₦airaland Forum

Lexusgs430:
How would they stop the small boats..... This is the million dollar question, labour and conservative government, could not solve....... 😁😂

If i was in charge of home office or the government of the day, I would start by repelling that useless ECHR...... Then those that travelled down by boats, would be immediately processed the second they arrive and sent back within 96 hours...... This would be the only positive deterrent....... 😁😊😂

Have you ever read the ECHR?

By the way, I'm sure this conversation about compelling childbirth would be very different if the participants were female, lol.

Emerald138:
Hi everyone, I've been in the UK for nine months now on a student visa, and I've been unable to secure a part-time job, even as a kitchen porter or warehouse assistant. I receive impromptu interview calls, and at the end, they ask about my visa status and when it expires.

When I tell them the month it expires, they say they can't proceed with my application.

I am at my wits' end as I have no way to pay my upcoming bills. I would greatly appreciate any advice, tips and help. Thank you

Try to find a job through agencies. You can get a temp to perm contract through them or even start with working for agencies near you. It's a start even though your hours may not be guaranteed.

Goodenoch:
By the way, I'm sure this conversation about compelling childbirth would be very different if the participants were female, lol.

You see now

Goke7:
All na mouth The ECHR is the reason you can live in this country; remove it and you will be the first to be deported. Just give it a try and see.

Abeg o..... Kilagbe.... Kileju....... 🙄😁😂

Goodenoch:
Have you ever read the ECHR?

O yes.... I did a module on EC legislation........ 😊😂

Lexusgs430:
Abeg o..... Kilagbe.... Kileju....... 🙄😁😂

😂 your blue or red passport can’t save you o if they remove ECHR.

Lexusgs430:
O yes.... I did a module on EC legislation........ 😊😂

Oh I see 👍🏿

Goke7:
😂 your blue or red passport can’t save you o if they remove ECHR.

If i claim, I have nowhere else to go nko...... 🙄😂

And don't have any other countries passport.... 😜

I can't be rendered stateless...... 😁😂

Lexusgs430:
If i claim, I have nowhere else to go nko...... 🙄😂

And don't have any other countries passport.... 😜

I can't be rendered stateless...... 😁😂

you go sleep open eye see yourself for murtala Mohammed airport

More than nine million pensioners are to receive Winter Fuel Payments this year after Chancellor Rachel Reeves confirmed details of a massive u-turn.
Anyone with an income of £35,000 or below will benefit from the payments of up to £300 designed to help them stay warm in freezing weather.
It means the overwhelming majority of those who lost the money will become eligible again, at a cost of £1.25 billion in England and Wales, following an Express crusade demanding the allowance is reinstated.

Goke7:
it can't be stopped, forget story, it's not about the people migrating. It's more about those who want the resources migration brings. The people coming in by boat bring something and resources the ones coming in by visa don't, and the country needs them, despite all the propaganda. If e easy make them run am.

What resources does an afghan or somali brings along into the country when crossing the channel. Please educate me.

Lexusgs430:
Do you feel submerged...... 😂👌

Don't forget you are surrounded by water in that UK.

lavida001:
What resources does an afghan or somali brings along into the country when crossing the channel. Please educate me.

Like Peter Obi will say, go and verify!

Chukwuka16:
Ownership: we need a diversified basket of assets to create, build and sustain wealth

Financial freedom my only hope
F**k livin' rich and dyin' broke
I bought some artwork for one million
Two years later, that sh*t worth two million
Few years later, that sh*t worth eight million
I can't wait to give this sh*t to my children
Y'all think it's bougie, I'm like, it's fine
But I'm tryin' to give you a million dollars worth of game for $9.99
I turned that 2 to a 4, 4 to an 8
I turned my life into a nice first week release date
Y'all out here still takin' advances, huh?
Me and my nigg*s takin' real chances, uh
Y'all on the 'Gram holdin' money to your ear
There's a disconnect, we don't call that money over here, yeah

Over the last couple of days, I have been brooding over some enlightenment that I just stumbled upon. Our patent attorney emailed me our patent issue notice and I decided to investigate the difference between the inventors and assignee (again). I will reproduce below my findings.

In US patents, the inventor is the individual(s) who conceived of the invention, while the assignee is the party who owns the patent rights. The inventor is typically the one who has contributed to the conception and development of the invention, while the assignee may be the company the inventor works for, an investor, or someone who has licensed the invention. The inventor can also be the assignee, but they are not always the same person.

Summary: even if I conceived the idea, if I am not an assignee, I don’t have a claim to any royalty the patent generates. Damn. I could be the ONLY inventor listed on the patent, but the assignee gets to milk and own the commercial rights to the patent.

Last year, I needed to licence our product to some folks in Silicon Valley and so myself and one of our in-house lawyers were in San Francisco to tidy up the deal. We needed some external sounding board and so I scheduled a call with some respected folk in the Nigeria tech/investing ecosystem. That morning just before the call, my MIL passed – damn. I still went ahead with the call and this consultant said some scary sh*t. In the call, he talked about a friend who conceived an idea, got investors and when they sold to a PE firm, this guy was screwed – terms and conditions. Owner thought he was game but alas somewhere in all of the legalese he had shot himself and lost significant cash when they sold. I’ve never been scared.

Sometime in 2023, some white folks and I decided to explore carbon credits. They had contacts with some of the biggest HVAC manufacturers in the UK and Europe, farmers who had installed massive industrial grade heat pumps, large LED manufacturers, housing associations and very big renewable project operators in the UK. I had the tech platform to help extract carbon offsets using one of Verra’s methodology and had worked out 60 pages of mathematical models along with the software to thrash this out. We are also a Registry Account Holder with Verra. When we set out, we didn’t have any contract. The main guy was the monitoring officer (MO) for one of the government projects I had delivered and brought in the second guy.

The “gentleman” agreement was that I will handle cash, while they bring in business. Share was equal after deducting expenses. Then all of a sudden, they started requesting that I provide them with the models as they needed to present these at universities and to other large potential clients. Luckily, I had created three variations of the model – one for LEDs and two for heat pumps (residential and industrial grades). I sent over the LED version to them, and then we continued discussions. Shortly after that, they came back saying a better approach would be for me to white label my software platform to a business they had which they feel will get more traction than my business – they had registered a business with just two of them as directors (so much for equal sharing). No worries if I control cash. Then in one of our meetings, they let it slip that cash would not be handled by me but them – I would be paid by them. Their argument – my company was not credit worthy to receive such cash. I laughed! Then they came and asked for the second/third models. This was the meat, and I knew. If I gave them this, they didn’t need me again. Any average scientist could operationalise the model and they could go ahead and commercialise it.

I told them we now needed a contract. They went ballistic. Told me how my software was nothing without them. I calmly listed all the original agreements we had that they had changed and how a contract was the best option to avoid confusion. They asked me to send over a copy of the contract and also the models as some clients were urgently wanting to see it – hahahahaha, the long con.

Guess what – I almost sent the models to them. While our lawyer drafted the contract, I was conflicted. My wife seeing my confusion asked me to accompany her to the post office to drop off a parcel. She told me that I could send them the models if on return I felt relieved. We returned and I decided to stew over my next decision while I watched TV. Went to Netflix, scrolled down and saw a documentary titled – The Founder (story of McDonald’s). Watched it, stood up, sent them an email that they will ONLY get the models when we have a contract signed by all parties.

Sent them the contract some days later and till today, I am still awaiting their feedback!

We are in a funny world that is changing dramatically before our eyes. There was a time when 60/40 was a solid hedge. 2022 showed that both stocks and bonds could go down same time. Beyond this, we are seeing intangible assets making up significant aspect of valuation for countries and companies. In today’s knowledge-based economy. Many of the world’s most valuable companies derive the majority of their worth from intangibles rather than from physical assets. Intangibles contribute to wealth creation by enabling innovation, differentiation, efficiency, and scalability in ways tangible assets often cannot. In fact, one study of over 860 companies found that the fastest-growing firms invested 2.6 times more in intangible assets than slower-growing firms.

Apple Inc. – often the world’s most valuable company – is a prime example of a business built on intangible assets. Apple’s brand loyalty, software ecosystem (iOS, App Store), and design & innovation capabilities have created a virtually unassailable market position, allowing it to generate enormous profits. Apple’s total Property, Plant & Equipment (PP&E) was about $45.7 billion in 2023, which includes its corporate campuses, data centers, retail stores, and other equipment. Yet Apple’s market capitalization tells a striking story – investors value the company at roughly $3 trillion. Compared to a book value (shareholders’ equity) of only about $62 billion, Apple’s market value is nearly 50 times higher. In other words, over 95% of Apple’s valuation is attributable to assets and expectations beyond the tangible book assets. This gap is essentially the intangible value of Apple – the worth of its brand, customer loyalty, intellectual property, software ecosystem, and future innovation potential.

JPMorgan Chase, one of the world’s largest banks, offers a contrast where tangible and financial assets remain significant, but intangible factors also contribute to value. As a bank, JPMorgan’s business is rooted in financial assets (loans, securities) and trust (an intangible). On its balance sheet, JPMorgan carries substantial tangible and financial assets – about $4.36 trillion in total assets as of 2023, consisting largely of loans, investments, and cash. Physical tangibles like corporate real estate (branch offices, data
centers) are a small portion of this total, but still present (the bank owns many office buildings and branches, reflected in PP&E). These hard assets enable the bank’s revenue-generating activities (e.g. loans generate interest income), creating wealth in a more traditional asset-driven way. However, intangible assets and competitive strengths are far from absent in finance. Goodwill and other intangibles on JPMorgan’s balance sheet amount to roughly $50–64 billion (as of recent years). While these are not listed as assets on the balance sheet, they certainly add value. The proof is in the market’s valuation: JPMorgan’s market capitalization is about $700 billion in 2025, well above its book equity. Investors price in the bank’s earnings power, which comes not just from having lots of loans (tangibles/financials) but from superior management, brand, and technology (intangibles).

Tesla, the electric vehicle (EV) and clean energy company, exemplifies the “mobility” sector (automotive/transportation) where traditionally tangibles dominated, yet it has achieved a market valuation heavily supported by intangibles. By the end of 2023, Tesla’s total assets were about $106.6 billion, including factories in the U.S., China, and Germany, as well as cash, inventory of cars, etc. However, Tesla’s market capitalization – approximately $790 billion at end of 2023 (and over $1 trillion at various points) – far exceeds the value of its physical assets. The difference is the market’s appraisal of Tesla’s intangible assets and future potential.

I decided to also explore universities ranking and their ownership of patents as well as countries and it shows why the US continues to lead.

Our acquisition for tangible assets is great but will afford us limited utility in the new world. Folks, we need to rethink life. Many of the benefits from what we implement today won’t be seen in our lifetime, but we are sure that our kids get to have a seat at the table. Today, our people are being used to generate patentable ideas globally but only get to be listed as inventors. The assignee which is what matters are entities inimical to our advancement. This is no different from the relationships between boxers and their promoters. One gets to receive the beatings and part of the returns with another taking a huge chunk with no beating!

When the consultant I talked with hinted that he has not seen many Nigerians patenting their ideas, I laughed because for us, the cost we were quoted wasn’t a walk in the park. Each patent has cost us around $15k to prosecute. Who has that amount just chilling for something intangible?

He further mentioned that there was a company making over $1 billion annually from the sale of patents which they got from grant applications made by Africans to various bodies. Imagine that. The ideas that will solve our problems across Africa are today patented. How do we think we would break free? We saw a glimpse of this during Covid. They all refused to release the IP for the local manufacture of vaccines. Were it not for God, Africa would have been in slavery 2.0.

When Chinua Achebe wrote “Things Fall Apart”, it made sense for “Eneke the bird” to say that “since men have learned to shoot without missing, he has learned to fly without perching”. This was the level of understanding then. This was a strategy then, not today. You can’t beat the game playing catch-up. You beat the game by having a systems approach and understanding where the convergence point is through foresight. With foresight, you simply setup shop at the convergence point and make a killing as they converge.

I know we like ease – who doesn’t? We catch fun as we migrate from one developed country to another – who doesn’t want to have multiple citizenship and pass that down? We are excited when we purchase that new property – who doesn’t want to be a homeowner in “the abroad”? Who isn’t eager to work in a good company and earn megabucks and have money to “shalaye” regularly? We all like life. I love life too! Unfortunately, this time, it is not about us but the survival of our race.

The lyrics I quoted is from Jay-Z’s The Story of O.J. A breakdown of Jay-Z’s $2.5 billion wealth shows that the intangible aspect is at 58% or $1.45 billion. His brand alone is $1.1 billion. Ditto for Rihanna. Tangible aspect of her $1.4 billion wealth is $270 million with the intangible aspect being $1.13 billion (over 80%). Same with Kim Kadashan. With a net worth of $1.7 billion, intangibles make up $1.45 billion (over 85%). Elon’s $330-$350 billion net worth is only $6 billion in tangibles. Over $320 billion (or 98%) of Elon’s net worth is intangible.

The game has changed. How can we trap and retain IP within our community? How can we leverage our community in growing brands from within us to cater for us long-term? I know that many of us are scarred because of events that have occurred. I have been too, but it does not negate from the fact that that’s life. We can’t fold our arms and watch a whole generation perish because of a few bad eggs. Folks, I say this with pain – any youth who does not see themselves in a top 20 city in the next 20 months will be useless to humanity! This is not a careless statement. We are gradually being excluded from the new world. It seems our fate has been determined – to be the bottom feeders, the peasants of the world who will function solely for the pleasure of the developed world.

Today, a Nigerian youth in Gora, Nasarawa cannot comfortably make transactions overseas with his bank card. He will struggle to pay for hosting fees on Hostinger, Heroku, Azure, MongoDB, etc. In fact, setting up Azure $150k free credit services for startups will require you having a credit card. Where in Nigeria are credit cards issued?

Our priority should be to retain commercial streams for every of our IP from Nigeria. Those intellectuals forced to “dash” their IP to host institutions in the GCC and China (the major culprits here) or the very innovative businesses that are forced to apply for grants to bootstrap their ideas (whose ideas get stolen routinely and patented) need lifelines. How can we get innovative businesses in Nigeria access to $10k as quickly as possible with SAFE note to protect investors? I know the diaspora community can afford this times over. Many will fail – quite so. But the ones that succeed will compensate for any losses. We should be able to take ownership of patents from our creators and agree commercial agreements that guarantee them significant share from any accrued royalty. Vetting and managing these are the easiest things. We already do so for white-owned businesses that we work for.

Food for thought.

As I conclude I am reminded of this statement – “why tip toe through life only to arrive safely at death?”

This is a good one.

SapphireFort:
Try to find a job through agencies. You can get a temp to perm contract through them or even start with working for agencies near you. It's a start even though your hours may not be guaranteed.

I just like when SAPPHIRE advices EMERALD 😁

Zahra29:
UK family visa rules should be relaxed, government review suggests

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/family-visa-spouse-earning-salary-immigration-b2766527.html#comments-area

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/jun/10/another-drop-in-uk-net-migration-in-2026-may-cause-labour-shortages-says-no-10-adviser

The more you look the less you see kind of situation.

I believe most should be happy with this but moaning beginning to slightly creep in.

Raalsalghul:
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/jun/10/another-drop-in-uk-net-migration-in-2026-may-cause-labour-shortages-says-no-10-adviser

The more you look the less you see kind of situation.

I believe most should be happy with this but moaning beginning to slightly creep in.

Prof Bell is always issuing warnings lol. I guess that's part of his job.

However net migration of ~200k is simply going back to pre COVID levels, and even that was seen as too high back then.

Retail and hospitality jobs used to be filled by EU migrants. If the EU youth mobility agreement goes through, there will be a renewed supply of young people who want the type of flexible, social work that retail and hospitality provides.

Raalsalghul:
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/jun/10/another-drop-in-uk-net-migration-in-2026-may-cause-labour-shortages-says-no-10-adviser

The more you look the less you see kind of situation.

I believe most should be happy with this but moaning beginning to slightly creep in.

It's The Grauniad; you'd expect them to slant their headline that way.

Zahra29:
UK family visa rules should be relaxed, government review suggests

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/family-visa-spouse-earning-salary-immigration-b2766527.html#comments-area

I will never understand uk laws. What do these people really want gan gan ?

lavida001:
I will never understand uk laws. What do these people really want gan gan ?

The more you look, the less you see.

Good morning people, please is it practically possible to run through a mortgage process from start to moving in without involving a mortgage advisor? I mean doing everything by one's self? Thanks.

ehizario2012:
Good morning people, please is it practically possible to run through a mortgage process from start to moving in without involving a mortgage advisor? I mean doing everything by one's self? Thanks.

YES.

justwise:
[/b]

YES.

Thanks for the emphatic answer. I'll need advice on how to proceed, can you point me to articles to read up? Or any other support? Thanks.

ehizario2012:
Good morning people, please is it practically possible to run through a mortgage process from start to moving in without involving a mortgage advisor? I mean doing everything by one's self? Thanks.

Have you seen the UK mortgage thread..... Loads of tips and information, all for FREE(you don't even need to send a lion or moneygun)........ 😁😂🦁🙄🤣

ehizario2012:
Thanks for the emphatic answer. I'll need advice on how to proceed, can you point me to articles to read up? Or any other support? Thanks.

Start from your bank, especially where the deposit money is saved. They will offer all the help you need free of charge.

Alternatively look for a bank that offers good mortgage rates and visit them , they will take through the process.

After mortgage application and approval then solicitor takes over.

Lexusgs430:
Have you seen the UK mortgage thread..... Loads of tips and information, all for FREE(you don't even need to send a lion or moneygun)........ 😁😂🦁🙄🤣

Baba I just enter there ooo... I'm reading something like 17% LTV or so 😁😁😁

Thanks baba

justwise:
Start from your bank, especially where the deposit money is saved. They will offer all the help you need free of charge.

Alternatively look for a bank that offers good mortgage rates and visit them , they will take through the process.

After mortgage application and approval then solicitor takes over.

Thanks boss. I use Lloyd's bank and I'll talk to them based on this advice.

To anyone who have used RwandaAir from Lagos to London. Please share your review or any advice. Thank you 🙂

ehizario2012:
Good morning people, please is it practically possible to run through a mortgage process from start to moving in without involving a mortgage advisor? I mean doing everything by one's self? Thanks.

Saw you post on the mortgage thread and I see why you asked.
While its possible, I dont think its worth it especially for a first time buyer.

Most mortgage advisors would not charge you an extra fee for a residential property. The lenders pay them and for the most part, you don't get a discount if you go to the lenders directly. It's still thesame rate so why not let someone do the hardwork at no cost to you?

To me, except your application is straightforward, a good mortgage advisor can be very helpful. For renewals, it's a different thing

willyede:
More than nine million pensioners are to receive Winter Fuel Payments this year after Chancellor Rachel Reeves confirmed details of a massive u-turn.
Anyone with an income of £35,000 or below will benefit from the payments of up to £300 designed to help them stay warm in freezing weather.
It means the overwhelming majority of those who lost the money will become eligible again, at a cost of £1.25 billion in England and Wales, following an Express crusade demanding the allowance is reinstated.

This reversal captivates the dilemma every government has faced for the last 2 decades and it's the reason why many unsustainable bits of society cant be touched.

I can vividly remember the chap telling me of his plan to sell houses 4 bed house for over 500k, buy a bungalow and then use the remnant for a holiday house in France. Thesame breath he used in telling me how 'cheap' properties in France were was same he used to lament how this government wants to 'kill off all pensioners' because they took away winter fuel payments.