The Michael Jackson Biopic Could Be a $1 Billion Box Office Event- Lawrence Amadi

Added: 2026-05-10

[00:00:02]Good business week here on our IT news. I'm joined now by Lawrence Amadi, partner and head tech risk at KPMG Africa, to review some of our top stories in more detail. Good morning and welcome to the show, Lawrence.

[00:00:13]>> Thank you very much, Rolake. Great to have you and great to see you.

[00:00:15]>> Thank you for having me again. Yeah, so let's start with the online accounts, the the breaches. When I first read the story, I didn't read it well as I was panicking that it was bank accounts, but I realized it's actually online accounts, so social media, emails, and top credentials. So, Nigeria is in the middle tier, so I'm wondering whether that level is proportional to our digital footprint. Should we really be worried if we're number 34? Um so, if you break down number 34 to sub-Saharan Africa, Mhm. we're the third most affected or most impacted cyber country. Okay. And when you look at the attacks, uh most of it tends to result in either identity takeovers.

[00:00:58]>> Yeah. Uh sometimes you have ransom uh involved in it, and sometimes you have loss, financial losses, >> course.

[00:01:06]>> that tend to also arise from from from this. So, uh it's it's a key concern.

[00:01:11]You know, we had the phrase no loose guard, Okay.

[00:01:14]>> right? Which means you've got to just be up and doing with everything about security. Mhm.

[00:01:21]If you if you look at, you know, just outside the social platforms, uh banking-wise, there's been a lot of conversations on open banking, For sure.

[00:01:30]creating a lot more discussions, you know, around APIs. Now, APIs for the benefit of our guests who probably just wonder what this terminology is, is application programming interface. Yes.

[00:01:41]So, more banks are interconnecting, interconnecting with fintechs, telco, insurtech, and it just carries on. Mhm.

[00:01:49]Now, it's purely all programs, and if you don't have very strong security culture Mhm. or a secure fast mindset, the cyber issues are going to get worse.

[00:02:01]So, there's a whole lot of work to be done.

[00:02:03]>> Yeah. So, essentially if you're integrating using these APIs, you're essentially becoming more vulnerable because you're also connecting with systems outside of your own >> Correct. own domain. So, which brings me to another issue because what is the secondary risk to businesses and financial institutions? Because many people, some of us do it, we rely on the same compromised passwords and >> emails to enter sometimes corporate systems.

[00:02:28]>> Sure. Plus, now because you have two-factor authentication, you're also relying on other passwords. So, actually you're bringing that personal risk and exposure into the corporate domain. So, what is what is that risk? So, the risk the fact I mean, look, the biggest risk usually is financial loss because you don't want to lose, you know, money.

[00:02:49]You don't want to lose your identity.

[00:02:51]And you also you don't want to have a a ransomware that becomes a threat to life because you actually sometimes also result in that. But I think the real thing we have to be thinking about is how do we grow awareness?

[00:03:03]Because for corporates, it's about the governance, the the governance around security, which is super super crucial.

[00:03:11]If we get that right and then, you know, we can just again talk about the drills that we should have in companies.

[00:03:17]And previously, I talked about red team, blue team.

[00:03:20]>> Right.

[00:03:21]>> In an earlier chat we had maybe sometime last year.

[00:03:24]And I think it's something that we should still continue to encourage.

[00:03:26]You've got to say, how do we what's the biggest leakage points that we have?

[00:03:31]It's usually people.

[00:03:32]And, you know, phishing attacks where you either click a link and then you create, you know, a total total mess internally. WannaCry attack, you know, in 20 18, 2019. Mhm. 100 plus countries.

[00:03:48]And, you know, you took down systems, you know, it just it grinds everything. Yes. So, the real risk is you you could lose business, you could lose money, uh you could lose reputation.

[00:03:58]>> your job.

[00:03:59]>> Yeah, you could lose your job, yeah. And then in the era of deep fake Yeah.

[00:04:03]>> you know, even even worse can happen.

[00:04:04]>> thought this era of artificial intelligence will actually create systems that make us more protected from these sorts of risks, but I guess as technology advances, the risks actually then advance as well.

[00:04:15]>> AI rogue is a trend now. So, so you could have AI that's >> Yeah.

[00:04:20]>> deletes your entire database by itself.

[00:04:24]Like self-destruction.

[00:04:25]>> scary. I was going to say let's get into those >> [laughter] >> deep scary scenarios. Yeah, yeah, yeah, all of a sudden. But yeah, so let's switch over to FIFA. You know, it's interesting to view sports from a financial commercial perspective, but a large part of what sports is about is now being commercialized. So, FIFA is now increasing the total payout for the World Cup to 87 and 871 million pounds.

[00:04:46]Can you just explain for our audiences what the payout means?

[00:04:50]>> For for the Okay, so really really really good question.

[00:04:54]>> [clears throat] >> In 2022 in Qatar, the payout was about 414 million dollars.

[00:05:00]>> Payout to who? To the countries, participating countries.

[00:05:03]>> Okay. So, for the 2026 edition uh to qualify and participate in this tournament each country gets about 10 million dollars. Oh, fantastic. And that money goes to the FA team members or the footballers basically. Okay, right.

[00:05:19]>> You know, but again it's meant to be distributed because there are so many players in a value chain. Uh you know, you play international friendlies, uh you know, I I'm I'm just very pained that Nigeria that Nigeria is not going to the World Cup again for the third straight time, you know, I mean it hurts everybody. Mhm. Um the winner of this World Cup, I think it will pocket about 50 million dollars.

[00:05:40]50? 5 0.

[00:05:41]>> Okay. And that gets paid after. So, the non-winners, will they get their money or after participation? Well, FIFA tries to ensure that people can prepare adequately and have all the resources they need. So, most times They are probably given an advance. They get They get paid in advance. Look, FIFA is very rich.

[00:06:00]Let's face it. So, they've got They've got a lot of money. Yeah. The only downside to the World Cup story is it hasn't had the the hype that normally comes that comes to the World Cup. Most hotels in the US are saying they don't feel like anything is happening. They don't feel like they're booked out enough. It still feels like normal times.

[00:06:21]You know, and you can tie it back to three key factors.

[00:06:25]The visa denials have increased.

[00:06:28]You know, the security situation, you know, in the country with ICE and all the whole stuff going on, and the geopolitical tension.

[00:06:36]Of course.

[00:06:36]>> So, Iran is going to this World Cup. I don't know how how many fans they potentially Yeah. have at this World Cup. That's interesting. When sports then sits at the high or the eye of diplomatic or geopolitical tensions.

[00:06:48]But, if you strip away the geopolitical tensions and the visa issue, would this have been a hyped World Cup anyway?

[00:06:55]USA '94. Okay. A number of A number of us watched >> That was Atlanta, right? Yes, of course.

[00:07:00]That was and very memorable.

[00:07:03]>> Yes. And you saw how when we play at this tournament, you know, it just It's not just in Nigeria. It unifies the entire world.

[00:07:11]>> It does. It certainly does. Brazil, for instance, football is his life. Mhm. You know, so everywhere in the world, as long as you're participating, you're rooting really hard because it's the highest level. Indeed. Of of of the football, you know, times.

[00:07:25]>> Yeah. And every time your your eyes just light up every time you talk about sports [laughter] sports and St. Lawrence. But, let's move over to the South Africa PMI. This private sector I think had its fastest pace in nearly 4 years in April. And and so, I'm thinking to myself, is this South Africa shrug shrugging off global risk sentiment? You know, we're hearing businesses buying lots of inventory and things. You know, what is driving this?

[00:07:49]Uh number one, I think the the geopolitical tension in the Middle East is helping South Africa.

[00:07:54]>> Okay, tell us how. What what So so a lot of people don't know that South Africa is also rich in mineral resources.

[00:08:00]>> Okay. Mhm. So uh you know, I mean, look, when you hear Egoli, it means the place of gold.

[00:08:07]>> Mhm.

[00:08:07]So beyond gold, you know, you have uh copper, you have nickel, and these are all resources required for uh tech. Uh you know, and that's why the US has always been interested.

[00:08:21]>> Mhm.

[00:08:22]65 million people uh in this country uh and they keep they keep making, you know, huge strides.

[00:08:27]>> Mhm. Um also, another fact people don't know is this, 21 21,000 uh mining companies are already present >> in in South Africa.

[00:08:38]>> Africa. Uh and I think it just tells you why the US, you know, would uh they they they they won't leave SA uh anytime soon.

[00:08:45]>> Yeah. But even the PMI, the purchasing managers index, that is a measure of business performance, you know, we're seeing businesses stockpiling, um even as it, you know, inventories are normalizing because I think there's also been a severing of supply chains. We're seeing some types of corporate buying patterns that are helping to improve >> Sure. sentiment overall. But interesting on the minerals front because, look, South Africa and US have been at each other's throats since the first over G20, then we had the whole thing with Trump talking about the in quotes genocide of white farmers >> in South Africa. But it seems like, you know, they say that there are no permanent enemies, only permanent interests.

[00:09:24]>> Permanent interests.

[00:09:25]Is this a classic case of that? We want your minerals, we don't care whether we ideologically align with you ideologically. Yeah.

[00:09:32]>> So so the business front, Yeah. uh you've got um you know, Freeport-McMoRan, uh you know, massive. Yeah, massive. Uh, BHP Billiton. Yeah, Billiton.

[00:09:43]>> And then you have the Newmont uh Corporation. Mhm. And the list goes on.

[00:09:47]Now, these guys are also huge in the power play in the US.

[00:09:54]So, irrespective of the the tension you might have between Cyril Ramaphosa and and Trump, >> Trump. Mhm. there'll still be interest that was a look we we we still need you guys because Silicon Valley >> [clears throat] >> will still count on on these resources for our tech our tech and innovation space. Yeah, and you know, historically, Pretoria has always been wary of deals that are seen as primarily extractive in nature or neocolonial. So, do you think once we start to move closer closer away from rhetoric to actual signing of these investments and execution, is there likely to be any domestic pushback in the South African market or in the economy around the the equity around these these deals? So, what I see in South Africa a lot of times, and you know, if you trace this back to um, the black economic empowerment policies, Which moved to broad-based black economic empowerment here.

[00:10:48]>> which, you know, um, there is still a lot of gap Mhm. in the country. The the the wealth distribution is still a challenge. You would find that, you know, there's wealth concentration in select few families, and those families have gotten really, you know, massive uh today.

[00:11:06]So, they have to keep finding that midpoint that keeps, you know, empowering a lot more people uh in the country. I think that that that potentially helps. Uh and that's why these xenophobic attacks Mhm. pop up a lot of times because the guys who are potentially in the lower band, uh the easiest or the softest targets they then see are the other black Africans around them who are who are making a living from, you know, what I call side hustle on on the street. What those guys do don't really change too much. I mean, they're selling things in Yeovil, uh then Bloemfontein. They're doing like basic stuff and those are the guys that, you know, they're they're easy targets, you know, in the country.

[00:11:46]>> Yeah, let's just hope it doesn't escalate beyond that. You know, South Africa always seems, you know, has so much good going for it in terms of being an FDI hub for the continent, but clearly these socio-economic issues, if not properly managed and controlled and and the root cause of them tackled, then it could really undermine the longer-term economic trajectory. But let's look at this interesting stat of Nigeria's telecoms operators. On the one hand, it seems like the market is becoming saturated. We have 185.5 million subscribers. Yeah. But when I compare that against the population of 200, like I'm like, there's almost 30 million Nigerians who are underserved from a Telco perspective. If the market is approaching saturation, why are Telco companies needing to spend so much money on marketing and investing and all of these things? So, uh we spoke about 5G a lot um last year.

[00:12:37]And that has come to stay.

[00:12:38]Basically, the whole conversation about let's continue to improve the network, improve speed, improve performance, improve coverage and capacity. Yeah.

[00:12:51]The real war is um fiber broadband.

[00:12:56]Which is the direction where, you know, that's where the future is, really.

[00:13:00]Uh and if you look at the GSM play, Yeah.

[00:13:04]you're right about the saturation.

[00:13:06]Because we have BTS, you know, base transceiver stations all over the places.

[00:13:11]Um the connectivity business is sort of, you know, plateaued, you know, in in some way.

[00:13:20]The fiber is seated under 50%. It's like 48.5%, you know, and and there's work to be done in this space.

[00:13:29]So, the investment [snorts] required is still quite a bit, and that's why the winners will be the guys who actually pump the most capital Indeed. Certainly.

[00:13:38]And and we can see telco shares being pretty pretty robust still.

[00:13:43]Quick word, Michael Jackson biopic, cuz you you picked it grossed over $400 million in its first weeks. Have you seen it? Uh yes. Yes. Yes, I see the movie. Okay, I'm going to see it this afternoon, actually, but And I'm hopefully going to see it tomorrow.

[00:13:56]Okay. How how far do do we think this could go in terms of Potentially, it's $800 to a billion dollars, potentially.

[00:14:02]If it's done so well in the first 2 weeks. Uh Michael, you know, resonates with a lot of uh people, uh King of Pop.

[00:14:10]Mhm. Uh Wacko Jacko.

[00:14:12]>> [laughter] >> Uh yeah, man, look, you got to just Depends on your what side of the fence you sit on. Interesting. I I was so thrilled to see Gen Z's rocking to You know, Michael's music from the '80s. I'm like, they weren't born then. But but they caught on nicely. They caught on nicely. But I feel like you just chose a story for the entertainment, not because there's any real substantial business angle.

[00:14:30]Well, look, to be honest, um it is ranking second after I think it's a Bohemian Rhapsody. Okay.

[00:14:36]Yeah. Yeah, that did over a billion dollars. Yeah, so again, that's is maybe telling a story in itself that look, that there's so much more. Or on a lighter note, consumer sentiment is pretty robust, right? Michael is keeping us all on our toes. Thank you so much, Lawrence and Maddie. Great to have you on the show, as always. So much for having me.

[00:14:55]>> [music]