₦airaland Forum

RedReact: I agree with you on that, but in a situation in which our leaders all travel to other countries and see what happens there, a form of exposure I will say, and cannot replicate that in their country is something pathetic to me. Dora Akunyili, of blessed memory, was sick and nothing could be done in any of the Nigerian hospitals until she had to be flown out of our country. What if the country she was flown to didn't put their house in order, would she be flown there?
Oyo State is a big state, with vast area of landmass; a hub for agricultural development to me, yet the government hasn't deemed it fit to tap into that to launch into aggressive mechanized farming; same with all states across the southern hemisphere of Nigeria. What stops states like Delta, Bayelsa, Akwa Ibom, C/Rivers and Rivers from tapping into their fishing potentials, by establishing caned fish companies? Why should we be still importing vegetable oil to Nigeria?

The nonsense will not be happening if the followership have the power or recognizes that they have the power to remove bad leaders. On the whole, people get the kind of leaders they deserve or how much brain do people need to understand that they can collect your rice and still vote for those that will do the work.
People do not want a decent society, only the middle class and elite care about that; policies that will help the economy/people are usually not popular (petroleum subsidy, assessment test for teachers, banning of okada on some roads, tarrif on imported vehicles, etc). Nigerians have lots of work to do.

I kind of think that poverty has flipped the brains of so many people.

Toluway: Rightly said. I saw this long time ago and contributed this point of view in the online comment page of one of the brokering firms. They acknowledged my write-up and asked me to elaborate, which i did. I thought they would publish it as one of the articles but i didn't see it. The foreigners would come here around September, put a big chunk of money to drive the bull and then, go away with their loot between January and February while contributing nothing to our economic development! They come back the following year to repeat the process. That is why any time they leave, they leave us with the bear. In whose interest? When would Africa be wise? When would we be able to read between the lines? Is this not another bundle of modern imperialism and neo-colonialism? I think we can raise an alarm from this collectively. Personally, i found it very annoying, the way they are taking us for fools. This is another form of economic exploitation and slavery. We should enjoy the fruit of our labour. Like those of you who like using the word 'cowboy', it is my opinion that this is a classic case of coyboyism.

As much as I understand what you guys are saying, I do not share the same sentiment. It is a capitalist economy in most part of the world, the weak gets eaten.
What role are the foreigners playing in the bull market saga? Who is buying and supporting their rip offs when they start the price push? Don't you guys think that this is a problem with the education of investors?
Let's use the example from Chibuking01, so who is buying those stocks pumped up from $10,000 to $100,000 when the stocks are dumped at the pumped up prices? Definitely not ghosts! What parameters did the buyers used to decide that the pumped up prices were good? And people fall victim for this year in year out..

Seriously folks, I will not condemn the speculators but people must know the dangers in that line of trade. Monitoring daily prices of stocks and trying to beat the market is a huge risk on its own but we cannot get out of the hands of the foreign people or the local hawks until the investors are educated appropriately.
If the foreign investors (are they really investors?) knows how to catch mugu, should mugu not wise up after a while?

It is lazy to go with the line of thought that Wole Soyinka contributed to the menace of cultism in Nigeria, we can as well blame the missionaries for the woes of the pentecostal churches in Nigeria today!
Every good action is subject to manipulation by the evil doers, the challenge before us is to fight all these evils with knowledge.

makeitplain: Bros, the reason or whatever is irrelevant at this point. Even if Ajimobi starts working day and night from now to election day in 2015, he can't make it because its already too late. U don't open ur eyes and allow virtually everybody to leave ur party platform and keep telling urself there is no problem, there is no problem.

So please tell us who we should watch out for! I am interesting in some levels of campaign, we need candidates and give us reasons why we should support those candidates.
I am looking for solution, not just getting Ajimobi out without a better replacement.

A whole lot of beer parlour discussions going on, anybody with a fraudulent mind will be the only person to get the analysis right, Nigerian politicians are only predictable when there is something to share/steal.

Having written the above, the issue should not be about Ajimobi going or staying but about a candidate that will take Oyo state to greater heights. As a people, we should be concerned about good governance irrespective of party affiliation.
I often wonder if people understand that their futures and that of their children/grandchildren are at stake here? Oyo state is doomed if people do not objectively look at the aspirants and go with the person that has the best track record.

Sadly, those failing WAEC will end up as your local govt chairmen, governors, members of national assembly, ministers, advisers and president tomorrow. Simple reason Nigeria and Nigerians will continue to suffer until whenever.

Brabus NG: APOLOGIES

While not shying away from the issues and problems on ground, I will like to apologize one again to everyone for falling short of your expectation on the chateau and other projects. I'll be back on this thread again to share the good news that all issues have been resolved.

Madam Gabby, DUNKA, esoorita, daroseconcept, Hajji, Neophyte-Mason, vimo3, love-tosin, dayoagboola, lawyer, gtrust, jaydacorsia, spyder880, diordavies, sagewood, kuntash, kopell, olubuffet, blank, blink32, seun, deebabe, Qc-1, segcy.moor, chekitaut, aventures, junapril, sandee575, helpee, ahonohia, TBrownauto, Demain-man, whitecat007, benimegou, oseun001, Jamesqu, Fhemmmy, rotecch77, borisgbenga, Wede3, Jussi, floridarcar, Degis, amicdan, Ricky_olu, eghosa_johnny, Timmi, orepe, Farm+, goride1, defashan, akeweje, raqueal, oilsubsidy, kolamilan, onuokwu and all other silent readers.

I'm very sorry.

Apology is good but hope you have reviewed all of the incidents and have started making necessary changes to prevent a recurrence?

A house is the biggest investment most people make, so you are in a critical and sensitive industry. You cannot afford to keep dropping the ball..mistakes do happen but what we do to correct them determines whether those mistakes will make or mar us.

Wish you the best as you move forward.

Just discussing this in the office and two of my colleagues were talking about about hiring brabus..guess it's not going to happen. No matter how this matter ends, serious damage has been done.
You guys can go back and forth on this issue, whoever wants to defend the indefensible is free to do so. The take away for me is the valuable lesson to do due diligence and handling my money with more caution if I hire anybody whether in or out of Nairaland.

maishot: Anty Efe. Yes I'm married.
Even Mazi knows and made comment on about it @ PPA thread. I guess Ɣõu̶̲̥̅̊ didn't notice.

Sha, I'm an event manager, I also work lessons with a WAEC / NECO coaching centre. Work is moving fine and sometimes I make what ♍¥ wife makes i̶̲̥̅̊n̶̲̥̅̊ a month on one event. But ♍¥ nature of work fluctuates.

There's nothing more. ♍¥ wife is good, cares for me, but her work gives us little time to see or relate with each other.
Even when we do, she's too tired to do much.



And yes..,
I have ample time to spend online. Anything wrong with dat?

From the above, you have a good woman in your life! Event management jobs don't come that often except you are big in which case you wont even be here.

My advice is for you to double up and find more productive activities, you need to make more money and also need time away from unproductive stuffs (both online and offline).
It is obvious why you need more money and you should let your wife be for now; you will only get some when she is on vacation, that's all you deserve for now.
As important as getting some is, I doubt if I can get it up when life is knocking me around. Your wife is working so hard and your child can do with better life.

davidylan: I definitely will update in january when i have the paradigms in place. What brand of PSB speakers do you have? Coupled with NAD recievers/Amps, i believe the PSB combo is about the best musically sounding speakers for the money. Looking to get an oppo blu-ray in january as well. As for the SVS, i just have to bow to you... good choice!

You are spending good money putting this together, great sound and movies when you are done! I got the image b5 and c5 for center, planned the entire setup some 3 years ago to avoid any upgrade for a while. Almost got a NAD but it was difficult not going with the yamaha that I picked, it was high end as of then and came with some great discount.

Nice setup even with the budget, I look forward to the update in 2014 when you upgrade some of the components. Will post a thread I used back then when I was setting up mine, if I can still find it.

I went with a Yamaha receiver, PSB speakers, SVS sub and an oppo blu-ray, it's a 5.1 system which I wont be upgrading except for the screen and the decor.

Good job!

In spite of my shortcomings and failures, God did not give up on me.

Please do come back and let us know how you resolve this.

I have actually told you everything there is about the GTB Debit card, not sure you will find a card with higher daily limit. Don't forget there are daily withdrawal limits even in Nigeria.
Maybe you can open a business account to double your daily withdrawal as necessary.

I understand the thing about getting good discount when using cash since cash is king but so is debit card if you can depend on POS transaction for transactions of $10k and above.

I don't ever use the bank BDCs for Forex! Those charges will sure add up and kill the attraction, best bet is to find a private BDCs, you get best rate once you are a loyal customer. Some will reduce the profit margin heavily once you can trust one another with the business. Some of those that I have used have more than one BDC to increase the amount of Forex they get every week.

Beyond these two routes above, not sure I have any other idea that can be useful to you.

[quote author=post.email]Nice! Pls tell more about the GTB Debit card. I took two UBA Africards but it's difficult to make bulk deposits into these cards.
Isn't GTB's daily ATM withdrawal limit of $1000 a problem? If I have to pay $20,000 to a company, that's gonna take like 20days -daily ATM withdrawal. Well, POS payment is an option. But when haggling for lower price with manufacturers, it kinda makes it a bit difficult for them to accept when you gonna pay with a card. I know many Manufacturers like cash payments! For cash payments you get good deal compared to Letter of credit and POS payment.
Please is there any Nigerian debit card that's flexible on ATM withdrawal, with higher daily limits ?


How can one avoid these BDCs? I got really hammered dealing with the black market guys. Last month, I bought USD at 168 from these guys with enough ABEG! It really hurts to be at their mercy. Once I tried buying directly from UBA. That's so efffed up because I used the in-house BDC for the exchange. They charged COT for bulk withdrawal; and also charged bank transfer fee and FOREX fee. At the end of the day, I regretted using the bank for my FOREX needs....the abokis seem better without all the charges and fees.

Guys, any solution to this FOREX issue?[/quote]

Looking for a reference for a very great window curtains/drapes maker, something really good. Will appreciate any help here.

I think you should dump the UBA Africard, can't see the attraction except if you own shares there and want to keep the profit within. 1.5 Million per quarter can't go anywhere and not sure why that limit is imposed. With GTBank debit card, I can do the entire $150,000 meant for a year in one month if I can do ATM/POS transactions to cover the amount without exceeding daily limit, only that I cannot spend beyond $150,000 in the whole year.
GTB ATM charge just got reduced to N240 per transaction (I have been hounding them that the N420 they were charging is fraudulent). As a matter of fact, I must have taken out about $10,000 from ATMs in the past 2 weeks. Although GTBank says the daily limit for ATM withdrawal is N150,000, I always taken out between $800 and $1,000 at every transaction.

GTbank allow daily limit of N1,000,000 for point of sale transactions, that is roughly about $6,000 so you don't need to do 14 ATM withdrawals for transactions requiring up to $10,000. What I have done in the past was to pay the seller/retailer twice, easily allowed as long as you don't ask to walk away with the goods with the first payment. Strange enough, I never paid any currency exchange fee for POS deals (this happens only when I use a US debit card in Canada). Again, maybe GTB is just different; I am yet to try other Nigerian banks, talk of not fixing something if it's not broken.

I understand the issue with the under invoicing but that is the part I referred to on following the rules. The challenge is not for CBN to manage but for the importers to continue to put pressure on Okonjo-Iweala especially now that Sanusi decided to do some cleaning. Who is allowing and benefiting from what Cotecna and Globalscan are doing?
Truth is that importers will always undervalue their goods irrespective of what Cotecna and co are doing so they can pay almost zero import tax, almost everybody in Nigeria is working for themselves without minding the impacts of their actions on the economy and the life of Nigerians.

You will agree with me that there is need for these cleaning to happen if the country is going to move forward, there is too much impunity in the land.


[quote author=post.email]Example, the UBA Africard is limited to 1.5 Million per quarter; And deposit is limited to 50,000Naira/deposit, so if you want to deposit 200,000Naira you'd have to fill four deposit slips for 50,000Naira each. With all these, the AfriCard has daily deposit limit.
Using the card overseas allows you to transact at official exchange rate on POS transactions. The catch is when you withdraw from an ATM, charges are quite high. It's limited to 115,000( Naira Equivalent) or less per withdrawal, and charges 1700 per ATM withdrawal. Note, multiple withdrawal is allowed. I think there's no daily limit.

The issue is it's good to use the cards for petty payments or transaction, but if one is paying for bulk goods it's not really helpful. Say $10,000, this amount requires 14 ATM withdrawals and the total charge is 23,800Naira. I don't know if an ATM will allow 14 transactions without flagging 'em as fraudulent. Exchange houses charge 3.5% for cash paid against POS payment. Basically means you swipe $10,000 on their POS machine and they pay $9700 cash....Very horrible deal if you ask me.

Using Form M valid for foreign exchange is another. Importers do not declare 100% of goods to avoid hefty import tax. Cotecna and Globascan normally will raise estimated value of import by 500%. Importers know this. They undervalue the true cost of goods knowing that inspection agents (cotecna and the rest) will issue an assessed FOB value that's high. Simply put, sourcing directly from CBN is not easy. you declare $5000 on final invoice, but the actual value is $50,000. CBN grant you $5,000 as on invoice. Inspection company revises your invoice value (RAR) to $25,000, of which you pay tax (5~20%). Now the problem is, if you declare the true value $50,000., inspection agents may issue you a revised value of 100% ~500%. Imagine paying government (5%~20%) of a revised invoice ($250,000) at 500% of true value..... Na die!![/quote]

Not too much to ask for depending on what god or God you serve and if you can provide and nurture that family.

Based on the current realities, I believe you will "kpai" before achieving 50% of that plan. One wife is a handful, two is tragedy!

I like your joke anyway.

Don't know why people are surprised about the airport or any place whatsoever, but good that the writers are not letting up. We need to keep the pressure on these people without turning it into a tribal war, corruption is in every tribe and everywhere.

Corrupt practices will never allow good management of any facility/organization in Nigeria. People cannot reason anymore the moment there is personal interest in any situation, all they will be doing is to manipulate the system to the expected end (their pockets).

There is no cheap dollar anywhere, just shop around the BDCs and go with the best rate.

clip: Please How do I get a cheap dollar for my importation. My overhead cost is becoming higher and my selling price can't go high cos of competition.

It is a good policy if people will cool down and let it work! Nigeria is a jungle where everybody including majority in govt are working to game the system.
The bank will handle all legitimate Forex transactions if people follow the rules; problem is those doing business wants to buy as much forex as needed for their imports or businesses abroad and carry the cash into foreign countries or wire them in a manner that allow them stay under the radar. CBN has a policy on all foreign transactions from mortgage payments, medical, personal purchases down to school fees and a whole lot of other purposes. The bank can attempt to put road blocks to protect themselves from CBN hammer or to send you away to the abokis but they will do what they are expected to do if you stay on their neck and provide necessary documentations.

The CBN in the same policy increased what each Naira debit and credit account holder can spend from ATM and POS transactions per year from $40,000 to $150,000.
In addition to the above, there is a provision for small scale importers requiring up to $250,000 per annum using telegraphic transfer; using only the online version of Form M (e-Form "M".

http://www.cenbank.org/Out/2013/CCD/Developments%20In%20The%20Foreign%20Exchang%20Market.pdf

I don't see where the issue is, aside people getting stuck to the old way of doing things. CBN statement that Nigeria is the largest importer of United States Dollar is dangerous and disturbing for a country relying on crude oil as the only major Forex earner.

http://www.ngrguardiannews.com/national-news/134398-cbn-bans-importation-of-foreign-currencies-

Politics is around the corner with politicians waiting to use US Dollars as currency of settlement during conventions and elections. It can only get worse if nothing is done.
For those using walking into a bank in the US and buying Forex, I would like to know how it is possible to buy $15,000 just like that. I cannot even get $5000 from the bank in local currency without giving them prior notice!

And by the way, every ATM withdrawal in North America only attracts a fee of about $2 to $3 for GTBank. For those with brothers/sisters/kids in schools abroad, please open a Naira account, send them the ATM card and put Naira in their account every month or as you wish.
For the vehicle dealers, you can go same route or do your importation using form M (that may be tough for people that want to stay under the radar).

I believe this policy is in the best interest of the country.

There is just one rule for your situation.

You should not attempt to buy a car if you cannot pay cash! Or you are not mature for a car until you can buy it outright with cash.

With the land mass and the population of Lagos fighting each other, the worst is yet to come! Sorry, I don't get emotional when it comes to issues such as this, it is not about Fashola at all. It will be difficult for anybody to live in Lagos if some of those decisions are not taken.
Lagos is pretty expensive and will not slow down, how can people live well with poor salaries from most organizations?

The issue raised on this thread is part of the general problem in the country, the government need to ensure rapid development of the urban cities (it will be too much to add the rural areas). This way lots of folks can stay away from Lagos without missing anything. Or how many people living in Baton Rouge do you think has ever been to Los Angeles?

I believe Fashola is only trying to deal with a messy situation for the overall good of those that can afford to live there.

Good reason for people not to claim any silly right in that country! I have been stopped by a seriously drunk policeman around Palmgrove bus stop, as shameful as it may sound, it was one day I had no choice than to give a bribe.

They are true reflection of the Nigerian society.

Buying land in Nigeria is a like walking a minefield especially in the major cities. Even the land purchased from Lagos State govt is not free of troubles!
Best bet is to get a professional, referred by trusted friends and family or go with the big guys whether lawyers, surveyors or reputable property companies. Unfortunately, everything good comes with a big price tag.

Poor background as in financially poor?? Why should this be a consideration at all? Or do you inherit poverty when you marry someone from a financially poor family?
It is sad what marriage is reduced to these days!

The issue with booli (boopa) is not even the bacteria alone, please have a rethink and stay away from buying and eating it if the seller is located beside the road. The exhaust of vehicles discharges onto anything beside the road (including your vegetable), contaminants from the exhaust always end up on anything placed beside the road.

Do yourself a favor and buy the local grill and charcoal to start preparing your booli, prepare your own spices/sauces, it takes so short a time to make and you can invite friends and watch the birth of another business, well packaged and far superior to the junks beside the road.

Atheism is a belief that does not agree with Christianity. You should not even be together in the first place, it cannot work! Better to let go and don't even brood over the six years spent dating or what foundation are you building upon?

Apostle Paul wrote to the saints in Corinth, “Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? And what communion hath light with darkness?” (2 Cor. 6:14, KJV).

Don't see how you can walk together without a spiritual agreement.

Wondering how you would react if it was your wife that did that? And she may be doing it everyday of the year!

okpanachil: Now my question is this?Since we all talk bout protecting women and all who protects us men from women of this kind?

This is a general occurrence but a non issue, it is happening on a huge scale in Nigeria.

You should check those you associate with and keep to yourself if that will give the peace you seek.

.

That culture is dying very fast! Most of my friends have wills written out, nobody is leaving their wives out.

Often times, a woman that nags/makes the home unbearable is quickly thrown out once the man "arrived", the peaceful wives may contend with the outside woman but they wont be disrespected. In fact, the man always work to protect her (like MKO and his first wife).

armyofone: one big problem in Nigeria setting-marriage/reason why if the man dies they ask madam dearest to leave (with nothing).
madam not adding value, you mean money/material value? I think it is a wrong mindset for men to say they don't value their wife because she didn't add anything of value or contribute to his making it.
What if children are involved? Are children not valuable?

The title of the thread and OP's statement are contradictory. Having access to a phone is different from checking the phone.

You should have access in case you need to use it, if yours have an issue. You should not have access for the purpose of checking! Ok, you are free to check as long as you can handle the consequences, especially when you misinterpret situations.