In 2021, when you think of how best to serve people beyond physical borders, the internet comes to mind.

Building a business on the internet could play out in two different ways. Your business can either deal with offering physical products for sale online or providing a service online. The former would be tangible while the latter would have no physical form whatsoever.

Tolu Michael chose to provide a service – a digital product – where she guides people on how to establish personal reputation using the internet. She’s helping them gain visibility online. I had an interesting chat with her on what it’s like creating services and selling to tens of thousands of people online from the comfort of her home in Lagos, Nigeria. But before we dive in, let’s take a stroll through her career journey.

A digital entrepreneur with an engineering background

After studying mechanical engineering in Nigeria- something she did because of her love for cars – she took a detour into the world of investment banking. This happened after she interned at a Toyota after-sales franchise for a while and realised she didn’t want to deal with the smell of petrol and engine oil every day.

Somewhere in her career journey, marriage happened and she had to move cities but during that process, she lost her job so she had to rethink her career path. As a woman, changing jobs alongside starting a new family came with startling challenges.

Michaels’ initial obstacle being a newly wedded woman is not exactly a peculiar one. In a lot of family situations, prioritizing family over work is the number one barrier to a woman’s career. This study by Harvard Business School says more than half of Gen X and Baby Boomer men expected that their careers would take priority over their partners. In the study, “73 percent of men and 85 percent of women agreed that prioritizing family over work is the most difficult career decision women face.

For Michaels, being newly married came with lots of “specific rejections,” where employers assume she might get carried away with building a family and leave her job to suffer. At this point, searching for new job opportunities proved abortive so she figured she could try out something on her own and that just happened to be digital entrepreneurship.

“Initially, I started to ask myself, what do I have to offer people, especially beyond borders, because I couldn’t do something physical. I didn’t have the capital to sell physical products so I needed something I could provide people in whatever location I am,” she tells me on our Google Meet call.

Leveraging knowledge commerce

Digital products are basically online products that can’t be held, touched, or tasted. They could be music, videos, ebooks, online courses or even this article you are reading. They are only created and delivered electronically.

To generate revenue, a digital entrepreneur builds their platform through personal branding, this is particularly pertinent to gain visibility and influence more sales

Personal branding is all about positioning, Michaels tells me. “You don’t even need to have a very large audience, all you need is to position yourself as a valuable expert and leader. This will allow the right people and the right opportunities to be attracted to you.”

In the initial stage of her digital career, Michaels picked up new skills including a degree on Disruptive Strategy from Harvard Business school. She had also helped a few friends build their personal brands so it was about time to enlarge her area of reach.

First, she buffed up her social media presence, which she says is a major part of “positioning.” Social media is free to use but to gain followers or reach a larger audience, one needs to put in the work. She got her “first-ever client from outside her circle of friends” from Instagram. One would think LinkedIn could have been at the forefront of this process but, she says, in selling digital products, entrepreneurs should have their profiles on all social media platforms and utilise each platform fully.

From getting her first international client to building a personal platform that has trained over 20,000 people in over 12 countries of the world, what Michaels really does is teach modern entrepreneurs how “to build purposeful and profitable personal brands, so that they can stand out of the crowd and sell impactful products.”

She does this through branding, online courses, consultations, podcasting and through her book, Show Up. For her, work revolves around helping people get the clarity and confidence to show up online, communicate their values, and create a bigger impact with their work. How she sells is mostly by referrals from people she’s worked with in the past.

For some digital entrepreneurs, online sales only provide supplementary income in addition to their main jobs but for people like her, it is a full-time job that is earning her a living.

When Michaels made her first 1000 dollars just from putting her thoughts together and selling to her audience, she became an ardent digital product creator. What is even more important to her is positioning herself not as someone whose products are for an African audience alone but for an untapped global market.

As one who speaks candidly about juggling motherhood, selling digital products is not just helping her create impact and make money while at it, it is also enabling her to work mostly from the comfort of her home, close to her daughter.

Source: https://techcabal.com/2021/07/05/tolu-michaels-on-how-digital-entrepreneurs-create-and-sell-products-digital-products/

Last month, a viral TikTok video by What’s Inside blew people’s minds. It showed a guy who could control 15 gadgets in his smart home from his phone. It was fascinating and intimidating at the same time — you know it was. And so, it got us wondering: what other cool things can you do with your smartphone?

Now, you don’t need a fancy smart home to do fun things with your phone, it’s already chock-full of awesome functions that you’ve probably never tried before. Bet you didn’t know that you can measure your heart rate with your phone.

Yup, your smartphone can do more than call, text, or post stuff on social media. That’s basic. Here are 7 awesome things you can try out on your smartphone right now.

P.S: There’s a bonus tip at the end too!

1. Trash your pesky remote control

You can’t find the remote again, huh? That thing is slipperier than an eel in a barrel of okra — don’t ask us what it’s doing there.

The point is, you can use your phone as a substitute remote to control gadgets like your TV, AC, DVD Player, Projector, the whole enchilada. Some Android phones come with a custom remote feature that’s usually located in the Tools or System folder on your home screen.

But don’t fret if you don’t have that feature. You can download a trusted 3rd party remote control app from the Google Play Store.

For our iPhone dudes and dudettes, the latest iOS versions have the Apple TV remote integrated into their control center. Older versions have the option of adding it manually.

2. Go big and don’t go home

We know that feeling. You’re streaming Wizkid’s No Stress on your phone, but something’s missing. You need a bigger screen.

If you have a TV or an external monitor, you can cast a video, picture, document, or even a game from your phone to a larger screen.

There are so many ways to do that on Android phones. You could use a USB cord, an HDMI adapter, or a Chromecast media device — works on Android and iOS.

We’ve got wireless options too. Some phones have Cast or Wireless Display as a built-in feature.

For instance, iOS phones have an AirPlay feature that lets you connect to a supported TV. And certain Android phones offer this option in their Display or Connection settings.

3. Take pictures while breaking the Internet

Did you know you could take pictures while recording a video?

Mind-blowing, right? We sometimes overlook the things that are staring us right in the face. And in this case, it’s a grey/white button right beside your usual red one. Or at the top of your screen, for iPhones.

You should know that the picture quality won’t be as good as your regular photos.

4. Make Your Texts Visible From Space

Small texts are a pain. Having to squint before you can read an SMS is annoying, and also bad for your eyesight. Luckily, there’s a way around that.

On your smartphone, iOS or Android, go to Settings
Tap on Accessibility
Click on Font Size or Display Size
Move the slider to the size you want.
And presto! Larger fonts.

5. Split your phone screen

No, we aren’t telling you to crack your device open with a rock.

It’s a useful feature on your smartphone that lets you run apps side-by-side. It’s a great multi-tasking tool and saves you the stress of continually opening and closing apps.

Apple has a multitasking feature for its iPads devices. It’s mostly dragging the second app from the toolbar onto the first, but Apple support provides other detailed methods here.

On the other hand, to enable this feature on an Android phone, follow these steps.

Tap on the Overview button on your phone (it’s the square button on the black bar at the bottom of your phone screen) And it’ll show your recent apps
Long press on anyone. It might show a menu with the split-screen icon. But if it doesn’t,
Hold and drag the app to the top or the left of your screen.
Pick another app. It’ll automatically appear under or beside it.
Or you could download a 3rd party app from the Google Play Store. Easy peasy.

6. Be A Real-life Dora the Explorer

The world can be a wondrous and yet, pretty dangerous place. Especially when you don’t know where you are. You’d find yourself asking random people for directions, and may put yourself at risk.

Sometimes, you might not see anyone to ask at all! So, how do you navigate these wild, treacherous lands?

Tech.

Your smartphone can be a handy survival tool when you’ve lost your way. Most of them come equipped with a compass feature that shows you where you are and what direction your phone is facing.

You can also download 3rd party compass or map apps, like Google Maps which works across many platforms including iOS.

Smartphones can now ping your last-known location and some other details to designated emergency numbers. However, the activation process differs from phone to phone.

7. Send For Help

Apple’s smartphones will require you to do the following,

For iOS 8 and later, press and hold the side button and one of the volume buttons, until the SOS slider appears
Drag the slider to call emergency services
Holding unto the side and volume buttons will prompt a countdown and an alert sound. It’ll also call emergency services at the end.
For iOS 7 and earlier, you’ll need to rapidly press the top or side button 5 times (3 in India) to bring up the SOS slider, and there’ll be no alert sound. You can read more about it here.

Emergency SOS in Android phones depends on the kind of phone. But they are usually found under the Security section of your settings.

Of course, this is only the tip of the iceberg. The list of amazing things your regular smartphone can do is much longer than this.

Oh! We almost forgot about your bonus tip. Did you know you can double-tap your overview button to switch between your two most recently used apps on Android?

Well, now you know. Together with seven other nifty tools, go forth and conquer!

We hope we’ve helped. You can easily share this article with your circle on social media by clicking the buttons below.

Source: https://techcabal.com/2021/07/02/7-amazing-things-you-didnt-know-your-smartphone-could-do/

If you think you can enter the Lagos dating scene empty-handed and come out with a successful relationship, that is a very big lie. Before you enter that warzone, here are 11 important things you must carry with you.

1. Pankere.

This one is to flog that person who ghosted you after one date where you thought you both had a genuine connection. They’re most likely the first person you will jam in the Lagos dating scene. Flog that bastard with all your strength.

2. Scanner.

This is necessary so you can detect the man who will be fortunate from the one that will be unfortunate. Given how the Lagos dating scene is, both the fortunate and the unfortunate have mixed together and it can be hard to know who is who.

3. Anointing oil.

This is for spiritual guidance so you can choose the bone of your bone. You might say that you don’t believe in spiritual things, but let me tell you, even a time-waster can disguise as the love of your life. Please take my advice, I have been there and I know how it feels.

4. Broom.

Oh yes, there will be witches and wizards in the Lagos dating scene. You might need to carry out impromptu deliverance oh.

5. Panadol.

One thing is sure in the Lagos dating scene: headache. Even someone that you did not date will give you headache. Abeg, enter that battleground armed with all your medicine.

6. Oxygen mask.

Yes oh. You need an inhaler. Some people’s beauty with take your breath away. And yes too, some people’s bad breath will literally have you gasping for breath.

7. Fresh stew.

Oh you cannot go empty-handed into the Lagos dating scene if you are hoping to catch a man oh. There are a lot of hungry people there. Just find someone whose hunger you can manage. Trap him with food and take him home. He will suffer when he enters, but at least you have collected the relationship you want.

8. Vibrators.

If you think you will find orgasms in the Lagos dating scene, you lie. It’s not that you cannot find it, you can. But the suppliers are few and they are in constant demand. Before it reaches your turn, you might want to be your own boss and provide orgasms for yourself.

9. Tape measure.

Many will lie about their height. You better carry your own tape rule to measure so you can confirm for yourself.

10. Scissors.

A lot of people in the Lagos dating scene are still attached to their ex, their crush that will NEVER date them, their mother, etc. If you want to date them meaningfully, you need to first cut this attachment off. I suggest you soak that scissors in anointing oil first.

11. Big stone or something heavy.

This one is for when you finally find the love of your life after a long period of searching and meeting unfortunate people who turned your heart to toy. Ask the love of your life to kneel down, raise up their hands and close their eyes. Then place the stone on it. Next time, they will arrive on time instead of letting you suffer.

Source: https://www.zikoko.com/life/11-things-to-carry-with-you-before-entering-the-lagos-dating-scene/

The National Assembly is set to pass the Electoral Act Amendment Bill this week. The purpose of this bill is to enable them pass a law that will prohibit electronic transmission of election results in Nigeria.

What exactly is going on?

According to a report by The Cable, there have been efforts to pass the bill early enough so the new reforms can take place before the 2023 general elections. For this reason, the joint committees of the senate (INEC) and the house of representatives (electoral matters) set up a technical committee to work on the proposed amendment.

Part of the resolutions made by the committee is that voting in an election and transmission of results under the act shall be in accordance with the procedure determined by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

This provision is contained in section 50 (2) of the Electoral Act Amendment Bill and has been modified to read: “Voting in an election under this Bill shall be in accordance with the procedure determined by the Commission, which may include electronic voting, PROVIDED that the Commission shall not transmit results of elections by electronic means.”

What are the implications of this?

If the Electoral Act Amendment Bill is passed, it will allow them pass a law that prohibits the Electronic Transmission of Results. The greater implication of this is election rigging. Election results may be rigged at the collation level and numbers may be inflated or reduced as they are being written out.

What can I do to stop this?

You can make a phone call or send a text to your representative at the National Assembly. Here’s a link to access the representatives of each constituency: CALL YOUR REPS.

If you can, you should also reach out to the Speaker of the House of Representatives of Nigeria, Femi Gbajabiamila; or Senate President Ahmad Lawan. Speaking up is a good place to begin.

Source: https://www.zikoko.com/citizen/the-national-assembly-is-blocking-electronic-transmission-of-election-results-should-nigerians-be-concerned/

The Nokia X20 is your chance to use a high-end smartphone with many features that are likely to help with your content creation, gaming, and overall selfie experience.

Early in April, HMD Global announced the launch of six new Nokia Android smartphones. I got my hands on one of the phones in the X Series and explored some of its features.

Its major selling points include 3 years worth of Android updates from Nokia, cinema mode and dualsight camera, 2-day battery life and a large screen that allows you to watch virtually anything in full HD+.

So let’s get into it.

What’s in the box?

The front of the box is branded with Nokia’s logo and a photo of the phone. The phone is available in both Midnight Sky and Nordic Blue.

The Nokia X20 retails for about $480.

On the box, there’s also a circle that tells you that you’ll be getting 3 years of Android updates but that’s for a different section of this review.

Finally, inside the box we have the following:

The Nokia X20: I mean, it would be extremely awkward if this was not in there.

USB-C Cable: It’s helpful to note that there is no wall charger.
In a world that is currently piling up more and more e-waste, the makers of Nokia figured everyone already had some type of wall charger in their homes so they decided to not include them in the packaging.

I for one know that I have enough standalone wall chargers as is so this was actually a welcome development.

Compostable case: Remember what I said about avoiding e-waste, well they also added a biodegradable phone case that shouldn’t be a menace to the environment if you were ever to throw it out.

Sim Slot Pin: personally I would really love it if more phone manufacturers imitate the Sony Xperia 1ii – which allows you eject your sim slot without a need for a very easily misplaced pin.

The Look, The Feel, The Heft

I will start by saying the Nokia X20 is a large phone. With a 6.67-inch screen, it is quite hard to operate it entirely with one hand – I couldn’t reach the top left corner with my thumb when I held it in my right hand.

The back of the phone is Nordic Blue and has four cameras (main – 64MP, ultra-wide – 5MP, macro – 2MP, depth – 2MP) surrounding the ZEISS logo that most Nokia users have come to know and expect on Nokia phones.

On the left, we have the sim slot which allows for two sims but if you only need one sim, you can also put a MicroSD card in the space created for the second sim.

There’s a dedicated button for the Google Assistant on the left of the phone as well. I think this button is overkill mostly because on the phone you have two other ways of accessing Google Assistant – you can click the actual Google Assistant app or you can swipe up from the bottom right corner. Thankfully this button can be deactivated in your settings.

Left showing sim slot and Google Assistant button
On the right side of the phone, there are volume control buttons. There’s also the fingerprint sensor (which is also the power button).

On the bottom of the phone, we have our old friend the 3.5mm headphone jack – it feels like more phones are leaving this guy out. We also have the USB-C port and mono speakers.

And finally, the screen. The first thing I notice is the pre-applied screen protector – good looking out, Nokia.

The screen has thick bezels and the manufacturers went for a hole punch (with a 32MP camera) instead of a notch. I’m yet to decide which of those I prefer.

At the bottom of the screen, we have some extra Nokia branding – just in case you forgot you were holding a Nokia phone.

The phone feels a bit heavy but not so much that it grows uncomfortable. I put the compostable case on almost immediately because I like my phones protected at all times.

Can we turn it on now?

Absolutely.

When you press the power button the screen goes white and you see the “AndroidOne” logo. The startup time is slow so you see that logo for a couple of seconds. By my count, I would say about 14 seconds of waiting before you hear the oh so familiar Nokia starting tune.

After that, the phone is on and you can set up your fingerprint AND face recognition. Both of them are quite responsive and don’t take long before your phone is unlocked.

What’s under the hood?

The Nokia X20 is running Android 11, the latest version of the Android OS.

Remember how I mentioned the 3 years worth of Android updates? Well, users of this phone do not need to worry about software or security updates for the next 3 years. This is probably one of its biggest selling points.

The phone comes with 128GB of storage but this is expandable (up to half a terabyte) through the MicroSD card slot I mentioned earlier. It also has 8GB of RAM.

Chipset for this gigantic phone? Qualcomm Snapdragon 480. The phone also allows 5G. I guess we’ll be patiently waiting till we get that now, won’t we?

Chipsets usually determine how fast your phone works and while the Snapdragon 720g (which can be found on other phones in this price range) has better CPU performance, the 480 uses less battery life.

The phone’s 60Htz screen and Snapdragon 480 chipset allow it not to use too much of its 4470 mAh battery (with 18W fast charging), thereby allowing you to use it for up to 2 days.

2-day battery life? For real?

Immediately I saw it on the box I knew it was something I had to check out so as soon as I got the phone out, I charged it fully – this was on Monday night.

I downloaded a few apps and just went to town – mostly watching Netflix and playing some Call of Duty.

I didn’t need to charge the phone till about Thursday night and even then the phone still had some juice.

So if you don’t use your phone for much more than texting and calling, you can very easily get more than 2 days out of it.

For you gamers and perpetual video watchers, you’ll probably get a full day’s use without frantically searching for your USB-C cable.

Display, Audio and Camera

The Nokia X20’s 6.67-inch screen’s resolution is 1080 x 2400 and it’s also full HD+. What this means is that you can very comfortably watch your favourite videos on YouTube or Netflix in great quality.

The phone’s sound comes from a mono speaker that is admittedly quite loud. However, because it’s not a stereo speaker, your audio experience can be a little one-sided when you use it but it shouldn’t affect your listening experience too much.

I did find something peculiar with the videos I shot on the phone’s camera. At full volume, I struggled to hear my voice in these videos. I don’t know if it’s the phone’s microphone or something else but it’s definitely not great to record videos and barely have enough audio coming from them.

Two standouts for me are both video modes on the X20 – dual sight and cinema

Dualsight: This feature allows you to record a video with both your front and back camera at the same time. I find that this will be extremely useful for vloggers who want to be able to capture an event and their reactions to the event at the same time.

Cinema mode: This feature can only be used in landscape mode and basically allows you to turn yourself into an amateur filmmaker with access to settings and filters that help give your video a cinematic feel.

The phone delivers on many promises but could do better with some of the things I pointed out. Overall, if you’re looking for a phone with a large screen, interesting camera features, Android updates till Android 14, and long battery life, this is definitely a phone for you.

Until our next review.

Source: https://techcabal.com/2021/05/28/nokia-x20-review-techcabal/

France’s major telecoms operator, Orange, will work with Huawei to roll out 5G in Africa, the company’s chief executive, Stephane Richard, has said.

Orange is the largest mobile network operator in France and has operations in 18 African countries with more than 120 million customers. The company also recently launched its pan-West African network, which is run and maintained from Dakar in Senegal and connects a further seven countries across the sub-region.

It has been difficult for the company to deploy Huawei’s equipment in Europe thanks to the United States’ crackdown on the Chinese telecommunications giant.

The White House, especially under former president Donald Trump, has alleged that Huawei’s equipment could be used by the Chinese government for spying. Huawei has denied the allegations and refuted claims of it being a risk to national security.

European governments, most of whom are allies of Washington, have become stricter with Chinese companies developing 5G networks in the face of pressure from the U.S.

Orange is now working with suppliers such as Ericsson and Nokia in developing 5G across Europe, instead of the Chinese firm.

“It’s not only the pressure from the government – we are European citizens and share the concern. We can’t ignore the fact that the big Chinese players are close to the Chinese state,” Richard was quoted as saying by Reuters.

There is a 5G revolution going on in Africa as well. As of February, at least 24 network operators in 18 African countries were testing or rolling out the new network. Of those operators, eight had deployed 5G into pre-commercial or commercial networks, according to the Global mobile Suppliers Association (GSA).

Orange is one of the operators developing 5G in Africa and it sees no problem patronising Huawei on the continent. “We’re working more and more with Chinese vendors in Africa, not because we like China, but we have an excellent business relationship with Huawei,” the CEO said “They’ve invested in Africa while the European vendors have been hesitating.”

Huawei influence growing in Africa

While some European countries have banned Chinese vendors – such as Huawei and ZTE – and others encouraged their telecom operators to work with alternative suppliers, African governments have continued to trust Huawei and China.

The Chinese company may have lost some market share to competitors such as Ericsson and Nokia in Europe but its influence in Africa has only grown.

Huawei already controls a large market share as a supplier of equipment to many telecoms operators on the continent and some analysts believe the quality of its equipment makes it hard to abandon.

This week, an agreement between the company and the African Telecommunications Union (ATU) was announced. It will see Huawei provide a variety of skills training for ATU members as well as support local innovation and address challenges in Africa’s telecoms industry.

Senegal also recently became the latest African country to move its government data to a centre built by the Chinese telecoms giant. In addition to these, Huawei is reportedly working on 25 projects across the region presently.

Africa has been resistant to Huawei’s blacklisting by the U.S. and the company continues to widen its reach on the continent.

Source: https://techcabal.com/2021/07/01/orange-plans-to-launch-5g-in-africa-using-huaweis-equipment/

You might be confused as to why an individual would need multiple bank accounts but the truth is there are many reasons. Some people like to keep their savings in a separate account (or multiple savings account dedicated to different goals), some have salary accounts, etc. If you’re such a person, here are five struggles you’ll relate to.


1) When you accidentally mix up the account numbers for your accounts.

There’s really nothing worse than when you’re supposed to send your account number for a payment and you mix up the numbers so the money accidentally goes to someone else’s account in the wrong bank. Losing money in THIS ECONOMY? God abeg.


2) Having to install multiple bank apps.

Having multiple bank apps installed on your phones come with having to memorise different usernames and passwords. There’s also the stress of having to hide all of them if you ever encounter Nigerian policemen or armed robbers.


3) When you accidentally mix up the USSD codes for your bank accounts.

This one happens when you have bank accounts in different banks. You’ll now turn to a hacker, trying to bypass the error messages by attempting different codes.


4) Having to take your tokens around with you all the time.

Because you never know when you might have to make a transfer.


5) Or taking the ATM cards for both accounts everywhere you go.

Then God forbid you lose wallet and both cards in the process. You don’t know true horror and stress until you’ve run around trying to block your ATM cards.

Source: https://www.zikoko.com/money/multiple-bank-accounts-problems-stax/

If you’re currently starting a business or have plans to start a business, here are 5 important legal documents you need.

1) Business Registration:

You need to first establish a business entity by registering with the relevant company’s house either as a Business Name or a Company Limited by Shares. This legal status allows you to operate bank accounts as a business entity and make your customers more comfortable doing business with you.


2) Business licenses and permits:

Depending on the industry where you operate, you will need specific business licenses and permits to conduct business. You’ll also need permits from the city/state where your business is operating. Businesses selling products and services subject to certain taxes need to create a tax profile with the tax authorities.


3) Partnership Agreement:

This is a document that’s needed when two or more people start a business together. The document outlines each partner’s share of ownership including contributions, decision-making powers, etc.


4) Terms of service/privacy policy:

Terms of service and privacy policies are two of the most commonly prepared legal documents today especially for businesses with a digital presence. They govern the terms and conditions for people using a business’s website or mobile application. The three reasons you need the terms of service and privacy policy include defining the terms governing the use of your website, facilitating online payments, guaranteeing trust, and security of your website.


5) Trademark and other intellectual property right registration:

This process helps a business retain and protect all intellectual property rights created by the business such as its unique logos, signs, etc.

Source: https://www.zikoko.com/life/5-legal-documents-you-need-when-starting-a-business/

The subject of today’s What-She-Said is a 22-year-old woman who was ambitious out of spite for her primary school classmates. She talks about her brother wanting to kill her when they were both children, being bullied in primary school and finally finding community with herself this year.

What’s your earliest memory of your childhood?

It has to be of my brother hitting me on the head with a hammer. I had to get stitches, and I still have the scar.

According to my mum, he’s hated me since the day they brought my twin sister and I back from the hospital. That day, he put us in a mortar and wanted to pound us.

WHAT…

In his defence, he was just four and an only child. I love my siblings, and I think I most especially like that, unlike friends, your siblings are obligated to love you. Friends require a constant level of performance while siblings have seen you at your absolute worst and best, so you don’t feel the need to hide anything. You can experience your full range of emotions.

That doesn’t mean we don’t fight. We fought a lot in the house, and it was over stupid things like the TV remote.

Was there any part of your childhood not filled with physical violence?

LMAO. I want to say primary school, but that’s because the violence was emotional.

My parents sent us to a primary school filled with rich people though we were lower middle class. Now, I can say I’m grateful for the experience because I learnt to love reading and conceptualise things, but the experience was awful.

We didn’t have a lot of the things the other children had or drivers to pick us up from school. My brother handled this better because boys didn’t care about those things, but it was hard for my sister and I.

When I was leaving the school, I promised myself I was going to be very successful. That was the only way I could punish them for what they did.

That’s very Nollywood of you.

Yes actually, but I wanted them to look back and feel bad for the way they treated me, and it’s quite ridiculous when I think about it now. I was fuelled by spite.

How did you plan on making them regret it?

Well, I knew I wasn’t really book smart. I had my moments, but you couldn’t really call me intelligent. Education-wise, all my siblings are smarter than me. Learning was never easy for me, so my ambition never extended to school.

My secondary school experience was vastly different. I went to a military secondary school. The funny thing was that they thought my siblings and I were snobs because of the kind of primary school we came from.

In my secondary school, they did this thing where they called out the top five in every class and gave them prizes, then called out the bottom five and caned them. That year, I read so much that I was fourth. After they gave me my prize, the headmistress called out my twin sister and bullied her because I was in the top five and she wasn’t. I was so sad and decided I didn’t want that on my conscience. I stopped trying. This led to me getting C’s and D’s, but I’m grateful I realised my status as an average student early.

Since school wasn’t it for you, what did you do?

When I finished WAEC, my result was seized. They never gave any serious reason why and my parents had to get a lawyer. When they eventually got the result, math was missing. That meant I had to do A-level exams in an Education advancement centre in Ibadan, where we lived. My twin sister luckily did not have the problem I did, so she got into Unilag. When she got to Lagos, she joined a book club.

I decided that she could not have all the fun. I wanted my own book club as well. So I reached out to some of my friends, and we decided to start our own book club. Most of our meetings were online, but eventually, we had to have some physical meetings. Hosting came with paying for snacks, venues, and other things. I never asked anyone for contributions because felt it would be a burden.

I had some money saved from a really well paying gig I got. Plus, my parents gave me money. Honestly, I am shocked I was able to pay for it all. The book club was important to me,. We had a branch in Sierra Leone and another in Ghana. It will always have a very special place in my heart.

Wow. That’s a big deal. Why did you stop?

Well, I had a lot of things going on. Unfortunately, I do the thing where I take on too many projects at once, to the point where I end up overexerting myself. I was volunteering in at least four organisations while still doing school work and also the book club.

I just didn’t know how to not keep busy. Whenever people mention projects around me, I jump on and help make plans for them. It is just how I am. Most of the projects I joined was as a result of a feminist group chat I was in. People kept creating things and asking for help, and I just volunteered.

What did you define as success?

A year ago, success to me was getting into fellowships and impacting people’s lives. It was a very self-serving thing for me. I wanted to rack up awards and be validated by people. I wanted people to think I was smart and brilliant and so many other things. Unfortunately, I didn’t get all the things I wanted.

I feel like everything has led me to this moment. If I had gotten the fellowship and everything else I wanted, I wouldn’t be this clearheaded. I am still going to apply for grants and fellowships, but now I have a clearer picture of what I want. It is not out of spite or about being successful. It will be more about doing things that make me happy.

I have decided to never take on more than three projects at once. When you do many things at once, it’s very easy for you to live on autopilot. You don’t really think about what you do, you just do. I want to be able to savour the moment.

Now that your idea of success has changed, what next?

Ambition meant I never had enough time to just sit with myself and figure out where I am and where I am going. That’s what I dedicated this year to do. To just find community with myself.

I am moving into my own apartment this week, and after I get the article I am working on published, I won’t write for a long time. I want to spend my 20s reading books and focusing on finishing school.

Source: https://www.zikoko.com/her/what-she-said-i-was-ambitious-out-of-spite/

The internal Research and Development (R&) team at Facebook is working on an educational mobile app called Sabee. The app will be targeted at Nigerian learners when it is finally launched.

Sabee is currently in early alpha testing with fewer than 100 testers who are under non-disclosure agreements (NDA) with Facebook, TechCrunch reported after the company confirmed its plans for Sabee in an interview.

The app was on Google Play Store for a short time and is no longer public. It was available so briefly that it was never ranked on any charts, Sensor Tower, an app store intelligence firm, said.

Beyond that small group of testers, Sabee is not available for anyone else presently but Facebook hopes to scale it to the next stage before the end of the year.

Connecting learners and educators

The name “Sabee” is a stylisation of the Nigerian Pidgin word sabi which means “to know”. Through the app, Facebook aims to connect learners and educators in online communities to make educational opportunities more accessible in Nigeria.

“There are 50 million learners, but only 2 million educators in Nigeria,” Facebook’s Product Lead, Emeka Okafor, said. “With this small, early test, we’re hoping to understand how we can help educators build communities that make education available to everyone. We look forward to learning with our early testers, and deciding what to do from there.”

This large gap between learners and educators in Africa’s most populated country also significantly affects women and girls, which is another key issue that Sabee will focus on.

Facebook is also looking to better serve groups that are often left behind by technology, so the team behind Sabee is working to create an app that works with connectivity as low as 2G.

Facebook’s Sabee project comes amid a global boom in the educational tech (edtech) space. It is one of the few industries that have gotten a big boost from the coronavirus pandemic as the need for contact-less services rose.

In Africa, Nigeria had the largest share of the 210 education-focused tech startups as of the first quarter of 2020. These startups are helping to address the country’s age-long problems in the education sector such as poor learning experience and outcomes and a huge number of out-of-school children.

Source: https://techcabal.com/2021/06/29/facebook-is-testing-sabee-an-educational-app-for-nigerians/

Read more stories like this here: https://techcabal.com/category/companies/

With Nigeria’s general elections just two years away, the country’s electoral commission has begun preparations.

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) on Monday, June 28, 2021, commenced the continuous voter registration (CVR) exercise nationwide. This comes more than two years after the last exercise.

This is an opportunity for Nigerians that are yet to register before to get their voters card, to enable them to participate in any election. The process is also open to people whose permanent voters cards (PVC) are damaged, stolen, or want to change their biodata.

As the voter registration exercise kicks off, INEC has announced guidelines to help people understand how the new process will work.

How can you register?

The INEC voter registration exercise will be done both online and in-person, according to Obo Effanga, Resident Electoral Commissioner at INEC in Rivers State.

Online registration: This can be done on a new INEC portal, where Nigerians can fill in all their details and print out the slip.

INEC launched the dedicated portal last week. This is unlike the previous years where prospective voters queued in various centres to register and obtain their voter’s cards.

The portal will help Nigerians start the registration process online and then make an appointment for a date and time to visit an INEC State or Local Government Area (LGA) office to give their fingerprints and complete the registration.

With the online portal, you can also apply to replace lost or damaged permanent voters cards or update your biodata. It is also open to people who have transferred their registrar or done any correction of names or other details.

In-person registration: After the online registration, you have to proceed to INEC offices at the local government area near you or any designated centre that INEC provides along with your printed slip. At the LGAs, a biometric capture will be done after which you will get temporary voter cards.

INEC has warned Nigerians against doing double registration as the system would detect that and such a person’s registration could be cancelled. They could also be liable to prosecution at the court and face the law.

Who can participate in the Voter Registration?

Nigerian citizens up to 18 years who are yet to register
Registered voters that have issues with accreditation during previous elections can apply to have the agency fix the problems
Registered voters that want to transfer their voting points from one place to another
Registered voters whose voters cards have been damaged or lost can apply to replace them
Registered voters that wish to correct any information on their cards

For now, only the online exercise of the voters’ registration has kicked off and INEC is yet to set a date for the physical registration.

INEC has said it is targeting at least 20 million new voters to its existing 84 million voters as of 2019.

Source: https://techcabal.com/2021/06/28/inec-commences-voter-registration-in-nigeria-heres-what-you-need-to-know/

Read more News stories here: https://techcabal.com/category/news/

Friendships provide some of the support required for us to bloom in life. In this article, seven Nigerian women talk about their platonic friendships with men.

Funmi, 22

I have a lot of platonic male friends. I find friendship with them therapeutic and less competitive than the ones I have with women. Also, men judge less. I feel freer with them. I feel like it’s safer to tell them secrets. Generally, the vibe is different and more lively with men.

Most importantly, because women and men tend to view things differently, friendship with men helps me develop other views about topics and gain insight into how men think.

Esther, 20

I have had, and still have great platonic relationships with men. Some of my oldest friends are men. However, being friends with men can become weird when they start saying shit about women. Most of the guys I’m friends with hardly do this, but there’s one or two who would sit down and say nonsense about women just because they can.

Being friends with men can also be interesting. Most of these hard guys are just babies on the inside — they just need someone to talk to and someone to listen to them.

Bliss, 25

Having guys as platonic friends is the best kind of friendship for me. I don’t have a lot of friendships with women because I find that I have very little in common with them. My male friends have pushed me at school, in my career, even financially. They also give me great advice. I’d pick guy friends over girlfriends any day.

Vanessa, 26

My best friend is a guy. We’ve been friends since secondary school. We attended the same boarding school. When my dad died, the teachers called him to the staff room to tell him to tell me because everyone knew he would know the best way to comfort me. 11 years and he’s still the best.

We argue sometimes but we never go a week without talking. People usually think we are dating and it has brought problems in some of our romantic relationships. One time, we kissed to see what it would feel like. It felt weird. We laughed about it and told each other we were never trying it again.

Olakitan, 20

For me, it’s an okay experience. Most times, they end up being attracted to you. It happened to me one time. We were cool and he was even one of my female friends’ exes. We texted often and then one time, he told me he had feelings for me. I tried to laugh it off but he said he was serious and he wanted to date me. I told him I wasn’t interested and he said he wasn’t in a hurry. The truth is I am not interested and I am glad he has not brought it up again.

Asides from this, I have other male friends who send me money without any attachments or expectations. They support me when they can. They’ve listened to me cry through heartbreak before.

Zee, 21

Honestly, platonic friendships with men can be quite frustrating. I have this male friend and he’s sort of my best friend. The friendship started platonically but I started to catch feelings. Hard girl like me.

He doesn’t feel the same way and he has a girlfriend so I have to go back to being just a friend. I also have to be happy for him because he has a girlfriend and he is happy. That’s what a good friend does, right? But deep down, I wish we were more.

Hope, 23

Platonic friendships with men have been a mix of good and bad for me. The friendships always start great but along the line, they become something else. The guys either want to date me or simply have sex. I have been accused of being too warm and sweet by two of my male friends. When the friendship ends because I am unable to reciprocate those feelings, I end up being hurt. It’s a painful cycle but I have learned the art of letting go.

Now, I have a few male friends who have remained friends and I cherish them. I no longer make new male friends because I can’t predict how it will end.

Source: https://www.zikoko.com/her/7-nigerian-women-on-platonic-friendships-with-men/

Every week, Zikoko seeks to understand how people move the Naira in and out of their lives. Some stories will be struggle-ish, others will be bougie. All the time, it’ll be revealing.

What’s your oldest memory of money?

In 2000, when I was in Primary Three, my dad came home with two bundles of ₦50 notes. We counted it together and everything was ₦10k. I had never seen that much money. I was so excited I couldn’t stop talking about it to my friends the following day at school.

Flex. What was it like growing up though?

My dad used to work in a bank, but he resigned when I was about five years old to set up a consulting practice. This period was tough for the family though we kids didn’t really understand that there were money issues. My mum was a full-time housewife who did some petty trading on the side. On a few occasions, when my dad didn’t have money to go to work, my brothers and I were asked to break open our piggy banks and give him whatever we had saved so he could go to work.

Things weren’t rosy, but we never got to the point where we didn’t have food to eat. However, it was difficult to pay school fees.

Tell me about that.

One of my brothers was on a scholarship, but it was still difficult for my parents to raise school fees money for me and my other sibling. For the most part of my junior secondary school, I was always sent out of school. I didn’t realise how hard and embarrassing it must have been for my parents until a few weeks ago. I was at my daughter’s school and saw some students being sent back home because they owed school fees. That broke my heart.

Back then, though, I didn’t care very much. Being sent out of school meant having the whole day to play. My dad’s business picked up between 2007 and 2008, and this stopped being a thing. For my senior secondary school, I was enrolled in a boarding school in 2006. My allowance was ₦1k per month.

Do you remember the first thing you did for money?

This was 2008. I came home for the holidays from boarding school one time and my dad asked me to work for him. I did for three days, and he paid me ₦5k. He said that I did a great job and saved him time, so he insisted on paying me.

Haha. What happened after?

University. I left home in 2010 to live with a family member while preparing for my university entrance examination, and my allowance at the time was ₦10k. When I got into university in the following year, it increased to ₦15k. From there, it got to 20k. At the time I was leaving university, I was getting ₦20k–₦30k at the beginning of the month and ₦10k in the middle of the month.

Because both my parents were running businesses when I was growing up, I grew up with an entrepreneurial spirit. I hadn’t seen my parents work for anybody, so I was determined not to do that either. I decided to start a small business in my second year in university.

How did you get started?

My savings. I had been saving ₦10k from my monthly allowance. My capital was ₦20k when I started off selling hair attachments. Then I did other things at different points — I ran a printing outlet for a while, then I sold sunglasses, frames and makeup.

I was making about ₦10k–₦15k extra every month from these businesses. I stopped everything at the end of my fourth year and concentrated on academics in my final year.

Interesting. What did your finances look like at the end of university?

I had about ₦200k in my account. It should have been more than that, but I had loaned my mum some money when I was in 500 level. She was running a poultry business at the time. I don’t remember if I ever got the money back.

Somehow, my dad caught a whiff of how much I had in my account and stopped sending me all the extra flex money he used to.

Men.

Hahaha. I was home for about a year before I went for NYSC. During this time, I helped my mum with her poultry; I raised some birds and sold them. I also started writing to document my experiences with agribusiness.

I was mobilised for NYSC in 2016. I wanted to work in a government agency, but they rejected me. My dad helped me find a job in another government agency. Just as I was about to start work there, I received a text from a private health management consulting company, inviting me to a test and an interview. I passed both and was offered a job as an intern. I had to go back to beg the people at the job my dad got for me to reject me.

Whoop. How much did this company offer to pay?

₦75k. I was also getting ₦19,800 from the federal government, so my total monthly income was close to ₦100k. I was saving ₦50k every month and making do with the rest. I limited myself to spending ₦1k per day.

At the end of my service year, the company asked me to stay and offered me an entry-level position as a full staff. I declined the offer.

Why was that?

A couple of factors. My family didn’t think it was the right career move for me at the time. My mind wasn’t made up either. I felt I needed to do something in agriculture because that was what I studied at uni.

Also, I was going to get married.

Oh.

My husband and I had been dating for five years and he had been working for almost two years when we decided to get married. We got married in March 2018.

You hadn’t found a new job when you got married, had you?

No. But I had some of my savings from my service year. Then I went into my agribusinesses.

I started a fish pond in March 2018. I put in ₦300k and made about ₦150k in profit when I sold them six months later. In between this, I got a job that paid ₦50k per month. I quit after two months because my farm investment was beginning to suffer. Also, I was five months pregnant with my daughter.

The day after I quit my job, I drew an estimate for a snail farm and realised that I needed about ₦300k for it, which I didn’t have at the time. I tried to get investors, but they wanted up to 60% in ROI. From my experience, small scale agriculture doesn’t work that way. An outbreak, for example, could wipe out all your stock in one go.

After trying so hard to raise the money I needed without much progress, I put out a request on Twitter and raised about ₦200k. After that, a friend reached out to invest ₦100k in the business. Also, I borrowed ₦100k from another friend. The snail pen I built cost about ₦400k, and I bought stock worth ₦175k. But guess what happened?

What?

More than half of the snails died before they got to me.

Omo.

The driver who transported them was careless handling them. I had lost almost half of my investment before I started.

The snails were breeders and the plan was that when they mated and hatched new snails, I’d start selling them. It was a long term investment that wouldn’t turn in a decent profit until a year and six months. Then came June of 2019 with other plans. Heavy rain started and one night, a storm blew off the roof of the pen. I couldn’t keep snails without a roof — they were going to drown and die.

Ah.

There was no other choice. I had to sell off what remained at a massive loss. I think I sold them for about ₦50k. For six months the farm ran, I was spending about ₦3k per week on their feed and paying salaries. At the end of it all, I had lost over ₦800k.

I’m so sorry.

Moving on. I returned to fish farming and invested ₦50k in it. I bought 4000 fingerlings, but they were a bad stock and almost all of them died. Only about 300 survived. I let them grow for a few months before I sold them — that brought ₦15k – ₦18k.

Now, I told my friend who invested in the snail business what had happened, and we agreed that I’d return his capital. I paid him back the ₦100k he put into the business.

Brutal.

This was the end of 2019 I had run out of my savings. Things were beginning to get tight. My daughter had arrived in December of the previous year. We were living on what my husband made from his job and boy, was it tough. Let me paint a picture of what that looked like: we had to substitute almost everything for baby food. Every time we wanted to do something for ourselves, baby food or diaper expenses would spring up. Neither of us bought any personal items in 2019. Every resource went into taking care of our daughter.

It dawned on us that we couldn’t possibly raise a family on one source of income. I realised that I may have made a mistake turning down the job I got after NYSC. I didn’t enjoy agribusiness the way I thought I would.

Man. What were the next steps?

My husband started a side business. I started looking for a job too, although my mum fought me on this one. She was a stay at home mum and she believes every woman who has a family should be at home, raising the kids instead of chasing a career. In her words, “Your children will thank you for it”.

Anyway, I started applying for jobs again in 2019. I even sent an application to the people I turned down in 2017. I passed their interview, and they put me on a waitlist. I haven’t heard from them since that time.

While looking for a job, I was surviving and paying for basic things like data from what I made from booking flights for members of my family. Also, I started freelance writing in October 2018. My friend, who invested in the snail business, reached out and asked if I was interested in writing for him. He outsourced some writing gigs to me. This brought in between ₦5k and ₦20k per gig.

I finally got a job at my dad’s company in November 2019. At first, he was skeptical about hiring me, but he came around and offered me a job and an annual salary of ₦480k. He also topped up my salary with an extra ₦10k every month.

Aw.
I worked there for less than a year. I quit in September 2020 when I got a better paying job.

Lit. How much?

₦150k. My dad was upset that I was leaving though. He offered to increase my salary. But I had to leave — the new job was a role in management consulting in agriculture, and that was kind of my dream job.

I resumed work in September.

Yay.

A month later, I found out that I was pregnant.

Man. Was that a problem?

It wasn’t to me. But it was a new job, and the Nigerian workplace culture is not the best for women because of things like this. I didn’t want it to become a problem, so I worked as hard as I could. I avoided taking sick leaves. The two times I had to go to the hospital on a workday, I showed up at the office first.

I was supposed to get confirmed in March — six months after I started working there — but my appointment wasn’t confirmed.

Everything happened so fast. I got notified that my appointment wouldn’t be confirmed on Friday. By Sunday, the owner of the company was calling me, asking me to resign. I was so upset. Like even if my appointment wasn’t going to be confirmed yet, is a termination of appointment or asking for my resignation the next step?

I’m so sorry. That must have been tough.

I was heartbroken. That was one of the hardest things that has happened to me, and I cried for days. They did let me keep my health insurance for a few months; I guess that was to cushion the blow.

Now that I was out of a job again, I returned to freelancing for my friend. I did one very small gig in May and got paid ₦10k. That’s been it so far. I gave birth to my son in June.

Congratulations!

Thank you. Thankfully, the health insurance covered that, so we didn’t spend anything on hospital bills.

What about your emergency funds?

While I was at the last company I worked at, I was saving ₦50k per month. I still have the ₦300k I saved in the six months I spent there. Half of it is in a PiggyVest investment and the other half is in cash.

What do your monthly expenses look like now?

My cost of living is low. I pay ₦5k for my internet and ₦5k to the lady that helps me around the house. My husband covers the rest. We spend ₦40k on groceries per month and about ₦80k–₦20k a week for the other things and house utilities.

When I was still at my job, I contributed to this and my husband and I split the bills in half. But he’s taking care of everything for now.

I’m wondering, how much would be good money to you right now?

₦200k+. I’ve done a lot of things–data analysis, programme management and operations. Now I need to stick to one and build a career around it. I know if I get a new job now, I’ll probably have to start at an entry-level position though I’ve been working since 2017. I should be earning above ₦300k, but I’ll most likely have to settle for lower pay.

Do you have any financial regret?

Maybe not taking that job in 2017. The entry-level salary was ₦250k. Asides from that, I don’t regret any of the subsequent decisions I made. There were losses, but these things happen.

Do you have plans to return to running your farm?

I don’t think so. At least not any time soon. I’ve realised that I don’t like the uncertainty and the lack of structure that come with entrepreneurship. The farm is still running, but I don’t make anything from it at the moment. My mum handles the operations. I provide technical help where necessary. Maybe there’s a version of the future where I return to running it by myself.

What parts of your finances do you think you could be better at?

Investing. I have a low-risk appetite. I don’t want anything to happen to my money and I want good returns. That kind of combination is hard to find. If I could up my risk appetite and make bolder investment decisions, that would be nice.

What do you want now but can’t afford?

I don’t have a lot of wants. At the moment, there’s really nothing I want. A new job would be great, though, now that I’m done having kids. It’s time to build a career. That’s why I’m being very selective about the kind of jobs I apply to these days. If I don’t see myself doing something similar in 10 years, I won’t apply for it.

What was the last thing you bought that improved the quality of your life?

My laptop, but my dad bought it for me. It cost ₦180k. My last laptop was stolen, and subsequently, I had to use office computers. I had nothing to use for a while after I left that job in March, and it wasn’t a great experience.

How have your experiences shaped your perspective about money?

My family and friends call me frugal as I am almost always living below my means. Also, I place a heavy premium on saving and having emergency funds. My savings have come through for me during times I needed them the most. I’m grateful I learned the habit at a young age.

One more thing I have learnt over the years is not to put money first. A lot of my decisions are not driven by money but by my value for relationships. I don’t know if that’s a good or bad thing, but I think the greatest asset anyone can have is the people in their corner. I know that if I’m ever in a fix, I have people who will help me out.

I feel you. On a scale of 1-10, how would you rate your financial happiness?

5. I don’t have any pressing needs at the moment. However, at this point, I need to start earning again. If I could get a job that would pay me about ₦250k a month, this number will definitely jump to an 8.

I’m rooting so much for you.

Source: https://www.zikoko.com/money/naira-life/the-nairalife-of-a-mother-of-two-who-is-in-between-jobs/

If you find yourself falling for an Igbo woman, don’t hold back. Allow yourself to feel that delightful tingle. It’s the beginning of a new journey for you. It can end in tears, character development, or marriage. Here are 11 things you must do to secure the best outcome for yourself.

1. Give her money.

Dollars, specifically. If you think you want to win an Igbo woman’s heart with Naira, you are deceiving yourself.

2. If you must serve her breakfast in bed, please include beer in the breakfast tray.

You get extra points if it is small stout.

3. Let her date other men.

That a person is working in one company does not mean they cannot attend interviews at other firms. Let nne keep her options open. The winner is the one who marries her. Until then, everything is a competition.

4. Buy beard oil for her.

That is a clear sign that you are attuned to her body and you are committed to loving it completely. Also, wouldn’t it be romantic if she keeps the beard for you while you remain beardless?

5. If she offends you, apologise to her by crediting her account.

Igbo women do not offend their men. If there is something wrong in the relationship, it is definitely the fault of the man. Did you not know this before agreeing to go into a relationship with an Igbo woman?

6. If she does not reach out to you in three months, stay faithful.

Igbo women need to be reminded that they are in a relationship. Too many things to think about, so please don’t Bleep up your game by dating another woman. If my good Igbo woman returns to find you in another relationship, e don be for you oh.

7. Take her to her hometown for Christmas.

That’s one sure bet that will always work. Imagine taking Chiamaka to Anambra for Christmas. My dear, you have won the lottery. Wine-carrying ceremony straight!

8. Whatever happens, remember that Igbo women never cheat.

And that’s because they were never in the relationship in the first place but that’s a story for another day. Just stay patient.

9. Every morning, this is how you must praise her.

Tomato Jos, Eggovin nwa, enenebe eje olu, asa nwa, asa mpete, ada obodo dike, ada obodo oyibo, lolo, omalicaha. And then now add dollars to it and watch her burn for you.

10. Igbo women will ruin your life but it’ll be worth it.

The earlier you know this, the quicker it is to adjust your heart settings to “Awaiting destruction.”

11. Wickedness is the special flavour. Always remember that.

If you know you cannot handle the heat, don’t come close to the fire. To be forewarned is to be forearmed.

Source: https://www.zikoko.com/life/11-ways-to-win-the-heart-of-an-igbo-woman/

Read more Inside Life stories here: https://www.zikoko.com/category/life/

The ban happened a day after the Nigerian government announced an indefinite Twitter suspension. The minister of information had stated that the reason for banning Twitter was because the social media platform has “consistently made its platform available to those who are threatening Nigeria’s corporate existence.”

While still mourning the loss of the first job, Wunmi lost another one for the same reason.

“Everything felt like a waste. What was worse was another ₦700,000 ($1,400) deal ended up in the mud. The client paid ₦150,000 ($333) at least for the little job I had done,” she said.

The effect on businesses

For many Nigerians, this ban has affected how they stay informed, build relationships and get opportunities. Businesses on the other hand have experienced a decline in engagements and sales.

In the case of Nifries, an online food delivery service that relies on Twitter to reach its audience, its customers aren’t responding as they used to.

Feranmi Ajetomobi, the founder of Nifries, explained that the Twitter ban has affected anon (short for anonymous) sales which drive about 20% of sales at Nifries. Anon sales happen when people surprise strangers or friends by buying goods for them without revealing their identity.

Hi @TereSagay_, Anon just opened a tab of N15,000 for you to pick whatever you want from our Menu! �
——
Kindly visit https:///rmQIkQXPkD and send a DM of what you want �

— Sexy Suya Burgers � (@ni_fries) June 15, 2021

“We’ve realised that when we reach out to a few people and there’s no response, It’s either because they’ve taken a break or the Twitter ban has affected them. How we know it’s the ban is because when these people we reach out to come online, they attribute their absence to the fact that using VPN is confusing,” he said.

For Habib who runs Smiley Socks, a clothing company that also thrives on the ‘anon sales’ phenomenon, sales via Twitter have been affected. He’s also noticed that engagements with tweets have reduced.

This has made him turn to other channels. He’s had to pay more attention to his Instagram page and work on his SEO for his e-commerce website to maximise conversations.

He’s also started experimenting with TikTok and so far, the results have been astounding. One day after he opened a new TikTok page, it already had 100 followers. The few videos he’s posted already have at least 500 views, with the highest being one with over 4,000 views.

“It’s crazy when you think about the fact that it’s a new page and we are not following anyone. Despite the engagement, there’s a bigger question of how we’ll convert these numbers into sales. For now, we’ll just do more influencer marketing and affiliate marketing as we figure out what works,” said Habib.

Wunmi* who has lost two deals worth over $2,500 is now considering focusing on unexplored channels like IG Reels and TikTok.

“For clients that do not mind me using VPN, I go ahead and use Twitter. Unfortunately, those clients are very few. No one wants to offend President Buhari at this time for fear of being blacklisted by the government or worse, getting forcefully shut down. Clients think of many negative scenarios of how the government can strike back, they sometimes seem hilarious, but can you blame them?” she said.

Comparing Twitter to other platforms

Charles Isidi, a growth marketer and digital consultant, agrees with the need to pivot to other digital marketing channels but has a word of caution. He has experienced the effect of the decline first-hand on his personal account. With followership of about 17,000, his monthly impressions have gone from as high as 3.8 million, to under 500,000.

He says the ban will affect advertising spend and results across other digital marketing channels because Nigerian Twitter users who are using VPNs will also have their locations skewed across every other app.

“If your most valuable audience is in another country that you do not know, then how can you reach them?” he said.

He also raised the question of whether people know how to use VPNs safely.

“Quite a lot of people use free VPNs. In the next six months, we might start experiencing a lot of theft. We’ll have to be looking at how much we’ve lost due to cybercrimes.”

Businesses might need to move to other social media platforms but Twitter offers more favourable returns in terms of marketing efforts.

Compared to other advertising channels, Twitter is a cheaper and less stressful channel.

He’s been trying to run a billboard campaign for the past 3 months and has been stuck waiting for Lagos’ paid advertising approval. For digital adverts, in less than an hour, the advert is approved and has started delivering value for the business.

“Unlike other social media platforms, take Facebook as an example. A typical page with 10,000 followers reaches 3% of your audience with a post. Meanwhile, on Twitter, an organic post can be retweeted. In terms of shareability and virality, there’s a reason why people love Twitter. I can say something and even if I have just 100 followers, 3 million people can see that tweet.”

That’s difficult on Instagram where you have to make the explore page or use a hashtag that people love to get a similar kind of result.

How much is being lost

Citing a scenario, he said, “If you’re currently managing a brand that has 20,000 followers, it’ll get 1-3 million impressions on average. To be conservative, at a 0.1% conversation rate, the brand will have an average of 1,000 – 3,000 new customers.”


“If we put the average transaction value per customer at $3 dollars per month, that’s an average of $3,000 – $9,000 dollars lost due to the ban. Let’s put it across all the businesses in that range and you see that the number is massive.”

With the Twitter ban, Nigerian businesses that have previously relied on the massive reach of the platform now face an avalanche of losses if the decision is not reversed soon.

And if we were to be a little hopeful and imagine a world where the ban is lifted, how much irreversible damage has been done to the potential audience reach these businesses used to have? We’ll find out soon enough.

*Name changed to protect their identity.

Source: https://techcabal.com/2021/06/25/nigerian-businesses-face-an-avalanche-of-losses-as-the-twitter-ban-continues/

Read more Feature stories here: https://techcabal.com/category/features/

Let me tell you how it started. I woke up one morning in 1999 and my eyes were itchy. The more I rubbed, the more painful they got. When I eventually stopped rubbing, whitish-yellow fluid stuck to my fingers. Pus. It was supposed to be one of those mornings I ate cornflakes and watched cartoons; instead, I was wide awake, running to my parent’s room.

My parents panicked. One minute, I was showing them my eyes, the next, we were at the hospital. I don’t remember the drive. After some eye tests, we were told my eyes were jaundiced, and I needed to do more tests. One blood test later, I was given a sickle cell diagnosis. I was four.

My first thought was “what’s that?” I turned to my dad to ask, but his pupils were distant, lost in thought. And while I don’t recall what my mum was doing, I’m sure she must have been praying, hands clasped, eyes closed.

My story had started without me realising it. I would slowly come to understand that my life had changed. At first, all I had to do was be careful. But then I attended a birthday party, and because I wanted to feel “normal,” I ended up dancing until I landed in the hospital.

That birthday incident changed everything.

The first thing to go was my freedom. I now had rules: no playing in the rain, check. No swimming, check. No birthday parties, double-check. My childhood became a recurring theme of sitting out activities.

In the rare event that I was invited out, my friends would spend the entire day worrying about me. I was never able to enjoy those outings.

This continued until I got into university. As a child, my family took turns taking care of me. But in school, there was nobody to do that for me. I had to look out for myself, in addition to the tedious school work.

There is nothing more stressful than living with sickle cell as a Nigerian student. For non-sickle cell people, uni stress was just uni stress. For me, uni stress meant hospital visits, missed tests and exams. In some cases, I had to write exams from the hospital bed.

Keeping friends was also a private hell. My friends would say, “Precious, do you think you should come out with us tonight, because of your health?” All I heard was “You’re going to slow us down”, “We’re not going to have fun because of you”, “You’ll land in the hospital.”

Dating was another thing entirely. I’d meet the most interesting people, and the moment I disclosed my condition, I’d get long messages saying: “I think you’re amazing, but I don’t think I can handle this.”

The messages broke me and made me blame myself. Then I travelled to the UK for my masters in 2018.

The care I received changed my perspective. During hospital visits in Nigeria, health professionals would say, “Weren’t you here last month?” or “See you soon.” I would feel guilty and apologise every time I fell sick. In the UK, health professionals would remind me that I had no control over my health. At some point, they asked if I fully understood my diagnosis. They “educated” me about sickle cell, but more importantly, they made me feel seen by really listening to me.

I started to live more freely. I went out if I wanted to. My motto changed from “if I fall sick, I’ll ruin people’s plans” to “if I fall sick, I’ll go to the hospital.”


I enjoyed this freedom until I returned to Nigeria. There was a clash between my old identity and my newly-won identity. I had gone from the shielded child to someone comfortable expressing herself. I no longer saw myself as a sick person who couldn’t have fun. This led to friction between me and family members unwilling to understand and respect the new me.

At this point, it had been more than 15 years since my first sickle cell diagnosis. There was a new Precious. Someone who spoke out against insensitive religious people, people who told me to pray away my sickness or that children of God didn’t fall ill. Or the ones who told me to just declare the word of God: as if it were that easy.

For a while, these comments almost made me feel less of a Christian, like my faith was not strong enough. I went from being a religious person to resenting the church. I started to despise the so-called religious Christians.

Another set of people believed I was exaggerating the pain. They expected me to be used to it by now. Their insensitivity annoys me, but that’s a story for another day.


I’m choosing to focus on the positives, like making quality friends. Friends who have an unspoken rule: “When Precious is in the hospital, we’ll take turns looking after her. No questions asked.” Friends like Salem King, aka chief caretaker, who says, “Precious, you’re not a burden.” Friends who make my journey feel less lonely by showing up for me.

My journey has been bittersweet. Living with sickle cell has given and taken from me. For someone who didn’t start making friends early, I now have the most amazing friends in the world.

When you come from a large family [six siblings] like mine, you crave independence quickly. This need is heightened if you’re the only one living with a long term condition. You grow up angry. Angry that your family members don’t understand you. Angry that no one stands up for you. Angry about your search for miracles from one church to the other. Angry that despite everything, you still need your family’s help.

Living with a chronic illness means I can’t refuse help from people no matter how independent I get. I teach emotional intelligence for a fee, and the fee pays for my drugs and a few hospital bills. Still, there are things I can’t do on my own. I can’t drive myself to the hospital when I’m having a crisis. I can’t look after myself when I’m on admission.

I’m tired of depending on people, but there’s nothing I can do. In the first quarter of 2021, my friends started a GoFundMe. It’s for a bone marrow transplant to give me a new genotype, curing me of sickle cell.


Immediately I announced this development, I got heat from two sides. Firstly, from my conservative northern family. They were furious that I embarrassed them by “announcing” my illness to everyone. The Christians were also enraged because they felt I betrayed God by choosing to follow science.

They’ll all be fine.

I’m doing this for me. I’m also doing this based on my newfound knowledge of God. He’s understanding, kind and he loves me.

I’m not naive to think that it’ll be smooth sailing. But I’ll pick the pain of surgery and raising money over the pain of surviving sickle cell for 25 years.


I’m going to fight with all I’ve got — till the end. For myself and my friends who’ve been through everything. For everyone who has suffered with me, held my hands and cried with me.

I’m doing this for us.

And when I finally get my surgery done, I’ll throw a Precious 2.0 party. I can’t wait to finally start living without thinking I’m a burden to people.

I’m going to learn how to swim, how to ride a bike. I loohttps://www.zikoko.com/category/her/k forward to dancing in the rain without fear. Most importantly, I’m going to reclaim my childhood.


[url]Click here to donate to Precious:[/url]

GoFundMe: https://gofund.me/77dde500

Flutterwave: https://flutterwave.com/pay/crg78jsohnxo


Source: https://www.zikoko.com/her/travelling-abroad-made-me-realise-sickle-cell-wasnt-my-fault/

Read more Her stories here: https://www.zikoko.com/category/her/

The subject of today’s Sex Life is a 35-year-old heterosexual man. He talks about how exploring unconventional forms of sex and chasing excitement helped him find sexual liberation.

What was your first sexual experience?

It was with a neighbour. We were in SS1 but in different schools. We also went to the same lesson classes. One day, we found ourselves in a room together and started touching each other. I don’t think there was sexual attraction, it was just a case of opportunity and curiosity.

Did it happen just once or… ?

Oh no. It happened for years. We never talked about it — it just happened. It progressed from touching to humping to sex. I was about 15 around this time.

Why did it stop?

No reason. It just did. The same way it started was the same way it just stopped.

How did your sex life progress?

Afterwards, I started having feelings — puberty and stuff. You know how when you’re writing WAEC in a Nigerian school, there’s a bit of freedom that wasn’t there before? That period was a sexual awakening for me. I would stay back after school to kiss girls and sometimes do a bit more. It was an exciting time. But it didn’t kickstart till perhaps university.

What was the university like for you?

Fascinating, stressful, awful, liberating, humbling.

That’s a lot.

University was a whole new world. I had freedom like never before. I felt like a responsible adult, but I learned that being a responsible adult was tiring.

At home, I couldn’t even bring a male friend home. But at uni, I had a shared apartment and could bring home male friends and even female friends.

I hooked up with people and started doing casual sex as well.

Did you enjoy the sex?

Yes. It was pretty good. I’ll be honest; I’ve always had a good sex life. I think I’m good looking, people think so and I’ve always been able to get the girls.

At this point, I was having casual sex often enough. Then I got into a short-lived relationship.

Why was it short-lived?

The babe was annoying. It was stressful, especially since I was in a stressful environment — a Nigerian university. God forbid. So I ended it.

After this, I had a casual-sex-only period, then entered a long relationship. This one ended because I cheated on her. That was on me.

Why did you cheat?

I was bored. That’s not a valid reason for most people, but it’s the truth. I wanted excitement. A few months into the relationship, I was tired. I wanted sexual excitement, I wanted to be on my toes. Cheating had a bit of danger and a change of pace, so I did it. The cheating sex wasn’t all that, but that touch of danger was everything. She eventually found out because there’s nothing like a secret in Lagos.

How did that feel?

Awful. I did not want to hurt someone I loved. People never want to hear what the cheating person has to say, but I genuinely didn’t want to hurt her.

But you wanted sexual excitement?

I wanted danger and excitement in my sex life. Which by the way, was a thing I found out was essential to my sex life.

Can you explain?

I like penetrative sex. However, I easily get bored of it. It doesn’t wow me; it’s just like “6/10”. For a while, I didn’t quite know what was missing, but I knew I needed something to spice it up.

Did you find it?

Yeah, but I like to believe I’m still finding it.

Please explain.

It started with a bit of BDSM and role-playing. I dated this girl who was into it, and I realised I wasn’t as repulsed by it as I thought. So we gave it a go: she dominated me, I dominated her. That was when I first thought, “Yo, this is good.” After that, I started pushing myself. I stopped saying no to “unusual” forms of sex. It’s taken me a long time, but there are very few things that I can not get into. My main exceptions are things that involve waste products — knives, guns, creepy age play and rape play. I don’t do those.

What do you do?

Roleplay is a personal favourite. Pegging, BDSM, spanking, bondage, and frankly, most things. Like the saying goes, I’m here for a good time.

What’s your sex life like now?

LMAO. It’s popping. I have always had a good sex life, but now? Great. The best part is how I know myself now. In the past, I never explored. I just did what I thought was expected of me.

If someone had told me that one day, I would be okay getting dominated or having someone use a Love Machine on me, I would laugh and probably throw up. But I’m glad I explored myself and found my limits as well as my sweet spots.

What about relationships?

A lot of women don’t want to push the boundaries. They find a man who wants to do something, and they run for the hills. That leaves me with a very small dating pool. I’m okay with that. It’s a good way to filter people. I’ve been single for the past year, but before that, I had great relationships with women who were willing to explore themselves as well as explore me.

Do you feel like more men should try non-conventional forms of sex?

Absolutely. One hundred per cent. Not everyone is for it, and that’s fine. However, there’s nothing wrong with trying stuff out. How do you know it’s not for you if you’ve never tried it? Vanilla sex is great, but there’s so much more to life and sex.

How would you rate your sex life?

8/10. Great sex, but I do wish it happened a bit more and the pool was bigger.

Source: https://www.zikoko.com/life/general/sex-life-how-danger-has-made-my-sex-life-exciting/

Read more Sex Life stories here: https://www.zikoko.com/category/sexlife

The BBNaija Reunion is back and the former housemates are serving premium drama and hot shade. Very soon, fanbases might have to renew their membership cards.

On today’s episode of Interview With, we spoke with the BBNaija Eye about the level of chaos that is bound to come.


Zikoko: Hello, we are so happy to have you here today.

BBN Eye: Are you sure you are happy to have me?

Hmm. You have come again.

BBN Eye: Which one is “you have come again”? Is it that you’re not happy to see me or what?

Well… you have come back to shake things up. When you were not around, everywhere was quiet.

I have seen a lot of people who are seriously expecting me. They keep asking when BBNaija will be back, all because they know I’ll show them all the secret things I am seeing as the BBNaija eye. Why is it now peppering your body?

Even if I will be jealous of something, will it now be ordinary eye?

BBN Eye: If you know the kinds of things I see, then you’ll know you have every reason to be jealous.

I was the first to witness Erica’s beauty in real life oh. The Neo that you people are dying for, I saw his chest first.

Well, we saw him washing pant on DStv. You cannot brag about that one.

BBN Eye: Ordinary pant washing, that’s what you are excited about? Clearly your priorities are not aligned.

We saw Lucy’s stove thread too abeg.

BBN Eye: What stove thread? You mean her hair extensions?

Ehn? It’s not thread for stove? I thought…

BBN Eye: Cho-cho-cho will not kill you. Focus and see. There was Eric and Lilo acting like Jack and Rose from Orile Agege. Romance everywhere. Indomie noodles was the side chick that threatened to tear them apart.

We thank God for faithfulness.

Oh and there was Ka3na the Boss Lady.

The one who got a throw pillow and frame from her fans?

Yes. The fan love is too much. She hugged one guy and he said he would not shower because he just received a life-changing hug.

Osanobua.

You didn’t see that one, abi? Well surely, you must have learned the difference between mental attraction and physical attraction, right?

Ah, yes, yes. God bless Laycon, Erica, and Kiddwaya for that wonderful education.

Oho. Despite all of this, it’s pant washing and stove thread you saw. Nawa for you oh. There is more to BBN than Nengi’s wig cap, TolaniBaj’s bonnet, or Ozo’s bum shorts. Just look deeper and you’ll see beyond the durags and the nightly semo that Brighto turns.


Omo.

BBN Eye: With all this entertaining vawulence I give you, some people will come and accuse me of promoting immorality and indecency. Oya, shebi I gave you space…

Maybe we should call immorality and indecency to ask them if you people have any business together.

BBN Eye: Go ahead, please. Shebi you have the phone number of immorality and indecency, abi? Anyway, it’s you Zikoko people. Your weekly supply of craze is always full tank.

If you want to talk to me, talk to me directly. Don’t go through the corners.

BBN Eye: That one is even your own personal cup of tea. Buy bread and soak it inside.

But let me say this loud and clear: I know that people will come out to say BBN is distracting the youths. But when I was away, shebi they accused you people of riding Buhari.

Ride what? Where? When? How?

BBN Eye: They said you people want to ride our dear Bubu to death.

Hmm. He’s probably enjoying it.

BBN Eye: Is it until they send DSS to lock your office abi? I did not follow you to say that one oh. Daddy BuBu, see me sir, my hands are clean oh.

Forget it.

BBN Eye: [rolls eyes] Anywayyyyy, they said you people want to ride Daddy Bubu to death, that’s why I said, let me come out and give you people something else to work on.

Don’t thank me. It’s my contribution to making the world a better place.

How did you know I was about to thank you?

BBN Eye: I saw it already. Have you forgotten I’m the Big Brother Eye? Why else do you think Big Brother is watching? Nothing is hidden.

Oshey, over raw best in seeing. Abeg, can you see my future for me?

BBN Eye: Bold of you to assume I can see what is not there.

Blood of Jesus. I will blind you today.

[BBN Eye rolls out before I can kill it with slippers]

Source: https://www.zikoko.com/life/interview-with/interview-with-bbnaija-eye-nothing-is-hidden-oh/

Read more Inside Life articles here: https://www.zikoko.com/category/life/

Segun, 32, and Damilola, 26, met on 2go. For today’s Love Life, they talk about moving from friends to lovers, and how mathematics played an important role in helping them bond.

What’s your earliest memory of each other?

Damilola: It was during the days of 2go. Back then, there were chatrooms for university students. We happened to be in the same chatroom, and he mistakenly sent me airtime instead of his childhood friend ⁠— apparently, our numbers looked alike. I messaged him to say he sent airtime to the wrong person, and he said that meant I was the one who needed it. I insisted on returning it, but he said I shouldn’t bother.

Segun: Omo, e don tay small oh. I was serving my father’s land back then in 2012. In the evening after work, I would go online to chat on 2go. That day, I was in a Unliag chatroom when my friend requested for airtime, but the airtime found its way into Madam’s phone. I’ve never seen that level of witchcraft before. But let’s call it God’s doing sha.

LMAO. So what did God do next?

Segun: She called me immediately, requesting to return my airtime. I was like kilo sheleyi. God buttered your bread, instead of you to be happy, you are forming. Anyway, that was how we got talking. One thing that stood out for me was her voice: so cool and soft. But look at, she has now become a hoodlum. We thank God for her life sha.

Damilola: You and who is a hoodlum? LMAO. After the airtime error, we chatted once in a while. The most fascinating thing was that he was the only person I met on 2go that lived in my area, or within reach.

Were you in the university then?

Damilola: University bawo? I was still looking for admission oh. That was the time I was actively pursuing Unilag thinking they would give me admission. The ghetto. They rubbed me in the mud, my dear. When my dad saw how Unilag was treating his precious daughter, he suggested I give FUNAAB a try, because it’s in his hometown.

Segun: And I got my BSc from FUNAAB.

Ah, the dots are connecting.

Damilola: FUNAAB too did not give me admission. In fact, my phone was stolen when I went to write my post-UTME. So when Segun and I began chatting on 2go, a lot of our conversations was just me relaying my experience to an alumni of the school.

Segun: We eventually met after I finished service. That was several months after the airtime error brought us together.

So throughout this time, were you just chatting as friends, or did you already start on the topic of dating?

Damilola: Nah, we were chatting as friends.

Segun: Dating ke? No oh. I don’t do online dating. I always like to see who I want to go for. Besides sef, I never had any intentions of dating her.

Damilola: He was in Nasarawa then, so random chats and gisting were the only things we could have done. It was such a funny thing. We would ask each other questions like, “Hi, how are you doing?”; “How’s the weather over there?”; “Just checking on you”; “How’s service year going?”

Dating just didn’t cross my mind. At that time, I had a lot of friends I met online and I didn’t see anything wrong in having more.

Segun: I had just left a relationship then, so dating didn’t cross my mind too.

What was your first meeting like?

Damilola: We saw pictures of each other before we eventually met physically, and so I went there with an idea of what he looked like physically. On my way back from work, I decided to stop by his place.

Segun: When I saw her, I thought, “So this is the big head I have been talking to. Nice one.” A friend asked how we knew each other and I explained the airtime incident to him, and we all laughed about it.

Damilola: I completely understand where the question may have come from. We were of different status: he had just finished serving and I was seeking for admission ⁠ — I wasn’t on his “level”.

Segun: But now you have become Mama, and you are now doing shakara. Wonders shall never end.

How did things go after that first meeting?

Damilola: We maintained our friendship.

Segun: Yes, we continued talking, but it was better than before.

So who was the first to catch feelings?

Segun: Catch feelings ke? When it’s not fever or cold. Anyway sha, as time went by, I began to like her. She was kind, smart, honest, God-fearing and passionate about people, and these things made me like her a lot more.

But I know she was the first to catch feelings sha, because when I asked her out, she didn’t even think about it twice before giving me a reply.

Damilola: Ah.

Segun: Amazing grace.

I’m screaming.

Damilola: Look at this big baby.

Segun: Ehn, but did I lie?

Damilola: He caught feelings first abeg. He saw babe that was wise and full upstairs and decided to shoot his shot. As a wise babe that I am, I said yes to a gentleman. I mean, who says no to a mathematician?

Wait, he’s a mathematician?

Damilola: See ehn, the most important thing for me was that he studied the course I dread the most.

Segun: See this scammer.

But when did the asking out happen?

Segun: It was a very long time after our first physical meeting. Several months, if not a year.

Damilola: It took a very long time. And when he did the asking out, he went straight to the point.

Segun: Omo, no time to waste. I’m not an art student, or I would have written poetry.

Damilola: Our meetings had become slightly frequent because he stayed with his parents who lived close by. And I was trying another school then, so he was very helpful with mathematics.

Segun: Abeg abeg, how many maths I sabi?

Damilola: Humble people, that’s how they talk.

How long have you been together?

Damilola: Five years, if I’m not mistaken. Omo,, let him calculate it.

Segun: You are correct na.

Is this the part where I ask you about marriage plans?

Damilola: Please oh. I have several goals I need to achieve, several plans that need to materialise before marriage.

Segun: Say the truth. You want to travel abroad.

Damilola: Ehn, that’s also part of it.

A strategic queen. Tell me, what do you love most about each other?

Segun: I love how Damilola cares for me. It’s a blessing to know that I am loved entirely by this person who sees me just as I am. I also love how brilliant she is. She is dedicated, hardworking, and committed to enjoying her life. She ticks all the boxes. I can’t think of any reason to love her less.

Damilola: I love his entirety. He’s always there for me, he’s dedicated to me, and that level of love and support is something I do not take for granted. And yes, he is good at mathematics.

Have you ever had any issues in the five years of your relationship?

Segun: Plenty oh. Let’s just thank God for God.

Damilola: I think they are majorly issues of miscommunication.

How do you solve them?

Damilola: I don’t have energy for wahala and he doesn’t too. So when issues happen, we just keep our distance for a while, and when everything is properly sorted, we come back again.

Segun: Let me not even lie, I am the one who does the distancing. It’s why I appreciate her perseverance and patience.

Also, I have come to understand that I am a poor communicator. I always feel like I don’t want to disturb her, while she is big on talking about things. Me, I get tired of talking easily, and since that is her speciality, disagreements are bound to come up.

Damilola: I honestly just talk about it when we see physically. That’s me for you.

Segun: Oh, by the way, she can be stubborn at times, and when corrected, she doesn’t adhere to it. I don’t know if she does it intentionally or accidentally. But I don’t need to change her sha. She’s responsible for her choices, and I don’t want to come off as being controlling or possessive. I do my part by telling her what I have observed and leave her to reflect on the rest.

Interesting. How would you rate your relationship on a scale of 1 – 10?

Damilola: 8.

Segun: It’s just as she has said.

Source: https://www.zikoko.com/life/love-life/love-life-2go-and-mathematics-brought-us-together/

Read more Love Life articles here: https://www.zikoko.com/stack/lovelife/

If you thought this reunion couldn’t get messier than the fight from Tolanibaj and Vee’s episode, I present to you the focus of last night’s episode: Dorathy’s gluck gluck activity with Brighto AND Praise’s 5-second midnight genital meet & greet with Katrina. Let’s start with the former.

At the start of this episode, we see that the lineup has been altered a bit. After destroying Tolanibaj in their insult match the previous night, she’s gone and has been replaced by Laycon, and Erica STILL isn’t here. Brighto hasn’t said a word the entire reunion and Lucy is still serving discount dominatrix/old school Nollywood female cultist realness in a black bra, purple mosquito net skirt, and Dark Betty fringe bob wig.

Lucy my babe � Awon ti purple skirt and black bra. Oluaye fringe weave �

Mama mi ��#BBNaijaReunion2021

— Olakunle Ologunro (@KunleOlogunro) June 22, 2021

Trickytee starts the episode talking about interactions he observed between other housemates, confirming my theory that he spent his entire time on the show being a supporting character in everyone else’s storylines. Wathoni mumbles something about possibly seeing Dorathy give Brighto a Mouth Gig — a Mouth Gig with an aftermath so messy, Wathoni had to change the sheets. She probably expected Dorathy to be ashamed but was shocked when Dorathy owned it with her entire bossom.

Dorathy goes on to say that she might as well have given Dracula that Mouth Gig because Brighto was cold as hell the next morning. Didn’t even say “good morning” or “thank you for all that good neck you threw last night.” Brighto says that he didn’t have anything to say and insists that he didn’t do anything wrong, making Dorathy reach into her bra and throw money at him for some reason. This made me wonder: Did Dorathy come with money in her bra hoping she’d get a chance to angrily make it rain on someone?

Why does Dorathy have exactly N85 in her bra oh God

— mogwai. (@TheVunderkind) June 22, 2021

We moved on to the next big issue of the night: Praise and Katrina’s genital bump session in the house.

Katrina says she heard Praise say to someone in the house that he would never have anything to do with her because of his fiancé on the outside. Katrina says she took this as a challenge for some reason and decided to dance on Praise’s disco stick by any means necessary. She claims that she had sex with Praise that night (to prove a point?) but got less than she bargained for when Praise only lasted 5 seconds. She also kept screaming about how it happened in her bed like that’s supposed to change anything.

The reactions from everyone in the room were meme-worthy. Lucy (the queen of chaos) had to hide her face behind a pillow. Kiddwaya finally took off his winter jacket. Then there was Nengi, who sat terrifyingly still the entire episode and didn’t say a word.

I'm scared by how Nengi isn't reacting to anything happening around her. Is she even really there? Is that a hologram?? #BBNaijaLockdownReunion

— Astor George (@grandpabbychuck) June 22, 2021

Katrina adds that when Praise was evicted, he called her up, asking for another chance to do a better job in the bedroom. she says that after constant calls from Praise, she hooked up with him again. Just like their first go at it, he lasted only 5 seconds, bringing their total sex time to 10 seconds. Praise tries to defend his honour but does a horrible job at it. Someone drags Lucy into the mix by asking her how she felt about this, seeing as she had already expressed romantic interest in Prince. That’s where the episode ends, and we’re promised even more chaos with a short clip from the next episode.

Now that you’ve gotten to the end of this, take this quiz to find out which of the messy BBNaija Lockdown housemates you are.

Quiz: https://www.zikoko.com/quizzes/quiz-which-bbnaija-2020-housemate-are-you/

Source: https://www.zikoko.com/pop/so-you-dont-have-to/bbn-lockdown-reunion-episode-dorathy-brighto-praise-katrina/

Read more So You Don't Have To stories here: https://www.zikoko.com/category/so-you-dont-have-to/

Globally, women in tech make up about 28.8% of the tech workforce as of 2020.

While this number is an increase from 25.9% in 2018 and 26.2% in 2019, reports still show it could take 12 years for women to have equal representation in tech. In Africa, it will take even longer than the estimated 12 years.

Representation matters and like many other industries, the technology ecosystem is still struggling with gender diversity. Women in African tech businesses are underrepresented because the sector is predominantly male.

With FirstCheck, Endeavor Nigeria MD, Eloho Omame and PiggyVest Co-founder/COO, Odunayo Eweniyi are creating a level playing field for women in tech.

How FirstCheck works

FirstCheck is a female-led, female-focused, angel fund and investor community to help women who have ideas for technology startups.

As the name suggests, the investor platform’s main objective is to give African women in tech their first check by investing up to $25,000 in each woman at the ideation stage and working to help her raise a significant pre-seed round within 12 months after being confirmed.

In Africa, when investors are approached by women entrepreneurs, there is an unconscious bias that they will not be as reliable an investment as their male counterparts.

Female-led teams still find it difficult to raise funds and be taken seriously. This was the case of Damilola Olokesusi, CEO of Shuttlers whose story of gender bias in the workplace was during a board meeting she attended with her co-founders – an all-female team. A misogynistic statement made by a male attendee made it difficult for her and her team to be taken seriously throughout the meeting. Every woman who runs a business has her own story to tell.

In her launch announcement today, Omame said FirstCheck’s fundamental goal is to “create enablers and active pathways between Africa’s growing community of early-stage funders and female founders.” They plan to do this by being active connectors and collaborators to accelerate female-owned tech startups on the continent.

With a service catering to African women with scalable ideas, FirstCheck will be writing first checks for “audacious female founders” with bold ideas in their earliest stages.

“Our mission is to advance equity, capital and leadership for a generation of women in Africa through technology & entrepreneurship.”

FirstCheck is building infrastructure around women in technology, believing it will generate a solid return on investment.

Investment procedures

In exchange for modest equity, FirstCheck will invest in female founders aiming to validate their ideas and build viable products.

However, to answer the question of whether or not they are willing to invest in mixed-gender co-founding teams, FirstCheck will invest in those with at least one woman where it’s clear that “the woman is a true partner and decision-maker, with a significant, equitable split of the founder equity.”

The investment startup will be working with a community of African women with ideas for technology startups, even those with vague ideas that could eventually become startups in the future. Businesses that are no longer in their ideation stage but already in their early stages of execution, pre-revenue especially, will be considered as well.

Source: https://techcabal.com/2021/01/25/with-25000-each-firstcheck-is-helping-african-women-in-tech-rise-above-misrepresentation/

Read more Tech Business stories here: https://techcabal.com/category/business/

After months of uncertainty regarding regulations, Chaka has received a license from Nigeria’s Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to operate its digital platform for buying and selling stocks.

Chaka becomes the first to acquire the digital sub-broker license introduced by SEC in April of this year. As part of a major amendment to its Consolidated Rules and Regulations, SEC recognised sub-brokers who use digital platforms to serve multiple brokers.

Tosin Osibodu, the startup’s CEO, said on a call on Wednesday that the acquisition took “a tremendous amount of effort” and is the fruit of frequent engagement with the capital markets regulator.

On the 19th of December 2020, the SEC published a statement that effectively barred Chaka from offering its services in Nigeria. SEC’s complaint was that Chaka operated “outside the regulatory purview of the Commission and without requisite registration, as stipulated by the Investment and Securities Act 2007.”

Source: https://techcabal.com/2021/06/23/chaka-license-sec-nigeria-stock-trading-app/

Read more Her articles here: https://www.zikoko.com/category/her/

SEC ordered Chaka to stop advertising to users, justifying it as a need to prevent “unscrupulous actors” from harming the investing public. Though the order was particular to Chaka, it was the first major signal that regulation was coming to the investment-tech sector.

That December warning enabled Chaka to take the lead and open talks with the SEC. With the license now acquired, Osibodu says it affirms Chaka’s commitment to full regulatory compliance and provides clarity to the market.

“We’ve built a great relationship [with SEC] that we think will be beneficial for the whole ecosystem moving forward,” Osibodu said.

He said the license also means Chaka could now enable other stockbroking firms who want to have a digital presence. “We want this benefit to accrue to as many stockbrokers as possible.”

Until now, Chaka’s operations were based on a partnership with Citi Investment Capital Ltd, a Lagos-based broker licensed by the SEC. An official license now places the startup directly under SEC’s supervision.

Chaka’s app hosts over 4,000 stocks from publicly traded companies in Nigeria and the US. Founded in January 2019 by Osibodu with Olaolu Ajose as the chief technology officer, the startup bills itself as an “investment passport” which powers borderless investing for users.

Anyone with an internet-enabled smartphone can download the app, sign up and begin investing with $2 or ₦1,000. Chaka is only available in Nigeria at the moment.

Osibodu did not specify what Chaka did, in terms of fees or filings, to receive the license.

But according to the SEC’s recent amendment (pdf, page 3), a sub-broker license for digital platforms involves a minimum capital of ₦10 million and a Fidelity Bond covering at least 20% of the minimum capital.

Other requirements include four separate fees totalling ₦500,000, a number of SEC forms, company documents and other documentation about people involved with the company.

Digital sub-brokers are also required to fully describe the technology that their infrastructure is built on, including details about security, backup and recovery processes.

They should have adequate Know Your Customer processes and have documented policies for managing technology risks. Also, they are expected to show how they assess the capacity of potential customers to use its platform for transactions, plus clear explanations of the features, risks, responsibilities, obligations and liabilities that come with using the app.

It is not clear if this license officially permits Chaka (and other fintechs in the sector) to offer stocks listed in foreign markets – like Tesla and Google – to Nigerians. In April, SEC sounded a warning that seemed to declare such offerings as being illegal.

Osibodu’s coy response was that Chaka is committed to SEC’s objectives for financial inclusion in Nigeria by, among other things, increasing retail investor participation in the financial markets.

Source: https://techcabal.com/2021/06/23/chaka-license-sec-nigeria-stock-trading-app/

Read more Fintech articles here: https://techcabal.com/category/fintech/

Sometimes we get overwhelmed and make decisions we later regret. In this article, seven Nigerian women talk about why they regret leaving their ex.

Tomisin, 25

My ex used to send me not less than 50k every month. He moved abroad and after two months, he told me he has fallen in love with someone else. I was angry for a while but I eventually agreed to the breakup. Now I am broke and I miss him.

Efe, 22

I left him because I was young and I was too ashamed and worried about what people would think of me dating him. I didn’t want anyone to know I was in a relationship so I told him I couldn’t do it anymore. He was so good to me and I miss him. I often think of how things would have been today if I didn’t care what people thought.

Aisha, 31

I left him because he was hanging out with someone I didn’t like. I was angry and he knew that but he didn’t address it. That made me even angrier so I went to be with someone else.

I regret it because I realized I was still madly in love with him and so was he. We continued the relationship but we kept using other people to make each other jealous. When we broke up, we dated other people but we would cheat on them with each other. It was crazy. Our love was intense and sometimes I miss it.

Chichi, 24

I feel like I didn’t acknowledge the fact that they were quite rich while I was in the relationship. Now I need that money in my life.

Bimbo, 18

I felt the relationship was going too fast so I broke up with him. He asked me to meet his parents and in my head, I was like, abeg oh, I am just. So I left. But now I regret leaving him because I feel like I lost someone good to and for me. I think he was better than I deserved but it’s too late to get him back.

Tumi, 23

I miss her sometimes because she was the kind of girlfriend anyone would like. She was sweet and we talked very often. It was a long-distance relationship and she was always trying to control my decisions. She was also always asking for money and I don’t have a lot. I wasn’t used to any of it so I broke up with her. Now I miss her because sure, she is overbearing but isn’t everyone else?

Ebi, 21

My ex was the sweetest person ever. Even though she initiated the breakup, I didn’t fight for us and I wish I did. I stopped reaching out to her and moved on. I found out a couple of months after the breakup that she was dealing with some personal issues at the time and didn’t mean to break up with me. I feel like if I had paid more attention I would have known but I was thinking about how much she hurt me with the breakup. She taught me how to love and I will always be grateful to her.

Source: https://www.zikoko.com/her/7-nigerian-women-on-why-they-regret-leaving-their-ex/

Read more Her articles here: https://www.zikoko.com/category/her/

A lot of things stand out about the subject of today’s “A Week In The Life.” She’s a mother of three kids, she’s the only female driver in a male-dominated park and she has insane grit. Our subject tells us why she shows up at work, how her job aids her evangelism, and her plans for living a soft life.

MONDAY:

“I’m late.” That’s the first thing on my mind when I wake up at 5:00 a.m. today. Ideally, my day starts at 4:00 a.m., and I’m out by 5:15 a.m. I do this because I have to queue up at the park to pick up the early morning passengers.

The first passengers don’t arrive at the park until around 6:00 a.m., but everyone starts to line up from past 5. In this business, starting your day early is the only way things can add up. As the day progresses, so many money-consuming factors come into play. Things like car wahala, agbero, road safety people, Lagos hold up, etc. But in the morning, the day is still pregnant with possibilities.Starting early = more trips = more money.

I drive an old silver Sienna with peeling paint, a busted steering wheel and an engine that coughs like a sick patient. Whenever I’m loading from the park, my route is Kilo to Ojuelegba. But when I’m on charter, I drive from Ojuelegba to anywhere in Lagos: Badagry, Epe, Lekki, there’s nowhere I can’t go as long as it’s within Lagos.

I can’t afford to be choosy because I have gbese, and this driving is what’s helping me. After taking a ₦1M loan to buy this car, I have daily targets. If not, wahala. But still on still, gbese everywhere.

Here’s a backstory: I was running a business that needed cash flow, so I kept on borrowing money. However, it was never enough, and I ended up owing plenty people. To raise money, I took a loan from a microfinance bank and bought a car. The car, old Sienna, is what I will use to pay off my debts and expand my business. Now I owe both microfinance bank and individuals, but God is in control.

Back to the present: After panicking about waking up late, I get myself in order and think of ways to save my day. I decide that since my house is close to the bus stop, I’ll go park in the queue. Then I’ll rush home to have my bath and get ready. After, I’ll run back before the first passengers start coming out.

It seems that today might not end up being so bad after all.

TUESDAY:

I’m thinking about my children today. I have three kids. A 17-year-old boy and two girls who are 11 and 9. Then I also have my teenage niece who lives with us. Because I have to leave home early, the house chores fall on them. My niece and 11-year-old daughter are in charge of cooking. My son sweeps. My 9-year-old washes plates.

My job is to inspect when they’re done. During the day, I go back home 4-5 times to eat or oversee whatever tasks they’ve done. I know the work is not easy, but they have to bear with us. I’m struggling. Their dad, my husband, is also struggling.

When I started dating my husband, I thought he needed someone to help him gather himself and plan for the future. At that point, he had just returned from Russia because his cousin had messed him up. I was like, this is just a rough patch. Unfortunately, things didn’t go as I thought. Now that I’ve entered into marriage, there’s nothing I can do. I need to play my part in order not to mess up.

I hope my kids understand that it’s from the little we have that we’re providing for them. I hope they appreciate the sacrifices.

WEDNESDAY:

It’s barely 11:00 a.m, and my phone hasn’t stopped ringing. It’s the same number calling me. Some journalist/writer-type person has been trying to interview me for five weeks, but I’ve been busy.


Today, I’m on the queue waiting for my turn to load, so I have time. I pick the call and tell him to meet me at Ojuelegba. After 30 minutes, he arrives and we exchange greetings. I invite him inside the car to sit, and we make small talk before the interview starts.

Interviewer: Tell me about your job.

Me: I’m a driver, and I load passengers from Kilo to Ojuelegba or I do private charter.

I: What’s the hardest part of your job?

Me: It’s not easy working in a male-dominated field. My only saving grace is that I grew up amongst boys; I have an older brother and a twin brother. So I grew up building muscle from fighting men. Not having female friends meant I spent all my time with my brothers and their friends.

My [twin] brother always tried to chase me away, but I no dey gree. And even though he’s huge and muscular, I’d still fight him. In fact, I used to fight him until I got married. Gra gra life has been in my blood, but those days are gone — I thank God for God in my life now.

I: Thank God.

Me: So when I came into the park, the men here were trying to cheat me. But I showed them that I have their type at home, so they left me. Now we argue together, agree and disagree together. Sometimes when they want to cheat me on the queue, I’ll either let it go or claim my right. I might be a woman, but I have the mind of a man. Without that mentality, you can’t go far in this job.

I: Ah, I see.

Me: There are other challenges too. Every work has challenges, and there’s not one that’s easy. In this job, people will talk to you arrogantly. Others will ask why I didn’t give a man the car to drive for me. I’ve heard someone say I have ojukokoro for choosing to drive myself. On the other end, some people encourage me and say, “Madam, keep it up.”

At the end of the day, I can’t complain because nobody forced me. I’m the only one that knows what carried me here.

THURSDAY:

I’m grateful for this business because it gives me time for evangelism. Unlike door to door preaching, preaching in a car is “easier” for me. I start my sermons early in the morning and end them at about 10, 11 a.m. I like preaching in the car as I’m driving because people pay attention, especially when it’s still very early. At that time they’re not yet distracted by the requirements of living.

However, I’m not preaching today. Thursday is my work-free day. I spend the whole day in prayers asking God for grace in my life. Today’s prayer is special because I need a miracle. My car is faulty again, and I’m tired of repairing it. Last time, it cost me ₦300,000 to fix because I had a steering and alignment problem. I took a loan and added to my gbese.

My cup does not runneth over.

My prayer is simple: God, I need the bigger Sienna in my life because that car will solve most of my wahala. I know you will do it, and I just need to exercise patience. After all, Jeremiah 33:3 says, “Call to me and I will answer you and tell you great and unsearchable things you do not know.”

FRIDAY:

My people have a saying: a hungry man that sees pot and food on fire has hope that he/she will eat. This saying is part of what keeps me going. Even though Nigeria is hard, I know God has already done my breakthrough for me. That’s why I’m happy and grateful today. God has allowed me to be driving for six months now. He has also come through every time I could not meet my loan repayment.

My only prayer now is that God should not allow me to be so sick that I can’t work. I need good health to be able to repay my debts. I declare that I’ll not break down. I also declare that once I pay the over ₦700,000 debt I owe, I’ll be free.

I find comfort in Psalm 118 — I will not die but live and will proclaim what the LORD has done. The LORD has chastened me severely, but he has not given me over to death. Open for me the gates of righteousness; I will enter and give thanks to the LORD. This is the gate of the LORD through which the righteous may enter.

God is with me, so I will not fail. Once my joy comes I know life will be easy. I’ll no longer worry about waking up at 4 or 5 a.m. I’ll finally be able to wake up at 6 or 7 a.m. like a normal person.

Source: https://www.zikoko.com/money/hustle/gbese-drove-me-to-this-job-a-week-in-the-life-of-a-female-cab-driver/

Every week, Zikoko seeks to understand how people move the Naira in and out of their lives. Some stories will be struggle-ish, others will be bougie. All the time, it’ll be revealing.

What’s your oldest memory of money?

My mum is a businesswoman, so I was exposed to the concept of buying and selling at a young age. When I was eight years old, I started buying mint candy and selling them to my classmates in school. My school didn’t have a sweet shop, so I sold at a higher price. I always had about ₦200–₦300 at the end of every week.

Ah, interesting.

I lived on the allowance I got from my parents through the years until I finished university. I got into university in 2008 and lived at home for the most part — my parent’s house was close to the school. Then I got ₦1k every day. But for the few times, I lived on campus, my allowance came in weekly — ₦10k.

I don’t imagine you ever went broke in uni then.

You would think so. My weekly allowance rarely lasted the week. But I could always go home if I needed more. I did a couple of things that brought in extra money.

What did you do?

At first, it was a writing gig I got in my second year. I did it for a couple of months. The pay was ₦10k or ₦15k. I got another one in 2012, which paid ₦20k and lasted for three months. Also, I was selling stuff intermittently. I started with some jewellery I got from my mum. Then I sold clothes and hair. All of this brought between ₦5k and ₦15k every two weeks.

After uni?

I went to law school in 2013. Again, I had to live on my mother’s grace and got a weekly allowance of ₦10k for the entire year I spent in law school. I didn’t go for service immediately after because I was posted to a state in the north, and I didn’t show up to camp. While waiting for the next batch, I got a job at a law firm and was earning ₦80k per month. I eventually went for service in 2015 and that came with ₦19,800 from the federal government.

What did your finances look like during this period?

I was just spending money, to be honest. A lot of it went to food and clothes. It’s hard to find clothes my size in the country, and I started placing orders for clothes in the UK. I had nothing saved up at the end of my service year, which is interesting because I also sold stuff online during the course of the year. I blew everything. The only thing going for me was that I always had at least ₦100k in liquid cash.

Moving on, my service year ended in 2016 and the law firm increased my salary to ₦127k. I got a promotion later that year and my salary was bumped up to ₦167k. That’s what I earned until I quit the firm in 2017.

Why did you leave?

I wanted to do something different from corporate law and I got an offer from a company in financial services to work in their legal department. My salary when I resumed work at the company was ₦220k. Shortly after I joined, the company gave everyone a raise, and I moved to ₦250k. About a year later, I got a promotion and this came with a raise — ₦330k.

Lit. Lit. Lit.

That reminds me, right before I got promoted at work, I moved out and rented my own place. It was a self-contained room and I got it for ₦400k. It wasn’t a great apartment but it worked for me because it was about five minutes away from my office.

In February 2019 I thought it was time to buy a new car. My old car was old and had started making my life hell. I could be on the road and the silencer would fall off or the ignition would turn off. My new car cost me ₦2.6m, but I paid only ₦1.5m. Someone paid the rest.

What a flex.

Haha. I also became tired of the company and my salary in 2019. I wanted something more challenging so I started looking for a new job. My rent expired a month before I switched jobs. I didn’t want to stay at the apartment any more because it wasn’t up to taste and the security wasn’t great. I moved to a new apartment and started paying ₦900k in rent.

I stan.

It may not sound like it but I’m very big on savings and investments. From the moment I got my first job, I started doing Ajo with a couple of my friends. We started with ₦15k a month and we increased it as our salaries grew. We were doing ₦50k a month at the time we stopped in 2019.

Also, I’m very big on crowdfunded agriculture investments. I saw a few on the internet in 2017 and put money in them. I knew that I wasn’t great with liquid cash and that I was prone to spending money on stuff that wouldn’t be very useful in the long term. It made sense to put the money in something I wouldn’t have access to all the time. Some portion of my salary went into these investment opportunities every month. When the time came to move apartments and buy a new car, my investments in these companies were about to mature. I just pulled my money from everywhere and kept it aside until I raised the money I needed.

Nice.

I started a new job in September 2019, and my starting salary was ₦445k. Two months into the job, my salary dropped to ₦415k.

Uh-oh. Why?

They said something about reviewing their tax system. I guess I started paying more in taxes.

Omo.

Nothing much happened for a few months after the pay cut. Not until I took a loan from GTBank and put the money in agriculture investments.

Wait, what?

I did my math. The ROI I was going to get was more than the interest rate I would pay on the loan. I mean, it was a big risk but I decided to go with it. My salary account is with GTBank, and I was eligible for their QuickCredit loan service. I requested ₦700k and the money hit my account in seconds. That was it.

How did it work out?

It worked out well. Repaying the loan monthly was a bit of a strain on my baby girl lifestyle but it also wasn’t difficult because I could afford it.

I only had to cut down on some of the frivolous things I was spending money on. My bets paid off and I made about 25%-30% on my investments. What did I do next? I went on holiday to Dubai in the first quarter of 2020. This cost me ₦400k-₦450k but I can’t lie, I had a great time. I returned just in time because Corona had hit and the country was about to go on lockdown.

Whew.

During lockdown and the subsequent months, I worked from home, which meant that I wasn’t spending a lot on fuel and transport. However, I started spending a lot more money on food. Then August 2020 came, and I had to move apartments again.

Why?

Long story. It came as a bit of a shock because I had no intention of moving. After house hunting for a few weeks, I found an apartment I liked. The only problem was that it was out of my budget.

How much was the apartment?

₦1.5m. But I needed to pay an extra ₦220k for the tenancy agreement and agent commission.

What did you do next?

I took another loan from GTBank.

Wiun.

The thing is, I could afford the apartment on my salary in the long term. The issue was I didn’t have a lot of physical cash at that moment. I requested ₦1m from the bank, and I got it, added the money to what I already had and paid for the apartment. By the time I was moving in, I had spent about ₦2m and had only ₦50k in my account.

And you also had a loan to pay back.

Yes. ₦92k monthly. Again, it wasn’t much of an inconvenience. Save for the stress on my disposable income, all I had to do was cut down on some of my spendings. In real-life terms, however, my salary could take care of it.

Nothing major happened for the remainder of 2020. In January 2021, I got another promotion and started earning ₦570k. For some reason, it increased to ₦600k last month. I don’t know what happened there, and I have no intention of asking them.

Lmao. So what does ₦600k do for you now?

I’ll finish paying the loan this month, thank God. I don’t think debt is a bad thing, but I’ve had a debt on my shoulder for about two years now. I need a break.

Also, there are always additional expenses. The most recurring one is the extra ₦40k I spend on grocery shopping. The others are far and in-between — ₦50k I spend on my birthday cake every year or ₦100k I send to my mum when it’s time for Sallah.

Man. How do you approach savings and investments now?

Most of my investments are still in agribusiness. They present higher risks from the other things I would consider but they give better returns. Luckily, I’ve never had a bad investment. I have about ₦1m in investments now. I started putting ₦400k in my savings last month, but it’s for a particular goal. My savings chest has about ₦800k but I won’t exactly call what I have in it my emergency cash. Thankfully, I have safety nets for emergency situations.

I’m listening.

It’s my boyfriend and my mum, to be honest. My mum is always there to help. I may not want to ask her for anything, but I know I have her. Since I started saving ₦400k every month, my boyfriend has been picking up a couple of bills, and that’s lightened my financial load.

Ah, I see. So how much do you think you should be earning now?

I feel like I’m slightly underpaid for my role. I should be earning at least ₦800k. But ₦1m per month is a fair deal.

What do you need to do to unlock your next level of income?

Leave Nigeria with a quickness. See, money is not a big deal for me. I’m not trying to hammer. I just want to be able to take care of my basic needs and check a few things off my wants. I may not be able to live that life in Nigeria irrespective of what I earn.

I feel you. What part of your finances do you think you could be better at?

I need to be more deliberate about my expenses. I have a budget, it might be time to stick to it. Cutting down on these things will mean that I have more money freed up for my savings. I know what to do, the problem is actually doing it. I think I just believe that the money will always be there.

How have your experiences shaped your perspective about money?

Money has always been a tool of independence, and that hasn’t changed. I’ve always wanted to make money and spend how I want to fulfil my needs. I’ve grown to understand and appreciate the importance of savings and investments. I may not leave the investment for long enough to compound before I use it for something though. What’s more important is that I’m not living above my means. I believe that I live slightly below my means, and if I could just bring it further down, I can do a lot more with money than what I’m doing now.

Interesting. What’s something you want now but can’t afford?

I can’t say there’s anything. It helps that I don’t have a lot of wants. A second passport would be great, but I don’t have $100,000 waiting in my account.

LMAO. What was the last thing you spent money on that required proper planning?

I bought a bone-straight wig last month and it cost ₦250k. I paid a deposit of ₦130k and haven’t balanced the payment. I plan on doing so this month. It definitely took a lot of thinking and planning before I placed the order.

How would you rate your financial happiness on a scale of 1-10?

8. I can afford most of the things I want except that passport. The only thing is I may not be able to afford everything as readily as I would like to, but that’s not a problem. It’s also great to know my mum and my boyfriend are in my corner, especially if I need help with anything. I’m good.

Source: https://www.zikoko.com/money/the-nairalife-of-a-lawyer-babygirling-through-life-600k-at-a-time/

Read more Nairalife articles here: https://www.zikoko.com/category/money/naira-life/

The Buhari administration has stepped up efforts to regulate the online media in Nigeria in what is seen by many as attempts to further stifle the civic space in the country.

Two weeks after blocking Twitter’s operations, the federal government has asked the House of Representatives to enact a law that will empower the Nigerian Broadcasting Commission (NBC) to control all forms of internet broadcasting and social media.

The request was made on Wednesday by the Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, during a public hearing organised by the house committee on information, national orientation, ethics, and values on a bill to amend the NBC Act.

The commission already controls television and radio broadcasting in Nigeria, based on provisions in Section 2(b) of the NBC Act. It states that “the Commission shall have [the] responsibility of receiving, processing and considering applications for the establishment, ownership or operation of radio and television stations including cable television services, direct satellite broadcast and any other medium of broadcasting.”

Lai Mohammed now wants the commission to also regulate the online media, in addition to other channels of broadcasting. “I want to add here specifically that internet broadcasting and all online media should be included in this because we have a responsibility to monitor contents, including Twitter,” the minister told lawmakers.

Before Lai Mohammed’s proposal, the broadcasting regulator had asked all social media platforms and service providers in the online broadcasting space in Nigeria to apply for a broadcast licence.

Nigerian lawmakers summon Lai Mohammed for questioning over Twitter ban

Possible clampdown on freedom of expression

Widespread criticism has trailed the proposal by the Nigerian government, which has only further stoked concerns over a possible clampdown on free speech and internet freedom by the Buhari administration.

Media stakeholders at the public hearing kicked against the inclusion of online media under NBC’s mandate, asking the panel to instead make the commission more independent of the Minister of Information.

Twitter ban rewinds Nigeria to pre-internet darkness and reign of fear

Over time, the NBC has acted as an extension of the Ministry of Information and Culture, which rarely acts independently, and thus, the commission’s operations have often been subject to political interference. This was condemned by the International Press Centre (IPC) and the Centre for Media Law and Advocacy in a joint statement that called for the neutrality of the commission.

According to Akin Akingbulu, executive director of the Institute for Media and Society, the commission should not receive directives from the information minister. “The power to give directives to the commission, vested in the minister of information in section 6 should be removed and replaced with powers which include policy formulation for the broadcasting sector.”

“Social media bill through the backdoor”

Despite the ban on Twitter, Nigerians continue to use the platform thanks to virtual private networks (VPNs) that help bypass the suspension. Many have taken to Twitter to express criticism over the proposed regulation of online media.

BREAKING: NBC Amendment Bill Is Social Media Bill Through The Backdoor
— SERAP (@SERAPNigeria) June 17, 2021

Amendment of the NBC act; grafting the shoot of autocracy.
— Senator Shehu Sani (@ShehuSani) June 17, 2021

Nigeria Govt is asking House of Reps to amend the NBC Act and include “internet broadcasting”.

That means all online radio/TV stations must register with NBC and Lai Mohammed. This is social media censorship brought back through the back door.

Lend your voice. Say no. Speak up!
— #OurFavOnlineDoc ������ (@DrOlufunmilayo) June 17, 2021

NBC Amendment Bill = Social Media Bill + Hate Speech Bill in disguise.
— Ayemojubar (@ayemojubar) June 17, 2021

Efforts by the Nigerian government to regulate social media companies intensified after Twitter took down a controversial tweet by the President, which the company said violated its policy.

The government responded by suspending Twitter two days later and directed the NBC to immediately begin the process of licensing all over-the-top (OTT) media service and social media operations in Nigeria.

Source: https://techcabal.com/2021/06/18/after-suspending-twitter-nigerian-government-intensifies-bid-to-control-online-media/

Read more News articles here: https://techcabal.com/category/news/

Mr Eazi’s music is synonymous with relaxed vibes, alté music, and contemporary African sounds. In July 2020, the Afropop star launched a $20 million African Music Fund dedicated to financing African creatives.

During a Future Africa event, which was held on Thursday, Jan 19, Mr Eazi sat down with Eche Emole, founder of the Afropolitan Group. He spoke about the many ways in which technology and music could work together.

Mr Eazi likened artists to startups and labels to VCs. By his estimates, major music labels control about 60% of the Intellectual Property (IP) space outside of Africa. But within the continent, these labels control only about 2%. This suggests that many African artists are largely independent where creation is concerned and just need financing for things like branding and marketing.

He believes that investors need to realize that there are upsides to investing in Africa’s music space. With many African artists gaining popularity across the world and making reasonable revenue, this revenue can be a basis for investing in said acts.

On Dec 9, 2020, Mr Eazi put out a tweet alluding to a system to allow fans to own equity in his music.

Gonna try an experiment on my next release where you guys the fans will be able to buy shares on My song! Meaning you will own an equity % on the song! As u stream & give me $ some goes back to You!!!

— Uncle Njobvu (@mreazi) December 9, 2020

A member of the audience asked Eazi to expand on the idea. For him, it was generally about getting the fans involved.

“With Empawa music, I wanted to bridge the gap between the fans and myself.”

With this model, the fans also act as VCs, alongside the labels, and support the artists they love while earning a percentage of the song’s revenue. He said that this was an experiment he would like to try for his next album.

Looking to the future of music and tech in Africa, Eazi believes that collaborations with existing tech platforms and new tech solutions tailored to African creatives could be the future.


“We’ve seen a lot more funding coming into the African music space, for example, Transnet with Boomplay.”

With these investments comes the ability to build leverage and this could open the door to even more partnerships that could prove fruitful for the ecosystem.

Source: https://techcabal.com/2021/01/23/mr-eazi-fans-eating-good/

Read more articles here: https://techcabal.com/

Ijeoma*, 26, and Peter*, 29, have been friends with benefits for 2 months. For today’s Love Life, they talk about satisfying their primal needs while maintaining serious relationships with other people.

What is your earliest memory of each other?

Ijeoma: So, recently, my boyfriend has been attending lots of weddings and we haven’t been able to see each other as often as we used to, even though we live in the same state.


Wait. You have a boyfriend?

Peter: LMAO. That’s what I said.

Ijeoma: Peter, please.


What is going on here?

Ijeoma: See, we will gist you everything as it happened and, yes, I have a boyfriend. We were going through a “thing” when I met Peter.

Peter: LMAO. A thing indeed.

Ijeoma: So, the first time I met Peter was at an event I attended with a mutual friend of ours. He caught my eye immediately, but I thought to myself, “Omo! Man na man. I have one and I’m not looking for anything,” but as the day went on, I found myself thinking about him a lot.

Peter: Who would have thought? To be fair, I was also thinking about you. I saw her walk in, with her cute nose and that ass. I did a double take when she turned to speak to someone.

Ijeoma: I know, I caught you stealing glances and Sarah* told me you had asked about me.


So, what happened from there?

Ijeoma: It was good vibes from the jump, and I loved his energy. Once we went past that stranger-danger phase, it was just pure magic.

Peter: Yes. She is funny and super easy to talk to, so we just kept at it for the rest of the event. When it was time to leave, we got each other’s IG handles and said our goodbyes.


Why IG handles, not phone numbers?

Ijeoma: It was easier.

Peter: Is it weird to say that phone numbers felt like too much at the time? I mean, we vibed at the event and all, but we didn’t really know each other well enough to take it that far. Social media handles felt like a safer option. If things die there, it’s easier to forget and move on than if they have your number. You get?


Uhm no, but okay.

Ijeoma: LMAO. From there, oga started DMing me on IG and it was fun. A week later, I had another event to go to, so I casually asked him if he wanted to come with me. But a couple of hours to the thing, I realised that I didn’t want to see him…

Peter: Please, tell me, what do women want?

Ijeoma: I wanted to see you, but I didn’t want to have to stare at your face throughout the event. How hard is that to understand? His face is distracting.

Peter: Anyway, we ended up agreeing that I would pick her up from the event.

Ijeoma: This is where things got interesting. I had about three bottles of wine in me and my body was humming with excitement. I just knew I wanted to Bleep him. When I knew he was outside waiting for me, I literally skipped like a schoolgirl out of that building, grinning ear to ear. See ehn, wine-induced horniness is dangerous.

We went back to his place and talked. The room had started to sway, but I kept looking straight at him, imagining things. He was so accommodating. He had my feet in his hands and was rubbing them while we talked. I then asked if I could kiss him and from there, we ended up having sex.

Peter: LMAO. It was amazing, and she’s so cute when she’s asleep.


WOW. So, drunk sex started this relationship?

Ijeoma: Yup, and it only got better. We kept meeting up and having beautiful moments together. We had sex a couple more times. I told my closest friends that I had found love outside my relationship. It all felt very magical and right.

Peter: I always look forward to hanging out with Ijeoma. Cooking for her is so fun because she’s not a picky eater — she enjoys unusual meals. Watching movies with her easily became the highlight of my week. Maybe it was the newness of it all.

Ijeoma: I guess, but then…. I found out about his girlfriend. That helped put things into perspective.

Oluwa, take control. What?

Ijeoma: Turns out his girlfriend and I run in the same circles, so we met some random day. She was going through her phone to show me something, and I saw his photo. I was like, “Oh! You know this guy?” and she was like, “Yeah, that’s my boyfriend.”


Did you feel betrayed?

Ijeoma: Initially, I was offended, but then I was like, “I’m doing the same thing.” Two days after the encounter, he came to pick me up and we went to his place. At some point in the evening, I told him I liked him.

Peter: Not gonna lie, I freaked out a bit.

Ijeoma: That was when I told him that I didn’t want to waste my time. I remember saying, “I met your babe, and I’m not upset because I have a boyfriend too.” Peter just looked at me like WOW.

Peter: Women will disgrace you oh. I wasn’t even upset she had a man. I was more relieved because she was on the exact same page as me. If I was anything less than accepting of the confession, that would make me a hypocrite.


I have been muttering “WTF” since this interview started.

Ijeoma: I know. It’s pretty messed up. However, the whole “confession” thing really helped us define what we have.

Peter: Yes, we decided to be together but keep things under wraps.

Ijeoma: We now have a schedule for sex. There is an understanding of how things are. I try to avoid seeing his girlfriend and I keep my boyfriend happy enough not to suspect anything.


Do you feel guilty about doing this?

Ijeoma: Honestly, no.

Peter: Nope.

Ijeoma: LMAO. I don’t feel guilty because, with Peter, it’s just raw lust, there’s an animosity to the sex that I don’t get with my man. The orgasms are primal and they just rip through me.

I also believe that sex is sex and love is love. When I found out about Peter’s girlfriend, it was easy for me to put my feelings aside. I love my partner and I enjoy having sex with Peter. These things are not mutually exclusive.

Peter: I agree. The fact that we both easily accept having other partners yet maintaining what we have is evidence that we can separate lust from love. I love my girlfriend and all but this, for me, is just physical.


Aren’t you afraid of getting caught?

Peter: We are both cautious, so the likelihood of that happening is very low.

Ijeoma: Exactly. We are very careful. Also, there is no PDA, no pet names and emojis, nothing mushy. We don’t talk like anything is going on, just banter and good vibes. Appointments are made via calls and DMs. It’s pretty chill.


OMO. You guys have this thing on lock oh. Is this your first time cheating on your partner?

Peter: Not really. I had something else before, but it was during a break I had with my girlfriend.

Ijeoma: Properly, yes?


Wait, there is an improper way to… cheat?

Ijeoma: LMAO. Not really. I have done one or two things with other men, but Peter is the first guy I’m being intentional with.


Okay. Rate your love life on a scale of 1 – 10.

Peter: 6/10. What we have is pretty sweet. We are such good friends with very similar interests and it makes the whole thing fun.

Ijeoma: Aww, simp. It’s a 5 for me. I mean, I like him and all, but I’m in love with someone else. We could stop having sex today and still be really good friends.

Source: https://www.zikoko.com/life/love-life/love-life-we-love-our-partners-but-we-cant-stop-having-sex/

Read more Love Life articles here: https://www.zikoko.com/stack/lovelife/

In the late 2000s to the mid-2010s, the biggest music trend in Nigeria was releasing a song with an accompanying dance move. We saw basically every artist release a song that was essentially an instruction audio and video on how to nail club moves. From Wizkid to Olamide, everyone who was somebody in Nigeria’s music industry at the time released one of these. Today, we are ranking the very best of the best dance moves from the late 2000s to mid-2010s.

Yahooze

I was really young when Yahooze came out so maybe that’s why it doesn’t seem like such a good dance or a big dance moment to me but I have some questions. How did Olu Maintain convince the millennials and boomers that they were dancing by throwing two fingers in the air? What was happening? I need answers.

Shakiti Bobo

Now I’ll admit it, I liked this song when it came out. However, I am of the very strong opinion that this was one of Nigeria’s worst dance moves. And the reason I say this is because it was so painful to do.

Alanta

I personally think the movements for Alanta were really weird. But that said, it is possibly one of my favourite dance moves to come out from Nigeria. It was chaotic but fun as hell.

Skelewu

This was my jam. For those who know and were fans of Davido back then, this song had an unofficial video as well as the official video. I watched both and I was obsessed with them both. This song was released in the thick of the ‘every hit song needs it’s own dance move’ phase and it was so good and ticked all the right boxes. Great song? Check. Bomb video? Check. Crazy and stressful dance moves? Check.

Shoki

I believe Shoki was one of the best dance phenomenons to ever hit Nigeria. It was relatively easy and all the songs that were titled Shoki were actually good. So it’s easy to see why it had us in such a chokehold. It was a game-changer and is possibly one of the best dance move that has ever hit the Nigerian music scene. I have like three shoki songs on permanent repeat till today, it’s just that good.

Source: https://www.zikoko.com/pop/ranked-the-best-nigerian-dance-moves/

Read more Entertainment articles here: https://www.zikoko.com/category/pop/

This product manager may be only 30 years old, but he’s lived many lives. First as a small-time plug, then he ran the club scene in his university. Tech is his most recent stop. For him, this means working three jobs and living on less than half his monthly income. He isn’t looking back.

What’s your earliest memory of money?

I took a pack of chocolate to school once when I was in Primary 4, and someone in my class asked me to give him a bar. I’m not sure where it came from, but I said the chocolate was for sale and each bar cost ₦10. I sold five bars on that day.

I took more to school the following day and sold out. At the end of the week, I had made enough money to buy a pair of plastic eyeglasses and one of those wristwatches that had a calculator built in them. I had arrived.

I also liked saving money a lot, thanks to my mum.

Tell me more about this.

My mum was the financial planner in the family. She would sit me and my four siblings down at the end of each week and quiz us about how we spent the money we got during the week.

Everyone in my family understood the concept and importance of financial independence very early. We had open conversations about money, especially about our financial situation. Life wasn’t rosy all the time. There were points we got sent out of school because we owed school fees. My mum would explain why this happened, and what it meant.

My older sisters started picking up jobs in secondary school. I started actively making money in secondary school too, although my ways were different from theirs.

How?

While my sisters worked as lesson teachers and sales attendants, my own strength was in selling stuff to people. I pushed a lot of merchandise in secondary school — from shoes to mobile phones.

I started with shoes when I was in JSS 3. If anyone in my school had a shoe they wanted to sell, I would take it and find a buyer for them. I was particularly popular among the senior boys because they were the ones who changed shoes the most.

In SSS 2, I started selling second-hand phones. The first phone I sold was a Sendo X, and I made about ₦6k in profit from that deal alone. I brought more phones in from my plug in the city and sold them. After that, I started helping people download music on whatever phone they bought from me. This brought in extra cash.

In SS 2, I moved into planning house parties. I organised the first party in 2004, and the gate fee was ₦500. I don’t remember how much I made from it.

I must also mention that I sold tons of other things. Once I identified a product that moved fast, I would find a plug, get the product and push them to people. But shoes and phones were the quickest to move. At that point, I was making about ₦70k every month from all my hustle. I didn’t have a bank account, so I was saving the money in a section of my wardrobe.

Secondary must have been a lot of fun.

It was. I was able to do all of this because I had good grades in school. My parents didn’t need to worry about me, so I had the freedom to do everything else I wanted.

What happened after secondary school?

I finished secondary school in 2006 but didn’t get into uni until 2007. During my gap year, I tried to pick up some computer skills. Computer networking was too boring for me. HTML was too complicated. What I enjoyed was pulling computers apart and fixing them. I bought my first laptop that year — a second-hand Dell laptop, and it cost ₦65k.

There was barely time to do anything when I got into uni in 2007. I resumed two months after class started. They had started writing tests, so my first few months in uni was about catching up. By the end of my first year, I had settled down and was already thinking about the next thing I could do.

What did you decide on?

Organising parties. Clubs were the rave during that time. Within a short time, I became the plug for the club boys in my school. Everyone who wanted to organise a lit party knew they had to contact me to help them plan it and handle the logistics.

Later, I started working with a team of organisers and we partnered with clubs in the city where my school was. Most of the money we made came from gate fees, which were ₦2k, ₦4k and ₦6k for regular, VIP and exclusive tickets respectively.

The parties were a huge hit, and BBM played a big role. Once people who weren’t at any of these parties saw that people were having fun from the BBM updates they shared, they pulled up. That meant more money for me and my team. I didn’t organise more than two parties in a semester, and I got about ₦400k from each party I planned. It was a big market.

Well, damn.

Omo, I was living the life. I had an apartment outside of campus and bought my first car in 2009 — a Honda Civic which cost ₦1.4m. I was in 300 level at the time.

I wonder what your parents thought about this.

I was open with them. I had a conversation with them once and explained what I was doing. They came on board when they realised that it wasn’t illegal.

When I left university in 2010, the party scene had started dying. The club owners got greedy and wanted a higher percentage of the gate fees. They complained that they were running at a loss because people weren’t buying drinks during the parties, which was a lie. Anyway, I knew my party days were over and it was time to move on.

What came next?

NYSC. But first, I moved back into my parent’s house even though I had about ₦800k in my account. While waiting for youth service, I went back to computers, but they weren’t moving as I thought and my savings were running low.

On a whim, I went to the market and bought two first-grade China wristwatches. They weren’t the original thing, but they were close. I pushed them to some people I knew, sold them in no time and made some profit. I continued to repeat the process. During that time, an uncle who lived in Port Harcourt came to visit. He had friends who owned boutiques and asked me if I was interested in trying to get them to buy from me. I contacted my plug and got 50 wristwatches from him. I travelled with my uncle to the south-south with a bag full of wristwatches. Man, I sold 30 on the night I landed. The remaining 20 were sold the following day.

Mad. How much did you make from the trip?

A watch sold between ₦50k and ₦100k depending on the brand. I made a profit of ₦20k-30k on each watch. I don’t remember how much I made exactly, but it was about ₦400k after I settled my plug and uncle and sorted out other logistics.

My uncle sent me back to bring more. I hit the road and brought another batch and there was no trouble selling those too. I decided that I would serve in that state. I started working to make it happen, but it was too late. I got posted to a neighbouring state. It was an hour away, so I didn’t mind.

I sold my car and moved to the south-south.

How did it go?

I was posted to a private secondary school for my PPA. I negotiated with the principal, and he agreed to let me come in only three times a week. This freed up time for other activities. I got a job managing a club in the city, and that took my nights. My weekend was solely for selling wristwatches.

My guys shipped the wristwatches to Port Harcourt on Saturdays. I picked them up at the park and did all my distribution that weekend. On Sunday nights, I was back on the road to the state where I was serving.

You had about three streams of income, how much were they bringing in?
Allawee: ₦19,800

PPA: ₦10K

Club: ₦30k

Wristwatch hustle: ~₦200k.

My service year ended in 2013, and I returned to the southwest.

After service?

While I was figuring out the next thing I wanted to do, I decided to help my mum out with her business. She had retired from work and was running a pure water factory. The factory was struggling because her workers were stealing from her. It was three long months, but I managed to plug the leaks.

Then I started the nine to five life.

Where was the first place you worked at?

A telecommunications company. I was hired as a customer service officer and my salary was ₦72k. It was a lot less than what I was making on the streets, but I was doing it because everyone wanted me to work in an organisation and have a well-defined career. However, I was still pushing wristwatches and other things on the side. I got tired in December 2013 and knew I couldn’t continue, so I quit.

Funny enough, this kicked off my journey into tech.

I’m listening.

I always heard people talking about building websites for their business. So I had an idea to build a one-stop solution for these people. Three friends came on board and we got some seed funding. Full operations started in 2013. I was in charge of sales and marketing, customer service and product management. I think we did well because a bigger e-commerce company bought us out in October 2014.

I can’t disclose how much they paid us, but seven years later, I think we could have negotiated a better deal. It was enough for me to change my car and move into a new apartment. So it seemed like big money at the time.

The good thing was that it was an acquihire. They absorbed the team into their company to lead their product development and merchant operations departments. My starting salary was ₦380k but by the time I left in December 2017, it had increased to ₦440k. Also, I was now in a full product management role.

Why did you leave?

They were downsizing and had already fired people. Besides, I’d pushed out a couple of products and cashed out, so it seemed like the perfect time to take a bow. I didn’t have another job when I quit, but I had done several interviews. Also, I had some safety nets. I cashed out my stock options at the company before I left and got about ₦3.5m. I knew I would be fine for a couple of months.

When did you get your next job?

February 2018. It was the head of product development role in the parent company of an advertising agency. My salary when I started was ₦660k, then I got a few raises. I was earning ₦710k when I left in October 2019. I was simply tired of the politics in the company.

Before I left, I had started working on some remote product management projects I got from a platform called Gigster and was also consulting for some politicians. However, my monthly inflow reduced. I was making $1500 from the remote jobs and ₦400k from the politicians.

I was pretty much winging that period of my life because none of it was a full-time job. It wasn’t until June 2020 that I found a new full-time job.

Where?

It’s a remote job at an American company and the pay is $2k. In August, I got another product management job, which pays $4500. I started outsourcing the first job and working at the second one. The third one came in March 2021, and it’s bringing in $3500. So I’m working two jobs now and outsourcing one. I pay the person helping me ₦230k a month. The others are senior roles, so I can’t afford to outsource them.

Mad oh.

The $2k I get from one of the jobs goes into my wife’s account in Canada — I got married in 2019 — and I don’t touch it. $3500 also goes into an account I don’t touch. I run my monthly expenses with the $4500 I get from the third job. That’s about ₦1.5m.

Let’s talk about your monthly running costs.

I pay the person I’m outsourcing one of the jobs ₦230k every month. There are always additional expenses. For example, I send my younger brother ₦30k and a younger cousin ₦10k every month. My dad also gets between ₦50k and ₦100k.

I made a terrible financial decision last year, and I’m still paying for it.

What happened?

I knew a guy who was helping people invest in forex. I vouched for him and got some of my guys to invest money with him. But the whole thing went south and my people had about ₦8.5m in it. When it happened, I promised my guys their capital. I’ve been spending ₦800k every month to service that debt. I should pay everything back by December.

Damn. That’s heavy.

It is what it is. After I settle all of these things, I typically save what remains which could be anything between ₦100k and ₦150k. I have ₦400k in my account at the moment. However, I always go back to take out of it because problem no dey finish.

Lmao. What do you mean?

People in my extended family always need me to come through for something. So I use the money I have in the bank account to take care of these requests. I don’t stress it though. I do it when I have the money and say no when I don’t. I’ll admit that I don’t stress so much about it because I have more money stashed away.

How much do you imagine you have in those savings accounts right now?

About $20k. They are my core savings and will play an important role in my long-term financial goals.

How do you navigate investments?

I’m always investing in something, mostly forex. At the moment, I have two forex traders who do the heavy lifting and trade for me. I started with $10k last year and have topped it up over the months. I currently have $42k in it. I know forex is volatile. In fact, the people I outsource it to make losses. But so far, they’ve made more gains than losses. Once we lose 10% on a trade, we activate the stop loss. We cut our losses and move on.

Interesting.

What’s interesting is that I’ve made more money since I got married. I don’t know how to explain it, but getting married has been a blessing for me. My wife is also involved in every money decision I make and signs off on them. Once whatever it is will take more than ₦100k, she has to know. All of our expenses are documented on a google sheet, so she sees everything.

How much do you think you should be earning now?

Between $12 and $15k. I’m probably earning less because I’m living in Nigeria. It’s the only reason I’m considering relocating. I’m not big on the whole japa thing, but I’ve gotten to a point where I know that it’s the best thing for me. It’s currently in the works.

Good luck. Where do you see all of this in five years?

For starters, I’d like to build my savings and investments to $2m by the end of 2023.

The plan is to reduce overhead costs, work, outsource, save and invest. A lot of it will come from investments, which is why I save a lot. My investments can only grow as much as my savings. We’ll see what happens.

What do you want right now but can’t afford?

The Mercedez-Benz ML 350. The 2019 model I want costs about $30k. I can close my eyes and splurge on it, but it will affect my 2023 goals. I like it and want it, but do I need it? It’ll have to wait. Besides, what’s the point of buying a car when I can buy a house, which is another thing I really want. I’ve started looking at some properties, but I don’t have ₦40.5m lying around right now.

What’s the last thing you bought that required proper planning?

I didn’t really have time to plan because it was impromptu, but I thought long and hard about it. My wife’s Macbook crashed three hours before a presentation. The new one cost ₦1.1m, and I had to pull money out of a couple of places to buy it.

When was the last time you felt broke?

2014 or 2015. I had less than ₦200k in my accounts at the time. That taught me to set up a minimum threshold. That number is at $10k at the moment. If I have less than $10k in all my accounts, I feel like I’m in trouble.

What’s the last thing you splurged on that improved the quality of your life?

I finally bought myself a MacBook after thinking about it for months. This baby cost me $2350, but I don’t regret it. It’s all about convenience, really. The old one had started slowing down and affecting my work.

How have all your experiences shaped your perspective about money?

I think mindset plays a big role in proper financial planning. If you think all that you can earn is ₦500k, then you may not be able to go past it. Of course, there are other factors, but I’ve realised that the more I expand my mindset, the higher I set the bar. Also, I put in the work to match the mindset. My approach to hustling has changed a lot over the years, but I still put in the hours.

Another thing I’ve learned is to live within my means. I earn more than ₦1.5m every month, but it’s what I live on. I’m good with the life it gives me. It’s great to have money but I think it serves more purpose than just showing off to people.

On a scale of 1-10, how would you rate your financial happiness?

8. However, I think I’m still struggling. First, I wish I didn’t have to work two full-time jobs and supervise the third one before I earn what I currently do. Also, there is stuff I can’t do without affecting my long term financial goals — I can’t buy the car or the house I want. I can’t travel to see the world. I’ll probably hit a 10 when I hit $2m. Then I’ll set a higher financial target and move back to an 8. Human wants are insatiable after all.

Source: https://www.zikoko.com/money/naira-life/the-nairalife-of-a-hustler-working-three-product-management-jobs/

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