Modupe Kadri: Supporting SMEs Growth With Decades Of Finance Experience
Since returning to Nigeria from Ghana in March 2020 to lead the team balancing the books and planning the spendings of MTN Nigeria, Modupe Kadri, the Chief Financial Officer (CFO)/Executive Director of MTN Nigeria has been committed to not just the deployment of financial resources but also the nurturing of talents and human resources that drive the vision of the organisation.
As the CFO of a multinational company with a revenue of N638 billion in the first half of 2020, over 80 million subscribers as at July 2020 according to the Nigerian Communications Commision (NCC), a Network infrastructure value of N1.04 trillion, and total assets valued at N1.74 trillion as of June 2020, the role demands having more than just a knowledge of accounting, finance and ensuring the books are balanced. It requires a deep understanding of how the organisation and the industry work, to position the company to become more profitable and competitive without leaving the customers out of focus. Above all these are the responsibility of transferring value and knowledge to the younger generation to fit into the emerging digital world and assist them with the advisory needed to access the right fund to support their venture.
Kadri joined MTN Nigeria in 2007 as the General Manager, Financial Operations and held various positions within the finance division before he was moved to Ghana in August 2014 as the CFO until February 29, 2020. He has been the CFO/ED for MTN Nigeria since March 1, 2020.
In five years and six months of managing the finances of MTN Ghana, Kadri was twice named the CFO of the year in the Telecoms industry in 2015 and 2016.
The Economics graduate from the University of Lagos, came to the MTN CFO job well-equipped with over two decades of finance and accounting experience from his first job at PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), Lafarge Africa Plc, working in the United Kingdom and with MTN. He attributed his success at MTN Ghana to his dedication to learning and relearning.
“I had to learn the nuances of, and the challenges the economy was facing in Ghana. I had to learn the way to tackle them in order to maintain our leadership as the foremost network provider in the country,” he told Muslim News in a 2019 interview.
A Fellow of both the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA) and Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria (ICAN), Kadri said to survive in today’s world, there is a need for learning and relearning to replace redundant knowledge. And this exactly is what the organisation he sits atop as CFO is doing with The Revv Programme, an initiative by MTN aimed at helping SMEs relearn, rethink and retool their businesses for growth in the emerging digital economy.
The need for this has become more imperative with the cloud of uncertainty brought upon the world by the COVID-19 pandemic which threw the world economy into a turmoil, crippling the financial and economic activities of multinationals without sparing SMEs. While the world is gradually overcoming the pandemic, many businesses in Nigeria are now struggling for survival as they are confronted with myriads of challenges from fluctuating foreign exchange/devaluation of naira, increasing inflation, increase in the price of commodities and raw materials, and regulatory issues among other economic factors.
A report by Oxfam in March 2020 said a survey to understand the challenges and responsibilities Nigerian SMEs and Start-ups face in the COVID-19 pandemic revealed that 71.43% of businesses are experiencing market decline and about 47.62% of the companies have stopped all forms of production. The collapse in purchasing power caused by mass job loss and salary reductions have taken a huge toll on SMEs who are the worst hit by the pandemic.
To address the critical needs of SMEs and proffer solutions to their many challenges as they struggle for survival during this COVID period and in the aftermath of the pandemic, MTN introduced the Revv Programme which consists of a series of business related masterclasses, advisory services, marketing and technology support targeted at over 10,000 SMEs.
In one of its masterclasses on ‘Accessing The Right Funding For Your Businesses,’ Kadri joined other panelists like the co-founder of Flutterwave and Andela, Iyinoluwa Aboyeji; Executive Director, Commercial Banking, Ecobank Nigeria, Carol Oyedeji; Executive Director, SME, Bank of Industry (BoI), Shakarau Omar and Chief Transformation Officer, Union Bank of Nigeria Plc, Chika Ileka.
During the session, Kadri stressed the need for SMEs to get the packaging of their businesses right to be able to attract the right investors who will be convinced to put their money into the venture.
“Packaging is very important, you may have the best of ideas or business and not know how to present them. You must be able to articulate them in a form that others will be able to relate well with you otherwise you will struggle with it,” he said.
As a financial expert with over two decades of experience, Kadri noted that investors will not just put money into a venture without having some level of trust in the owner, he advised a high level of trustworthiness and added that learning the act of self-discipline will unlock all the potentials and opportunities for SME owners.
The Revv Programme is not just about talking and mentorship, aside from the deep insights and advisory SMEs get from business experts on how to grow their businesses and access funding, participants in the masterclass also qualify to be a part of the 200 SMEs selected to make up the “Y’ello 200”, who are being supported with empowerment tools and marketing opportunities.
From all its actions – donations in billions of naira, support for health workers and affected households (HelpNow) and massive campaign to curb the spread of the virus (Wear It For Me) in the past seven months since the COVID-19 pandemic spread into Nigeria, MTN, despite being affected by the crises, has proven its commitment to safeguarding and preserving the life and the livelihood of Nigerians especially the vulnerable SMEs. The Revv Programme bears another testament to this.
