The more I explore these apps, the more I get impressed. Yesterday I found Starling E-certifies their statements with a verifiable digital stamp. Saves a trip down those traditional banks.

Lexusgs430:



This fintech banks have features, this grandpa erico2k2 banks, are only just dreaming about........

- Virtual cards (what a brilliant idea)
- No useless building on the high street
- Call the bank with your registered number, if that call goes unanswered, they would send you a feedback message
- Pots organisation structure
- Ability to buy shares, cryptos, commodities, within fintechs exchange
- Higher interest rates payments (if you are risk aversed).......
- Too many to mention, make erico2k2 no go vex........

Lexusgs430:



This fintech banks have features, this grandpa erico2k2 banks, are only just dreaming about........

- Virtual cards (what a brilliant idea)
- No useless building on the high street
- Call the bank with your registered number, if that call goes unanswered, they would send you a feedback message
- Pots organisation structure
- Ability to buy shares, cryptos, commodities, within fintechs exchange
- Higher interest rates payments (if you are risk aversed).......
- Too many to mention, make erico2k2 no go vex........

All valid points, apart from number 2 - remember that those useless buildings on the high street employ people who need the work and also contribute to community mental health by serving as places for the old to go to in order to harass bank staff over improper capitalisation of an alphabet in their postcode or something equally trivial just for an outing and to keep sane.

erico2k2:

That was a direct message from me not to be included in ur childish jokes thanks!

Why are you so angry.......

TheGuyFromHR:


All valid points, apart from number 2 - remember that those useless buildings on the high street employ people who need the work and also contribute to community mental health by serving as places for the old to go to in order to harass bank staff over improper capitalisation of an alphabet in their postcode or something equally trivial just for an outing and to keep sane.

Did you miss the memo traditional banks, shutting down over 4000 branches..........

Not my saying, just natural mutation......

Bourne007:
The more I explore these apps, the more I get impressed. Yesterday I found Starling E-certifies their statements with a verifiable digital stamp. Saves a trip down those traditional banks.

Oga justwise is out with his axe.........

I say no more, i no get RJ energy.......

It's Friday, just chill and relax...... This life is stressful enough......

A drop of sarcasm, mixed with a blend of realities, does no harm........

Lexusgs430:



Did you miss the memo traditional banks, shutting down over 4000 branches..........

Not my saying, just natural mutation......

I didn't miss the memo, well aware of it.
Just pointing out that digital banks do have their advantages, while lamenting the inexorable march of automation and the sometimes unpleasant consequences it brings.

Lexusgs430:



Why are you so angry.......

well, cos U keep mentioning me in all these silliness you posting up there! which by the way makes no single iota of sense, mayB you are showing off to people who just got here or truly you have no clue!

Chukwuka16:
On Nigeria, The UK and the Future

It is always refreshing to every now and then document one’s thoughts about raging issues – national, provincial or global. For me, this provides a valuable resource in the future of history. For the future generation, it presents how my thought process evolved over time. To everyone else, it further exposes my mind for the mind is the standard of the man.

Nigeria – a cornucopia of confusion and the growth of the sachet economy
When recently @mamatukwas displayed a picture of the repackaged spaghetti by Honeywell, it immediately triggered in me flashbacks to my brief discourse/exchanges here on this platform some time ago on the need to adjust one’s business to suit the economic trend in Nigeria. Nigeria is a country made up of over 200m+ people (guesstimate) and it is usually not uncommon to assume that that size presents huge business opportunities.

Research by others have shown that Nigeria’s population is being propped up by just under 30% (c.60m+ people) of the population. Of this 60m+ people perhaps just under 30m+ really have purchasing power of around 2 million Naira annually. Of course, this is on average basis. This limited population with this ‘high’ spending power is majorly (over 85%) domiciled in Lagos with about 12% spread across Ogun, Ibadan, Port Harcourt, Abuja and Delta. The outstanding 3% are shared across the rest of the country (let me say that these are all rough estimates).

With such perverse wealth distribution across the country, only 4 sectors will directly affect the whole strata of society – food, health, transport and communication. Any other business outside of these sectors has to be well thought out and focused. However, the fact that high food poverty exists in Nigeria doesn’t make the business inherently viable. Considering the absence of value addition (preservation, processing), good logistics and low-quality inputs/harvests, coupled with growing insecurity, Nigerians should get ready for more hunger and rising food costs in the days ahead. Anyone still thinking that harvest time will lead to a reduction in food prices will be ‘shocked’ like Buhari. Middlemen continue to benefit from the law of attraction – to him that hath, more will be given. They can buy up farm produce, store and sell when prices are at an all-time high.

Let me paint a picture here for clarity. As of April 2021, fertiliser (urea) was selling for 5K - 5.5K Naira per bag. By the time I was ready to buy by May 2021, the price had increased to 12.5K Naira. This meant that for 35 ha land to be cultivated, I needed to spend an extra 730K Naira on urea alone. Same for NPK (my saving grace was getting it subsidised from government). For a simple double ploughing, rather than the usual 20K/ha, all of a sudden, I was being charged 32K/ha. What about seeds (hybrid), herbicides, aflatoxin etc. What about storage and shellers for the crop (after harvest)? What about irrigation in case weather decided to go on a break? What about cost of planting – I had to use women as we don’t have access to industrial planters? What about their security? By the time of writing this musing, our cost has gone up averagely by over 80%. By the time I’m selling to feeders and also processing into feeds, price would be astronomical. What does this lead me to do – Sacheterisation! Here in the UK and in other advanced countries it is called Shrinkflation!

A typical 15kg feed bag would be reduced to 10/11 kg at same price of 15kg. We could also do 3kg/5kg/7kg bags of feed for farmers to buy as their capacity can carry them. They would of course pay more, but that’s life! End users will end up paying more for fish, eggs, meat etc. The whole cycle will end up forcing households to spend more of their household income on feeding – leading to increasing poverty!

In the midst of all these, the FGN has recently commissioned new universities and given them seed money (in billions) to kick start operations. While this is happening, ASUU is preparing to go on an indefinite strike while our Attorney General is busy looking for a supposed gazette that details the grazing routes of cows across Nigeria. On top of this, our national government is fighting dirty with Twitter (a private company with operations based in the US) while Fulani herdsmen continue to run amok across the country.

We can carry on and on but now you get the picture. Without a new crop of leadership, the growth of the sachet economy will continue as households readjust their lifestyle and spending to meet the new realities. We are in for a long ride to nowhere in Nigeria.

The UK and the growth of feminism
It was beautiful reading the back and forth on the issue of raising kids overseas. In presenting my thoughts about kids being raised here abroad (especially the UK and its likes), let me opine that my ranting is more directed at the male kids than female. I mean no offense to the female gender.

I have watched with growing interest the continued attempts at domesticating and emasculating males here in the UK. I have read news again and again that show how pitiable males are becoming in the “new world”. This crass attempt at degenderizing society is all in a bid to eliminate the so-called male patriarchy they (females) claim exists and achieve parity between males and females.

When I was schooling in South Africa, one thing I quickly picked up was the fact that many white kids were home schooled – their parents tried as much as possible to limit interactions with the black kids. MOST white parents owned their own businesses and lived either as a community (of majority whites) or privately in farms. For these kids, they mostly grow up assisting their parents run the family business. This gives the parents an opportunity to teach these kids life’s most important lesson – RESPONSIBILITY.

How many blacks here in the UK are self-employed? How many blacks (citizens and ILR holders) here in the UK survive without benefits from the government? What makes the Asians and Chinese thick – they own businesses and mostly involve their kids in the day-to-day running of the business.

We talk about insecurity in Nigeria, and I ask, were that not to be an issue, how many of us could afford to send our kids to some of those great private schools in Lagos and Abuja and Osun State? Let’s even ask how many Nigerian parents have in place a plan to self-finance (100%) the schooling of their children in university/college abroad and leave them debt-free?

Raising up kids who would be useful to themselves and society transcends just their growing up values to also include opportunities and privileges you can offer them as a parent. However, the synergy is formed because children who are RESPONSIBLE can better manage opportunities and grow wealth tomorrow.

To offer those kids opportunities in life and broaden their world view, the parents must be self-equipped and empowered to be able to do so. The difference between kids tomorrow will depend on choices. Don’t forget that private schools here in the UK get levels o. There is a reason why the British political class today is filled with Etonians. There is a reason why parents have private tutors for their kids in addition to other expenses – choices. If your kid got admitted to Oxford or Cambridge or Stanford tomorrow without funding, do you have the funds to finance that education (no student debt o)?

When I interact with Nigerian parents, I usually cry (real tears with oscillating shoulders) when parents tell me that their kids have never been to Nigeria! In fact, my consternation becomes aggravated when you see these parents glee with excitement because their kids can speak with the British accent.

Is Pakistan safer than Nigeria? Is Iran safer than Nigeria? Is India safer than Nigeria? Yet you see British-Iranians and British-Pakistanis and other dual nationalities going home yearly to partake in festivals and acclimatising their kids with their roots. It isn’t uncommon to even have Nigerian parents here in the UK preventing their kids from learning their local dialect or visiting home.

I’ve worked with Chinese and Pakistani’s and Indians and other nationals and everywhere they meet, their language comes to fore especially when they can speak their dialect (happens most of the time). I was at a conference some time ago in Germany and my Mexican colleague spots his former Mexican colleague while at Cambridge and they excuse themselves to speak for 20 minutes in Spanish! Nigerians of the same tribe (and ability to converse in their native language) would meet each other and be proud to converse in English – your kids are beside you learning.

How many Nigerian kids here in the UK have read novels from Africa that teach them about our culture or experiences? We have excellent titles in the African Writers Series and excellent writers. That’s where it starts from. How many Nigerian kids here in the UK can talk comfortably about Nigeria, her culture, important places in Nigeria and people? Instead, they are being loaded with baloney about the UK. Did the UK inform your kids that they were bankrupt 50 years ago and had to be bailed by the IMF and the US? Tomorrow when they rewrite our history, can your kids confront and write theirs? It is ok to learn about the battle of Waterloo and Trafalgar (thunder fire knowledge of life in the UK) but not ok to learn about Nigeria’s civil war?

Two years ago, some academics from the UK and South Africa wrote a response to one of my energy policy papers. Their saving grace was that there was a limit to the technical abuse I could spew in academic exchanges. I’m writing as an authority of “no light” and “Up NEPA” telling you why generators and firewood suit me better than solar panels and wind turbines and even following it with sound mathematical computations and clowns who visit my country for holiday were responding that I was perhaps being sponsored by an oil multinational and not ready to participate in the transition to renewables. My response to them was bombastic! For their remaining lives when they see my work, they will jump and pass.

When I see young men acting directionless, I’m scared. This is because males play a crucial role in shaping society and the world at large. Wars have been fought and won (or lost) by men. Policies and initiatives and inventions have MOSTLY been driven by men. Procreation starts from the man (who has the seed)! You can’t have men becoming sissies and think it’s freedom of expression and portends great value for society. Look around you and observe, how many world leaders (male) are gay or transgender or sissies or cross? Even society has some level of expectations from men in leadership positions!

The Future – scary and worrisome
As much as I’m optimistic about the future, I’ve never been scared like now in my entire life (I’ll admit it’s not that long). In fact, I now admire old people because they would soon be dead and not get to live through another economic collapse and the resulting nightmare.

Folks, it’s bad. There has never been so much debt created in life like now. In case you don’t know it, world global economies are shrinking – not expanding (check out debt/GDP). Joblessness, homelessness, forbearance, furlough, extensive lockdowns, huge closedown of businesses have characterised the economy. Yet, in the midst of these, we are being deceived that the economy is rebounding – from where to where? How can house prices be inflating when people are becoming homeless and jobless and there is ongoing forbearance and moratoriums on rents?

Now to the culprit, the FED, these guys are massively inflating the economy using unprecedented money printing (so called REPO/Reverse REPO) and buying back mortgages in $billions on a monthly basis. The US is indebted to the tune of $28 Trillion, the UK (over £2 Trillion) with the EU in excess of $3.5 Trillion. China has begun a massive buying splurge on commodities and expenditure on its Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) to divest itself of its dollars while massively buying huge quantities of gold. Today, Russia holds more gold reserves than the USD. There is only so much money (USD) that can be printed before we have a full cratering of the economy – some economists say it will be worse than the 2008/09 crisis. Across the US and even here in the UK, we are seeing major investment companies – Blackstone and others buying huge swathe of properties at over 50% asking price using cheap loans from the FED which you and I can’t access.

With such dire stats, it will never be unwise to start rethinking how we survive. Folks who lived and worked through the 2008/09 crisis know of a certainty that it will be worse now if we were to have a repeat. Population has grown and facilities are overstretched. Conservatism should guide expenditure. How do you intend to thrive in a repeat 2008/09 crisis? What plans are on ground to ease living during such times? I have no suggestion but only saying it may perhaps not be unwise to know what’s happening in the finance/economic sector and start making plans to assuage any potential impact. Many folks never imagined covid-19 hence no savings/emergency funds, cash at hand. Some even had debts – mortgages, car finance and personal loans. When covid hit and jobs were lost, only them can tell by how much their lives and health has changed.

Unfortunately, Nigeria still offers the best spot to survive during such crisis because of the informal nature of the economy. I know the bashings are coming but back in Nigeria, I can practically have my own community and farm almost all my food and cut down expenses to the basics during such precarious times. It will never be bad to have a fall-back option in times like this. A Brit has no fall-back option besides the UK. You do because of your multiple nationalities. That can always be exploited to stay ahead in life.

Do have a splendid morning.

I took my time to read through.
I may not agree with all that was said
But it was a well put together write up
Kudos.

erico2k2:

well, cos U keep mentioning my in all these silliness you posting up there! which by the way makes no single iota of sense, mayB you are showing off to people who just got here or truly you have no clue!

I am not that petty !!! Showing off in what context?....

TheGuyFromHR:


I didn't miss the memo, well aware of it.
Just pointing out that digital banks do have their advantages, while lamenting the inexorable march of automation and the sometimes unpleasant consequences it brings.

Indeed..... We are all a dot, in a big circle..... When robots come marching home......

Lexusgs430:



- Letter of invitation
- Biometrics data page of sponsors
- Bank statements
- Mortgage deed/rent agreement.........

@sherilicious All the above plus her pension documents/backup as well.

Lexusgs430:



Did you miss the memo traditional banks, shutting down over 4000 branches..........

Not my saying, just natural mutation......

When computers were introduced into offices a lot of secretaries/ typists lost their jobs.

ericko2k2 dey vex someone cannot play with you

marylandcakes:


When computers were introduced into offices a lot of secretaries/ typists lost their jobs.

I'm not sure that is entirely true, those secretaries/ typists will start using computer to type rather than typewriter

justwise:
[/b]

I'm not sure that is entirely true, those secretaries/ typists will start using computer to type rather than typewriter

What I meant was that there used to be a time in most offices, when they needed anything typed everybody passed it on to the typist. When everyone now had computers, then they had to type their work themselves. Where an office used to have about three typists, they now had only one, who mainly typed for the boss. These typist had to learn shorthand. There used to be so many shorthand schools but where are they today ? Obsolete

These days you don’t need to go to the bank to pay in a cheque just scan it with your phone and the money goes straight into your account without you leaving your home.

Thanks

fatima04:


@sherilicious All the above plus her pension documents/backup as well.

Thanks

Lexusgs430:



- Letter of invitation
- Biometrics data page of sponsors
- Bank statements
- Mortgage deed/rent agreement.........

Lexusgs430:


I am not that petty !!! Showing off in what context?....

So you are petty but not that petty.

No offense bro.

Regex:


So you are petty but not that petty.

No offense bro.

I can be petty.... But not showing off petty....... Even peacock's, can be deemed petty......

I don't feed anybody on this thread, I don't pay anyone's bills on this thread etc etc, likewise nobody does for anybody on this thread.......

So when someone accuses another of alleged showing off...... It's simply an extension of their inner self or reflection of abstract perception or wrong interpretation of situations........

I would not involve myself in petty explanations.......

Regex:


No be candy be this?

Nooo, it's designer corn

jtech17:


I remember vividly well ... that BENSON talking about UNCLE LONDON .... even me sef deyno find the video... I want to laff over it again

LOL... @ UNCLE LONDON

Lexusgs430:


I can be petty.... But not showing off petty....... Even peacock's, can be deemed petty......

I don't feed anybody on this thread, I don't pay anyone's bills on this thread etc etc, likewise nobody does for anybody on this thread.......

So when someone accuses another of alleged showing off...... It's simply an extension of their inner self or reflection of abstract perception or wrong interpretation of situations........

I would not involve myself in petty explanations.......

I get.

But it was funny when you said, I can be petty but not petty...

kaylov12:


Nooo, it's designer corn

Omo, I say make I ask before I loss.


So like this all of una have come to terms that you all will never eat banana weh sweet?

Mamatukwas and Co...

Summer is here now, please any suggestions on family holiday destination similar or better than Butlins within the UK

fatima04:
Summer is here now, please any suggestions on family holiday destination similar or better than Butlins

Local or international ?...?

Assuming international is an option, get your car serviced, top up your fuel and take a trip to Holland.......

You would all love this destination........

https://www.duinrell.com/

Boss, pls next time, try not to quote the whole write up. It clogs the thread. Thank you.

Ugosample:


I took my time to read through.
I may not agree with all that was said
But it was a well put together write up
Kudos.

Lexusgs430:



Local or international ?...?

Assuming international is an option, get your car serviced, top up your fuel and take a trip to Holland.......

You would all love this destination........

https://www.duinrell.com/

Right now we are still la vida loca , not graduated to international yet. Noted for future sha