Emog

From my point of view, the highlight of the Lagos Economic
Summit was the lecture by Mr Enrique Penalosa who was the
former mayor of Bogota in Colombia. Bogota is a city that has
similar challenges faced by Nigerian cities like Lagos. He was
able to transform this city into a model city and he shared some
of his experiences and how major issues where handled.

The first thing he emphasized was the fact that in any democracy,
public good is above private interest. A city must be built and
planned around the needs of its people. The city must be
environmentally friendly. Nigeria as well as other developing
countries have the advantage of learning from the successes
as well as avoiding the mistakes of developed countries. Our
weakness, our advantage. Continue Reading »

I attended the recently concluded Lagos Economic Summit.
You will be surprised at the plans that already exist to transform
Lagos into a model mega city. In one of the sessions, the Lekki
master plan was unveiled and I discovered that a bridge could be
built linking Lagos to Warri. If this is done, it will take 4 hours to
get to Port Harcourt from Lagos. I don’t think it will cost as much
to do this compared to the excess money that was paid in error to
revitalize the power sector. All it takes is a political decision.

In the past, owning a home normally takes years of service. You
save to buy the land, then you save to build, before you can think
of living in it. This is gradually coming to an end. I was excited
when I heard that the Lagos State Government launched a N40bn
mortgage scheme propelled by four banks. The aim of this scheme
is to help the medium and low income earners own a house of their
own. Continue Reading »

During his campaign, one of the cardinal points of our President’s seven
point agenda was the declaration of a national emergency on
power. This was a relief to a lot of Nigerians. The fact that in
spite of the hardship Nigerians undergo, we can go home at
night and have power to at least sleep with the air conditioner
or fan on. Its not the big things that will bring the change we
desire but the little things that seem insignificant.

How does this affect our economy? There is so much that
can be achieved if we solve the problem of the power sector.
Almost all businesses run on diesel and alternative power
supply. This makes the cost of production increase. Interest
rates increase, house financing, banking and everything in
between. So what can be done about this? Continue Reading »

The past week has been exciting, on Saturday was another
edition of the financial intelligence course - Billionaire-in-Training.
I learnt something new this time around that I will like to share
with you. During the training, one of the participants while playing
Cashflow was able to double his money plus the money he
collected from the bank using shares as his investment vehicle.

This event opened my eyes to a number of opportunities around.
There are shares in the Nigerian stock market that have done a
100% between the first quarter of this year. You could maximize
the opportunities that are available in the stock market alone. All
it takes is for you to follow the trend and make informed decisions. Continue Reading »

There has been a lot of activity in the political terrain over the
past months. In the first quarter of 2008, we witnessed the
courage of the judiciary and the election tribunals. So many
Governorship elections have been annulled and the Presidency
has been inspirational and allowing the law to take its course.
The EFCC had uncovered a lot of scams and majority of the
culprits have been brought to face the law.

A minister in the present administration who resigned over a
scam in her ministry is currently in detention along side the
minister of state and other top officials of the ministry. The
daughter of the ex-president amongst others are also facing
corruption charges. Continue Reading »

In the course of last week, a lot of things happened. Apart
from the GTBank job, I started learning something new. I
have always avoided swimming, I always find a way of
staying away from the pool or the river. However I decided
to learn how to swim and it has been a new and exciting
experience for me.

I was in Illorin on Friday for a seminar and I spoke on
“Understanding how money works” and focussed on
making money work for you. The most important factor
in understanding money to me is that you must add value
to be able to attract wealth. Another important factor to
note is that, the number of people you add value to, is
proportional to the amount of income you can earn. Continue Reading »

A week ago, I went to the bank to make a transaction. I
sell e-currencies as an extra source of passive income. On getting
to the bank, I was alerted of a transaction that needed my
attention. Two days earlier I had sold some e-gold through a
colleague and the transfer of the e-gold was made after I had
confirmed payment to my account from an Abarugo Ikechukwu
Udodirim.

I was told that my attention was needed in another branch. I
immediately followed the banking officer and on getting there,
I was told that someone alerted the bank that he got alerts on
his phone of a transaction he did not authorize from his account
to my account. I was amazed, the first thing that came to my
mind was that, how do you make a third party transfer in
GTBank without going to the bank physically. Continue Reading »

Everyone looks forward to becoming financially free. The
point at which you no longer have to work for money,
rather your money works for you. It is that point at which
your passive income (money in your investment portfolio)
is greater than your expenses for a month. Everyone wants
to achieve this, however it seems kind of difficult given the
income received and expenses of the average man.

The first step to becoming financially free is to change the
way you think. Your becoming financially free has nothing
to do with the amount you earn. Its just the way you see
things, rather than seeing money as a way to buy luxury,
view it as a tool for making more money. You have to see
investment as inevitable. Not something you do as a
retirement plan but as a means of getting abundance in life. Continue Reading »