₦airaland Forum

I think a few people have hit the nail on the head. As the saying goes, which has and will always be so, "it is not what you know, it is WHO you know"

I attended one of these school and no parent is paying a premium for superior academics per say, but for the network. Almost a decade removed secondary school, I can see that the vast majority of my colleagues are doing well for themselves and if someone needs something, he or she has a wide powerful network to make it happen - be it a job, a connection, a contract or whatever it is.

For those saying that a lot of successful business owners didn't go to expensive schools, look at probability. Look at all successful entrepreneurs or top executives and check whether a certain pattern exists in their educational background. For the vast majority of these people, you will see that they went to the same schools - primary through university. It is no coincidence. For every successful person who attended a public secondary school in Nigeria, there are probably 20 of those who go to select 5 or 6 private secondary schools. This will only get worse in the future as public schools were good back in the day and these "expensive private schools" are relatively new, 10-20 years old.

We live in a highly capitalist nation and it is unfortunate that success is determined, in most cases, the day you are born. You need to attend the right nursery school to attend the right primary school to then attend one of these secondary schools etc. It is only getting more competitive. Today, there is a 5 year wait period to attend the primary school I attended, so when your child is born, you need to register him/her right away to even have the slightest shot.

It is extremely imperative the government (and some private money) does something drastic to revamp public institutions to level the playing field. poverty truly is a bastard!

drake2005: Cross River state is the most beautiful state in the union with modern and adequate minimum infrastructural development.And very clean also...clean air. I'll vote for Gov. Akpabio any day to be the president of Nigeria. He will transform Nigeria in four years. Yes he is a Thief pi epsilon but he sure knows how to steal cleverly and still do something. Far better than stealing and doing nothing. I have more respect for a man who appropriates 10 billion Naira for project, steals 3 billion Naira and still get the job done within minimum standard, than a criminal ( much higher than a thief) that appropriates 10 billion Naira, steals 9 billion naira and does nothing or below standard job.

Kudos to Former Gov. Donald Duke and Gov. Akpabio.

This is the problem with free speech. Since when did Akpabio become the Gov of Cross River? Olodo!!!

tanimola22: I am not sure anyone said anything like the highlighted. Perhaps you want to re-read the post you quoted.

Your post seems to corroborate a fraction of the post you quoted. That said, I have taken note of the divergent points you raised. Depending on performance, bonus can go as high as twice that base salary

T22

I am not attacking you o mr T22. you provide useful information to uninformed here so kudos to that, but the bolded is gotten from your original post. copy and paste. Twice as high as base salary is 200%, which simply doesnt happen at associate level even in KKRs, Carlyles and co. In Hedge funds, maybe. Nonetheless, I do agree with the base salary pay you stated for PE and can easily say PE firms here, international ones, are the highest paying in Nigeria inclusive of oil and gas when you include base, bonus and allowances. BTW, what are you up to career wise? I am assuming youre in the banking circle in London?

tanimola22: It is still very highly rewarding. Certain boutique investment banks in Nigeria, with private equity and investment management units, pay their associates as much as $100, 000 base salary there in Lagos, Nigeria. Depending on performance, bonus can go as high as twice that base salary. I wonder why wage disparity is so huge in Lagos. Imagine someone earning dollars in naija where average salary per person is less than 1.2 million naira per year.

Anyway, the problem is that these finance firms can be wickedly competitive. Their analysts and associates are former Goldman, JP, BoFA, Nomura, Credit Suisse, Deutche workers who were earning base salaries in the open neighborhood of ($80K, 150$). Some of them even get paid more to work in Nigeria because Naija is considered a high risk zone, and the sad part of everything is that these people get headhunted and cajoled to come work in Lagos for these tempting salaries, more of abeg come work for us..Kai..A city with jobless people who can die for these same opportunities.

Money, and glamor, still exits in the 'right' area of finance.

T22.

I am sorry but this is pure misinformation at least as with respect to the investment banks boutique or not. As someone currently in the PE space, haven had experience abroad in one of the firms you mentioned, i can say only PE firms do pay associates in the region of $100,000 with a 50% of base salary as bonus maybe more if they made a killing. No PE firm, home or abroad is paying associates 200% of base salary. As for IB, analysts are paid somewhere in the region of 2.5 - 3.5m base salary pre tax depending on the firm and associates are in the region of 6 - 10m. VPs could possibly get $100,000 or more base salary

outside of IB/PE, from my observation and talking to peers, the only firms that will pay you higher than IB outside of oil at the junior level is Mckinsey, Roland Berger and a few PROPER international organizations like Google and NGOS

The interviews are not necessarily advantageous towards US graduates. They are just more proactive in preparation, neither does the interview require a math/engineering/business etc background. I have gone through the whole process and can say the most frustrating/hardest part about getting in is successfully getting through the application process.

Nonetheless, if you are called for the test or interview, they will provide you with unlimited resources to prepare. Reading the book "Case in Point" and practicing case interviews is sufficient enough to scale through. Lastly, after reading case in point, you will notice tackling the cases has nothing to do with ones background but following a step by step approach (it is very formulaic) and a bit of creative/out of the box thinking (eg guessing more paint is needed on certain parts of the plane).

Good luck to anyone interviewing or applying

tanimola22: Wow, this sounds good O, I won't lie..

But we have many ivy MBA holders working for companies like GLO, MTN, RenCap and co in naija. I am sure they don't earn up to the figures you stated..Why then did they leave high pay for low pay in naija? I am guessing that the jobs that pay these great salaries are not just readily available for grab. In other words, such jobs are not automatic even if one holds an ivy MBA. No?

T22

Post mba pay in naija is argueably equal to that in america in general because factoring taxes, benefits they get in naija that they dont in america (housing allowance, driver allowance, furniture allowance etc)your net benefit is very identical. This also depends on industry. For anything buyside (PE, hedge fund etc) it is almost impossible to get post mba spots. This is the only industry that beats naija hands down in terms of pay post mba. Investment banking and management consulting, which is fairly easy to get in America, is identical to naija, and when you consider that with M7(not called ivy) mbas, promotions are much faster and you start off very high in naija compared to the western world, there is faster tranjectory for you to rise to the top and make more money.

Please if you get into an m7, leave that CFA, oyel or whatever job it is and enroll fast. an m7 mba will do wonders for your career

T22, Denee or others, do you guys know what investment banking pays analyts post nysc (base + bonus)- stanbic, fbn cap etc

Very good point about career growth.

On the otherhand, I was going to ask, does anyone know what investment banking like Fbn capital and stanbic (I hear they are the best) pays their juniot analysts/entry level and associates, salary, bonus, benefits etc.

Sweetheart I applied, took the PST, went through rounds of case interviews and got an offer so I know what I am saying.

As i said in my previous post, ANALYSTS do not earn 85 - 100k dollars P/A. Associates, who have gone through top 7 mba programs in the US mostly do earn that much, not analysts. i will repeat again so people will not be misled, 1st year analysts/youth corpers do not earn even the 50k you say, I know becuase I got an offer.

tanimola22: Correct and well said. I am happy with the s at the end of the offer. Great! You know, it is nice to hear once again that some people are getting offers from good companies.

Could you throw more light on the PE firms in Lagos? A brief descriptive analysis would be more than enough.

Thanks,
T22

Well I will make it brief and just give general information, but you can check their respective websites to know what exactly they do and read profiles of their employees. They usually have all employees on their website so you can get an idea of their background.

There arent too many PE firms in Lagos but some of the more prominent PE firms are Actis, ACA, ECP, Aueros, The Carlyle group and one or two others. ACA is the oldest and probably the best as far as performance goes but others are doing well too. As far as getting in, as previously mentioned, they usually hire 1 or 2 people each year and usually people who have 2 years investment banking experience (preferrably within M&A). The reason they do this is because these PE firms are very small, employee number wise, maybe 10 - 20 employees with about half of that the investment team, so they do not have the time to train people to model. Im sure you know, but most of what you will be doing is modelling and valuation and ibanking experience is key for that. Again, the only reason foreign candidates are preferred is because they usually have more merger experience than their local peers as mergers are not really prominent in Nigeria. After two years of working at the junior level, you are advised to get a top MBA to move up the chain.

Pay is between 450k naira (smaller PE firms like Aureos) all the way to 1million+(bigger firms like ECP). You will mostly be valuing different companies and taking care of the nitty gritty of getting a deal done (due diligence, correspondence with lawyers/accountants etc). As far as the interview process, it is extremely tough. You will be grilled a lot on valuation and in most cases will take valuation tests (some take home, some done on site). This is the most important aspect of the interview. Other parts will be grilling on your knowledge on the economy and general business knowledge and behavioural type questions (least important)

All these points are pretty uniform across all the PE firms.

If you dont mind me asking, what is your background and where are you trying to be?

tanimola22: 120K naira ke? This sounds poor now. Even some local companies pay more than twice of that at entry level.

120K Naira=763USD. This is not impressive.

Dont forget the 3million sign on bonus, which no one else pays and there are other perks, travel allowance, car allowance, end of year bonus etc. Also, this 120k as a 1st year is youth service. Youth service and 1st year analyst is no different, so it shoots up after your service year. However, oil companies still pay more, but Mckinsey is the best experience one can get at the junior level.

When they initially came, yes they were paying millions, 5 - 7million, for entry level but after a while they realized the local market pays nowhere close to that, accenture KPMG and co, so they cut their salaries. The only industry that might pay above the oil industry depending on the offer, is the private equity industry, which can range anywhere from 400k to 1million per month. Mind you, they usually require 2 years of M&A experience, and the vast majority of those getting these roles, have foreign investment banking work experience (not to say it not possible for investment banking locals but extremely rare at the junior level)

I know all this because I got offers with some of these companies and know the executives.

Misleading. No Mckinsey office anywhere in the world pays a basic salary of $85,000 for ENTRY LEVEL and definitely not in Nigeria and trust me, I know this very well.

more like 120,000 naira monthly and 3million naira sign on bonus

I currently work in the hedge fund industry in New York, went to a good uni here in the States but schooled in Nigeria all the way to ss3

My only experience working in Nigeria has been an internship in a global firm and I have to agree with the general sentiment here that the typical or avergae "local" is more resourceful than those in diaspora. I have found in many cases that a lot of Nigerians that come to the States for international projects within their company actually get asked to stay because they are good.

However, I would say that there is simply no competition in comparing stellar locals and stellar diaspora (went to an ivy school/really good school, worked in a very good company for a few years and comes back). Network, creativity, grasping, practical intelligence wise, they are much better. You find that these people usually go back and start their own business or work in industries/companies that not hire too many locals(eg private equity).

Stellar diaspora, as described in the previous paragraph, do not aspire nor hardly work in oil industry, consulting, investment banks etc that locals dream of so locals only come in contact with the average diaspora in these organizations so the comparisons are a bit bias

My 2cents

Hedge funds will not be introduced in Nigeria anytime soon. There is no liquidity in the capital markets, no accountability, no transparency nothing. No sane individual will run a hedge fund focused on the NSE and Mr. Onyema cant change that. The capital market is way too undeveloped

I know the Maduekes on a first hand basis. The children in the pictures are my good friends. I have a lot to say.

First off, they are GOOD people and are very very seperate from the affairs of their parents. None of the children there are direct children of the petroleum minister.

Next, there has been wealth before she was in government. She has been in the oil industry for a very long time. Their father too has been wealthy for decades.

The only luxury you see there that is not theirs, which they can still afford without the government, is the private jet. Should politicians be given private jets?? I do not think they should but that is different arguement.

The only thing that might be wrong with these pictures is that it may be insensitive to flaunt their wealth esp because they are children of politicians. However, none of uploaded the pics to nairaland, it was on their facebook or wherever else to share with their friends. The op violated their privacy and thats the only wrongdoing here.

To my last point, no matter what your financial situation is, someone is always jealous and envious of you. For the Maduekes, Adenugas etc it is the middle class people posting here on nairaland. to the middle class people, it is the villagers in rural nigeria.

Thats all!!!

oluite:
I like your guts!
please kindly continue reading!

@ oluite. If you have nothing valueable to contribute just shut up because you sound painfully dumb.

@sagamite. definitely not. I'm not justifying the 1% looting Nigerias funds. I was just eluding to the fact that a small number of people control wealth in any country and there seems to be a huge misconception amongst the Nigerian public that success/wealth=corruption which is not necessarily the case outside of politics, but given the state of Nigeria, I can see why people are anrgy.

Long time reader first time poster

I am the child of wealthy parents. Father was/is the head of a huge multinational firm in Nigeria. Fortunately/unfortunately, 99% of my friends come from wealthy families (children of businessmen, ceos, politicians etc). Even amongst the wealthy, there is a clear divide between corporate rich and political rich. kids of corporate folks usually have parents who have worked hard their entire careers, smart and went to top schools while on the political side, its mostly the opposite.

Face reality people. This is how it is all over the world. less than 1% of a countrys population usually controls 99% of the wealth and that is how its going to be. I do have to say it is rather disgusting and shows jealousy if you feel all of us are clueless about the state of Nigeria (especially thoser of us that grew up in Nigeria) and things that go on. Yes I do have my fair share of friends who are clueless but a vast majority of my people are very intelligent and very good people. Its funny because I am friends with most of the people you guys mention and they are good people. Yes I do have a few friends who are not wealthy and while we do get along well, at the end the day, human beings like being around and socializing with people who are like them.

To my last point, anyone who doesnt make use of their connections to move up in life is a clear idiot. success in life is not necessarily being smart or hardworking. Its luck, knowing people and being in the right place at the right time.