Our Visa-Tango partnership and TingoPay super app are well positioned to expand Tingo significantly into new B2C and B2B markets. We have proven proprietary fintech platform, which are replicable in new geographical markets and new sectors. We have a vast addressable global market, including a new and significant opportunity in Pakistan. We believe that we have a significant ESG impact that can grow considerably further in the future. Thank you. Operator, my colleagues and I from Tingo are now ready to take questions from the participants.
A – Unidentified Company Representative: Can you expand on the reason for the decrease in the Nwassa revenue during the quarter? And do you see this as temporary?
Kenneth Denos: Nwassa generates its revenue through the transactions made by our farmers. These farmers use Nwassa to purchase farming inputs, to notify us they have product to sell, and to access a range of services such as bill payments, micro finance and insurance. Unfortunately, the negative press we received in June was picked up in Nigeria, including newspapers and other media that is distributed into the rural parts of the country. The Nwassa platform, just like any commercial platform, is based on trust. And these farmers want to know that their transactions will go through and that their money is safe. So unfortunately, the negative press created a significant amount of fear and lack of confidence in our farmers, which resulted in a slump of transaction volume and revenue.
Thankfully, we’ve been able to work with cooperatives and with AFAN since — to restore customer confidence, which is having a major positive impact. Also, as you may have seen in our recent press release, AFAN, which is the umbrella organization for the entire farming industry of Nigeria, has now adopted us as their exclusive agricultural platform, and they are also increasing the promotion and support towards us. With all the steps we have taken, we expect to resume the growth rates we were enjoying prior to the short-seller attack, additional to which we should benefit from a step-up in revenues and earnings from both Nwassa and mobile leasing when our 6 million new phones are deployed to the 6 million new customers in December.
Unidentified Company Representative: Revenue for Tingo Foods dipped slightly compared to the second quarter. What was the reason for this?
Kenneth Denos: Tingo Foods, which was also affected by negative press, not so much in relation to our customers, but very much so in relation to the farmers that supply us. On the supply side, our farmers have to be able to trust that we will pay them for the crops they produce. And unfortunately, their confidence decreased when they saw the negative press. Again, thankfully with the support of the cooperative in AFAN, we have made good headway in restoring the confidence of the farmers that sell their produce to us, and we expect to be back to the levels of supply that we enjoyed prior to the short-seller attack. Now it’s worth noting that Tingo Foods also suffered from seasonality in July and August, with the level of crops being harvested drop significantly.
So, this factor combined with the drop in supplier confidence towards us, had a real impact. I am pleased to say, however, that with the rebound we experienced in supply levels, together with our sales outlook for the next few months, we are confident of the strong end to the year and that we can achieve healthy growth thereafter.
Unidentified Company Representative: You previously mentioned that the Tingo DMCC export business was expected to generate around $1 billion of revenue during the quarter, whereas your actual export revenue was around 1/3 of this. Were orders delayed or did you suffer cancellations?
Kenneth Denos: Again, for the reasons mentioned in my previous 2 answers, our export business unfortunately suffered from both order postponements and order cancellations in the third quarter, in particular from the new customers we have just started to deal with. This not only resulted in a considerable loss of revenue and earnings for us in the third quarter, which we hope to catch up over the coming months, but it also delayed the dollarization of our business. In fact, much of the postponed or canceled business was set to be transacted in U.S. dollars and other primary currencies. Notwithstanding the challenges we have faced, I’m pleased to say that we are seeing strong signs of recovery in our operations. And we expect to be back on track by year-end, and I believe in a great position to have a strong 2024.
Unidentified Company Representative: Do you have an update regarding the delivery and deployment of the 6 million smartphones you ordered in Q2 and that you have made sizable payments against in both Q2 and Q3?
