Debunking the Phantom Debts and Ecological Loan Fallacy
My attention has been drawn to trending claims by the Anambra State Government that my administration left behind inherited debts, including a ₦2 billion ecological loan, contractor liabilities, and unpaid salaries, gratuities, and pensions. This is completely false.
We systematically liquidated historical gratuities and arrears dating back several years, amounting to over ₦35 billion. At the point of handover, the state owed nothing in salaries, gratuities, or pensions, nor did we owe anything to any contractor for projects duly executed and certified.
The ₦2 billion ecological fund in question was released barely three months before the end of my tenure for the Oko/Umuchiana erosion crisis. Despite pressure to spend the money, I refused, insisting that it should be left for my successor because government is a continuum and the funds were tied to a specific project.
The money was therefore left 100 per cent intact in First Bank, in Account No. 2018779464, with a balance of over ₦2.13 billion.
It is important to stress that funds tied to specific projects or set aside for particular purposes were not even included in the over ₦75 billion in savings we left behind.
If anybody can establish anything to the contrary, I will stop campaigning. -PO
@ebimcjasper@Wizarab10 It is? Well, that is our reality. Myself relied on lip reading from Primary School through university. I only started using sign language during NYSC. I am one of the Lucky(?) ones because I have learn English, some yoruba and isoko languages before I became Deaf at 8.
I am hard-of hearing.. I ussually get to the last stage of interviews. Which typically is the physical chat. And that is the end of the road once they see I am hard-of-hearing. Now, I have become too old for most jobs without the expense to apply for higher roles. Funny place!
Nigeria is dangerously not inclusive.
I know this doctor that stammers. When he goes for interview, he sees his colleague spend up to 30 mins, but his interviews doesn't go past 5 mins. He could tell they just want to dismiss him and move to the next person.
The doctor went for his PLAB exam in England. A day was set aside for doctors with speech difficulty. They were given extra time and asked if the time would be enough for them. He passed the PLAB. In Nigeria, when he takes exam, he has to finish within the alloted time given to people without difficulty.
How do we expect perfection from people who are already with personal difficulties? We need to imbibe grace as a people.
If you were to go by just the local Nigerian market, your tech stack will be:
- JS, React, Nextjs (frontend)
- Node.js, Express, Nest (backend)
- Mongodb, Postgres (database)
- Java and C# (Banks)
- Flutter and React Native (mobile)
Anything other than these, you will struggle to find jobs
I have been part of major bank acquisitions before and have seen other business consolidations happen, thanks to my family. I have been fascinated with M&As for a long time. My MBA thesis was on Nigerian M&A activity in the 90s.
As a small business owner, I have had merger and acquisition offers for the business we started in the 90s, but neither panned out. One was a genuine offer to merge from someone with an INSEAD MBA who would later raise $200m to buy others like us. The other was from a large corporation that later decided it was cheaper to hire our engineering team from under us.
Both experiences taught me different business lessons about exits. They are not common in Africa because founders are never mentally prepared for them, so they often make mistakes. Many don't survive the mistakes.
An exit has two parts: preparation and execution. The preparation part is largely a mental exercise before processes kick in. I started a business with my friend, and my entire existence was defined by it; an offer out of the blue to merge took me by surprise.
The offer came because we had done some things right. The paralysis happened because I was not prepared at all for this option. This is why I always ask new founders today what they see as the endgame. Every business should have an exit strategy because founders don't live forever. My co-founder Salil died in February. I almost died in June.
While mortality is a good reason to consider exits, most small business owners often dream of continuity within the family, but the chances of that happening are slim to none. I still remember the bales of clothes and drinks my late paternal grandmother left behind after her death and how none of the children became traders. The world changed, and priorities became different.
Africans notoriously do poor estate planning and are even worse at ensuring business continuity. The result of these is viable but stranded assets everywhere. I have a more recent family experience with my late mother-in-law's hospital. It is an asset performing well below its potential that could have benefited from an exit. You can sell a business and not the property it sits on. You can still rent your property to the business.
There are many angles to handle execution from, as exits take so many forms. The most important thing is the willingness to sell and the willingness to buy. We are taking the step to normalize both sides of this with https://t.co/deudTQSxeQ.
By the way, this will not only be about small businesses, but it will also be about ALL types of exits, partial or full. Nothing too small and nothing too big. I never knew how deep and extensive this could be until I started the process, and it almost consumed me with sleepless nights of research, resulting in poor health.
Something I found out in 2017, thanks to Google Launchpad, sowed this seed. Matt Mossman of College Heights, now of Pelion, mentioned that 98% of all exits in Silicon Valley are acquisitions. IPOs are the exception and not the rule. More American millionaires are created from acquisitions than IPOs. This can also happen in Africa.
This will be a marathon and not a sprint. Let's get it on!
Ok. This tweet needs to pick a struggle. Website development or marketing? This is oversimplified, and it ussually points to one thing: that the author is trying to sell a training.
Pitching to a hotel or shortlet for example:
You don’t tell them “oh you need a website.”
You tell them : “What if I told you, every single week, all your rooms could be fully booked but there’s one thing standing between you and that reality.
Give them the gap. Sit in their pain for a second.
Then introduce the website as the solution. These people already know agency prices range from ₦400k upwards.
Shock them with a lesser price and watch them pay.
Viola
@Victor_Webflow It reads like she is trying to sell prompts to people. I have not seen a link or screenshot of her websites, she has not answered any of the pointed questions in the thread. Just words
@Wizarab10 Thank God you realize this. I am Deaf and can't hear oncoming cars and bikes. I depend on head lamps for this and to accurately gauge their distance from me. I hope other road users learn.
I don't understand this. What is an employee's business with how much his employer earn? By your logic, if the employer earns more, employee would be justified to demand more?
If you know the sacrifices of those diaspora people, you will appreciate them.
I don’t know how they act like they are doing anyone a favor but many of them are paying the Nigerian salary from their own month average £2500 salaries.
I pray more chooses to close down their businesses and stop hiring from Nigeria.
@MTN180, why is it difficult for you to reply mails? This is a question to which I need an answer before we proceed to solving my problem. Be humane in your response.
Oh puhlease!!! Your definition of "a lot" is funny. Sit for once, take a look at the pool of people that graduated "well" and see how many such opportunities exist nationally for them.
Nope! A lot of career-changing opportunities exist for undergraduates in Nigeria especially if you graduate with good grades. School is not a scam.
And it’s why I love UNILAG students. Most of them know about these opportunities. Apart from Bloomberg, another example is the Bank of America internship opportunity in London where they offer a lot of undergraduates from top Nigerian universities. They pay for their visa, flight and accommodation and offer competitive salary for one year. Most of them get retained afterwards.
My sister-in-law kicked off her high flying career through this opportunity immediately after graduating from Unilag.