₦airaland Forum

descarado:
Speak for myself that NHS will go into full privatisation or not?
What has that got to do with me?

descarado:
We all know at a point, NHS will go into full privatisation.

zichien:
I agree. His post lacks substance. Lots of grammar no substance. He is yet to actually explain what his business does. So i am still very skeptic. It reads like one of those top 10 under 10 people, next thing we start to hear stories. He needs to explain it to use like we are 7 year old, without words like ecosystem. Give actionable items. Eg read cyber security.. learn how to use so and so software? Be specific. He employed the students to do what? To answer the phone? As coders? Lol.. I am looking at him with my side eye because I know his type, and where his post is headed to.

Cyberknight:
You have had quite an interesting few months for a newcomer. Gotten burned by a credit card, swiftly decoded the negative side of Nigerians in the UK, and now a "same sex approach".

rock86:
Do you ever get tired of this country? This isn't life. Working all round to pay bills, no real connection except fake and superficial people.. No wonder people develop mental health issues. Which country can one go that gives a perfect blend of Naija vibes and Western sanity?

missjekyll:
You having a laugh? WAEC is how it's spelt.
Not enough is being said about this longstanding institution.

>50yrs,I think of Waec and GCE

rock86:
I sha am not doing again.
I've seen people accumulate 15k in CC debt. Just 2 years in

Lexusgs430:
I have not said he is responsible for everything..... But,

His harsh economic policies, have sent many families "a begging"......

The organisers definitely cannot be exonerated.... Why would they announce on radio about free food for children, not organise a free ticketing system, put adequate crowd control in place........

Many of those that attended, could have feed their children(and can afford to), but the greedy nature in them, does not know when to say no...... Imagine the cost of transportation vs cost of free food.......

rock86:
I sha am not doing again.
I've seen people accumulate 15k in CC debt. Just 2 years in

gtassure:
That guy writes like twitter influencer on crypto thread! Lol!

Chukwuka16:
@jedisco, I do appreciate what you pose as a question. My write up seeks to address three issues – temporally document my mindset, encourage Nigerian immigrants who can to actually take entrepreneurship seriously and build an ecosystem on the one hand, and encourage Nigerian Youths to seek every legitimate means possible in both leaving Nigeria (especially to the top 20 cities worldwide within the next 24 months) and building skillsets that can be traded/useful to the ecosystem built by those before them, on the other hand.

I have seen students here in the UK on 20-hrs contract earn £400/day in consulting and move on to £600/day during their post study – they are under 30 and some have relocated out of the UK. I employed some of them. They could do that because two things worked – there was an ecosystem known to them, and they had skillsets that could be traded within that ecosystem.

So, what you pose as a question from my perspective is a symptom that clears off when the ecosystem is in place. I am thus advocating for Nigerian immigrants who can actually take steps in actioning this, take those steps and urgently. For the students, learn problem solving and be able to transfer your learning. When both parties play their game right, raising such funds to take bigger risks within those students is no longer an impossible feat.

rock86:
It's a gbese card

Viruses:
I usually skip lengthy posts, but this time because of the captivating heading I decided to take the time to read this lengthy posts start to finish.
It just validated many other lengthy posts I've skipped, nothing to learn from it.

jedisco:
Hehe... e no easy. Thought it was old until I delved in and saw it had just happened.

Japan remains a case study for western nations. Regarding birth rates, every year for them is a new low. They have thrown in almost everything to arrest their demographic decline and resultant economic stagnation. From overworking their populace to astronomical debt e.t.c. Next it would be to heavily tax contraception and mandate 'nakis'. They continue to be an evident example that it's not the migrants taking our lunch. You can be rest assured that once they hit a breakthrough that doesn’t rely on migration, most western nations would follow suit.

But wait oooo... even dating app... 😆. I wouldn't mind the UK govt subcribing to Hinge/Tinder for me though. Just imagine what the media would say if the UK govt did that...

Chukwuka16:
The futility of labour and the growth of the intangible economy

I digress

When I wrote about the fact that Nigerian Youths will be unable to offer humanity any value if they fail to find their way outside Nigeria to a top 20 city within the next 24 months, I did read some write up trying to contradict that based on hope.

I like your enthusiasm and process. We cant change the narratives without weeding out our evil politicians.
Just yesterday, scores of kids were reported to have died due to stampede at a Christmas event in Oyo State. Nigerians organised an event for about 5,000 families – no planning permission, no risk management, no security, no assessments, no project management, no provision for onsite medical services etc. The kids are dead, and nothing will happen. Can we also talk of countless youths who have disappeared and have ended up in shallow graves and pits?

Some weeks back, it was reported that UCH had their electricity cut off for 17 days. Yes, 17 days. I can’t imagine how many people may have died from that incident. Imagine poor parents watching their newborn babies in the neonatal ward die because there was no electricity to power the incubators.

I even watched a video recently seeing a Nigerian Youth get butchered live in Ibadan. It was chalked off to clashes between cultist groups.

People are talking about fulfilment overseas and the Nigerian Youth is struggling to even be alive (EndSars comes to mind). Even in the abroad, youths born in poor homes are set up for poverty and you think the Nigerian Youth has any hope?

Someone talked about setting up ecosystems and all. You must get your own network and encourage them to act. For me, the turning point was some years back when a bank requested that I get reference letters from businesses with owners not related to me, and my network couldn’t assist. After sorting out the bank, I got our lawyers and ensured every one of my network set up at least 2 businesses. Reference letters should be a WhatsApp request, and I have it in minutes. Today, that network includes our lawyers, accountant/audit, software specialists, subcontractors, etc. It is easier to get services and spread payment over longer periods. I can get advice in real-time without needing to pay consultation fees. Everyone is happy. There is some form of a local economy there.

Back to my thoughts

One of the interesting reads you will find me with this period is the book titled – Capitalism without Capital (the rise of the intangible economy) by Stian Westlake and Jonathan Haskel. Another that I would be spending time with, in the new year (God willing) is Technofeudalism: What Killed Capitalism by Yanis Varoufakis. I refer to these books because they help paint the picture of intangible wealth/value and the migration from feudalism to labour being a commodity to the rent system (reverse feudalism).

Gone are the days where hard work (working hard) and labouring mattered. If that is your route to prosperity today, your poverty will be amazing. The VC world has shown how knowledge can be valued and make people millionaires overnight. You conceive an idea, generate a pitch deck or MVP and voila investors hand you a term sheet and you are game. That alone has generated millions of millionaires. Many of us are familiar with stock options. You join any average tech connected company today and it standard that you are given stock options. Think of Revolut and Nvidia and a host of others and how much wealth their staff have made simply because they were employees and had stock options in those companies.

So, what has changed?

It was Myron Golden who painted this picture, and it made so much sense to me and I will share it here. There are four levels of value. The first level of value is implementation. Everyone almost starts here. Wealth is spiritual (intangible, infinite, abundant) and at implementation, what you have is your physical strength and time. Your pay is a product of your hourly wage and how much hours you work. You want more, you work more. The commodity you trade is your physical strength. The problem here is that you can only work so many hours, and you can only do so much at this level. Working longer hours does not increase your rate. Time is limited, your strength is physical and can only stretch so much leading to a natural cap on your income and “wealth”. Athletes, skilled professionals (lawyers, doctors, etc.) all find themselves here.

The second level of value is unification. This is just implementation with a multiplier. So you are here as a manager and lead a team of people. Same as implementation but managing more people. You probably have some years under your belt, or you have got better running shoes (more degrees) and “experience”. Again, no wealth generated here. Physical strength X Time X multiplier impact on salary (due to better running shoes) – remember Veronica in the online comic.

The third level of value is communication. Now wealth starts getting made here. It took me a while to get this but now it makes sense. There is a reason why Steve Jobs rocked – he was a great salesman. Look around and think of CEOs and COOs and CSOs and even CFOs. They are great and excellent communicators. Communication is a higher spiritual activity because you try to convey something to people. What you use here is your mouth or the power of writing to change mindset. Remember Adolf Hitlers Mein Kampf. Income here is ballistic. These guys have floors literally in the $tens millions.

The last level of value is imagination. Now these are the HKs themselves. Steve Jobs, Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg, Sam Altman, Jeff Bezos, Reed Hastings, Marc Randolph, etc. They imagined things and created whole new economies. Reason why Elon Musk can hit $400 billion in net worth and on track to $1 trillion. Think about that, Elon Musk currently has more value (valuation) than Nigeria and one-third Africa’s valuation!

We have got to play this game and big time to even stand a chance of securing our offsprings. No time.

missjekyll:
Ladies and gentlemen!

I present to you the 2024 report of the migration advisory committee.
Among the highlights, the immigrant on a skilled worker visa which is 62% of immigrants contributes >£12000 while on this route.
The British citizen will take £4000 in that period.

This and many other annoying making facts available in this report :

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/migration-advisory-committee-annual-report-2024/migration-advisory-committee-mac-annual-report-2024-accessible

Oluwatosin2000:
Good evening everyone.

I have a spring 2025 admission, but I’m just about to get my I-20. With the situation of things pertaining to interview dates, is it still possible I’d meet up with spring intake? Or I should consider deferring?

Chukwuka16:
Title of my brief this evening - Can we broaden our discussions: life has changed and is leaving us far behind

I have been away from this platform minding life and business – building an ecosystem is hard work and time!

I have recently had cause to scroll through previous pages here and I must appreciate the breadth of discussions. The OGs continue to help as always and bants continue to get thrown as usual. Nairaland still remains a melting pot for Nigerians.

However, for the last 18 months, I have suffered terribly from two things (information asymmetry and the absence of a sustainable ecosystem) that have both forced me to begin to rethink a lot of things about how I build and develop business. These sufferings I argue stem from two things I have noticed are very common in our community as Nigerians – a culture of hoarding and limited ambition.

First, I have suffered from serious information asymmetry which meant I have expended huge funds utilising consultants who are not Nigerians in navigating the landscape. This has mostly been around regulation (pursuing authorisation both in the finance, energy and ISO spaces). Now, don’t get me wrong, this is not a bad thing. What is worse is that money left our business to foreigners whereas there are Nigerians I believe who either have these skillsets or run businesses that can offer these services. I even know of one who I chatted up today on consulting for us in getting PCI DSS and the feedback justified why I will continue to use foreigners in the interim. I want to pay you to get the job done and the feedback is lacklustre. It was like I am not expected to have such. I will be reaching out today to a couple of firms to get that sorted for us – another loss of revenue to our ecosystem. I am practically weeping because my experience working with our manufacturers in China and consultants in UAE and even some of these Caucasian run consulting businesses here in the UK makes me wonder if we as Nigerians don’t want to succeed.

The second thing I have suffered is the absence of an ecosystem of familiar people on which I can build on. As a business, I have no reason to pursue financial authorisation. However, being unable to secure long-term partnerships and my long-term assessment of feedback from people I approached made me rule that a major risk hence the need to pursue that. As a business set up primarily to offer software solution in the energy space – carbon credit arbitrage from DSM and trading flexibility (we are literally building a trading platform to trade flexibility outside of smart meters), I have no business in hardware. That should be something owned by another business that they sell to customers and that I can build on. Unfortunately, I have also ruled that a major risk to prevent that aspect of the value chain cutting me off customers tomorrow. This means new manufacturing contracts to design hardware that caters for different continents, conformity tests, product design, circuit diagrams, packaging, countless emails and travel! As a business, it should have been a lot easier outsourcing my legal needs to a Nigerian-run legal firm here in the UK. Unfortunately, my last experience with a Nigerian lawyer here in the UK means I have to set up one that is in-house. When your heads of legal (finance and non-finance) either have a side gig at Oxford or worked at a leading European Fintech then you know you are toast. What about IP, we have to use US law firms to pursue patent filing and copyright protection. Thank God there is at least a Nigerian in one of the firms. These things are not meant to be so. This is what I love about the US and Chinese ecosystems (that does not include Nigerians).

I have done the numbers and all I can say is unfortunate. With regards to hoarding, I shiver. Folks I consider kin will see opportunities that will be beneficial to me and them in the long-run and keep mute. I’m younger than most so naturally I will supersede them – same way I expect younger folks than myself to exceed my achievements. However, our limited ambition means we don’t mind sacrificing long-term benefits if it will make a fellow Nigerian fail. Last night I concluded with my wife that scarcity and deep-seated jealousy is our problem. Reason why even at our parties we continue to exhibit such alien attributes in a declining country of abundance.

Why my rant this evening? If I continue like this, our businesses will fail. We are lucky to have secured funds to setup for our global rollout. We can achieve more, if we focus on what matters to us. Can we within this platform encourage anonymous discussions on Nigerians and what they do? I want to know of Nigerians who can handle accounting in the middle east – I will ditch the folks I’ve signed up with asap if I get a better deal. I want to know of Nigerians who can handle compliance or digital marketing across the UK, Europe, North America and the Middle East with budgets that are affordable (make sense) and with an attitude of seriousness. I cannot forget an experience I had some months back. Our BDM set up a meeting with a company to interview them for our marketing campaign. The rep perhaps felt that an all-black team didn’t deserve his presence and so turned off his video for the entirety of the call. That was the last time they heard back from us. I have recently held back on signing off on a report from another so-called top research organisation here in the UK because of the shoddy job they have done. By the time I am through with them, when they see a black business, they will “jump and pass”. I may be black but as a researcher and scholar, “I hold ground”.

Folks, as Nigerians we are powerless if we don’t own and run thriving businesses. Forget your high paying job, it is the businesses owned by Nigerians that gives us a voice in society. However, how can we ensure we have thriving businesses that can enable us to generate an ecosystem that enables us to keep wealth within our community. I know the health and care visa folks made a mess of things. Can we move past that and talk about the things good Nigerians do in their little corners so we can patronise and utilise them?

Today, I cringe about all the software we have bought for HR, accounting, compliance, communication, project management, etc. Some I just see the debit and am like what is this? If Nigerians had them and they were suitable for use here, I would be buying them. I want to scale from buying African food to patronising Nigerian owned businesses in marketing, consulting, research, audit, compliance, AI, etc.

Today, Nigerians cannot setup businesses easily in the UAE. If we had Nigerians owning businesses in strategic sectors, that won’t be the case. Today, for our staff to visit China, our manufacturers need to obtain letters from the government backing their own invitation letters simply because they still have a single nationality – Nigeria.

Time is moving very fast and severe structural change is coming. In our business, 99% of our staff are Nigerians. We have one very excellent chartered engineer who is European. I can enforce this because I am majority owner. Same thing with other businesses. I want to go into the city and enter a Nigerian-run finance business and see Nigerians just excelling. Please, can we broaden our discussions to include talks on this. I recall reading here of someone who was exploring building a currency-exchange business based on crypto. Next year, we would be exploring launching our own coin based on the carbon credits we generate from arbitrage. That would be a partnership worth exploring for me.

As I conclude, I recall an event held in the city in 2022. Two of my businesses had won funds in climate finance out of 30 funded across the country and we needed to attend a meeting with the Oxford folks and finance players (the major institute is based in Oxford). I have never felt out of place in my life. We were only 6 blacks in that meeting. Three from my end (including myself), two from my friend’s end who also had 2 of her businesses winning funding and 1 other guy who works with a major finance institution in the city. I vowed to avoid such meetings in the future. We may think such events will help us get networks. I laugh. My experience partnering with white-run businesses has made me realise that it is safer and better to partner with your kit and kin than with foreigners. You will appreciate this when trouble arises. Only your own will bring out their necks and reputation to defend you. I want to join in building such networks.

Goke7:
Oya tell aunty kemi to loud it na 😂

Zahra29:
We don't even have to be fully in, but much closer ties would be a very good idea if we are able to negotiate our position. E.g. free movement for work but no access to benefits until a certain time period (which is what Cameron previously tried and failed to negotiate)

jedisco:
Hehe.. free matter.
These things comes in waves- life itself is repetitive. Just like high and low tide, you'd have periods of high and low immigration. We might be getting into a low-tide period which is not bad... make thise wey come recently chop small. All said, one fact remains constant- immigration to the West is based on need.

Was it the unsustainable number of Europeans that forced the self-harm called Brexit? When last was the care sector fully self-reliant? Eastern Europeans came to work here and returned yet people complained that they're using the pound to develop Poland. Now, Indians come and remain, complain still choke.

The fact is KS by his policies is more likely to reasonably rein in on longterm migration that NF. The later might show some wickedness but would ultimately cause more migration if he sticks to his economic promises. Personally, I want Reform in for this stuff to go full circle. I said a while back that the next few decades would be fun to watch. Even as hell bent as Japan was, they still had to smell the coffee.

P.S. I take exception with this unskilled migrant tag for care workers. The true cost of a care worker is not what they are paid but the opportunity cost of not having them here.

ukay2:
MARKET ALERT...

GOOGLE share crosses $190 from km $86


COSTCO crosses km $1,000 from km $500


TIME in the market is always better than TIMING the market

After buying your house, the next good thing to do is to invest in the USA market....thank me later

Zahra29:
Net migration is lagging data. The 1M (906,000) represents net migration in the year to June 2023. We'll have to wait for future ONS releases to see the impact of the measures introduced by the last government on net migration , although Home Office data indicates that there has been a sharp reduction in work and dependant visas.
Below graph shows monthly skilled and health care visas from 2022 to Nov 2024

Goke7:
I can’t answer o me myself am confused. May be those that got their visas approved can explain

Cyberknight:
I want Labour to deal with this social care staffing issue once and for all (not going to happen, I know).
They should try offering care workers good pay commensurate with the job and then see how many Brits languishing on the benefits rolls would be happy to get out of bed to take up the jobs. Then they'll truly have a chance to spike Reform's guns once and for all, otherwise try to stop their inexorable march to power in 2029.

I'd prefer the UK not to have these high levels of unskilled immigration because it simply gives the Faragists all the more ammunition to fight with. And ultimately, when they do get into power, they'll take it as a licence to be as nasty as they want to be, which'll end up taking us to a different level akin to US-style polarisation and all it brings.

JustAPasserBy:
Am I the only one who feels a bit of pity for these Jubilating Syrians?

The jubilation and burning of grave and destroying statues seem like Deja vu. I saw those exact scenes in Iraq after Saddam Hussein and in in Libya after Gadaffi. If I am a Libyan, or an Iraqi, I may very likely prefer the Gadaffi days or the Saddam days.

rock86:
I don't mind being here, no one knows me physically and no one can threaten my mental health here.
But in real life, hell no. So I am not what you have stated above.

Goke7:
Reduce wetin! Dey play. I keep hearing that even care workers now are applying for their dependents and getting approved. Just heard one today and another friend who just got his COS as a support worker, so could be true that jobs are now available while the whining about numbers continue.