Good People, join me to thank Engr Dele Olajiga. M.Eng,(MNIAE),(Ph.D Scholar) for providing FULL scholarships to 20 undergraduate students of Federal University of Technology, Akure. Since ASUU extended its strike in Nigeria, hundreds of students have joined Tekedia CollegeBoost, a mini-MBA for students, and most are enrolled via scholarships funded by our fellow citizens.

We thank leaders like Engr Dele and others for giving our young people the opportunity to be academically engaged during the ASUU strike.

Tekedia Institute has structures in most universities and polytechnics in Nigeria. Our program manager, Eyitayo Adeleke, mMBA, knows the SUG presidents. Once a scholarship is available for a school, he works with the SUG leadership for the selection. This makes it very fast with no need of going through formal school bureaucracies. So, if you want to sponsor, reach out to him.

Since we are still in the international women’s day week, I am considering the reality of biases that exist in job roles. How we still get to find male-dominated sectors or companies, and some female-dominated careers as well.

The issue of biases with job roles does not start in the workplace. It starts right from the homefront and the society children are raised. Very early in life, children are exposed to biases in very subtle comments, and sometimes, blatant actions. Gradually, the minds are conditioned to phrases like “that is a man’s job”, “you are a girl, you can’t do this”, “it is only men that become this…” and the likes. Though subtle, these comments come with pressures of different kinds, so that the girl gets all kinds of discouragement if she even takes the first step into the male-dominated career.

This gradually creeps into the workplace, so that at some point, it subtly becomes the culture. New staff can be employed today, and in three days or less, she has heard comments like “we have never had a female MD in this company”, or “the head of technical operations always goes to a man” and so on. It may also extend to include the dominant belief in the society where that company or business is based.

All of these factors combine to first box the females up, and then gradually push some of them to a situation where they now box themselves up. Unconsciously, the environment and dominant beliefs around them seep through and begin to affect the way they think about themselves and their capabilities.

So, even though a lady has an interest in going for an MBA course, she allows herself to get discouraged. After all, females are never appointed MDs in this company. They end up restricting themselves to those roles they think they can do, those roles that society has told them they can excel in. They allow these biases to define the ceiling and wall of their achievements and remain within that confine.

This has to change. It is time females started stepping out and engaging in bigger challenges. Thankfully, we have lots of females who are breaking these biases and raising the bar higher for women with every new milestone they achieve. But this is nothing compared to the number of women who still stay within the safe box, limiting themselves to what they feel comfortable in.

Women are born natural leaders and managers, and this plays out in their homes. The woman manages her spouse, her children, and the limited resources. The issue is bringing this to bear in the workplace.

Women should become more competitive, enough to gun for higher positions even if there has never been any female in such a position before. Get the qualification needed and go compete on that level. Do not be afraid to be the first woman to walk that path. The world is becoming more liberal, and the workplace is becoming highly result-driven. So, if you are the most qualified person, if you are the one who can deliver the needed results, you will get it whether you are male or female. You only need to bring yourself out and show what you can do. Do it better, and show that you can do it better than anyone else.

The woman incorporates space, and in business will have to become more adventurous and more daring. Learn new things. Take on bigger challenges, and crush them or learn from them. A lot more will change when the woman expands her vision, with bigger dreams and bigger determination.

Interestingly, the average woman can juggle a lot more things than her male counterparts. You would be amazed to see the number of women who combine running a home, keeping a full-time job, a part-time job, and still find the time for some social work or volunteering. That gives you a clear picture of how much more is possible if the woman chooses to come out of the shadows that these biases keep her in.

I like the impact women are making in entrepreneurship too, especially in social entrepreneurship. More can be done. There is enough space for every woman to stretch out her wings and soar.

Nigeria’s public debt stock reached N39.556 trillion on December 31, 2021, the Debt Management Office (DMO) has said, pushing the country closer to the debt crisis.

This comes on the heels of a fresh Eurobond issued by Nigeria in the International Capital Market (ICM), which pushed the total debt to more than N40 trillion. Nigeria issued $1.250 billion (N520 billion) seven-year Eurobond in addition to about N950 billion the federal government borrowed from the domestic market.

The N950 billion was borrowed to fund the N6.39 trillion budget deficit in the 2022 budget, the DMO said. Adding the fresh Eurobond up to the N950 billion puts Nigeria’s total public debt at N41.026 trillion.

The new debt figures were made known to journalists in Abuja on Friday by the DMO’s Director General, Ms. Patience Oniha. According to her, the proceeds of the Eurobond would be used to finance critical capital projects in the 2022 Budget to bridge infrastructure deficit and strengthen Nigeria’s economic recovery.

Giving further details, the DMO said in a statement that the Eurobond offer was launched at an initial price of 8.75 per cent per annum, and on the back of strong investor demand, Nigeria was able to revise the price guidance to 8.5 per cent per annum.

The debt management office said the Order Book, which included many quality investors in the US, Europe and Asia, continued to grow, reaching a peak of $4 billion.

“With this strong investor interest, the price was tightened to 8.375 per cent per annum, the Order Book still remained high at 3.676 billion and retained the quality investors. Nigerian investors also participated in the Offer with a total subscription of $60 million.

“The proceeds of the Eurobond will be used to finance critical capital projects in the Budget to bridge the deficit in infrastructure and strengthen Nigeria’s economic recovery.

“Equally important, it would contribute directly and in full to the level of Nigeria’s external reserves,” the DMO said.

The new fuel subsidy regime, orchestrated by the rise in oil prices, created a N6.39 trillion deficit in the 2022 budget that the government has taken to borrowing from both international and domestic sources to fill.

The sum of N2.57 trillion is to be borrowed from domestic sources and another N2.57 trillion from foreign sources, while the government hopes to draw down N1.16 trillion from multilateral/bi-lateral loans and harvest N90.7 billion from privatization proceeds to fund the deficit.

Nigerian public debt stock has been bloating with unusual speed year over year since the past 5 years, as it becomes the means of funding the budget. Ms. Oniha noted that the comparable figure for December 2020 was N32.915 trillion or $86.392 billion. The N39.556 trillion debt recorded as of December 31, 2021, was N1.566 trillion higher than the N38 trillion recorded as of September 30, 2021, even as Debt-to-GDP stood at 22.47 per cent as of December 31, 2021.

Ms. Oniha explained that the public debt stock for December 31, 2021, included new borrowings by the Federal Government of Nigeria (FGN) and sub-nationals, adding that for the FGN, the 2021 Appropriation and Supplementary Acts included total borrowing from domestic and external sources of N5.489 trillion to part-finance the deficit.

“Borrowings for this purpose and disbursements by multilateral and bilateral creditors account for a significant portion of the increase in the debt stock. Increases were also recorded in the debt stock of the states and the FCT.

“The new borrowings were raised from diverse sources, primarily through the issuance of the Eurobonds, Sovereign Sukuk and FGN Bonds. These capital raising were utilized to finance capital projects and support economic recovery.

“With total public debt stock to Gross Domestic Product (GDP) as at December 31, 2021, of 22.47 per cent, the Debt-to-GDP ratio still remains within Nigeria’s self-imposed limit of 40 per cent.

“This ratio is prudent when compared with the 55 per cent limit advised by the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund ((IMF) for countries in Nigeria’s peer group, as well as the ECOWAS Convergence Ratio of 70 per cent,” she said.

Allaying fears about Nigeria’s growing debt, Ms. Oniha said the federal government was mindful of the relatively high debt-to-revenue ratio and had initiated various measures to increase revenues through the Strategic Revenue Growth Initiative and the introduction of the Finance Acts since 2019.

However, the major concern of the government currently is the rising oil prices that has been stoked by the Russia-Ukraine crisis, and will likely create further budget deficits as sanctions against Russia further increase oil prices.

Nigeria’s hope to end the importation of refined petroleum products in the near future is not certain and Africa’s largest economy has failed to meet its Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC)’s quota. This means that Nigeria will continue to borrow to fund its budget and infrastructural projects.