will continue to cooperate with them in the future. Sanlam exercised its pre-emptive right to acquire the remaining shareholding of FBNI and in line with our partnership philosophy that underpins our business model, we will introduce local shareholding at an appropriate time in the future. This transaction is evidence of our belief and confidence in the value and future of the business, as well as the skilled management team and staff. Moreover, we are committed to Nigeria and view it as a key market on the continent.”

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Recall that FBN Holdings Plc first hinted at the deal in April this year when it announced that talks were ongoing with Sanlam Emerging Markets and regulators.

The local production of tomato paste in the country received a huge boost when Tomato Jos, an African agricultural production company, secured Series A round funding of EUR 3.9 million (N1.83 billion) through a consortium of investment firms, who are focused on providing support for small and growing businesses in Africa.

This series A funding is to help position Tomato Jos to further improve the lives and incomes of smallholder farmers and increase the sustainability and stability of food supply in Nigeria.

The funding round was led by Goodwell Investments, through its West Africa partner, Aliyheia Capital with participation from Acumen Capital Partners and VestedWorld.

Tomato Jos was founded by Mira Mehta in 2014 with the vision to create and retain local value add to the tomato value chain, reduce post-harvest losses, and improve the lives of smallholder farmers. Since its inception, Tomato Jos has focused on securing its supply chain through primary production.

(READ MORE: Nigeria’s food security, GDP growth hinge on financial inclusion of farmers)

The secured EUR 3.9 million Series A funding boosts the transition to its next stage of growth i.e. the processing and distribution of tomato products. The agricultural firm will work with thousands of smallholder farmers on over 2,600 hectares of land, putting more than $1 million of direct income into the local economy each year

According to the founder and CEO of Tomato Jos, Mira Mehta, ‘’Processing has always been the plan for Tomato Jos, but to get there, we spent a long five years working only on farming and primary production to make sure that we had a really solid foundation in place’’. 

‘’Everyone at the company is extremely excited to take this big step forward into the world of food processing and value-add production’’.

Although Nigeria is the second-largest producer of tomatoes in Africa, farming inefficiencies create a demand-supply gap resulting in Nigeria also being one of the biggest importers of tomato paste in the world.

A partner at Alitheia, Mobola da-Silva, ‘’Tomato Jos has chosen the right market, business model, and management to succeed as a truly inclusive business within this management. As an agro-processing company that sources from local smallholder farmers and provides access to finance in the form of farming inputs to farmers, Tomato Jos is a good fit for uMunyhu’s inclusive strategy of investing in agribusiness’’. 

Tomato Jos, through its initiatives and connecting local farmers to domestic consumers, has helped smallholder farmers’ average yield to grow by over 340% from 5 to 22 metric tons per hectare, while their average income increased by 455%.

(READ MORE: Emefiele insists CBN will not sell forex for importation of items produced in Nigeria)

CrossBoundary provided advisory support to this transaction through USAID’s INVEST program, funded by USAID Southern and Eastern Africa Regional Missions in support of the US Government’s Prosper Africa initiative.

The MD of Acumen Capital Partners said, ‘’Acumen Capital Partners is thrilled to join Tomato Jos’ Investors to help the company continue to develop a world-class vertically integrated tomato processing operation in Nigeria. Tomato Jos is positioned not only to locally produce tomato paste, which is mainly imported into Nigeria but to help Nigerian smallholder farmers increase their income by increasing their yield by 3-4x’’.

This is a huge boost to the country achieving self-sufficiency in tomato paste production as although Nigeria is one of the biggest producers of tomato in the continent, it is still one of the largest importers of tomato paste in the world.

It can also be recalled that in February 2020, Dangote Tomato Processing Company officially resumed the production of tomato paste after initial hiccups and suspension of operations. This was due to the inadequacy of raw materials.

The shares of Facebook increased by 1.2% when it closed at $209.19 after the Friday trading session at the New York Stock Exchange.

The social media giant had announced earlier on Friday via its news page that a leader in visual expression and creation, GIPHY, was joining the company as part of the Instagram team. Though Facebook has not disclosed the worth of the deal report confirmed that it was a $400 million deal.

What it means: The development would give Facebook’s Instagram users to express themselves in the right way, as the acquisition would further integrate the user’s GIF library into Instagram.

It stated, “GIPHY makes everyday conversations more entertaining, and so we plan to further integrate their GIF library into Instagram and our other apps so that people can find just the right way to express themselves.

“A lot of people in our community already know and love GIPHY. In fact, 50% of GIPHY’s traffic comes from the Facebook family of apps, half of that from Instagram alone. By bringing Instagram and GIPHY together, we can make it easier for people to find the perfect GIFs and stickers in Stories and Direct.

“Both our services are big supporters of the creator and artist community, and that will continue. Together, we can make it easier for anyone to create and share their work with the world.”

What Facebook plans

The social media giant disclosed that it would invest further in its technology and relationships with content and PI partners and that users will still be able to upload GIFs, “developers and API partners will continue to have the same access to GIPHY’s APIs; and GIPHY’s creative community will still be able to create great content.

“We’ve used GIPHY’s API for years, not just in Instagram, but in the Facebook app, Messenger and WhatsApp. GIPHY will continue to operate its library (including its global content collection).”

Founded by Jace Cooke and Alex Chung, GIPHY is an American online database and search engine that allows users to search for and share short looping videos with no sound, that resemble animated GIF files.