TheCable

Jason Njoku, the chief executive officer of IrokoTV, says the company will seek to list on the alternative investment market of the London Stock Exchange (LSE) within the next 12 months.

The AIM is a specialized unit of the LSE which helps smaller companies access capital from the public market.

In an interview with The Africa Report, Njoku said the company, which will be valued at between $80 million and $100 million, aims to raise between $20 million to $30 million with the listing.

He identified the devaluation of the naira and reduced levels of disposable income as a result of the coronavirus outbreak as factors that prompted the shift.

“Consumer confidence has essentially collapsed. The macro has dominated us in Africa, ” he said.

In August 2020, Njoku announced that the company was laying off 150 staff as part of a resizing process.

He explained that the company started in Africa in 2015 with an annual subscription fee of N3,000, which was worth $18 at the time and this declined to $7.5 at the official naira exchange rate and $6.4 on the parallel market.

Iroko responded to the economic crisis in December 2020 by raising prices by 3.5 times in Nigeria and Ghana.

The CEO added that the company also increased the prices for international customers to $60 per year from $25. This move did not reduce the number of its diasporic subscribers.

He noted that an international subscriber base is “much more sustainable”.

He explained that the solution to a weak currency is to “set the naira free”.

“The current system of multiple exchange rates makes it impossible for businesses to plan beyond three to six months, ”  he said.

“Let the market decide, and then people can decide how to make it work.”

Before the COVID-19 pandemic hit, a number of companies operating in Nigeria began to make moves to list on foreign stock exchanges.

In 2019, Jumia became the first African tech company to list on the New York Stock Exchange.