MICT, Inc. (NASDAQ: MICT) (“MICT”) and Tingo, Inc. (OTC Markets:
TMNA) (“Tingo” or the “Company”), announced that Tingo Mobile PLC
(“Tingo Mobile”), which is being wholly acquired by MICT with a
scheduled completion date of November 30, 2022, has today launched
its partnership with the All Farmers Association of Nigeria
(“AFAN”) ahead of schedule.
Through its recently announced trade deal with
Tingo Mobile, AFAN has committed to deliver a minimum of 20 million
additional subscribers, which would more than triple Tingo Mobile’s
existing customer base of 9.3 million. From today, AFAN has
commenced to enroll its members to Tingo’s platforms and products,
including its Nwassa Agri-Fintech platform.
Also today, Tingo Mobile launched its
pan-African partnership with leading global payments technology
company, Visa, with the rollout a range of new products and
services including Tingo Visa digital payment cards, a Tingo Mobile
secure payment service and a Tingo Mobile Point of Sale merchant
service. The suite of Tingo Visa products is expected to contribute
significantly towards fulfilling MICT’s and Tingo Mobile’s goals of
fostering financial inclusion and driving the social and economic
upliftment of their customers.
To mark its milestone achievements, and by way
of support of AFAN and Nigeria’s Federal Ministry of Agriculture
and Rural Development, Tingo Mobile has sponsored today’s National
Farmers’ Day event. Through its work with these organizations,
Tingo Mobile has reinforced its commitment to Nigeria’s more than
60 million farmers and further underlined its support towards AFAN
and the Nigerian Government, as the parties work collectively
towards their mutual objectives of increasing food supply and
improving food security.
Dozy Mmobuosi,
Tingo Founder and
CEO, commented: “We are honored to have both AFAN
and Visa as our partners. It was only a small number of weeks ago
that we announced our trade deal with AFAN, so to be in a position
where we have launched our partnership with them today, ahead of
schedule, is a huge achievement. We are particularly pleased we
have been able to arrange both the AFAN and Visa partnership
launches to coincide with National Farmers’ Day celebration, which
has allowed us to support this important event on Nigeria’s
agricultural sector’s calendar.
“We are very proud of our team at Tingo Mobile
as they continue to successfully execute our accelerated rollout
strategy, which has all been made possible through the merger with
MICT. We are also extremely proud of the valuable contribution we
believe we are making towards increasing Nigeria’s and Africa’s
food supply and improving food security.”
Darren Mercer, Chief Executive Officer
of MICT, commented: “We are delighted to see Tingo Mobile
launch two significant revenue generating opportunities today. The
launch of the partnership with AFAN has the potential to markedly
increase Nwassa’s customer numbers and revenues from Q4 2022
onwards. With a high margin in excess of 90%, the impact on
profitability should be considerable.
“The partnership with Visa, one of the world’s
leading global payment solution providers, is also very exciting,
and facilitates a number of new products and revenue streams, while
also making a huge difference to Tingo Mobile’s ability to promote
financial inclusion and financial upliftment.
“While we expect the combination of today’s two
partnership launches to have a material impact on the MICT Group
consolidated revenues and profitability in Q4 2022, we expect a
more significant acceleration of growth to occur in 2023.”
Dr Farouk Rabiu Mudi, the President of
the All Farmers Association of Nigeria
(AFAN), commented: “We commend Tingo
Mobile for their tremendous support of Nigeria’s farmers, including
for their sponsorship of today’s National Farmers’ Day Celebration.
Tingo’s Nwassa platform and other initiatives can make a real
difference to the farmers, as has already been demonstrated, and we
are very happy to be working with Tingo Mobile to enroll our
members with them. We look forward to a long future of partnering
with Tingo, and for them to play an even larger role in our
farmers’ individual and collective success.”
About All Farmers Association of
Nigeria (AFAN)
The All Farmers Association of Nigeria (AFAN) is
the apex of all Farmers Commodity Associations, Cooperatives and
other bodies involved in Agriculture and Agro-allied matters in
Nigeria. As the umbrella body of all the recognized 56 commodity
associations in Nigeria, AFAN has branches and structures in the 36
states of the nation including the Federal Capital Territory (FCT),
Abuja, and 774 Local Government Areas Across Nigeria. The
Association coordinates, facilitates, supervises, regulates and
generally liaises on all issues affecting farmers, as well as
promises overall development of farming, agriculture and
Agro-allied matters in the country. AFAN is registered with the
corporate Affairs Commission and has its secretariat situated in
Abuja, FCT. For more information, visit the AFAN website:
https://www.afan.ng/.
About MICT
MICT is a financial technology business
principally focused on the growth and development of a suite of
consumer fintech services across approximately 130 cities in China,
with planned expansion into additional markets. MICT has developed
highly scalable proprietary platforms for insurance products (B2B,
B2B2C and B2C) and financial services/products (B2C), the
technology for which is highly adaptable for other applications and
markets. MICT has acquired and holds the requisite license and
approvals with the Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission to
deal in securities and provide securities advisory and asset
management services. MICT also has memberships/registrations with
the Hong Kong Stock Exchange and the requisite Hong Kong and China
Direct clearing companies. MICT’s financial services business and
first financial services product, the Magpie Invest app, is able to
trade securities on NASDAQ, NYSE, TMX, HKSE, China Stock Connect,
LSE, the Frankfurt Stock Exchange and the Paris Stock Exchange.
About Tingo
Tingo, through its wholly owned subsidiary,
Tingo Mobile, is the leading Agri-Fintech company operating in
Africa, with a marketplace platform that empowers social upliftment
through mobile, technology and financial access for rural farming
communities. Tingo’s novel “device as a service” model allows it to
add market leading applications to enable customers to trade, buy
top ups, pay bills, access insurance and lending services. With 9.3
million existing customers, Tingo is seeking to expand its
operations across select markets in Africa. Tingo’s strategic plan
is to become the eminent Pan-African Agri-Fintech business
delivering social upliftment and financial inclusion to millions of
SME farmers and women-led businesses.
Tingo offers its comprehensive platform service
through use of smartphones – ‘device as a service’ (using GSM
technology) -- to empower a marketplace to enable
subscribers/farmers within and outside of the agricultural sector
to manage their commercial activities of growing and selling their
production to market participants both domestically and
internationally. The ecosystem provides a ‘one stop shop’ solution
to enable such subscribers to manage everything from airtime top
ups, bill pay services for utilities and other service providers,
access to insurance services and micro finance to support their
value chain from ‘seed to sale’.
As of June 30, 2022, Tingo had approximately 9.3
million subscribers using its mobile phones and Nwassa platform.
Nwassa is Africa’s leading digital agriculture ecosystem that
empowers rural farmers and agri-businesses by using proprietary
technology to enable access to markets in which they operate. Farm
produce can be shipped from farms across Africa to any part of the
world, in both retail and wholesale quantities. Nwassa’s payment
gateway also has an escrow structure that creates trust between
buyers and sellers. Tingo’s system provides real-time pricing,
straight from the farms, eliminating middlemen. Tingo’s users pay
for produce bought using available pricing on its platform.
Cautionary Note Regarding
Forward-Looking Statements
Certain statements made herein contain, and
certain oral statements made by representatives of MICT and Tingo
and their respective affiliates, from time to time may contain,
“forward-looking statements” within the meaning of the “safe
harbor” provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act
of 1995. MICT’s and Tingo’s actual results may differ from their
expectations, estimates and projections and consequently, you
should not rely on these forward-looking statements as predictions
of future events. Words such as “expect,” “estimate,” “project,”
“budget,” “forecast,” “anticipate,” “intend,” “plan,” “may,”
“will,” “could,” “should,” “believes,” “predicts,” “potential,”
“might” and “continues,” and similar expressions are intended to
identify such forward-looking statements. These forward-looking
statements include, without limitation, MICT’s and Tingo’s
expectations with respect to future performance and anticipated
financial impacts of the Business Combination, the satisfaction of
the closing conditions to the Business Combination and the timing
of the completion of the Business Combination. These
forward-looking statements involve significant risks and
uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially
from expected results. Most of these factors are outside of the
control of MICT or Tingo and are difficult to predict. Factors that
may cause such differences include but are not limited to: (1) the
occurrence of any event, change or other circumstances that could
give rise to the termination of the Merger Agreement (as defined
below); (2) the inability to complete the Business Combination,
including due to the failure to obtain approval of the stockholders
of MICT or Tingo or other conditions to closing in the Merger
Agreement; (3) the inability to obtain or maintain the listing of
MICT’s common stock on Nasdaq following the Business Combination;
(4) the risk that the Business Combination disrupts current plans
and operations of Tingo or MICT as a result of the announcement and
consummation of the Business Combination; (5) the ability to
recognize the anticipated benefits of the Business Combination,
which may be affected by, among other things, competition, the
ability of the combined company to grow and manage growth
economically and hire and retain key employees; (7) the inability
to complete the Business Combination due to inability to obtain
regulatory approval; (8) changes in applicable laws or regulations;
(10) the possibility that MICT or Tingo may be adversely affected
by other economic, business, and/or competitive factors; and (11)
the impact of the global COVID-19 pandemic on any of the foregoing
risks and other risks and uncertainties to be identified in the
proxy statement/prospectus (when available) relating to the
Business Combination, including those under “Risk Factors” therein,
and in other filings with the SEC made by MICT and Tingo. The
foregoing list of factors is not exclusive. Readers are referred to
the most recent reports filed with the SEC by MICT and Tingo.
Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance upon any
forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date made.
MICT and Tingo undertake no obligation to update or revise the
forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information,
future events or otherwise, subject to applicable law.
No Solicitation
This Press Release does not constitute a
solicitation of a proxy, consent or authorization with respect to
any securities or in respect of the Business Combination.
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
MICT intends to file with the SEC a preliminary
proxy statement of MICT in connection with Business Combination.
The definitive proxy statement and other relevant documents will be
mailed to stockholders of MICT as of a record date to be
established for voting on the Business Combination. Stockholders of
MICT and other interested persons are advised to read, when
available, the preliminary proxy statement, and amendments thereto,
and the definitive proxy statement in connection with MICT’s
solicitation of proxies for the special meeting to be held to
approve the Business Combination because these documents will
contain important information about MICT, Tingo and the Business
Combination. Stockholders will also be able to obtain copies of the
proxy statement, without charge, once available, on the SEC’s
website at www.sec.gov.
Tingo has filed with the SEC a definitive
information statement of Tingo in connection with Business
Combination. The definitive information statement and other
relevant documents will be mailed to stockholders of Tingo as of a
record date to be established for voting on the Business
Combination. Stockholders of Tingo and other interested persons are
advised to read, when available, the MICT preliminary proxy
statement, and amendments thereto, and the Tingo definitive
information statement because these documents will contain
important information about Tingo, MICT and the Business
Combination. Stockholders will also be able to obtain copies of the
information statement, without charge, once available, on the SEC’s
website at www.sec.gov.
Participants in the
Solicitation
MICT and Tingo and certain of their respective
directors, executive officers, other members of management and
employees, under SEC rules, may be deemed to be participants in the
solicitation of proxies from the stockholders of MICT in favor of
the approval of the Business Combination.
Additional information regarding the
interests of such potential participants will also be included in
the Proxy Statement and other relevant documents when they are
filed with the SEC. Free copies of these documents may be obtained
as described in the preceding paragraph.
Investor Relations ContactChris Tyson/Larry
Holub949-491-8235MICT@mzgroup.uswww.mzgroup.us
MICT Inc. Contact InformationEmail:
info@mict-inc.com Phone: (201) 225-0190
Tingo, Inc. Contact InformationRory
BowenChief of Staff – Tingo, Inc.
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