A PROFESSOR'S ASSURANCE AND THE NEED FOR ENTREPRENEURSHIP

WORLD'S TOP RECESSION PROOF JOB

SMELLING OPPORTUNITIES ON THE LAGOS WATER WAYS

History was made in Brisbane, Queensland in Australia on Thursday 19th April 2012 as Lagos State Governor, Mr. Babatunde Fashola (SAN), pushed ahead with another electoral promise of accelerating inter-modal transportation through the extensive use of the state’s waterways, when he witnessed the signing of the Ferry Manufacturing Agreement for the state between Aluminium Boats Company of Brisbane, Australia, and a consortium of water transportation practitioners, Eko Water Buses Limited.

The agreement signing event, which was preceded by an inspection and a ride on one of the prototype ferries, being manufactured for the state, by Fashola and his entourage, is for the initial batch of 60 ferries each, with a 200 passenger capacity to be deployed on various routes. 

The Lagos State Commissioner for Works and Infrastructure, Dr. Hamzat Obafemi noted in Lagos that since the commencement of water transportation the passengers using ferries  had risen from 400,000 monthly to 1.4 million; a figure expected to increase to over 4 million. 

My serious strategic nose smells that this move by the government will make transportation a lot easier and open up opportunities for complimentary services in this line.

My unserious strategic nose smells that also, it provides avenue for other industries such as HAWKERS that can now parade their wares on the High Lagoon, Vulcanizers that specialize in pumping life jackets, Water traffic wardens, Rescue divers, Beggars that can SWIM and of course, the Water Police Department... to mention a few..

DOCTORS AND THE BUSINESS OF BAD HAND WRITING

Sometimes, I do not believe how it happens but it sure does. In fact, it has been confirmed by many patients that doctors are fund of “writing brilliant prescriptions with terrible hand writing” Only pharmacists understand their terrible hand writing.

You visit a doctor and he or she hands you a sheet of paper with some kind of “non-sense” that only makes “sense” to the pharmacist. My question is why this must always be the case?

Do doctors have special classes for "bad hand writing" at Med-school or is it the Pharmacist that takes courses on how to read bad hand writings?

When Impossible is Nothing; Nothing is Impossible

A Nigerian bank once tried to remove a word "Impossible" from the dictionary and the bank ended up being removed from the Nigerian Stock Exchange.

Impossible is Something. Possible is anything.

Be aware. Be warned.

Mr. Pascal Dozie: Personality Profile

Mr. Pascal Dozie has been a key contributor to the development of the Nigerian economy, both in the government and the private sector.

A one time Director of the Central Bank of Nigeria and President of the Nigerian Stock Exchange, he served as the founding chairman of The Nigerian Economic Summit Group and is currently the co-Chair of the Commonwealth Business Council, an organisation whose mandate is to involve the private sector in the promotion of trade and investment within the Commonwealth countries.

Mr. Dozie is a founding member of the Advisory Board of the Lagos Business School and the Chairman of the Board of Trustees of African Development Foundation, which established the PAN African University.

He is a founding partner of Africa Capital Alliance, the first major Nigerian private equity fund managers.

In 2000, Mr. Dozie was honoured with a national award of the Order of the Niger (OON) by the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, and in 2009, he received the African Business Lifetime Achievement Award.
Pascal Dozie holds an M.Sc. in Business Administration from City University, London and a B.Sc. in Economics from the London School of Economics. He is married to Chinyere Dozie and they have been blessed with five children.

HOW TO START UP IN AN OIL AND GAS BUSINESS WITH LESS THAN 5,000 NAIRA

YES!!! TRUE STORY!

A cylinder of gas costs between 1,000 and 2,500 naira depending on the size. You can sell it for a profit margin of between 20% and 70%.

Oil is in various types which include; Palm, Groundnut, Olive, cod-liver and other varieties depending on your choice. This should cost not more than 2,500 depending on the quantity and variety involve.

So, here's wishing you the best of luck in your next business endeavor.

Nigeria generates N7bn daily from pure water–NAFDAC

Transactions in the production, sale and consumption of sachet water, popularly know as pure water, across the country is estimated to generate N7 billion daily.

This was disclosed by the Director-General of the National Agency for Food and Drugs Control (NAFDAC), Dr. Paul Orhii, at a briefing on the survey of the Nigerian pharmaceutical market on Tuesday, in Lagos.

Noting the benefits of pure water production to the nation’s economy and the health sector, the NAFDAC boss warned on the need for the country to be very weary.

“The emergence of pure water business has alleviated poverty and reduced the number of Nigerians that die of water-borne diseases…but, we must be very careful” he warned.

“It is relatively cheap to set up, that is why many manufacturers are in it, but we must and need to check quality constantly through random sampling and market surveys. We are registering all operators to be able to monitor their activities.”

JP MORGAN CEO’S RESPONSE TO A PRETTY GIRL’S QUESTION ON HOW TO MARRY A RICH MAN!

What should I do to marry a rich guy? I’m going to be honest of what I’m going to say here says the young lady, I’m 25 this year. I’m very pretty, have style and good taste. I wish to marry a guy with $500k annual salary or above.

A philosophical reply from CEO of J.P. Morgan:

Dear Ms. Pretty, I have read your post with great interest. Guess there are lots of girls out there who have similar questions like yours. Please allow me to analyze your situation as a professional investor.

My annual income is more than $500k, which meets your requirement, so I hope everyone believes that I’m not wasting time here. From the standpoint of a business person, it is a bad decision to marry you. The answer is very simple, so let me explain. Put the details aside, what you’re trying to do is an exchange of “beauty” and “money” : Person A provides beauty, and Person B pays for it, fair and square.

However, there’s a deadly problem here, your beauty will fade, but my money will not be gone without any good reason.
The fact is, my income might increase from year to year, but you can’t be prettier year after year. Hence from the viewpoint of economics, I am an appreciation asset, and you are a depreciation asset.

It’s not just normal depreciation, but exponential depreciation. If that is your only asset, your value will be much worse 10 years later. By the terms we use in Wall Street, every trading has a position, dating with you is also a “trading position”. If the trade value dropped we will sell it and it is not a good idea to keep it for long term – same goes with the marriage that you wanted. It might be cruel to say this, but in order to make a wiser decision any assets with great depreciation value will be sold or “leased”.

Anyone with over $500k annual income is not a fool; we would only date you, but will not marry you. I would advice that you forget looking for any clues to marry a rich guy. And by the way, you could make yourself to become a rich person with $500k annual income.This has better chance than finding a rich fool. Hope this reply helps.

Signed,

J.P. Morgan CEO

Gotten from; http://naijagal.com/2012/03/31/want-to-marry-a-rich-man-well-check-out-jp-morgan-ceos-response-to-a-pretty-girls-question-on-how-to-marry-a-rich-man/

Okonjo Iweala misses the World Bank top spot but maintains Nigerian top position

It was sad news on Monday evening yet expected as American nominee, Jim Yong Kim.

Humorously, my friend asked me a question, "how can someone expect to run a bank account that he or she did not put money into?"

If that is the case, then I guess the Americans have a right to choose their man or woman if you like.

Then the most important thing for the developing nations will be that there is always money in the bank.

Well, at least, Okonjo can still smile back to Nigeria and continue with her coordination of the Nigerian economy.

Goodluck Jonathan Arrives on Time

The Nigerian President makes it to Time 100 list.

TIME Magazine notes that the people on the 100 most influential list are “the people who inspire us, entertain us, challenge us and change our world.”

When you govern the most dynamic country on the African continent which arguably has the fastest growing economy, you can't but become "very" influential.

Nigeria with a population of over 170 millions people speaking over 1000 dialects on a land mass of about 923,768 square kilometers and a GDP of over $415 Billion.

Nigeria is a true giant of Africa. Hence the president has to be very influential.

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ACADEMIC SUCCESS FORMULAR: For MBA's

Just like there is no void in life, there is not at business school. You have to fill up your time with something.

As an MBA, you get to have great powers. But like the Spiderman Principle states, "with great power comes great responsibilities". The power to sleep is interestingly one of them.

Most MBA's will prefer option 3.

My suggestion is that MBA's should try to include their facilitators in their socializing, not just with their colleagues, HR Managers or CEOs. At least you get to know how though the examinations or test will be and possible areas of concentration. This defines as a great social life.

The problem with 'good grades' is that you get them on your own. But 'great grades' are gotten when you work in groups with like and unlike minds especially those that have something to offer academically.

Sleep is sacred but too much of it is equivalent to practicing death. Why sleep for so long when you will have enough in the grave. So, 4 hours should be enough for one day. This defines great sleep.

Great social life + Great grades + Great sleep = Great MBA

THE EEFECTS OF NANO-ECONOMICS: A case study on fuel subsidy removal in Nigeria and other tiny economics Macro-Economics won’t teach us about.

Aggregate demand Vs. Aggregate supply: Aggregate demand relates to the total demand for all goods and services to the general price level in an economy and the same goes for aggregate supply. With an increase in fuel price, the multiplier effect would be that aggregate demand would drop and aggregate supply would follow suit. Owing to epileptic power supply and not too efficient transportation systems, the Nigerian populace either as individuals or enterprises are heavily and directly dependent on petrol to power their generators and their vehicles. Invariable, the increased cost would be transferred to the consumers.

Aggregate demand Vs. Aggregate supply: As far as some other Nano-Economic effects much of which Macro-Economics might not capture is that Wife’s will tend to demand more from Husbands that have a reducing supply. This is different because while the supply of Husbands will reduce will increased fuel prices, the demand by wife’s will increase because of price increase in everything from shoes to vegetables.

Disposable Income, Consumption and Employment: In such a situation of increased fuel prices, Income should increase but since no one from government down to our “wonderful” bosses is willing to accept responsibility, income remains statics as organisations face rising cost of operating. Consumption reduces and people have to hold on to their employment with both arms and legs as employers will resort to laying off staff as their operating expenses increase. Therefore people would remain in their jobs without an increased pay and might not even complain about a pay cut.

Disposable Income, Consumption and Employment: The disposable incomes of those running pubs or “beer parlours” if you like have increased, as the consumption of alcohol and its derivatives have significantly increased. Employment rate will reduce and people would hate their jobs and compensation even more. Well, history hardly records of any brewery that didn’t survive a depression (just wondering).

Government spending: According to the CBN, the government would save about $3.94 billion on the reduction in fuel subsidy by increasing the price from 65 Naira to 97 Naira. The funds would be transferred to consumption through investments in capital projects and other “palliative” measures, government would also reduce its internal borrowings and make more money available to the private sector.

Government spending: Well, government spending rarely goes down and even when they decide to reduce basic salaries of the executives by 25% there is a tendency that they could replace that with a “subsidy allowance” that should be equivalent to the deducted 25%. There is no better time to be in government than now. The employment benefits are great.

Inflation, Interest Rates and Investments: Inflation refers to the increase of money in circulation. This is driven by the rise in general prices of goods and services as a result of the increase in the pump price of petrol. Owing to the rise in prices, saving money in the bank will become unattractive and banks will have to increase interest rates to attract deposits and in turn, the cost of borrowing will increase which will adversely affects Investment by firms.

Inflation, Interest Rates and Investments: In times of economic hardship, many more people remember their creator. This implies that the occupancy rate at religious centres will significantly increase and as such, there is a lot of value inflow into religious centres. As such, there is an increased circulation of money in religious centres. Religious centres rarely borrow from banks (instruction from above) so their relationship with banks is usually that of making deposits. As far as investments are concerned, the emergence of religious centres owned high schools, universities, estates, hospitals, hotels, road transport companies and airlines are proof that significant forms of investment are being made religious centre thereby transferring value into the society, providing employment and adding value.

Net-exports and Exchange rates: Net-exports refer to the difference between the imports and exports as a result of the change in fuel prices. Owing to the increase in fuel prices and a resultant decrease in consumption of fuel, importation of fuel would reduce. Importation had increased over the years because of dysfunctional refineries and the excessive subsidies gave rise to increased consumption. With reduced internal consumption, government will likely import less and export more. Exchange rate for the naira against the Dollar will increase as the CBN will demand less dollars which will lead to the appreciation in the value of the Naira.

Net-exports and Exchange rates: Popular statistics has it that of every 5 Africans on any part of planet earth, 1 is a Nigerian. This will probably be revised to 2 because even as Nigeria declined in its exports of agricultural and industrial produce, she increased in export of her oil and particularly her citizens to every part of the world. Harsh economic times mean that Nigerians will flee to Europe, America, Asia and even Antarctica. For exchange rates, let’s look at the increased cost of marriage and parents would now include gallons of fuel in the bride price list and the rate for exchanging (cost) their daughters will increase while the rate of exchanging (frequency) their daughters reduce. Is it not evident?? How many weddings have you attended this year?

A TALE OF TWELVE LESSONS: 240 minutes with Governor Fashola of Lagos State

It was a bright day on the 10^th of February 2012 and we the students of Lagos Business School (LBS) were to host the Governor of Lagos State, Babatunde Raji Fashola. He was to talk us through his life experience and how he made it to becoming the number 1 citizen of Lagos state. This meeting was organized by “Project What Next” one of the student lead activities at LBS.

With the Governor, there was not a dull moment. Asides from the hall being surrounded by his press crew and aids, the flashing of cameras, the staring of video cameras and audio buzzes, it was evident that a high powered personality was in our midst. At this point, I guess our school was the most secured part of Lagos as both secret security and Para-military intelligence was deployed for the governor’s protection but beyond all that, he was accessible, simple and very smart.

The Governor shared on twelve lessons which he had learned through life they are listed below;

• 1. Know yourself
• 2. Believe in yourself and be determined to succeed
• 3. Be disciplined and persevere
• 4. Actions have consequences, always be prepared
• 5. Never run away from challenges
• 6. Have clearly written goals; no half measures
• 7. Fear is good, but do not give in to it. It should spur you to succeed
• 8. Do not gloss over problems; confront them head on
• 9. Study and understand your operational environment
• 10. Go to great lengths to build trust and goodwill; when you do, don’t squander it
• 11. People define institutions; it’s good to build institutions but better to build people
• 12. Nothing is impossible

The thing that got to me most was when he said that to be great at whatever area of endeavour we would choose, we have to invest “10,000 hours” of our time and effort into that endeavour, great success has no room for half measures. We have to either go all the way or not bother at all.

Thanks Governor.