There were many Chinese faces coming and going in and out of the Oriental Hotel. They were all Chinese who came to Lagos for business or were sent here as expatriates.
These people recognized Zhang Yida in the crowd at a glance. They were a little surprised and wanted to go up and say hello.
But when he saw the military police clearing the way and several bodyguards guarding Zhang Yida tightly, he had no choice but to stop and stand in the crowd, shouting greetings such as "Mr. Zhang" and "Mr. Zhang" from a distance.
.
Zhang Yida had no intention of lingering. As he walked toward the hall under the protection of bodyguards, he waved hello to the compatriots who were surrounded by human walls on both sides.
Several local big bosses were sitting in the lobby smoking cigars. When they saw this formation, they knew that a big shot was coming, so they asked the Chinese friends sitting around.
"You don't even know Zhang Yida? Don't you watch international news?" A Chinese next to him was teasing these gangsters who looked like local rich men.
"I see so many Chinese businessmen coming up to say hello. Is he rich? How does he compare with our country's cement king Dangote?"
"More than ten times richer than Dangote, almost 35 trillion naira."
"How much? 3.5 billion or 35 trillion?"
"Hey, you can find out by searching it on Google yourself."
…
Zhang Yida was arranged to the best presidential suite. When he rested until 7 o'clock in the evening, he was woken up by Zhao Erya, who was already dressed up. The two attended the welcome dinner together.
In order to avoid unnecessary trouble, the dinner was arranged in the most luxurious banquet hall of the Oriental Hotel.
In addition to Shen Beipeng and Xu Xiaoming who were accompanying them at the banquet, there were also company executives such as Cao Lu and Reeves of Chuanrui, as well as Lagos Governor Babajide Sanwulu, Nigeria’s Minister of Science and Technology Ogbonaya O
Nu, Commerce Minister Idris Waziri and other Nigerian officials.
Chinese Consul General in Lagos Chu Maoming also came to the banquet with Deputy Consul General Guan Zhongqi and several counselors.
At the banquet, Nigerian officials welcomed the arrival of Zhang Yida and his delegation, emphasized the decades-long friendship between China and Nigeria, and hoped that Ruixiang would continue to increase investment in Nigeria and strengthen business cooperation with their country.
Zhang Yida praised Nigeria's prosperous economy and rapidly growing GDP against his will, saying that it is a hot land for entrepreneurship.
Ruixiang will next launch more Internet products in Nigeria, recruit local employees, solve local employment, and spare no effort to promote technological progress in Nigeria.
Consul General Chu Maoming of the consulate also praised the economic miracle created by Nigeria, placed high hopes on Ruixiang to invest in Nigeria and Lagos, and wished Ruixiang a brilliant success in Africa.
At a dinner party, we didn’t eat much of the food. We just talked about investment and cooperation.
Onu, the Minister of Science and Technology, has a Ph.D. in the United States, and he still has a lot of talent. As he chatted about technology with Zhang Yida, the topic turned to Jack Ma's Entrepreneurship Competition.
"Hey, it is a pity for us that Mr. Jackma chose South Africa."
Onu looked at Zhang Yida and said with a smile: "I heard that Rui Xiang and Mr. Jack Ma's Ah Li were sworn enemies in China?
If Ruixiang can hold a similar event in Nigeria, our government will definitely support it in terms of venue and media promotion."
Zhang Yida chuckled. Jack Ma is indeed smart. His charity foundation only spent 10 million U.S. dollars, but still distributed entrepreneurial bonuses in 10 years, which is 1 million U.S. dollars per year.
Although the money was not much, the stunt was quite big, and the black guys were so teased that they couldn't stop.
No, Nigeria’s Minister of Science and Technology has come up with the idea.
Seeing Zhang Yida smiling and saying nothing, Onu continued: "Jumia, Africa's first unicorn, was born in Nigeria. It is also the first technology company in Africa to be listed on a major global exchange.
As the seventh largest city in the world and the largest city in Africa, Lagos has entrepreneurial soil suitable for the growth of technology companies."
The reason why Onu is pushing this matter so hard is also related to Nigeria's current economic environment and industrial structure.
Energy exports such as oil and natural gas are the country's pillar industries, and their technology sector does not receive much attention at all.
As a highly educated official who returned from studying in the United States, he very much wanted to change this backwardness and promote the country's scientific and technological progress.
At the same time, only when Nigeria's technology entrepreneurship atmosphere improves and attracts enough technology start-ups, can his powers as minister of science and technology be expanded.
With political achievements, it is also easier to attack higher positions.
He has learned how Chinese Internet companies rise, and the biggest secret is demographic dividend.
Nigeria also has this advantage and is the most populous country in Africa.
In addition to population, Internet infrastructure also needs to keep up, and the political situation also needs to be stable.
In short, Nigeria still has many problems, but if we don’t work hard, we will always be left behind.
Zhang Yida listened to Onu explaining Nigeria's advantages to him in fluent English. He could feel that this senior intellectual official had a very strong sense of mission.
It’s funny to say that the official language of Nigeria is English, but except for the middle and upper classes, ordinary people don’t know English at all and only know the language of their own nation.
Nigeria has a huge population, but its society is very divided, with a huge gap between rich and poor.
Internet overseas expansion cannot be successful everywhere. The European and American markets are the easiest to monetize, followed by Southeast Asia and Latin America, and Africa is the worst.
Because in addition to the unstable political situation in Africa, the people are really poor and the data rates are really expensive.
On average, it costs US$7.04 to purchase 1GB of mobile data in Africa. Residents on the African continent spend about 8.76% of their monthly income on mobile data every month. This figure is higher than the 3.58% in Latin America and higher than that in Asian countries.
1.54%.
Take the performance of Musical.ly in Africa as an example. Those who dare to use data to play must be wealthy people. Most people can only use some WIFI, otherwise they will starve to death on the streets next month.
And WiFi is not available everywhere, which limits the development of Internet companies in Africa.
“Last year, a total of 210 African technology companies received venture capital, with a total financing amount of US$335 million.
For the first time, Nigeria surpassed South Africa to become the most active country in investment and financing of start-ups in Africa. 58 start-ups raised US$95 million, and 40 start-ups in South Africa raised US$60 million. Egypt and Kenya ranked third and fourth.
There are a total of 442 entrepreneurial incubators in Africa. Nigeria has now grown to 55 incubators, which is close to South Africa’s 59, followed by Egypt and Kenya with 34 and 30 respectively.
In the long run, relying on our population size, Nigeria will definitely become the largest Internet country in Africa, just like China."
The scene was very quiet, only Onu and Zhang Yida could be heard communicating there, and no one else made a sound to disturb them.
Zhang Yida calculated in his mind that 210 start-ups had raised US$335 million, with an average of less than US$1.6 million per company.
For large domestic unicorns, one round of financing exceeds the total financing of the African Internet market for the entire year.
"Minister Onu, I deeply feel your sincerity."
Zhang Yida looked at Onu, who was wearing a white shirt, which made his face darker, and said with a smile: "Chuanrui's West African headquarters has always been in Nigeria, and this has never wavered.
Mr. Jackma organizes an entrepreneurial competition. If we follow the trend and imitate it, it will be boring, and we will easily be accused of being uncreative."
Zhang Yida opened his palms and introduced in detail the identities of Xu Xiaoming and Shen Beipeng sitting next to him and the venture capital funds they were in charge of.
Onu's eyes were bright, and he had heard about Black Shirt Capital when he was studying in the United States. It was no different.
Although Zhenke Fund is not that famous, he heard from Zhang Yida that it was Ruixiang's first-round investor, so it must be a big venture capital company.
"I don't like those fancy things, I prefer actual combat."
Zhang Yida didn't mean to disparage Jack Ma. After all, he can do well with just four ounces and a thousand pounds.
Onu focused his attention on Zhang Yida again and listened to the latter say: "Ruixiang and Chuanyin, as well as the two investors beside me, and some entrepreneurs who have not come from China, the investors plan to establish
An equity investment fund focusing on the African technology market.