₦airaland Forum

Lexusgs430:
The shit or the wait...... 😁😂

Lexusgs430:
Settled status was 5 years, Kemi suggested 20 years, Keir is implementing 10 years..... Slowly, slowly..... They would get to 20 years....

Once they throw conversations in the air, not too long after, implementation occurs.....

jedisco:
Trump no dey hear word.
Is he just mouthing or was this really the 'deal'

jedisco:
Spaces in the care sector are already opening though there is still relative glut.

Agencies that used to offer escalated rates plus mileage/transport but stopped when alot of entrants arrived are now beginning to improve pay as shifts are gradually becoming more difficult to fill.

bigtt76:
I had the account with them before I relocated but I think if you download their app you should be able to register an account with them. I wasn't in Nigeria when I got the account. Good thing is you get a virtual account you can transfer funds into and it updates real-time.

Zahra29:
Only applies to temporary Indian transfers as they would be paying social security contributions in their own country - and vice versa with British transfers to India.

Similar arrangements already exist for transfers from the EU, US , Singapore and others

Goke7:
That's the kind of news we want to hear in this modern times, not gaslighting and bigotry that sets everyone back

jedisco:
This place is getting quieter....

Interesting thread I stumbled upon. Nice weekend read..

Still didn't find an answer to the question on why they care?

https://www.reddit.com/r/AskAnAfrican/s/IuIhlcVebg

dustydee:
The key question is: Does missjekyll agree?

AgentXxx:
I don come again with another ogbonge update for anyone working in central London. I tried Jollof Mama today. Had jollof with mixed chicken and beef Suya and it was giving that heavenly feeling 😋.

There is this crispy moin moin on the menu I intend to try next week I am in central London.

Ire oo!!!

Zahra29:
Good news!!!! What a relief! 🎉🥳💃

Supreme Court rules definition of woman in Equality Act refers to 'biological women'
The definition of a woman and sex in the Equality Act relates to “a biological woman and biological sex”,

https://www.theguardian.com/law/live/2025/apr/16/uk-supreme-court-to-rule-on-legal-definition-of-a-woman-gender-recognition-certificates?filterKeyEvents=false&page=with%3Ablock-67ff73b08f08bcf9ff482850#block-67ff73b08f08bcf9ff482850

AgentXxx:
🙌🏾 how you rate am?

Lexusgs430:
Queue plenty o..... About 15 people dey my front.... 😁😂

AgentXxx:
Update!!!!

If you are living in London or suburbs… Suya Academy don arrive oo, I was there last week to have a taste and it is the bomb and closest to Suya university in Lagos Allen avenue 😋.

Don’t stay I didn’t update oo @lexus gs baba have you gone there? Abi you just stay quiet no update 😒

masseratti:
i don't even understand what the hell you just wrote..do you understand the concept of wealth creation in economics at all?or is the Trump administration telling you the government is raising tariffs to raise money to pay debts?jeez where do you get your info from?
Tarrifs,what we call import duties is not paid by exporters but importers .. which is mostly citizens of importing country the USA citizens

Not the Chinese or Canadian citizens..and high tarrifs is only meant to give opportunity for local industry to thrive..but the world has evolved from that ..where you don't have strength you don't ..bettee still subsidize uour local industry for like 10 years where it can have competitive advantage over other countries own..thats what China did ,thats bettee than talking too much and swinging a hammerhead in a Chinese store,pun intended.

masseratti:
am not a trump supporter,but sometimes a wrong clock can be right twice on a day..the Europeans western Europe have been maybe due to lack of strong leaders complacent,we all should thank China for manufacturing cheap alternative products and getting better with them over the years.. intellectual property right or not...the USA did same to European inventors too to get to where they arr today.. patent laws were in existence in Europe since 1700..USA didn't have one till late 1800.

My point is the USA can also have a lil bit of socialist model.. create economic free zone..where healthcare, housing, education,food is already cheap in the USA..will be heavily subsidized like it is in China...that will bring down the labor cost .. create a supply chain to feed those industries in the economic zones ...labor cost is the main issue why companies are manufacturing in China..the only thing that is making the labor cost cheap there are those needs of an average Joe.this tariffs is just archaic.

Chukwuka16:
We all become fintechs in time

I used to be in the world
But now I'm a changed man (Praise the Lord) yeah
I used to have five side chicks
But right now I only have one (Hallelujah) yeah
I used to drink Fanta with vodka but now it's just Fanta (ah Bleep martini!)
Me I used to fantasize about Amber Rose and Blac Chyna
But right now it's just BamBam
Right now I'm law abiding tax paying tongue praying soul winning uh
Bleep
Until I take you to church
I go love you too much 'til you beg me to stop baby
I'm a born again no fornicate again
I don't play no games never sin again

We needed to vary our authorisation and that meant going back to our consultants to discuss the costs and process. They came back with a proposal which put the entire process at £31k + VAT (including their fee of about £26k + VAT and licence fee of around £5k). On our end, manpower over 5 months to work on preparing our application was going to be £35k. I decided to stew over this for a few days, tinker with our finance sheet and ultimately agree. £13k + VAT needed to be paid once I agreed with the proposal (which I was going to).

From an operations POV, this was straightforward. We needed to have the licence if our marketplace was going to function (so we thought). This additional expense meant a further decimation of margins. I needed some headroom as times are getting interesting every day. This was going to be a 1-year process. While this was being pursued, I needed to start romancing companies with the senior licence (API) to make me an agent so we could kick off operations. If only I knew.

I am on my computer setting up Stripe for one of our businesses with the CEO and I stumble on some products offered by Stripe that not only allow me to operate a marketplace effectively but even do more. For months, we have struggled on operationalising the unrestricted monetised benefits consumers were going to earn on the platform (mostly from flexibility participation). The alternative was to allow a withdrawal from the marketplace to their bank accounts. I put a pause on this as I was not ready to go crazy. I already had too much compliance and risk reporting to do and didn’t need to top it up just yet. Now imagine my consternation to discover that Stripe allows for the creation of Virtual Cards for users. O Lord, O Lord, O Lord!

I have briefed the dev team, and we are game. We are doing research to know how it works and how it changes the UX on our platform. I have saved myself £66k + VAT (on £26k). I can now issue virtual cards to customers allowing them to be able to transfer their unrestricted monetised benefits to these cards and spend outside the platform, receive revenue from customers, deduct our charges/fees before making payments to merchants all using Stripe. I can broker finance with lenders for our customers as we are authorised, and life has never been beautiful.

I am now reminiscing about this finding and the effects are grim.

First, most of my partners and their businesses are dead. I am in partnership with a lender and their minimum capital requirement to act as a lender for our customers is £300k. For this, I’ll have countless meetings, we will deliberate fees, interest rates and RoI and safeguards and loss management. I will expend time and resources just to lend my money to consumers. Now here’s the kicker. Klarna offers their service without me needing to know them or make any capital available. Infact, Klarna will pay me upfront up to £4k for a single product, can offer my customers access to payments up to 24 months or the usual BNPL or pay in 3 instalments at 0% APR (ahem, there’s some transaction fees involved). In a short while, Klarna will be able to offer finance cheaper than my partner and kick them out of business. They do not appreciate how much disruption is coming. Ignorance is bliss they say, well, not in today’s world.

Second, agility is key. We started out as a software business, pivoted to hardware (with the software meant to operationalise the hardware), and now we are a fintech business (building business models on them all). We are in the energy space and will be the biggest flexibility marketplace globally. This is not a flex. Our target is 25MW/125MWh flexibility capacity by year end rising to 1GW/10GWh globally next year without building a single plant. We hope to achieve 10GW/2TWh by 2030 by God’s Grace. We are however realising that we are simply a financial technology business. We are creating business models to monetise demand response (DR). Having customers who can be flexible in energy consumption is what we are achieving through the hardware and the reward scheme. However, what drives this behaviour is the financial incentive. Our ability to create money from offering cheaper alternative to grid balancing or generation expansion is simply a financial problem – the engineering aspect is a boundary condition. If we didn’t have agility built in ensuring we could pivot as quickly as possible, adapt and adopt innovation, we would have built a failed product.

Thirdly, talented community matters. I am back to my usual whining again. We have suffered this long because we do not have a community of talented people in this field. I am not a finance person originally. We didn’t have community members to consult. Everyone we know in finance is just interested in their jobs that are now being deleted by innovation and AI. There are days I am going mental simply because I am burdened and have no one to talk to about the problems I am confronting. I take long walks talking to myself like a mad man just to let off steam. I write hundreds of pages literally just to depressurise my head. I would have been better off having talented folks to talk to. Mentors to learn from. Shoulders to climb. Damn, we are a lost cause as immigrants. I try not to sound like a broken record or mental nutjob to my missus – she has enough problems to deal with. Someone will say what of your CFO and COO? Well, it is hard to convey your thoughts especially when you are still struggling to understand them. Unfortunately, this has been the case. They catch up when I am clear. Navigating the cobwebs of confusion to clarity has been the struggle. Inside life.

Let me clear, what we offer isn’t pure rocket science but does not exist practically yet anywhere. Think about your flex programme but not via smart meters – our own smart devices – plugs, sockets, finger bots (for operating your washing machines and dish washers and tumble dryers in your absence) and our own app. We procure your fridge and freezers and washing machines and dish washers and electric kettles and electric heaters (EV chargers and heat pumps coming along) as assets for either dynamic or fixed compensation over a timeline (month, quarter year, half year, full year) and can sell these to NESO and DSOs facing demand and capacity constraints in real-time. This means we must become a VLP and get a host of other certifications and qualifications and 3rd party software integration. I have researched this since 2012. In fact, this formed the crux of my bachelors (virtual power plants), master’s and doctorate. The pool of folks I can discuss this at length with is quite limited globally within our community. I deliberately don’t want to work with non-Nigerians on this – I can use them as consultants but want to have that knowledge marinated within a community of people with my skin colour and from Nigeria. What we offer covers finance (we are authorised to broker credit for customers to buy our smart devices), hardware (we design, manufacture and certify our devices), software (crazy as we have to build patches between our own system using flutter and the firmware owner in CHINA built on Java, cloud services, and AI), and the electricity market (continuous research to ensure we can mitigate risks). The biggest concern has been ensuring that we are building something that can scale.

Fourth, ongoing consolidation will destroy us because we have no stakes in them. I will go for the licences still. We would go commercial (late April or early May), make sales and carve out the cost for getting the needed licence and go for it. We will build the services we hope to deploy from Stripe ourselves and get it setup. It will cost us a lot, but we MUST do it and keep on ice. Yes, humanity is back to its senses for a while with Trump coming on board. However, it is going to be worse soon as censorship will run wild while free speech gets attacked and controlled. Companies like Stripe will evolve into DEI run businesses using useless metrics to determine who gets to remain on their platform. We will also do the same for our servers. We will build and operate our own servers to handle at least 50% of our services. It will cost us a lot of money, but we MUST do it. Whatever we can get now, we MUST get it. Yes, we are becoming almost a vertically integrated business. It is a safer bet than having too many dependencies. I have learnt from Trump’s ordeal (a former US president – let that sink in) and how useless Twitter (now X), Facebook, Instagram and other businesses can become (even banks!) when they want to control the narrative to be better safe than sorry.

Fifth, contemporary education is useless. I am handling a consulting gig now with the folks I consult for stateside. The problem we are providing solutions to do not yet exist for another 18 months. To show how funny the problem is, I am forced to generate unconventional models to represent the system and mirror the Fault-Tolerant Flight Control System (FTFCS) in aviation to simulate redundancy. This is not transferred learning. My background of electrical engineering (BSc and MSc) and Computer Science (PhD) are mostly useless here. Of course it is heavy on stochastic modelling, Monte Carlo, Hidden Markov Models for probabilistic dependencies, Fault Tree Analysis, Bayesian Networks, etc. The problem formulation is first principles and that’s what worries me. Contemporary education seems lost or unable to develop our creative minds. Education as a process MUST stimulate the creativity of the student. That is the sole purpose of education. However, when it is focused on silos, it prevents us from understanding that events that occur in life are microcosms of themselves.

Sixth, career is dead and gone. Unless job prostitution, it is insane to expect to remain 30 years in a company. Well after the full transition to the dystopic world that is gradually evolving, people can be sure to remain long-term in a company – more as serfs (you know technofeudalism). This implies that as businesses are transforming, we cannot expect to continue to transform to stay relevant – it will wear us out. We need to build an ecosystem that can allow us maintain stability in an ever-changing world. No one says you should remain stagnant, but can that be more of a process-driven learning to improve on what we can do rather than outright ejection or a rat-race for the next certification which does not guarantee stability? Can we continue to add value as we upskill in a more nuanced and paced format than compete for employment/daily bread? We can only be afforded this luxury in an ecosystem we build. People get to have stability based on how eager they are to learn and upskill without the fear of being ejected. We can promote those most competent and updated but everyone gets to be taken care of. We need to think ecosystem. It is one of the wonders of life. Literally, immigrants from Asia (India, China, Pakistan, etc.) and Jews are leveraging this in driving wealth and prosperity for themselves.

Lastly, the UK is dead and gone. I cannot comprehend how a country can be sliding into uselessness and not know. I am grateful for the privilege of citizenship the UK has afforded me and the access that has brought. I am however disappointed with the distaste for ambition that is prevalent in the UK. It seems suffering and laborious work and conservative lifestyle is more virtuous in the UK. Folks will sneer at ambitious thinking forgetting that lack of such is inhibiting the UK’s ability to carve out a niche for itself in the evolving new world. You will hear of allocation for projects and wonder if the government is made up of peasants. The sixth biggest economy in the world and it sets aside peanuts for so-called ambitious projects. £12m disagreement and it is happy to lose £500m worth of inward investments from AstraZeneca (we need to start deducting from the so-called record breaking £60+ billion it claims it raised recently). In the midst of all these struggles, young and ambitious folks are unable to have the needed support to innovate. There is no doubt I would have been sorting out mails or working in a factory had we not secured non-diluting funding for our idea – I was never going to be a lecturer in the UK. Research was enough. What irks me is that there are folks with more brilliant ideas than me that will contribute immensely and positively to humanity but will never get funded because the UK government is unambitious. The “denseness” of the UK political class is creating a third world country in the UK. Forget the façade of London – the UK as a whole is done. What future does exist for young and ambitious people who want to try out new things? It is the availability of opportunities that has turned the US and China into wonder nations. Cheap loans, high risk appetite, tolerance for innovation, etc. is catalysing so much wealth in these countries. How come China with its style of governance is generating so much innovation and yet the UK with its so-called free speech is still wondering what LLMs are?

Well, it seems everything is ending in finance. At the end of the day, what matters most is that consumers get value, and we get paid. If it means us becoming a fintech then, so, be it.

I cannot wrap my head around the lyrics of this song by Blaqbonez ft BOJ and CKay – Good Boy. I can always find comfort in the comical and very relaxing lyrics from this song. The essence of this song is its misplaced usefulness at a time like this. It just eases in without ruffling feathers but is well suited to strike that balance between chill and reflection.

I'm a very different kind of somebody
I'm not someone that is into all those kinds of sweet boys
All those kind of nonsense things
I like a God fearing man a man that fear God
Now this is me this is the kind of person I am
I am not interest in that I don't have interest on that

Hey no I'm not regular ay (Bang)
You swear you on my cellular ay (Da dang)
I see a lot of boys want a snap of me of me
I no dey smoke marijuana oh baby
I no dey do fornicator oh baby
I no dey go kalakuta oh baby
I don't don't no ayy
As you are looking at a good boy
We no too many we no too many
Say we no too many
'Cause you're looking at a good boy
We no too many we no too many baby oh

I'm a good boy on a very good day
Me I no dey lie on a very good day
I'm still a virgin on a very good day
And I dey go church every other Sunday ay ay

The way I dey move e dey make her confuse
Dey with some girl whey dey tell me bonjour
Say I look so bad but I'm so good
Say I look so bad but I'm so good
Tryna get close to ya know say me I no dey smoke cigar
We told you we no dey smoke bana
We don't even smoke marijuana yeah yeah yeah
I no dey chance person for hold up I let them pass
As a good boy I gotta show example
You dey waste time if you try to fight me
Turn the next cheek if popo slap me
Oya jeje I dey give them jeje
Angelina sempe everything popping
We dey give them yenke
Oh

As you are looking at a good boy
We no too many we no too many
Say we no too many
'Cause you're looking at a good boy
We no too many we no too many baby oh

I used to be in the world
But now I'm a changed man (Praise the Lord) yeah
I used to have five side chicks
But right now I only have one (Hallelujah) yeah
I used to drink Fanta with vodka but now it's just Fanta
Me I used to fantasize about Amber Rose and Blac Chyna
But right now it's just BamBam
Right now I'm law abiding tax paying tongue praying soul winning uh
Bleep
Until I take you to church
I go love you too much 'til you beg me to stop baby
I'm a born again no fornicate again
I don't play no games never sin again

As you are looking at a good boy
We no too many we no too many
Say we no too many
'Cause you're looking at a good boy
We no too many, we no too many baby oh

No I'm not regular ayy
But for real I'm not regular
Look at what I do you can help me check the cellular yeah
All my music praise and worship promise you no secular woah
I no fit even tell you say I don do woman before
All my life yo I never ever drink alcohol
Gold chain gold chain gold chain
But I dey with rosary every second saying prayer to God
Thank God it's Friday it's time for night vigil
I no dey gyrate I'm more into soul winning
Dem boys dey for 57 but I dey the prayer level
Life is really spiritual, somebody gats to cast the devil
So tell me what you want oh baby shey you wanna go Santorini
How you wanna go renegade (Bleep with me baby)

That's what I like

Me I no dey lie on a very good day
I'm still a virgin on a very good day
And I dey go church every other Sunday ay ay
(Focus)

lavida001:
This is the solution.
https://youtube.com/shorts/0d4HtPFowaE?si=fGbx18EXz6sorRzC

wallg123:
While the stock market is dancing awillo una dey here dey argue migrant this migrant that. Its getting boring now. Its friday night you guys should go and have fun or relax biko

Treadway:
lol. I've consistently picked up on your advice(s) to Africa and Africans.

Sadly, you're flying solo here. There is no interest by Africans to fight for and build Africa. Not entirely their fault tho, cos the system is just stacked against you, but I do know that the whites were able to do it. Fought with blood and sweat to build working and functional societies......one of the reason I beef them, cos I don't accept they are better than me in any way, but the reality is the reality. They are different and better, which makes me beef them even more...na raging conflict 🤣🤣🤣

jedisco:
You capture this succinctly.

1-2 years ago, when the PSW and student visa changes were made, it became clear that many would end up being shafted. Remember having that discussion here.

Imagine a masters student who arrived earlier with family- had to cough up > £20k as Uni and PSW fees now facing removal 3 yrs in. How would they handle it? Many are frantically seeking a care visa now.
Compare that to someone who arrived via Care at same time. That person has 2 years left to ILR and may have got a desired role in or outside care. It's these disparities that drive crazy desperation

Goke7:
Unfortunately this is true especially when I also remember the pastor Tobi issue.

The complicated thing again is that both the giver and taker are liable. At worst the Dr could just be struck off from the medical profession. The true antidote is just for people to stop paying for COS but will people listen?

Arap:
This is the unpleasant reality for corporate roles nowadays.

I had my share of this unpleasant situation today. I have been with the NHS for 20 months; started as a B5, progressed to B6 and recently secured a B7. I received the sad news today that the new Trust would not be able to sponsor for a finance role because there is no funding.

It is really unreasonable to deny a qualified candidate visa sponsorship because of £2k when the pay for that role is 25x the Immigration skills charge. Applicants should be the one complaining about the £4k visa and IHS fee, not the employer.

The only hope I have now is for my current employer to make good their promise of 1 year ago to sponsor my visa, otherwise, my friends who have been advising me to leave career and pursue care visa would say "We told you"

dentalux:
Today, I just want to share with you what happens in the UK job market. People here should stop blaming people who decide to go for care visa without trying professional jobs.. The truth is the spirit of labour market test is still in place. My flatmate mate got a job within the civil service and resumed. When it came to the issue of sponsorship the Labour market test was applied on him. He was told he could not be sponsored and that the role is not a hard to fill role and could be sourced from the UK labour market. He showed me the letter which i read.. This is just to tell someone looking for sponsorship. Pray for direction what works for A may not work for B. even if the company has a license. .

Goke7:
The uk is a conservative society if one is not content and is too greedy ending up as a scammer is so easy