[b]Someone introduced me to nairaland.com a few months ago.precisely 5 months.since then,it has become to me the largest source of ideas and info on business ventures nationwide.there is just not a single question about business that can't find an answer on nairaland.
    yet everyday,ideas upon ideas are discussed and shelved.mostly frustrated by lack of funds.since nairaland has the ideas and most times the know-how.why should things like funds and moral support be allowed to cripple these ideas before they start budding.i am saying this because i myself is facing this terrible cankerworm called capital.this thought came to me this morning while i was in my usual 4am thinking(which has become more of like brooding)it came to me like this:WHY CANT NIGERIA FEED NIGERIANS; WHY CANT CANT NAIRALANDFUND NAIRALAND PROJECTS?
   Do not get me wrong.i am not asking Seun or Nairaland users to start giving their money to folks they don't know.i am saying Nairaland users can start their own co-operative society.
   nairaland has over 60,000 members.lets assume there are only 20,000 active members and if only 5,000 get interested in this venture.we could come together ,pull funds together (ie monthly tokens)and start buying into existing business  to create a capital base and security for the co-operative.
   N1,000 each from 5,000 members every month can start buying into stocks,bonds and real estate.After creating this capital/security base.We can use this as security to venture into the stream of ideas we are just too good at vomitting on nairaland.
  A nairaland co-op in a matter of a few years can float a micro finance bank and thus benefit from the new micro finance policies that are aiding SME's (samall and medium size enterprises).Dedicated members can have access to loans to start their projects and jobs will be created for us by us.
  I believe it is time we stopped crying to the commercial banks and he federal government about our plights.we all know what success can attract.all we need to do is come together and start something.Seuns invention is being under utilized.this community that hehas created has such great potentials .But it seems tome that the giant would rather want to sleep.
   I therefore am using this as a kpankere,koboko and cane to flog and prod this giant to wake and feed its own ideas that it has been dreaming up all this time.we have our heads in the clouds.its time to put our fet on the ground.
THINK ABOUT IT NAIRALANDERS!THINK ABOUT IT!
                                                                         THANX[/b]

Good idea. A lofty, but possible initiative.
One which will need:

- A business plan
- Human resources dedicated to executing the task
- A code for regulations to cover irregular payments.
- A method of allocating shares, since some people may be interested in paying much more than N1000 per month.

The groundwork required is extensive. Then again the potential benefits are immense.

a business plan is the eassiest thing to get this days.and financial experts can always draw up a sharing format for memebers.
all i am thinking about is selling the ideas to nairalanders.the whole thing will be absolutely dead witout dem.i mean i dont even see folks posting.where are all the guys always asking for loans.come on lets see what we can make of this.its not a 1 man show.I AM WAITING OOOOOOOOO!

Brilliant. teeroy4real@yahoo.com

i understand ur doubts but i have thot about all that.like i said i just need d faith of nairalanders.this thing is going to have legal backings so evry ones investment is safe far or new.members can come to on the ground office,send some 1 or register online.management and members of staff will be by nomination and elections that can also be done online.
if i get the okay and mail confirmation from nairalanders.i am ready to take on the leg work and put together a business plan and ateam of financial planners and web designers. i can also meet with seun in person assuming he will eventually support this.seun has still not said anything.THIS IS NO SCAM!

I think this is an excellent idea.

If people commit to paying x amount each month, then they decide what new ideas to invest in on nairaland. The investment in each idea would be in the form of shares.

You would need to see a business plan for each idea, the management team, what would be the exit strategy for the investor( will the company be sold/ floated on a stock exchange) or if the investment is in form of debt, what kind of returns the investor will receive. You would need show cold hard research that shows this idea will work.

The only problem I see with this is ensuring people don't run off with the money. How can this be guarded against?

I think it is a great idea. Im up for it .

GREAT CONCEPT AND WOULD PROVIDE AN OPPORTUNITY FOR NIGERIA AND NIGERIANS TO MAKE A POSITIVE CONTRIBUTION TO THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE WEB .PROBABLY WOULD SERVE AS A DRIVING FORCE FOR GOOD FOR NIGERIAS ONLINE IMAGE, ALSO GIVE US NIGERIANS THE ONLINE MUSCLE WE BADLY NEED.

*
subscribing to the thread _{awful title though}

i think the money pooled together should be invested into already existing businesses like oil and bank shares, the rate at which new businesses in nigeria fail is a bit worrisome at the end of the day you want to make a profit dont you?

like i said b4.d whole tn will have a legal back up.so dat no individual can exactly be in charge of the accrued funds.there will always be panel set up to probe any propose investment.and at d end of the probe.effecting the idea will still be subject to voting by nairalanders ie stake holders.at the end of evey fiscal year,the profit will always be divided by the amount of units in the co-op and every one will always know what he or she is worth.exitting will be subject to notice 1st and then ur exact worth paid back to you.there can be no "non refundable deposit clause".    besides the whole tn will be legal.no fears.you guys shudd alert other nairalanders and lets get to see if this tn can work.i reaaly belive that it can.besides any one that knows anytn that can be of use to setting this up should please post for the benefit of all. i'm just an ideas man.i need some encouragement!

maybe you should suggest a better title

such investing will always be part of the investment policy to create security.but the point here is assist young and budding businesses

I understand the way U are thinking anizzle. You have a lovely mind set. It will be lovely if you start off maybe with a business plan or something.
Have you looked into osusu (hope I got the spelling correct) with the Niraland forum administrator as the collector and giving to those who payed. Its a cheap way of raising capital or funds for what ever you want to do. It could be a weekly thing or dayly, with the number of pople on this forum the money raised will be awesome.
If agreed with the forum administrator we can start coming up with plan on how to go about it


Think about it

I am loving this idea. With all the "gurus" we have on NL, pulling this out should not be a problem. I guess once we have a handful of people interested, we can start to work on the legal stuff and other things. I am sure there are lawyers here and there are people that know lawyers and stuff. We can start to delegate and divide things up and work out plans.

I am so interested. At least, this is a way to reduce unemployment. My email address is beesee12@yahoo.com.

I am very much interested in this.
Had the idea somewhere else but wasn't taken serious.
anizzle, i stay in surulere too, maybe we could meetup and have the first nairalanders meeting on this
mail me and lets know what's up : lexfrosty@yahoo.com

great idea and I'm definately interested.

the title should be changed though coz the title kept me away from the thread since day one, just got curious and decided to come in.

@anizzle,big ups!!!! this is wat i call fantastic medulla oblaganta revelation,i knew there are gurus in the house,people with load of ideas but incapacitated by finance, i wonder why seun is not saying anything as usual when wealth creation ideas like this are shared, i hope he contributes his quota as the administrator of the house.
To all nairalanders, i urge u to embrace the idea boldly shared by anizzle i am game for this,, we shouldn't let this die as others we shared here ,only paying lip service,some big organizations started with such idea, and today they are a giant force to reckon with,i am an idea person, who put ideas to work and get result.
Just hear him(anizzle) saying"this thought came to me this morning while i was in my usual 4am thinking" thats wat i called precious moment of solitude to ponder, which i do often.Ideas put to action creates an unending wealth, i came upon an idea during a solemn moment like this , i quickly got hold of my midget(tape recorder) and pour it out just as the spirit of ideas ministered to me, i tried putting them to action, i met stumbling blocks to the actualization of this ideas to reality,i nearly gave up,but i pushed on and today the story is different,my idea has final started putting an unending flow of pepper in my pocket.
GREAT NAIRALANDERS its time to put the name of Nigeria on the online scenario to change the negative notion about our beloved country, we can do it!!!! i believe it.
Hey! anizzle,lexfrosty, i am game , i stay in Surulere too connect me @ toni4moore@yahoo.com
YOU NEVER CAN TELL THIS MIGHT BE HISTORY IN THE MAKING OF NIGERIAN YOUTHS TAKING THE DESTINY OF THEIR COUNTRY TO GREAT HEIGHTS FROM ONLINE FORUM TO EMPOWERMENT AND ECONOMIC GROWTH. I LOVE NAIGA!!!!!

Great anizel,I surport your I deal,I am surporting with 2 Million Naira,when the action start,let me know My fund will be ready.

I Hope i contributted

thanks guys for all the support and encouragement, my mind is feeling appreciated and i promise i am going to explode on this whole thing.i feel like i can give my entire life to it.and some one should suggest a better title and tell me how to change titles.
also i feel like its time we set up a meeting with a few of us(nauralanders) or as many as possible.whoever is anywhere near surulere,lagos should contact me on 08050428031.lets sit and talk about the business plan and legal issues surrounding it.
also i suggest that we all go into other threads and notify nairalanders on wot is going down.SOMEBODY SHOULD PLEASE SCREAM AT SEUN TO PLEASE CONTRIBUTE.he certainly has to be a part of this.
thanx guys.
and its about time we started hearing from the lawyers and financial planners in the house

lexfrosty your email address is not on your post

ha! na waaooo! abi seun no like wetin we dey talk , this silence is no longer comfortable with me, abeg make u contribute joo!.
@anizzle, i got ur mail,i am very greatful,i suggest lets make our meeting point for those within surulere environs to be @ tantalizer fastfood @masha bustop ,fix a date for our 1st meeting .Also let spread out to other threads and shout out our ambition to get more support.
SEUN we dey wait for ur reply.!

mrtee u dey live for masha area , u near me small oo.
I no mind there.
anizzle no mind that seun wey do head like pear fruit
my email is my nairaland ID @ yahoo.com ( lexfrosty @ yahoo . com)

send me mail make we yarn, am glad some people have this same brilliant idea that i was discouraged from.

holla

Lexfrosty,Cammax7,Mr tee,lukingluv and felicia.
thanx 4 all d support.if possible d 1st meeting should be tomorrow at say, 2pm at tantalizers.other folks in the area can also attend.my number is 08050428031.anyone who is coming shudd pls call and notify me so i wont just go and sit there on my own.thanx guys.
effionganiekan@yahoo.com

lookingluv please send me ur contact details.

Anizzle, you are blessed.
And, I say that, because you have not kept to yourself an idea that, if well implemented, could change the lives of many others.
Do you have a scrap book? If you don't, please get one, now. Because you need to capture various things that will come to your mind as you keep thinking about this.
Note: a cooperative society is different from an Investment Club Network (which is what you are trying to do; if you wnat to change the title you may decide to call it Nairaland Investment Club Network). They may have some similar approaches, but Investment Club is essentially about investments.
The good news, my friend, is that this is not a new phenomenon, even in Nigeria.
Have you heard of a guy called Ayo Arowolo. He is the originator of Investment Clubs in Nigeria. He used to be the editor of Financial Standard.
Ayo, am sure, would be glad to come and counsel you on how to go about it. Here is a link, that I have just gone to, before posting this message. You may wish to visit the website. Or just google Ayo Arowolo. http://www.ticn.com/TICN/Links/Contact_TICNIreland.htm
Ayo can be reached on 0803 400 5022.
As I was saying, you need a lot of KNOWLEDGE on financial literacy. You can't discard knowledge. Knowledge, my friend, is power.
Now, really, Seun does not need to say anything on this subject, if it does not interest him, directly. God has used him to create this social networking site. It is left for the members to use the platform to their advantage: make new friends, tap into opportunities (as you are doing now), get updated on events (for instance, as soon as I had a BBC alert on the plane crash this morning, I came to the forum, hoping to post the message, but someone had already done that). So, go ahead and do your thing. At the end of the day, if the Investment Club takes off and succeeds, it would be said that it took off from Nairaland. (And, really, there is nothing that says that its name should have a Nairaland in it, but, out of due courtesy that this is where it took birth, you could go ahead.)
Be happy, Anizzle, that at least you have willing members. And, don't give up talking about it. The information you pass on could also help in raising the membership.
All the best.
Oh, by the way, Ayo also owns Moneywise, a newspaper which is also online. www.moneywise-ng.com.
I have taken the liberty to cut and paste  hereunder this information about how he started:
[/color]
[color=#990000]Ayo Arowolo: You Want to Be A Millionaire?
How can I possibly forget December 15, 1997? I still remember the day very vividly. It was a sweltering Monday afternoon at Yinusa Adeniji Street, Ikeja, Lagos, a street made popular by the newspaper I worked for then as the Group Business Editor.

I had just hopped out of my desk to have refreshment before settling down to serious editing work. Just as I was about climbing up the staircase back to my desk a few minutes later, one of our security personnel handed over a beautifully-wrapped medium-sized parcel to me, informing me that a dispatch rider had dropped it for me a short while ago.

It was easy to guess what was inside because of the period. This is Christmas time anyway. Most journalists look forward to this period with excitement and expectations. It is even better if you are a financial journalist. This must be a portable radio or a well clock, I thought as I razed through the staircase. I was wrong. When I eventually opened the parcel, I found inside a set of four medium-sized books and four audiocassettes.

All were on how to become a millionaire. There was also a little plain card with these words written in long hand: “My dear Ayo, study and digest these materials, they will change your life. I deliberately sent the materials to you and our mutual friend (he mentioned his name) to show how much I value the two of you. I read one of the books six years ago and my life has changed beyond my own expectations.”

I must confess, I was not excited at all. I only managed to flip through few pages of the first book and I did not even listen to any of the audio-cassettes. As a matter of fact, I refused to contact the sender of the gift until April this year. The books and the cassettes, of course, quickly made their way to one corner of my study where I stuff materials I consider sub-optimal. Don’t get me wrong. I don’t intend to suggest I don’t read. Reading is a hobby to me. I remember the other time I travelled to London, I invaded The Economist shop in Regent Street where I bought books that did not allow me to put any other item inside my travel box. Although I was chided by my wife who expected me to bring back shoes and clothes for her and our daughter.

So I do read, only that I concentrate on professional books. The idea of studying to become a millionaire was very funny to me and I felt embarrassed by the sender of the “funny” gift. To be comfortable, yes, but I didn’t see how writing news and becoming a millionaire are related.

But something dramatic happened early this year. March 2002 to be precise. I was in Johannesburg to attend an investment seminar organized by a Lagos-based consulting firm. I had just retired to my hotel room after the opening cocktail when I noticed with the blinking on my intercom that I had a voice message. The thrust of the message was that a friend of mine, the other guy who also received the book gift, wanted to host me before I travelled back to Nigeria. We arranged the time and by the following day, he picked me up at the hotel and we drove to his place.

The home, an architectural masterpiece, is situated not far away from Sandton, Johannesburg. It is a complex set of duplexes built on approximately 8 plots of land. There is a beautiful lawn, two big swimming pools, a well-laid garden, a beautiful water fountain, and fishpond. Don’t let me bore you with the details of the interior, but just to say that it is breath-taking.

After some few direct interrogations I got these unbelievable facts: My friend owns the building; he has two other well developed pieces of property in Cape Town; and another one in the United Kingdom; he has two thriving businesses with headquarters in Johannesburg; and he has some sizeable investments in stocks both on the London Stock Exchange and the Johannesburg Stock Exchange. Afterwards I pulled my friend by his shirt and dragged him to the garden and asked him to tell me the secret of his wealth.

He only dashed back to his study and returned a few minutes later with a small box, which he dropped on my lap. “This is the secret, the whole secret,” he said with some measure of seriousness.
Guess what I saw! The same set of four books and the audio-cassettes I received about five years back! The only thing I noticed was that his own set of books had suffered from over-reading. There were different kinds of markings inside the books. I also noticed that he made some copious notes into a small dairy he put inside the small box.

He explained to me that it was our mutual friend that told him I would be in South Africa then and he insisted he must have a heart-to-heart talk with me. He disclosed that our mutual friend had visited him in South Africa a couple of times and on every occasion they had discussed the principles in the books and how well they had applied them to build wealth for themselves. He told me of a couple of friends who have also applied the principles in the books with dramatic results.

Was I excited? My brother, it was a sickening experience. I thanked my friend and asked him to take me back to my hotel. I spent the whole of the evening and, as a matter of fact, the rest of my days in South Africa, meditating on that experience. Back in Nigeria, I quickly reached for the books, still as clean as they were four years ago when they were presented as gift. I devoured the books within a period of two weeks, while I made it a duty to listen to the four cassettes every day. I called my friend who gave me the books (he is a multi-millionaire, in dollar terms, by the way) and told him of my experience.

Surprisingly, he didn’t fell offended. He said I could still achieve beyond my imagination if only I could apply whatever I have learnt in the books plus a few lessons he would be giving me on a monthly basis. I started on what I called the millionaire tablets in April this year and have noticed dramatic turnaround in my personal finances.

Ayo Arowolo, a Reuters' award winner, has been involved in financial education for the past 16 years as a reputable financial and investigative journalist. He has worked in leading newspaper groups in the country, including the Concord Group, The Guardian Group, The News Group and This Day Group. He was the founding Managing Editor/CEO of Financial Standard, the nation's premier financial newspaper and served as the Chairman Editorial Board of the paper. His column, Moneywise, in Financial Standard enjoyed wide readership and has now gone online at www.moneywise-ng.com. [color=Black][/color]

Have fun.

please i had like to appeal to all nairalanders that post on this thread to please their email id so that i can get back to them on details concerning the arrangement of the first metting.help me make this a succes.cammax,loverbwoy,lookinglov,naijacutee and others please post ur email id

thanx for the info and encouragement bro.

thanx for the info and encouragement bro.u can reach me on 08050428015

Nice concept!

Guess i missed the first meeting for today, but still interested and would like to know if and what went on in the meeting.

yemibee@yahoo.com/yemibee@hotmail.com

Cheers

sorry guys the meeting didnt hold as planned butsomething else did come up that makes me reiterate on my faith that this will work.as you might have noticed there is this very long post by tee zero.he happens to know much about what we are trying to do.and i would say i actually had`the first meeting alone with him.i went to his office and got quite a lecture on the diff b/w co-op and investment clubs.ours (i feel)l has to be a hybrid from both cases.as i type ,he is trying to fix an appointment for me to meet wit ayo arowolo:the president of investment clubbing in nigeria.so i guess we that interested are actually very lucky at this turn of events, let me learn more .i will get back to you guys soon.special thanx to felicia:u really got my juices flowing today.

Dear anizzle,
Thanks for your effort,I Pray may God help us,a Little drop of water make a Mighty ocean.My email is johnbbmason@yahoo.com.

I can Not disclosed My Number here,When you email me,I will forward you my contact number,I will the Your Number one.
I AM IN.
Thanks,
Stay Bless.