Inflation everywhere? Where can we find safety in markets? Within the bounds of academic learning, Tekedia Institute Mini-MBA Live will discuss how to build  investment portfolios in Nigeria and Africa. In Diamond Bank as a young graduate, I developed a 45-20-20-15 Strategy, tracked  my unit head, George Akpovbovbo, a fellow of ICAN, and bought all equities he marked in his daily newspaper stock table. Later on, I realized there was a reason he chose those companies: 100% of them pay dividends.

My strategy has since evolved with startup investing and US equities. But the core principle remains. Join us at Tekedia Mini-MBA today as we discuss, co-learn and advance our knowledge within an academic tradition on the best ways to make that future predictable by creating it. Yes, invest and invest, not just for money but for your career.

Those professional certifications are GREAT investments. And of course, a PhD (in technical area) is the godzilla: I have called it the best career insurance in Africa because there is always a school to teach! I will share my 5 pillars and those have worked really well for me. Come to the class; we want to understand your strategy.

Tekedia Institute is a modern school. I invite you to register for the next edition which begins Sept 12. Cost is N60k or $140 if you beat the early registration deadline 

Community Member: In America, they have two major political parties and using these parties, they have done well over the decades. Which one do you think favors Nigeria, ideologically and policy-wise?

My Response: First, a disclosure, I am a registered Democrat which means I am in the same party as Joe Biden and Obama but I do not vote on party lines; I vote based on the candidates. There is no comparison between politics in US and what we have in Nigeria. In US, you can know a republican or a democrat from his or her policies or ideologies.

For example, while most Republicans are pro-life, their counterparts, Democrats, are pro-choice. In Nigeria, our politics is nothing but a group of humans since there are no core differences between say APC, LP and PDP members. In short, more than 50% of leading members of APC used to be in PDP. So, at the foundational level, there is no core difference! And that also means that party-level voting makes no sense as there is nothing special one party can offer the other party cannot provide, unlike in America where a pro-life candidate will surely struggle in Boston, a democratic city.

With that noted, Nigeria will be in a better position if we do what democratic cities do. In America, more than 70% of the top-50 ranked universities are in democratic cities. Also, more than 80% of the largest cities are in democratic cities. In the last 50 years, more than 80% of new Fortune 500 companies have been created by democratic cities. Even when you have great universities in Republican-run states, the likelihood that the highest ranked university is in an island of a democratic city in that state is high (Austin hosts the highest ranked university in Texas, and Austin is a democratic city; the same applies in Georgia where Georgia Tech based in Atlanta, a democratic city, hosts the highest ranked university in that state). Democratic cities file most patents per capita.

What makes democratic cities outperform on many fronts? They actually believe in investing in the future and building community infrastructures. They build infrastructures, invest in the citizens and provide paths for those citizens who need help. Over the years, they have outperformed, contributing more in making America greater.

Yet, what happens there means nothing in Nigeria as there is no basis for comparison. Nigeria does not have political parties when it comes to ideas and policies, we have the assemblies of people and nothing but that. That is the reason why someone can win in PDP in Anambra State for Senate, and next four years win via APC, and another four years, return back to PDP. That cannot happen in America because that person’s ideologies would have made it impossible!

But note this: what makes America great is not by chance.

The Russia-Ukraine war has forced the US and its allies to seek alternatives to their energy supply. The war which started in February, created a global energy crisis that shot gas and other commodities’ prices up, stoking inflation across countries.

The global economic crisis was triggered by a series of US-led sanctions leveled against Russia in the wake of its invasion of Ukraine. The Kremlin’s attempt at retaliation, which has been largely tied to cutting off oil supply to many countries, has triggered a massive push for alternatives, particularly in Europe.

Thus, the European Union (EU) delegation to Nigeria and ECOWAS said on Friday that it would replace the gas from Russia with Nigeria gas.

The EU’s decision to seek out Nigeria as an alternative supplier of gas was disclosed by the Deputy Director-General Department for (Energy), European Commission in Brussels, Matthew Baldwin, at a news conference on Friday in Abuja.

NAN reports that Baldwin will be meeting with top government officials in Nigeria and private sector players, including key stakeholders in the country’s energy sector.

The European Union has stood by the United States against Russia as it pounds Ukraine. Being their sole supplier of energy, the Kremlin has threatened to sever its energy supply – and the threat is becoming very imminent.

The EU’s executive body had urged member states to slash their gas consumption by 15% to avoid an energy crisis in case Russia cuts off supply this winter. But its primary goal is to see that the bloc is weaned off its dependence on Russia energy.

“In summary, I am on a mission from Europe to try to deliver Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) today in the context of NLG partnership tomorrow with Nigeria.

“Europe is in a tight spot in relations to gas, following the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the instability in our gas market and the threat of cutting off supply altogether.

“So, we have launched the energy platform task force and the primary goal is to reach out to our reliable partners such as Nigeria to replace the gas from Russia with gas from reliable partners,” Baldwin said.

He had earlier this week disclosed that the EU has launched a gas demand reduction plan and is looking to reduce demand of gas by 15% to manage the demand aspect of the equation.

“To be clear, we need to manage the supply side and that’s why we want to expand what is currently at 14% shares of our total LNG import from Nigeria and we want it to go up.

“Our gas percentage was 60 per cent but now we want to go,” he said.

He added that Nigerian products had extraordinary potentials and that was why the EU wanted to expand the short term delivery.

The Deputy Director-General said that the EU hopes to kickstart the partnership by the end of August this year, which would create a long term partnership with Nigeria.

The report quoted Samuela Isopi, the EU delegation to Nigeria and ECOWAS, as saying that the bloc was doing its part in contributing to the energy sector by collaborating with Nigeria.

She said the EU’s current contribution stands at 400 million euros, and remains Nigeria’s biggest trading partner accounting for over 20% of Nigerian trade with the world.

The energy partnership is expected to increase EU-Nigeria trade volume which stood at 28.7 billion euros in 2021, with a trade balance of 6.4 billion euros in favor of Nigeria.

However, while the partnership bears a huge economic potential, Nigeria’s ability to live up to EU’s potential energy demand is under serious question.

Nigeria’s oil output has been spiraling downwards even in the wake of the oil windfall orchestrated by the Ukraine crisis.

Nigeria’s oil production has been losing its place in the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC)’s ranking. It dropped Year-on-Year, YoY, by 14.3% to 1.4 million barrels per day, mbpd in the first half (January – June) 2022, from 1.6 mbpd in the corresponding period of 2021, according to the Oil Production Status Report of the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission, NUPRC.

The oil output also dropped Month-on-Month, MoM, by 23% to 1.3 mbpd in June 2022, from 1.7 mbpd, recorded in the preceding month, May 2022.

Against this backdrop, Nigeria has been failing to meet its OPEC’s quota of 1.826 mbpd.