A lawyer posted on Twitter the other day that “Your landlord cannot wake up any day and just unilaterally increase your house rent, both of you must agree to it first before he can do that”. This post generated a lot of controversies and stirred a lot of arguments from netizens; some social media users expressed unbelief over this and some are just plain ignorant about it.

Some can’t believe that a house owner or a Landlord (as we prefer to call them) have no right to increase his house rent while the rent of a tenant still subsists without first consulting the tenant. It sounds like “a story for the gods” but that is what the law says. A landlord cannot increase a house rent when a tenant is still in occupation of the house without first approaching the tenant and coming into agreement with the tenant. Yes, you read right.

In this part of the world, tenants, especially the uneducated or semi-educated ones have no idea that there is something called “tenant rights” which gives a tenant right against the landlord and protects the tenant from the oppression of the landlord. Some of such rights of a tenant are; the right to enjoy peaceful possession of the property, the right against trespass from anybody including the landlord or the house owner, and also the right of the tenant against exorbitant and unnecessary rent increment from the landlord.

A landlord is expressly prohibited by law to visit the house of a tenant without first getting the permission of the tenant. If the landlord enters the apartment of the tenant without the tenant’s permission the Landlord has committed trespass and breached the right to privacy of the tenant which is actionable by law. The tenant is to also enjoy peaceful possession of the apartment he’s occupying devoid of disturbances from anybody including the owner of the house.

When a tenant’s rent is increased arbitrarily without the landlord first consulting the tenant over it, the tenant is to approach the court for the court to declare that the increase in the rent by the landlord is unreasonable. This is the succinct provision of 37.-(1) of the Lagos State Tenancy Law of 2011 and it provides thus: Subject to any agreement to the contrary, an existing tenant may apply as in form TL 11 to the Court for an Order declaring that the increase in rent payable under a tenancy agreement is unreasonable.

By the provision of the section of the law, a Landlord cannot just increase his house rent based on his mood without going through the due process of notifying the occupant of the property and negotiating the proposed increment with the tenant, and getting the express approval or nod of the occupant over the rent increment. A tenant is to challenge any arbitrary and unilateral increase of rent by the landlord immediately after it happens.

Please note that this piece is not made to encourage in any way tenants to owe rents. Tenants should also do their parts of the bargain like paying their rents as at when due to be able to enjoy their rights in law because he who comes before equity must come with clean hands.

Are you tracking this thing in real time? In the last 24 hours, the thing has moved south by close to $2,000. Bitcoin is quickly losing what made it amazing to many: decentralization. Yes, even though it is decentralized technically, it has been centralized at causing pain to many! Lol.

Any prediction on how low it could get? $10,000 is now possible when you expect some margin calls and forced sales to be put(!) at $15,000. If that happens, expect massive dump and sell-off, and that will quickly push it below $10,000.

The problem with BTC is that it has nobody to speak for it since it is “decentralized”. Other currencies would have seen a governor of the central bank issue a statement. The biggest fear now is the exchanges: if some begin to go under, some assets will go.

With liquidity crises hitting, expect many ecosystems to pause withdrawals. Typically, when that happens, they fold since the legal cost at post-withdrawal becomes challenging.

From many angles, a global recession is coming. Russia is now reducing gas supplies to Germany. If they sustain that, the German economy will freeze and that will rattle the European Union economies. This time is not normal; be watching the Nigerian currency. With higher interest rates evolving on some of our loans, our total revenue may not even service our debts. #Prepare

While many economists agree a recession is likely coming in 2023, Wall Street veteran and Bitcoin bull Mike Novogratz has just given one of the most dire outlooks yet.

“The economy is going to collapse,” Novogratz told MarketWatch on Wednesday, adding, “We are going to go into a really fast recession, and you can see that in lots of ways.”

Novogratz, chief executive of crypto merchant bank Galaxy Digital, gave the interview just before the Federal Reserve raised rates by 0.75 percentage points—the largest rate hike seen since 1994. The rate hike came five days after U.S. consumer price increase unexpectedly surged in May to a 40-year high of 8.6%.

Novogratz pointed to the housing market, which is finally cooling down after a two-year hot streak, and inventories piling up as signs of a recession looming on the horizon.

“There are layoffs in multiple industries, and the Fed is stuck,” he said, adding that the central bank is in a position where it has to “hike [interest rates] until inflation rolls over.”

Novogratz accurately predicted in the interview that the central bank would lift rates by 75 points and that the market would rally on the news. After Fed chair Jerome Powell announced the rate hike, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose by 1%, while the S&P 500 advanced 1.5% and the Nasdaq rose 2.5%.

Novogratz also predicted there would be a stock selloff in the next coming days, which happened right on cue. At 8 a.m. ET, S&P 500 futures were trading 2.2% lower, wiping out yesterday’s gains and plunging the benchmark further into a bear market.

“They are hiking into the popping of a bubble,” Novogratz said.

Comment on In and FB feeds

Comment: .” centralised at causing pain to many” lol. Sir I have a feeling you are very happy at this price range. Its a good entry point for a long term HODL if you ask me.

My Response: Not really – I am neutral. We receive many Bitcoin payments mainly from customers that cannot pay via USD or Naira. So, we have exposure but that is money we can afford to lose. People register for Tekedia Mini-MBA via it and I have used it as hedge in case BTC becomes $1,000. But if it falls, since it is money I can afford to forget, it has no impact. Fundamentally, I will not invest in BTC as I have explained here: it has no fundamental productive value. For example, no balance sheet and that makes it vulnerable.

Comment 2: I think only those who lack basic knowledge of economics will be shocked. At some point, few months ago, crude oil traded negative which means seller would pay for anyone offering storage but today, the same commodity is scarce and charging inflation. Crypto is no exemption to this push and pull factors. Remember it went from 30 to 3k in 2020 and then 68k+ just over a year and few months later.

My Response: Good point- But crude oil slump was not random or overly stochastic as the real source could be pointed out. Without Covid-19, that would not have happened. The problem with BTC is that its behavior is uncorrelated, unaligned and ambivalent to the fundamental construct of demand and supply in the real economy. Why is it falling on Saturday?  There is nothing you can do to prevent that. 

So, I do not think that BTC follows the basic elements of economics except in that niche area of irrational exuberance where people buy some crazy asset classes and hope that others will believe and buy. The crude oil price issue was fixed by opening up the economy. Right now, what can somebody do to help BTC except to ask more to buy! Buying and reselling software-currency while a fair capitalist framework may not advance society when you compare the value crude oil brings.

Comment 3: Ndubuisi Ekekwe , although you mentioned a little about it, but the questions in my head are these: what’s casusing the current downward spiral in BTC value? Is BTC value being affected by the current rising global inflation? What are the other fundamental factors that drives BTC movement, upward or downward? Because if truly blockchain has come to stay and with the upsurge in BTC acceptance as a means of payment transaction globally, then the future might be bright for BTC, regardless of the present situation. Lastly, when experts talk about presence of adequate structure to back BTC payment system up, aside a monetary institution like Fed. Reserve or central bank, what other things are they referring to? Thanks.

My Response: institutional investors are dumping it.… There are better assets. With interest rates high, you can invest in treasury bills, etc and have a good night sleep. Also, when rates go up, if not well managed, recession can kick in. BTC believers could lose their jobs and start offloading, pushing the value down. That cascade is why smart investors are getting out now. During recession, poor asset classes fade, BTC is considered a risky poor asset. I do not like writing much technically on this as it depresses many.

Good People, join us and welcome ShopAHome team to Tekedia Mini-MBA. ShopAHome.com is an ecommerce & emarketplace company, making it possible for people to shop great products right from their homes, offices and digital ecosystems: “Ours is a pure multi-vendor marketplace where customers make orders on our website, we will process, ship/ release products through our appointed courier partners (currently we have APIs with Fedex and DHL). We went live in August 2020 and already have almost all the big and known brands in the country in our books.” We invite you to explore this startup for your next purchase.

—Press release from the firm ——–

SHOPAHOME.COM – Nigerian Next Big Online Market Place, Serving Globally

Shopahome is a Global E-commerce company by structure and target operations as well as in startup activities. Shopahome’s desire is to help increase wallet shares in the growing market with increased online sales, by encroaching into the untapped corners of developing countries like Nigeria, especially as developing countries begin to accept the new norm and the general population begin to realize the benefit of shopping from the comfort of our homes; a culture the rest of the world has adopted with attendant values. Shopahome is poised to grow as people begin to imbibe this culture, while it hopes to match and sustain International standards and best practices as well as position for global business.

This will involve competing with the global giants. It’s a feat and a vision birthed by an astute Banker who has grown businesses from zero to Billions, Augusta O. Anyanwu-Egbom, though manned by Industry giant brains fetched from among the current leaders in the market. This makes the startup an interesting business to watch closely. The E- Commerce business is operating under a trade name – Shopahome …My Errand Gurus, approved by the Federal Ministry of Trade and Investment in 2020.

The uniqueness of this company is in their errand license which makes them commit to fetch for their customers anything at all even when it is not yet on display on their website. AUSTOLA INT’L LTD is the corporate owner of the Shopahome trademark. Austola Intl’ is a company incorporated in Nigeria and in the United States as AUSTOLA INTERNATIONAL LLC being one of the defining factors of any global business. The company has both Nigerian and the US Government approvals to carry on the business of general contracts, supply of all kinds of goods and services, general merchandise, procurement of all sorts of goods, export and import trading, marketing, sales and distribution of general goods and services, commission agents, manufacturer’s representatives, E-Commerce, export promotion, advertising and logistics services etc.

Explaining further on the readiness of the business to serve global customers, the Group Head and Company’s Managing Director, Jubril Ahmadu said the company is poised to use the opportunity to project vendors’ products for increased patronage and in collaboration with some institutions who do bulk purchases which could add more value to sales turnover / patronage of vendors’ products while giving special attention to the B2B / B2C sales windows.

“Ours is a pure multi-vendor market place where customers make orders on our website, we will process, ship/ release products through our appointed courier partners (currently we have APIs with Fedex and DHL). We went live in August 2020 and already have almost all the big and known brands in the country in our books. The rest of the work would be to keep the path of strong foundation through our Management and staff support, create publicity about us using the necessary tools. We already have Social Media / Marketing Team in place to enshrine our brands in the minds of the public as well as Call Center Agents dedicated to excellent service delivery, who follow through on our customers and prospects while building trust which is vital in the online market place”.

Shopahome has built a strong technology base that would optimally serve their growing community in Nigeria and in Diaspora.

Shopahome.com is that market place calling for our watch. Visit Shopahome.com or call 01888SHOP for more.