The round has closed at ₦50m. That is the week’s real news, and it is good news: the money is committed and will be received once the disbursement request is submitted. Thank you.
It also leaves a gap I would rather you heard from me than worked out yourselves. The requirement to carry the company to self-funding is ₦85.66m if platform certification has to be paid inside the licence window, or ₦62.66m if it does not. Against the ₦50m closed, that is a shortfall of ₦35.66m or ₦12.66m respectively.
The requirement has already come down a long way — it was ₦105.87m on 28 September. But almost none of that is better trading. It is scope we cut, two months without staff payroll, September coming in under budget, and a hosting decision taken this week. The plan is cheaper because it is smaller, not because it earns more, and it is still not covered.
The first show remains Sunday 6 December 2026. The binding constraint is the licence, and the single question that decides the size of the gap is whether certification must be paid before grant.
The chairman spoke with Alhaji Mohammed Adelabu, our licence consultant, on 2 October. Nine questions are with him. Two of them decide everything else and are the reason this section is marked awaiting rather than complete.
The Authority grants an AIP valid 90 days, and the substantive licence issues only once every AIP condition is met. If paid play is permitted under the AIP, the December date is tight but achievable. If it is not, the first show moves.
Certification sits inside the Authority’s numbered requirement list, which makes “defer it past grant” the reading the sheet least supports. We are planning on it being required, which is the conservative assumption and the expensive one.
The consultant has given written confirmation of the licence terms: ₦1,000,000 application, ₦20,000,000 first-year licence, 10% Good Causes Levy on gross gaming revenue. These are the figures every model has carried since 26 September and they are now documented rather than reported. The Authority’s published schedule online has not yet been updated to match, so a reader checking the website will see different numbers; the written confirmation is the current position.
Thirty-six requirement items are tracked. Eleven are complete and eight in progress. The honest reading is that the paperwork is not the problem — nothing outstanding is expensive. What is outstanding takes calendar time that cannot be bought back: director tax clearance certificates, the CAC filings, and the Authority’s own 15 working days of due diligence before a presentation is even scheduled.
We wrote to BMM Test Labs on 2 October for scope, requirements, timeline and cost basis. They are named in the Authority’s own requirement sheet. We also asked which standard actually applies — the sheet’s wording describes betting platforms and instant tickets, and we are neither.
The licence class carries a ₦20,000,000 minimum issued share capital. Ours is ₦1,000,000. The ₦19m difference is shareholder equity and sits outside this round — the round carries only the ₦600,000 professional and filing cost. It also cannot be filed until the company’s annual returns are brought current, which is in hand.
Application and database move to Render (Frankfurt) for pre-launch and Season 1, with AWS from Season 2. Render is 58% cheaper at Season 1 volumes and gives us point-in-time database recovery as a platform feature rather than engineering work — which matters, because this is a financial ledger. At Season 3 scale the economics reverse and AWS becomes materially cheaper, so the switch is already in the model rather than waiting to surprise us. Streaming stays on Amazon IVS throughout.
Authorisation letters went to all four mobile networks through Sendchamp on 30 September; they have quoted four weeks to feedback. A parallel set through Africa’s Talking was prepared on 2 October. Two routes because a single four-week cycle that comes back asking for more documents would leave no slack before launch.
$99 paid on 2 October — ₦138,600 at the settled rate, against ₦170,280 provisioned. The iOS build could not be submitted at all until this account existed, so it was the one store item on the critical path. Google Play Console follows in the same tranche; both carry review queues measured in days.
Tranche 1 is the request that releases the closed funds. It covers September’s reimbursement, the July–August arrears and all of October. November and December follow.
| Tranche | Certification funded | Certification deferred |
|---|---|---|
| 1 · September reimbursement, July–August arrears, Octoberrequested 2 October — releases the closed funds | 9,843,351 | 9,843,351 |
| 2 · Novemberlicence fee ₦20m, certification ₦20m, studio build, platform, payroll | 52,756,160 | 32,756,160 |
| 3 · December, net of show revenue₦12,035,940 out against ₦5,006,400 in from four shows | 7,029,540 | 7,029,540 |
| Total called, October to December | 69,629,051 | 49,629,051 |
With certification deferred, the round carries us to the end of December with ₦370,949 left. That is not a margin; it is a rounding error, and it assumes every forecast holds. The account then goes negative in January 2027 and bottoms at −₦3.14m in March.
With certification funded, November is short by ₦12.60m before December is reached. The account bottoms at −₦23.14m in March 2027 and is still negative at the end of April.
So the bridge required is ₦3.14m or ₦23.14m, and which one depends entirely on the certification question now with the consultant. That is the decision I am asking the board to hold in view.
Four things, and none of them is improved trading. ₦9.5m of scope was cancelled — gaming counsel’s engagement instalment, half the platform QA budget and half the pre-launch marketing. No staff payroll in September or October. September’s actual costs came in below budget, with no AWS charge at all and several subscriptions cheaper than modelled. And the hosting decision takes a further ₦5.5m out of pre-launch and Season 1.
We would rather you heard that from us than inferred a smaller number meant a better business. It means a smaller plan — and one the ₦50m still does not fully fund.
There is no vendor quote behind it. It is the single largest unverified number in the raise, and it moves the November position by its full value. BMM Test Labs were approached on 2 October precisely to replace it with something real. Until they reply, treat every figure that includes it as provisional.
| Waiting on | From | Expected |
|---|---|---|
| Nine licence questions, two of them decisive | Alhaji Mohammed Adelabu, consultant | Asked 2 October |
| Certification scope, timeline and cost | BMM Test Labs | Asked 2 October |
| SMS sender ID approval, four networks | Sendchamp → MTN, Airtel, Glo, 9mobile | ~28 October |
| Authority’s published fee schedule brought in lineconsultant’s written confirmation already received | LSLGA | Website not yet updated |
| Annual returns, then the share capital increase | Corporate Affairs Commission | In hand |
| Director tax clearance certificates | Lagos Internal Revenue Service | In hand |
If the consultant’s answer on paid play under the AIP comes back unfavourably, the December date moves. I will tell you in the week it happens rather than at the end of the month.