It is so easy to become complacent when you think your brand has gotten there. “We have arrived” is the common Nigerian saying. But forgetting your humble beginnings is something great brands NEVER do. So they keep relics and memorabilia’s of their early years. Recently, First Bank of Nigeria clocked 125 years of being in business. Guinness also joined the 100 years club and many more…Levi Straus at 146 years only went public last week. These days, big brands are going to be redefined by how they relate with customers and their ability to adapt to a fast-changing world.<br><br>If you are in the financial services business, the rule of thumb is “adapt or die”. So in one of our multifaceted bids to adapt, we approached a certain “big Brand”, offering to deepen their reach to their customers via a Convenience Channel services provider like us. We aggregate products which by virtue of the nature of these “big brands”, they cannot, else they will be promoting other brands alongside their business. That is like a taboo in the Business world or tantamount to committing a sacrilegious crime. The only reason you can see a Diamond bank Logo beside Access Bank is because they have just consummated a merger. It is only in a dream will you see a Glo Mobile Shop selling an MTN product. But if you come to us, we can serve you DSTV in the morning, and Startimes 2 seconds later. You can get MTN, Glo, 9Mobile and Airtel all at once. We are called aggregators and we are small and versatile.Now back to my story of arrogant brands. So we had reason to reach out to this brand from a Southern African origin. They have gotten really big in Nigeria especially because of the lack luster competition locally. Had Nigerian brands really been serious, these guys would have been out of business but…they have a service that rivals are still struggling to play catch-up. And this is where their arrogance begins. <br><br>When a brand starts putting people in positions where they can actually look at a service provider that is actually adding or bringing value to their clients but they literarilly slam their doors in your face, know there is a problem.Even worse yet is when those brands fail to acknowledge that they have a problem…I mean, who spends 3 weeks searching through the internet for a household brand name and yet you are unable to get the Telephone number or email address of their Nigerian sales and marketing team? Ok, so we did and were unsuccessful. We then decidedly went through their customer care centre since we are also users of the brand We called the customer care centre and we were able to squeeze from them the location and phone number of their sales/marketing team. After attempting to call the number for another 3 weeks without the automated system giving us a human receptionist to talk to, we gave up and decided to hand-carry our proposal to the Victoria Island office of "big brand" company. We were bounced by the front office receptionist because we don’t know the name of the person we were looking for. Ofcourse we don’t know the name of anyone "DUH!” We don't know anyone in your organisation, because we were just trying to reach anyone responsible for your sales team. ‘Fortunately,’ they collected our letter and said they would hand it to the marketing team and acknowledged receipt on our copy.<br><br>The expectation was that we should have someone call us to a meeting but after 3 weeks of no feedback, we decided to leverage on an acquaintance (the MD of a foremost Nigerian media house) who gave us email addresses of the ‘right people’ to send our proposal to. And we did. Waited another 3 weeks and 2 reminders later, response eventually came acknowledging receipt and they would revert back. Several reminders later, we gave up with email follow up. In all of this encounter spanning about 3 months, we couldn’t get a functional contact phone number for their marketing team. So we opined that this big brand only dealt with big or bigger brands.&nbsp;We sought alternatives to offer the same service and got one. But still not satisfied with what we offer our clients, we resumed our onslaught 6 months later to get direct access to the brand. This time around we were directed to the Ikeja office of big brand as that was where (we were told by their customer services representative again) to go to for what we needed. We arrived the Ikeja office and requested to meet with the head of sales team. We were introduced to a gentleman who listened intently to our journey and finally we believed we have come to the right place. WRONG! He gave me his contact number (PHEW! Finally, some progress) and said we should call the following day so we can meet with the bosses. We were glad we are getting somewhere at least. So, the following day, I called Mr. man. The phone rang endlessly with no response. “Haba! This guy acted like the messiah yesterday”, I thought to myself. After 3 attempts with no response, I left it to repeat a few hours later. No response. So I sent an SMS to refresh the brother’s memory…we were meant to call and schedule to meet. I couldn’t have mistaken the number because he wrote it on a piece of paper with a colleague of his by his side.<br><br>2 weeks later, no result so I repeated my visit to Ikeja office. This time, Mr. Nice guy was apologizing and then invited the Madam in charge. I explained my reason for visiting and gave her a copy of our value proposition. She said she cannot collect the letter without permission from the “people in charge”. I was perplexed but I hid my surprise. She then asked me to wait while she goes in to try get in touch with the people in charge. My wait was about an hour. She came back to apologize for being unsuccessful at contacting persons within her own organization. I was gob smacked. I asked when I could check back for a follow-up, instead, she gave me her number to call her the next day for a feedback but advised that the actual persons are in their V/I office, where I had tried unsuccessfully only to be turned back by the front desk attendant.Anyway, I got her number and returned to the Island. I called the lady the following day and fortunately she responded after 3 attempts. She explained she has not been able to reach anyone yet. Called back 3 days later, same story. I repeated again in 2 weeks and she gave the same feedback. At this point I almost lost my cool as she told me “I don’t know what else to do…I cannot help you”. I had to ask like really, “are you trying to get permission from South Africa if we can pass on a proposal in Nigeria? Can you at least send me the email address to forward the document to?” and the response was negative. At this point, I gave up! But the never say NEVER attitude in me just won't give up.<br><span><br>Fast forward to 6 months ago, I met someone whom I narrated the high brand ordeal to when I knew he was close to someone in the organisation about TV company big brand and how I had to give up…he says “ah!&nbsp;I know the marketing director, a South African, bla bla bla…I have direct bla bla bla and I can bla bla bla…”.&nbsp;So I said to myself, ok, here’s another shot. 3 days later he calls me to say he had spoken with the guy, gave me his email address and I wrote. This time, I was not just asking that he read my proposal but also to find out why they had such a process where it was easier to get into Fort Knox than to speak with “someone responsible” for their marketing services. Little did I know that my asking to speak with someone responsible would ignite a shit-storm from a Nigerian lady who was delegated to treat our proposal. How personal she got was beyond me! From ranting about how they are responsible people and the whole show is run by Nigerians and blab la bla! She went off a handle and for the life of me, I cannot understand where her grievance was coming from. It felt like a brother I don't have jilted her sister that I don't know... Can’t I ask after 1 year and 6 months of trying to speak or meet with someone responsible for a service in an organisation seem like climbing Mount Everest? Actually, I should be the one throwing knives and spitting bile at everyone, yet, this lady managed to bypass my grievance, created one and threw it back at me like Thor’s hammer!<br></span><br>I don’t blame her! Big Brand Arrogance is what I summed it up to and guess what? That arrogance will disappear like someone helped me slap off the smirk off someone’s face! Their kind of service is under attack from competing small brands left, right and center. Brands are even offering a better viewing experience for a lot less and even more convenience. When your brand is not shielded from innovation, you better grab on to working smart for longevity of your brand! Eventually we teamed up with another firm and have gotten better access to the same services to offer our clients as an aggregator and giving better value than what some big brands I know can only dream of!&nbsp;

As a startup, I can almost bet my bottom dollar that more than 70% of our startups in Nigeria do not set out thinking that they have to pay Income Tax, Value Added Tax, VAT, Witholding Tax (WHT) and Education Tax! While I have no statistics to back that statement, you simply need to just go to a networking event hosting startup and randomly sample from CEO’s, founders and co-Founders of these startup firms to find out how many of them you sampled has a filed their annual returns.&nbsp;My random sampling revealed that an average of 80% of startups that are between 2 - 5 years old are yet to file a single annual return. <br><br>Now while my co-founder and I at some point were fighting over my insistence from Day 1, right after incorporation, that we had a TIN (Tax Identification Number), I fought for the 2 years of our existence to make sure we had a tracking of our costs. 2 years later, I am glad I did not relent so that we had some form of book keeping.&nbsp;We were not able to employ an accountant and this is typically the case of most startups. They are focused on the solution they are trying to bring, their value proposition, road to market, monetizing the product, pitching to investors, scaling up, etc., but, one of the most important aspects of any business, i.e. the financials and obligations to the authorities vis-a-viz tax obligations of the business, is almost often relegated to the background. This can become very costly, as we learnt very recently.&nbsp;<br><br>Immediately after taking over as CEO, I immediately set out to get our books in order. I am a firm believer of “what you cannot measure, you cannot manage”. So I recruited an accountant and demanded some level of structured reporting on our financials. 8 months down the road when I was comfortable we have gathered the information of our activities the last 3 years, I invited an external auditor to audit our financials to ensure we are able to file our annual returns. We paid our tax liabilities for the 3 years under review and then put in place the process to report our performance on a monthly basis which made it easier for us to prepare our annual financials and audited statements within 2 months from subsequent year ends. But it is also easy to just walk up to the tax office and declare zero returns and obtain a Tax clearance certificate under your belt for a token. We didn’t want to just do that. Our credibility as an organisation and our core value of INTEGRITY will not allow us do that.&nbsp;<br><span><br>We thought we were doing just ok making these filings with the CAC and paying the requisite taxes until 2 months ago, we got a letter from the FIRS slapping us with fines for late submission of our WHT and VAT. This blog is inspired by the fact that I was compelled to write a 3-paged response to the FIRS after a visit to their office 2 weeks earlier to plead our case. Our fine was almost 10 times our annual profit put together for the past 4 years of our audited financials and this is excluding the cost of late submission of our VAT returns for the 3 years we tried to comply with having our annual returns and taxes paid.&nbsp;</span>&nbsp;I gleaned through every aspect of the FIRS website to find any straw to hold on to in our defense as an SME, start-up, bla bla bla that was just trying to do things right and could have “hidden” from the law but we didn’t. I mean, here we are just struggling to breakeven after years of investing in our solution, barely able to pay ourselves as founders any salaries, and the minute we go to the authorities, we are slapped with fines that will put us out of business literarily!&nbsp;<br><br>This begs the question, what did we do wrong? Now while it will be quite easy for us to expect that we get some form of respite/reprieve from the FIRS fines and we hope we do, make no mistake, ignorance of the law is no excuse! You need to know what your tax obligations are from day 1 and start working towards making sure that your startup is tax compliant. On the flip-side, it will not be out of place to have an advocacy group from the startup ecosystem to engage the tax authorities on a special category for FinTechs and other startups who are clearly creating employment, improving efficiencies in the economy but are yet to be able to support the overheads of a fully functioning financial services department.&nbsp;There are also some startups that offer financial services a la carte. These are firms outside your own startup that you can outsource your accounting services to for a small fee. I do not want to delve into financial reporting apps that you can also sample and use to start your book keeping from day 1. Just remember, being a startup does not shield you from your tax obligations. If you are a founder, co-founder, CEO of a startup, be sure you have this angle figured out from the get go and if you haven’t yet, learn from our case. <br><br>As a lesson for some of you in the ecosystem, you are to file your VAT and WHT returns on the 21st day of every month and this has to be done Monthly! For us, the cost of just complying far outweighs what we would even be submitting as VAT or WHT just because of the nature of what we do. So it is imperative that discussion be held with the authorities to find a way to deal with the peculiarities of Startups &amp; SME’s vis-a-viz complying with these laws. In the meantime, where does your start-up stand in complying with tax obligations? I will like to learn from your experience.&nbsp;<br><br>If you want to know more, just go to <a href="http://www.firs.gov.ng" target="" rel="">www.firs.gov.ng</a> or visit the local tax office near you. Hey! they got free calendars and forms that will clearly teach you how to go about complying.&nbsp;

<b>The Principle of Little Drops.&nbsp;</b><br><br>Have you ever heard of the saying “little drops of water make a mighty ocean”? Well, in every facet of life, I believe so strongly about little drops. From the rewards you get from exercising little by little every other day, to eating food for your body daily and for your business venture. This saying is analogous to another popular saying “Rome was not built in a day”!&nbsp;Yes, nothing you see that is magnificent, successful and great started big! From the sprawling multi-billion Dollar Dangote Refinery and his sprawling business empire, to the wealth of Jeff Bezos of Amazon, the richest man in the World, everyone started small. From the small business idea that was generating very little, to business empires that employs people enough to create a small country. We must value humble beginnings.&nbsp;<br><br>So when a client of ours told us that she has invested N80,000,000 (eighty million Naira) with us and cannot see her profit, we sent her statement for the 3 years she had been trading with us. We had to quickly correct her. She actually started her business with Voucher Net to sell recharge cards with N200,000 (two hundred thousand naira) three years ago. So, she had only invested N200,000 and because of the frequency of her transactions, in 3 years she had turned over the money to a total of N80,000,000 (eighty million Naira)! Her wallet was getting empty every 2 – 3 days meaning she was making about N200,000 sales of recharge cards buying from Voucher Net at the discounts every 2 – 3 days.&nbsp;Now here is the funny bit. Each time we tell people that they can earn an average of 4% on every transaction, they ask us : what about MTN?” and we tell them well, “MTN is 2%”. They start saying "<i>it is too small</i>" and we "<i>should increase it</i>". Well, we cannot increase it without hurting our business. We are already giving 6% on Glo and 4% on Airtel and 9Mobile. Our business is running on just under 2%. It is from this 2% we pay our staff salaries, our developers and maintain our infrastructure while paying for our utilities and staff medical plans and insurance bills, as well as our promotional items we give for free. While we make under 2%, you our clients make about 4% and slightly more.&nbsp;<br><span><br>For the sake of simplicity, let me show you what this 4% has done for our client which she did not realise. Let us call her Miss Bianca. So,&nbsp;</span>Miss Bianca earned an average of 4% on her turnover, which at the end of last year was slightly over N80,000,000.&nbsp;4% of N80 million = 0.04 x N80,000,000 = N3,200,000.&nbsp;This means in 3 years she earned N3,200,000 (three million two hundred thousand Naira) as profit and therefore per annum she earned3,200,000 / 3 years = N1,066,666 per annum. This means her&nbsp;N200,000 was generating N1,066,666 per annum.&nbsp;If we try to see this in terms of Return on Investment (ROI) = 533%. This means in 1 year, Bianca earned more than 5 times or 5.33 times of her N200,000. Let us translate this to a monthly income.&nbsp;&nbsp;This means N1,066,666 / 12 = N88,888 per month.&nbsp;Bianca was trading with N200,000 just selling Airtime and data and some bill payments which she buys from Voucher Net at an average of 4% discount. With this little discount (little drops) she has created an income for herself that enables her to earn N88,888 per month! Mind you, she still has her N200,000 cash!<br><br>Bianca can comfortably employ someone as a sales person and pay the person N30,000/month and still have N58,888 for herself! She can actually also find another location where she can invest another N200,000 from the revenue she is making to repeat the same earning over and over. If Bianca has 3 locations, she can employ 3 people comfortably, pay them a decent N30,000 per month and have at least N174,000 per month for herself.&nbsp;Please can anyone tell me how many graduates are earning N70,000 / month in this country? Or any bank where you can keep your money and after 1 year your money has an interest rate of 500%? But it is so easy to dismiss the 4% discount on the average, that you can earn selling Airtime because they see just 4% and fail to understand that it is 4% on your effort and not 4% interest rate. Turnover is effort. You need to grow your clients base or locate yourself in a place where you can get high turnover and patronage.&nbsp;Little drops make a mighty ocean. This is why our effort is aimed at growing our user base. We earn only about 2% but it is that little 2% we value so much that we do what is necessary to make sure that our solution is efficient and attracting new users everyday so we can all share in the mighty ocean that will definitely materialise because of our consistency in improving on our solution.&nbsp;<br><br>You may not have N200,000 like Bianca. But even with N5,000 (five thousand naira), you can repeat exactly the same thing as Bianca. If you turnover N5,000 fifteen (15) times in a day, that is N75,000 turnover daily and that will earn you N3,000 every day which translates to N90,000 per month! Are you looking for a job or trying to make ends meet, or just a side income to sustain yourself in school? When you understand the principle of little drops, you will think again about why you didn’t start trading with MOBitooT all this while!&nbsp;&nbsp;

Nigerians call for prayers after the inferno last night in Lagos. 9 lives were reported lost and 54 cars burnt to ashes following an inferno from a petrol tanker explosion along the Lagos Ibadan Expressway. This prayer mentality in the face of imperatives and matters that would spur other nations to a collective outcry and protests for change and radical transformation of systems is the bane of our society. Nigerians will rather pray, pray and build places of worship rather than act to bring about a change in the context of their existence.&nbsp;<br><span><br>Someone said to me this morning: “let’s pray to avert the disaster that has been predicted by some preacher and going viral all over the place since yesterday...prayer will avert the disaster”. I got that viral message from like 30 persons the last 2 days. Coincidentally the inferno in Lagos happened on one of the dates (June 28) as contained in the viral audio message.<span><br><br>This was my response “I don’t believe in that sh*t...sorry. Just my take in life. What’s gonna be’s gonna be. What goes up must come down and ain’t nothing we can do about it (that's a line from a Bongos Ikwe song but don't worry if u don't know him). True, there is God but we all will die someday. A Fact of life. Millions die every day...let’s just pray to have lived our lives to the fullest and not die untimely...but somebody will die today (millions actually)...and millions will be born today and there’s nothing we can do about it..” Somebody please tell me who decides how we die or when, to think that we can stop how or when someone dies with a prayer or prayers. We have an appointed day to leave this earth...let’s direct prayers meaningfully. Let’s work to improve systems that prevent untimely deaths, let’s improve our safety awareness and consciousness of dangers. Let’s live a healthy and balanced life, let’s shun mediocrity in governance and create safety social nets for people...let’s build better infrastructures.&nbsp;</span></span>&nbsp;<br><br>All these things are not gotten by prayer but dedication, skillfulness and meaningful hard work. Those lives could have been saved and property loss also avoided if we have proper systems, all within our powers. God fixes things in our lives like joy, happiness, love etc...things you do not see but experience...God will not put money in your pocket or make a lion not eat you up if you stupidly go put your head in its mouth (untimely death will hit you like craze!). Let’s pray for the spirit of discernment and gifts of the spirit, and stop being gullible to think that when our time to meet our creator has come, we can pray to Him to stop it. We shall all die...live your life to be one that created legacies that will be remembered when you are gone and stop disturbing my ears with senseless calls for meaningless prayers.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;

<div>The chart above shows income sources for African and their European/Western counterparts. The marked difference in revenue sources is a pointer for 2 things from my perspective, one of which is commonly known i.e. the high risk associated with doing business with most African countries and therefore the impact on investor confidence etc.<br><br></div><div>1. The High risk of doing business in Africa, causing interest rates to hover between anywhere from 10% - 30% even 50%, depending on your country and who you are taking money from. This is prohibitive for any business to operate profitably at. Interest rates in western world are anywhere between 0.5 - 2.0% at most. This therefore leaves room for businesses in those parts to have a better chance at succeeding. For African businesses, the consumers bear the brunt as businesses have to factor in the cost of money before overheads and profit. Let’s not go into taxation (another monster) at this point. Here lies my first opportunity for African-Fintech startups. The almost 80% revenue source from interest rates for African banks breeds complacency and a poor customer centric products. Customers have to keep paying, and paying. The opportunity here for Fin-tech companies is in bringing efficiencies to the system. By lowering the cost of doing business, there is a huge opportunity for start-ups to “steal” clients from the banks.&nbsp;For instance, I see no reason why banks should foray into the business of selling convenience services to their customers (recharge cards, bill payments, etc.). Let’s see what is the definition of a Bank. According to <i>Wikipedia</i>, <i>&nbsp;"a bank is a financial institution that accepts deposits from the public and creates credit. Lending activities can be performed either directly or indirectly through capital markets. Due to their importance in the financial stability of a country, banks are highly regulated in most countries". Investopedia</i> defines a bank as <i>“a financial institution licensed to receive deposits and make loans. Banks may also provide financial services, such as wealth management, currency exchange and safe deposit boxes”. I therefore fault our regulators for not doing their jobs properly. The excuse of banks foraying into these convenience services sector is that there isn’t a “proper system/structure to offer those services to their clients so…”</i> and I say bull! If the banks do their jobs right then they will provide the loans to those whose business it is to provide such services, to be setup properly while the banks earn interests for offering the services! Left to continue unchecked, African banks will start selling pepper and tomatoes within banking halls. They already are hosting fashion and food fairs as well as owning online shopping platforms. Fin-tech firms are not saddled with the heavy overheads of banks and therefore can offer these same services better (if they know what they are doing that is).&nbsp;<br><br></div><div>African governments have to also do their bit to improve governance and security and therefore bring down the risks of doing business in Africa. This is part of what translates to the high cost of money in Africa…but again, that distracts from the crux of this piece.&nbsp;</div><div><br></div><div>2. The 20% of Banks revenue in Africa coming from fees. Fees for what? Ok…so fees for offering banking related services. This is where Banks in Africa have room to grow! Seeing that Western banks have an almost 50 – 50 split in revenue source between interests income and fees, it is little wonder that those Western Banks remain lenders to our African nations and counterparts while offering a much wider variety of banking related services to their clients. Fin-Tech firms have a huge role in bringing efficiencies in our banking sector by giving the banks a run for their money. On the other hand, banks have a huge investment and money making opportunity in offering better and additional financial services to boost their income. But they choose to play in the areas where they are not supposed to, areas that it is obvious that with their huge cash reserves and profits, makes it easier for them to foray into and setting the stakes even higher for SME’s that have their core business in those areas.<br><br>I am not saying Fin-Tech firms should become banks, NO! Neither am I saying that Banks should “kill” Fin-Tech firms if they want to survive. Both cannot do without each other…roles just have to be clear and the African regulators have to step up their game. Business opportunities are being taken by banks moving away from traditional banking services which should be their primary focus and main source of income; they are to offer loans and banking services and therefore earn income from doing so and enable Fin-Tech firms support them through the efficiencies they can bring (reducing the cost of convenience while offering better and more efficient customer support services in those areas that our banks are having little success at, yet continue to play therein. It is so easy for a bank to start selling Mobile Phone recharge cards or TV-Subscription services…but so difficult for them to create the risk management tools that will enable them support small business better and ease the process of loan provision so the real sector can flourish even faster!&nbsp;<br><br></div><div>You guessed right! Voucher Net Limited is in the business of offering convenience services and alternative payment platforms for bills payments. We aim to do it better than the banks in any country we operate because it is our CORE Business. Visit <a href="http://www.vouchernet.com.ng" target="" rel="">www.vouchernet.com.ng</a> for more details.</div><div><br></div>

I was compelled to write this piece after seeing on Instagram a couple of minutes ago that another man has jumped off the 3rd(third) mainland bridge in Lagos, Nigeria. For readers who do not know, the 3rdmainland bridge is the 3rdof three bridges (the other as Carter Bridge and Eko Bridge) than connects the Lagos Island to the Lagos Mainland. It is also the longest bridge in Africa, stretching about 12 km over the Lagos Lagoon. Only last year, another guy who was said to be a driven by his chauffer asked him to stop somewhere on the same bridge right after he had just finished taking a telephone call on his cell phone. He got out of the car and took a plunge into the lagoon, ending the young mans’ life.&nbsp;<br><br>These are very unusual occurrences for Nigerians. We are known to be the happiest people on earth but we must be careful not to be deluded into thinking that we do not have worries or problems or challenges. But, we are brought up to know how sacred life is, how precious it is and how we must do all to love one another, respect and preserve life. It is a common saying that our parents pray never to bury any of their children and for their children to outlive them. But the spate of suicide and even gang violence, ritual killings and murderous armed robbery attacks with multiple casualties is a sign of bad things happening in our society. Things have really gone awry. Why? Why? Why must a Nigerian, or any human being for that matter, think that the solution to their challenges in life, no matter how dire, is to end their lives? I do not speak for people who have terminal illnesses and they are in serious pain that they do not wish to continue living and request euthanasia. I am speaking of able bodied men and women who are in their prime, deciding to commit suicide.&nbsp;Just this week alone in the international community, a world renowned fashion icon took her life by hanging on a scarf while a famous chef and TV show host also ended his own life in a hotel in France…and here, just minutes ago, a young man jumped into the lagoon to end his life. Please, please, please, I have been through a really tough ride too in life. I would not say it did not cross my mind to want to end living just to end the pain…but, please, it is even more painful to leave this life by taking one’s life, than living to go through the situation and come out stronger. You will always come back stronger when you overcome your challenge. You will have learnt lessons, life lessons. <br><br>There is no one without challenges. The two internationally acclaimed persons who took their lives as reported in the news media were to say the least, affluent &nbsp;individuals with a lot of social mileage and placement in society. So, money cannot be the reason, or the lack of money to solve a challenge shouldn’t be the reason to end one’s life. Being alive means we have hope of a better tomorrow. Without over-flogging the subject on Nigerians love for life, it is urgent that I say this: we are having problems that are of psychological nature and the need for psychiatric help and counselling cannot be over-emphasized.&nbsp;The youths of now are truly facing a different kind of problem than we had during our days and that is brought by technological advancements and access to information. Yes…these are great ingredients for development and a developing society but they also come with some undesired effects. The pressure on our youths to “make it” or “blow” as they say is beyond my imaginations. Their expectations are not unrealistic but, they have been ill prepared to make it as they envision in the space of time they think it is possible. Failing to meet this high expectation to succeed leads them to doing anything and at any cost. There lies one of the big issues in our society today.<br><br>Our society is replete with youths who are unemployed, pressured by society due to their unhindered access to information which fans expectations that they are ill equipped to attain. They begin to change their social habits, some become withdrawn, others have their situation even compounded in that they are sole bread winners in their family or have lost one or both parents and can barely make ends meet.&nbsp;Some turn their frustration into anger and commit crimes that ordinarily they would not have dared. Others turn to vices like drugs peddling or consumers of narcotics as a way to block out their pain, while some end up becoming suicidal. It is high time our educational system inculcates into the curriculum at an early stage, say SS-1, mandatory classes for managing stress and detection of psychological disorders. This will go a long way in helping the youths of today understand how to manage the pressures from this information age. It is easy for the youths of today to take a decision to end their life…why? They have information available to them on how to do so from the internet. They have even seen how people have done so, also from the internet. They read real-time news of situations happening all over the world. So, they know that in faraway countries like Venezuela, where people get killed just to be robbed of a pair of shoes, where the value for life is almost non-existent.&nbsp;<br><span><br>We need a lot of psychiatrists and centers for counselling so as to help people having challenges, talk to someone who may be able to navigate their minds through the “chaos” they see with their daily living. We used to think that we were isolated from this sort of psychological misfunctioning because we have a rather strong nuclear family setup…but even that is fast being eroded but the isolation one can have due to the proliferation of technology. Physical contact is now a luxury as we can skype anyone, send WhatsApp to anyone anywhere and even send a digital birthday cake via Instagram to our loved ones. But when you are dealing with a difficult financial or emotional challenge, there is little those things can do. At that point, we must go back to the basics: 1) Family, 2)&nbsp;&nbsp;Friends and 3) Work Colleagues and employers are at the frontline of the defense to help or offer help to people who have become distressed and feel all hope is lost.</span>&nbsp;Please, do not leave them to withdraw into their shell. This is where all the negative thoughts become birthed and are given credence in self-valuating of their thoughts and recycling of their position as to why they cannot continue to live. Please, family, friends, be on the lookout for your friends or family members who have suddenly stopped calling you, replying your messages or suddenly find nothing to say during conversations and will choose to be left alone when others are trying to have fun. <br><br>Now let’s not misunderstand this with introverted personalities. Introversion is not an issue but, when we take an assessment of what an individual is passing through at a point in time, we can already be able to distinguish between introversion and one who is in need of psychiatric help. Again, lets not stereotype people needing psychiatric help as being mentally deranged…we all have had need for psychiatric help at some point in our lives…that we survived without it is just a thing of chance…but we all need to visit a psychologist at least once or twice in a year just to ensure that we are truly balanced in our psyche, just as we need to have an annual medical check-up either as mandated by our employing companies or just as a thing that is a recommended best practice.&nbsp;Employers should also take a lead here. They are also stressors (a stress inducing agent) and need to take responsibility for the mental well-being of their staff. Work pressure has driven some people to suicide. Some employees have had their careers stagnated by the direct actions of their employer and it is on record in this country, people who have either committed suicide at their work place or taken their frustration our on their bosses and hurt someone in the process. Employers should make it mandatory for their employees to see a psychiatrist annually as part of their annual medical recertification. This will cost nothing extra but provides employers if their employees are psychologically stable.&nbsp;<span>Suicide victims leave behind loved ones who remain traumatized by the sudden loss of a close friend or relative. <br><br><b></b>The problems typically do not disappear but even become compounded for the surviving family members. Please get help. No one is an island, no one can solve their life challenges alone. Sometimes, all that is needed is talking to someone and sharing the burden. We all have them…and if you are religiously inclined, talk to God…do what you can and leave what you can’t. Let’s help each other overcome our challenges even if it means just leaning on someone shoulder to cry. It helps to cry once in a while.</span>

&nbsp;Now most people in Nigeria are yet to understand the power of a MOBILE WALLET. In faraway countries like Uganda, Kenya and South Africa, the phenomenal rise of apps like MPESSA (a mobile money wallet) and WARI and Orange money in Senegal leaves one to wonder what is the matter here! Well, the Nigerian banks have tried to push mobile money wallets a couple of years back and they all fell flat on their faces from day 1. Some of the observations I made on this product offering in Nigeria ranges from the lack of trust, poor android penetration, a culture thing, the lack of proper education on the product and the absence of a true customer services back-end to support the product, just to mention a few.&nbsp;<br><br>Banks were using the same support structure for their traditional banking services to cater for customer challenges. They also did not conceptualize the product right way and was treated like every other banking services that is newly introduced by jumping to join the band wagon as in “Bank A is doing it so we too we have it”. <br><br>A MOBILE wallet has to have a dedicated team and a dedicated market penetration strategy with the right target market in view. The products were offered to existing bank clients etc. which in Nigeria represents less than 10% of the over 180 million Nigerians. Yes! The fact that surfaced with the advent of the BVN codes is that the number of unique bank account holders in Nigeria was under 15million! One person can own up to 40 different bank accounts and appear as 40 different persons! So the number of unique bank accounts have been overstated in Nigeria for decades.&nbsp;<br><span><br>With the BVN, all your bank accounts become one, tied together by your BVN code…Nice! But, the lapses in the banks infrastructure, customer services and the lack of a defined and&nbsp;&nbsp;client focused follow-up culture. This coupled with the poor banking penetration created the space which we operate in Voucher Net Limited with the introduction of our Electronic Voucher Distribution Platform and payment alternative. We partnered with firms and are growing our partners network to offer a tailored customer focused service which also rewards users rather than bill them, for using the service! What more can you ask for?</span>&nbsp;<br><br>MOBitooT offers you an alternative purse from which you can monitor and control your expenditure of different services from your Mobile phone top-up for airtime of data and your utilities subscription renewal. It is a mobile app that is first available on Google playstore (for android phones) for free download and soon to be available for iOS apple users. You save between 3% – 6% for your mobile phone airtime and data top-up while you are charged almost the equivalent that you are billed by your banks for payment of your utility bills. When you use MOBitooT as a retailer, you earn a commission on all Bill Payment services that you render and also bank (earn) the percentage discounts when you offer Mobile topup services.&nbsp;<br><span><br>In a nutshell, MOBitooT has come to save a growing number of unemployed youths who can start a bill payment and phone top-up business with next to nothing but just owning a Mobile phone with data subscription in it. We therefore see ourselves as empowering a generation with a cash earning product as you earn the cash immediately. There are no frills or hidden clauses. Just download the app on your phone for free, create an account with the app, transfer any amount of money into your wallet by paying to any of the voucher Net Limited bank accounts and the money will appear in your MOBitooT app wallet. You can immediately commence earning income or saving money on every transaction you perform from your MOBitooT wallet.&nbsp;</span>&nbsp;<br><br>I was saved by My MOBitooT wallet a couple of days ago. I took a taxi from Port-Harcourt to the Airport and after doing a couple of rounds in town with the same taxi. I had hoped to pay for the taxi ride from my GT bank account. All attempts to login to my mobile banking app with my bank failed. The service was down. I ran to an ATM and it was out of service. The only one with service had a queue waiting to use it as long as 100 meters. There was no way I was going to wait for that else, I would miss my flight! I tried to use the USSD code and there was an error as well because the banks network was down! SH*T! and I didn’t have enough cash in hand. BINGO! I remembered my MOBitooT app and had used a balance of about N18,000 in it. I immediately used my phones data to access my MOBitooT app and did a transfer from my MOBitooT wallet to the bank account of my Taxi Driver! This was done in less than 1 minute! SAVED!&nbsp;<br><br>There has been several other situations that MOBitooT has either saved me or saved my family members! We are improving on our tailored customer services and aim to distinguish ourselves as the most customer focused firm in the whole of Africa!&nbsp;&nbsp;

Experience has taught me that the easiest target of employers is an employees’ self-worth and self-esteem. Once this is touched even if just once, the employees spiral downwards can only be best imagined than experienced. Being one that has been a recipient of that dose of treatment and is living to testify about it, trust me, you don’t want to be there. Employers toy with your self-worth in so many ways: from poor salaries to unpaid bonuses or even salaries, to appraisals that are at best subjective and only tries to “fulfill a yearly ritual” and it is a tool for managers to either get back at you or tie down your future to any act that they find can manipulate you to doing their bidding so you get that nice yearly bonus or even a promotion, to how you are regarded. These sort of experiences with employers has led people to the ultimate end, driven people to become insane or develop psychological disorders that families are unable to unravel. The latter impact is the crux of this blog post and why you must fire your employers before they ever get to you!&nbsp;<br><br>I have a challenge for the HR-teams across the globe. Please show me an appraisal process that has nothing subjective about it. Until organizations are able to actually exact a 360degree evaluation of employees and their superiors, and use input from both as well as that of an external observer, with only measurable objectives as the basis of the evaluation from all sides, the metrics for ranking properly established and therefore even a non-technical observer can pick up the activity report of any employee and rank their performance. The problem is that HR-teams that are meant to be rendering a service to the organization are at best, payroll and personnel package and training administrators. The value they are to bring into organizations are lost in these also essential activities but obscure the real impact they can create for the organization. Managers are tasked to create these metrices but that is already a failed process before implementation. Most managers in both public and private organizations have no business being managers of people or business processes in the first place. They are mostly titled persons who lack the fundamental skill sets of dealing with the business let alone something as complex and complicated as 1 employee!&nbsp;<br><br>The human mind and body is a work of creation than cannot be replicated. That makes each one of us unique. From our birth, differentiators begin to change our being and how we interact with the immediate environment. The cumulation of our individual experiences and how we have processed those experiences is what makes us to be that unique person with varying degrees of the multiple emotions and projections of ourselves in any given situation. The Myers Briggs personality type indicator (MBTI) says we have 4 dominant personality types and the variations of each of these types in each person causes there to be 16 quadrants that will define a person’s personality. Myers Briggs is only one of several behavioral scientists that have delved into this area of human psychology but there are several hundreds of such studies with the personality types even extending to 64. You now have the complexity of the interactions of different personality types and these studies have been used in saner climes for effective team composition when real problems of the world need to be solved. Fact is, when you group a certain bunch of people together without consideration for their personality types and how these personality types interact, you will be unknowingly creating a recipe for disaster in your organization.&nbsp;The postulations of Myers Briggs however has several loopholes with the predominant being its reliability, validity, utility objectivity, and relevance to dichotomies. It also does not led itself well to psychometric scales<b></b><br><span><br>Knowing therefore that most employers do not take into account these salient but crucial subject matter to heart and dutifully seek to get the best out of their employees, they appoint managers that are poorly prepared to fill the role of a manager and start playing catch up to train the managers to become “managers”, at this time it is already too late because this ill prepared manager is already interacting with your employees and the turn-out can be as good as sticking your finger in your mouth and raising it up in the air to find out which direction the wind is blowing. Before you know it, employees are becoming uncomfortable, there’s back-biting and rumors peddling, uncertainty about futures in the organization, favoritism and all those soft issues that cause you to wake up and dread going to the office.&nbsp;&nbsp;When you get to this point, you become a liability to the organization and are just working to see the next pay-check. For you and the organization, this is the worst state of affairs. Somebody has to leave or the organization may collapse depending on the percentage of employees in that situation. Absenteeism and employees falling sick becomes the order of business. Some may be rightfully sick, others pretend to be sick so as to attend to other matters while most are actually psychologically traumatized!</span>&nbsp;<br><br>My remedy is two-fold: <b>1. A complete overhaul of the organizations HR-systems to cater for employee anxiety and sense of belonging.</b> This is the hardest part of any organization to deal with after the bottom-line (there will be no organization if the bottom-line or projections are not looking up). But you need people to fix the bottom line so, this seems like a chicken and egg situation.&nbsp;<br><br><b>2. Fire your employer! </b>The rest of this blog will be dedicated to this part.How do you fire your employer you may ask? You did not offer your employer a contract you may say but, I have to correct you. You did offer your employer a contract. It is a psychological contract. This is the aspect of your employment contract that is not written but, an existing mutual understanding that when you do something for the employer, the employers will do something for you. It is that aspect that deals with what motivates an employee when the employer fulfills their part. The employer expects to get loyalty, commitment, presence at work, conformance etc. It therefore comes clear that when the employer fails to respect the psychological contract. According to Furnham A. (2012) The emotional contract at work. In: The Talented Manager. Palgrave Macmillan, London, a breach of the psychological contract can spell doom for a company. So, to get the most of your written contract, the psychological contact&nbsp;&nbsp;must go hand in gloves with it. Since the psychological contract is often broken by most employers, it is therefore important that employees psychologically terminate this contract even before it becomes apparent. This should not be taken in the negative light. It just means that you as an employee shouldn’t hold much expectations from the employer as a commitment to the psychological contract. This is the part that affects morale, motivation, commitment, love, a sense of belonging, loyalty, and it is often broken even within the 1st month of employment.&nbsp;&nbsp;<br><span><br>The steps to fire your employer are deliberate steps taken by an employee from the day the formal contract is written. In a nutshell, this step involves creating a revenue stream from your earnings that will replace your paycheck&nbsp;&nbsp;from your employers and take care of your daily living expenses. For starters, you must invest time in learning about what investments you can make with your salary. Build a property portfolio (buy low, sell high), invest in money market securities, invest in currencies to hedge against fluctuation or variations, invest in the Stock market (blue chip stocks mostly), Invest in your ideas that are economically viable. When you fire your employer psychosocially, you set yourself up for winning! You cannot do what you did not do after spending years in the company and didn’t do them. So, when you are being unfairly treated by your employer, FIRE THEM!!! BE PREPARED FOR ALL THAT IS TO COME WHEN YOU DO NOT HAVE A PAYING JOB. Start planning for your eventual departure from your employers from the 1st day you employed.</span>&nbsp;

When one of our senators started his posts and talks on common sense, I heaved a sigh of relief that finally, we have someone that thinks outside the box…Naija will change for the better and there is hope. The latter is sure, there is hope but the former leaves a lot to be desired almost 3 years after so many common sense talk. This leads me to seriously challenge the notion that common sense will get us to Uhuru.&nbsp;<br><br>What is uncommon sense? Well, let me give you my definition: this is the type of sense that is associated with ingenuity, out-of-the-box reasoning with innovative approach to resolving the impossible. It is the mindset that there are no impossibilities and time is not infinite but infinite solutions exist to problem solving…if there are 1,000,000 problems, uncommon sense is not overwhelmed but speeds up the problem solving algorithm, shortens time spent dealing with any particular issue and deals with every one of those 1 million problems, leaving no stone unturned. Uncommon sense mobilizes the consciousness of a people, galvanizing them into action and urgency of acting. Think of it and DO IT. Just DO IT!&nbsp;<br><span><br>Why do I feel this is what we need as a nation? Just this morning, I listened to some Nigerian Youths come on air to speak against the Presidents’ pronouncement on increasing taxes on alcoholic beverages and tobacco based products. These are lifestyle things that, when properly examined, poses more harm than good from a health perspective. Now, the president has not banned these things but is saying that if you want to indulge in it, then you have to increase your disposable income allocated to it or, STOP THAT SHIT and get a life and better health while reducing the number of deaths as a result of people driving under the influence of anything you think you need to drink or smoke. Can you imagine that one of the interviewed youths was pleading with the government not to increase the taxes on these products simply because these are the things that we take to “…forget about your problems or deal with hardship in the country!” (paraphrasing).<i></i>He went further to suggest that “…youths go&nbsp;<i>para</i>on the streets if they increase…”. This leads me to think and worry for this country because hard as you may think I am just worried for nothing, I can shock you in revealing that the mentality of the majority of Nigerians between the ages 18 – 30 years will think in this manner!</span>&nbsp;<br><span><br>There was also the suggestion of another youth interviewed on the same program who suggested that he will build a home somewhere in the middle of nowhere to keep citizens who are aged over 70 years and leave them there because they have no business planning his future. In my mind, I said he should make the first residents his parents and grandparents. My father will be 80 years old in a couple of weeks and he is busy farming in my village with fish ponds and palm fruit trees he is cultivating while acting as a Justice of Peace (JP). His most recent exploit was bringing together farmers in his community to come under an umbrella association so as to attract a world bank assisted farming development loan facility for the farmers. This is my 80 year old father…he is a pensioned&nbsp;<i>old Soja&nbsp;</i>who fought in the Nigerian civil war for the unity of this country! Now this is not to belittle the exploits of some of our youths who have truly distinguished themselves in their chosen area of endeavor, but for anyone to suggest that our elders are to be remanded in a home and have no business planning the future of this country, I have only one word for you: “The thing that an boy climbs to the top of the palm tree to see, the old man sitting on a bench under the tree has seen it long before your started climbing the tree.” This is a Nigerian proverb and if you are a youth and do not understand what it means, please go and ask your father or mother. Please be sure your mother is over 40years old because I have my doubts that a parent in their 30’s would be able to fully explain this…but if you are such a parent that knows the meaning of this proverb, then congratulations and go give a hug to your parents for giving you proper upbringing!</span>&nbsp;<br><span><br>I gave up on my common sense long ago and the speakers of common sense. Uncommon sense is fast needed to change things here. An example of uncommon sense was wrapped and delivered by&nbsp;<i>DavidO</i>last night when he appealed to his colleagues in the profession who have money and have been blessed like him when he said and I will paraphrase : “I have more than fifteen people on stage with me and they are not random people…they are people whose lives I have touched…we rise when we pull other up. Please all of you my fellow artistes, you have money so please pull somebody up and assist them…” and make this world a better place. My heart was filled with joy to hear this come from&nbsp;<i>DavidO</i>as he picked up his Headies for the Artiste of the Year! A well-deserved trophy and recognition for hard work. This is uncommon sense and the dearth of such thinking is the problem of this nation.</span>&nbsp;<br><span><br>So, Mr. common sense people have been speaking common sense and I ask them to come and do things with uncommon sense. Because if you are trying to lead with common sense, then your sense is adding no value to the next person since it is common with the next person to you. It is doing the same things over and over again and expecting a different result that is our problem...I cannot find another definition for stupidity. Politicians since I came of age to understand I am also a political animal, have campaigned to give us water, light (NOOO! Electricity is what we need not light! I have light from my kerosene lantern, the sun in the day and the moon at night), good roads and better education should please stop! Stop deluding yourselves to think that these promises that none had fulfilled over the decades is going to get you elected again. You should be talking SUSTAINABILITY, EQUALITY, ENABLING ENVIRONMENTS, STRENGTHENING OF INSTITUTIONS, ACCOUNTABILITY IN GOVERNANCE, ENABLING LAWS&amp;ENFORCEMENT, ACCESSIBILITY TO BUSINESS FINANCE AND CITIZENSHIP SENSITIZATION (what it is to be a Nigerian and what are your rights). With these things in place, every other thing will follow! Scrap nepotism, catchment areas and advantaging “disadvantaged areas” over others (quota system). This notion of quota system is what has largely brought us to this place where some people even with their lower qualifications and intellect are placed in positions over others with superior knowledge and competence, rewarding mediocrity and overlooking excellence. Everyone has a place and we should all be educated on that. The farmer is no less important than the medical doctor neither is the cleaner less important than the Senator! As a citizen, these are rights we must know. We must dispense with the “entitlement disease”. The senator has as much rights to be respected as the cleaner of his office and if the former feels any superior, his head should be examined for stupidity sickness.&nbsp;</span>&nbsp;<br><span><br>We must engineer stupidity our of our system and when we entrench the points I have enumerated here above, you would have given a death blow to corruption, favoritism, nepotism and inequality! A greater nation will be budding for our children to inherit and a much more vibrant youth who knows how to speak intelligently in public on matters of grave importance.&nbsp;</span>&nbsp;<br><span><br>Trust me, UNCOMMON SENSE IS NOT COMMON.</span>

So, you just won N45,000,000 (forty-five million naira) and you cannot believe the Miracle that just happened. Just like that, fame has dropped on your laps and you are thinking:”…damn! what do I do with all this cash?”. Well, I just want to use this to share a few thoughts to help guide your actions.&nbsp;<span><br><i><span><br>Live a Life of Purpose<br></span></i>Money, never comes easy. Never! You became a spectacle before millions of fans and citizens of other nation. Your life to some extent has become public knowledge. This comes with a lot of responsibility. To cut through the chase, set yourself up immediately with a life of purpose. This is what a Celebrity status demands. Anything less and you are, forgive my language, screwed! Find a cause that reflects your personality that will impact on the lives of many and cause a positive change in their lives or the environment. You can never go wrong with that. Find well-meaning and responsible organizations that will join you in furthering your cause. Strike a win-win…after all, you are a Celebrity…brands will drop their pants to identify with you!&nbsp;<br><i><span><br>No quest for Big Money Deals<br></span></i>Do not embark on a journey of Big Deals and endorsements. Actually, you should hold tight to your modest ways and humble beginnings before your fame and fortune! Letting go of that part of you will cause your loved ones and your buddies to become strangers and you, a stranger to them. Deals will come your way for sure…but never discriminate for the volume of cash that you are offered…rather, see if the brand is being responsible to society. Be intelligent in your criteria for selecting a brand that will host your image on their billboards etc. they should respond to questions like: What are their Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) policies? What projects have the executed in line with that policy? Where are feedback reports on the impact that project? What CSR plans do they have for the next 2 – 5 years. Or, you may choose to only identify with organizations that have good social or welfare packages for their employees. The chances are that if they are treating their employees right, they will be treating the environment right. Based on a careful alignment of the firm to your areas of concern, open financial discussions! They will understand that you are not a joke and not place before you, offers that are not acceptable. In any case, the chances are very high that when you have some good screening criteria, you would have separated the boys from men.&nbsp;<br><i><span><br>Invest smartly<br></span></i><span>Ever heard of the stock market? Ok…do you know what the bulls and bears are when you are speaking of stocks? Well, these were questions a friend threw at another younger friend over a drink a couple of days ago. My younger friend drew a blank. I love his honesty…unlike most who will start telling you how a bull is a male cow and a bear is the animal that fought with Leonardo DiCaprio in that film…bla…bla...bla. Never hide your ignorance about a technical subject and create the opportunity for other to bring you up to speed fast. The fastest way to learn is not only by reading but by sharing and learning directly from others experience. And my younger friend did get a lesson that evening. Get in when the market is appearing bearish and get out when it is bullish! But, that may be a tough thing to follow so after being severely burnt by the Nigerian stock market and the likes of ENRON in the NYSE as with some Oil &amp; Gas stocks, I decided to actually re-define myself from being an aggressive to a conservative investor. I now do mostly Mutual Funds, Money markets, Properties and a very small percentage in stocks and a huge percentage on my day job (running my small businesses and looking out for new investing opportunities).&nbsp;<br><br>You must always try to constitute a mixed portfolio and have a day job…being a celebrity isn’t a job! Your job may give you a celebrity status.&nbsp;&nbsp;Your portfolio mix must have one set that can give you instant access to funds (say within 24 – 48 hours) in the event of an emergency and the longer-term investments like properties. My style? properties are the final destination of cash that I do not wish to convert back to cash in the medium or term…so I am never desperate to sell of any asset…NEVER instantly.&nbsp;&nbsp;</span><br><br>Now I must tell you, N45M isn’t a great deal of cash to a lot of people (you don’t even have the status of a millionaire i.e. one whose asset worth is equivalent to $1million or more in other terms someone who earns $1million dollars per annum)…I mean, seriously, that’s Chioma’s Assurance. That wouldn’t buy you a 27 sqm studio apartment in Eko Atlantic City or Banana Island. Your celebrity status isn’t worth shit if you cannot boast of sitting and sipping champagne on your balcony in any of these places in Lagos…let alone one in Paris overlooking the Eiffel Tower.&nbsp;<br><br>So, my dear instant Celebrity, try to grow your money smartly. Some money market instruments pay out 19% interest on your cash and it is compounded and interest paid daily to your investment account and re-invested at the same rate for the next day. You have access to your cash (interest and capital) within 24 – 48hours. Please, keep your money there and watch it grow while you continue earning your salary from your paid job and continue your hustle.&nbsp;<br><span><br>Above all else, remain who you are cause going all over the place popping champagne isn’t going to pay your bills. They will be waiting for you when you come back from your partying! Spend what you have a means to replace. Give out what you do not&nbsp;expect to receive back else, make it a loan backed with a document for receipt and promise of return.</span></span>