Sometimes job seekers, especially the freelancers, are caught between deciding to accept a job and deciding to turn it down. They usually find themselves in this crossroad because they wonder if the offer dangling before them will prevent them from accepting better ones, if they come. This dilemma can happen to both professionals and rookies. In other words, being in a job for a long time does not guarantee that you will know how to handle this dilemma when it comes. However, there are certain factors that professionals consider that rookies are yet to learn.

When I was still in secondary school, my mom’s friend and colleague complained that she finds it difficult to pick a commercial motorcycle, aka okada, to her home. She said it was most difficult in the afternoon when she is going home from work because okada men at that period do not want to negotiate prices.

One day, I went to her house around 5pm for an errand. Honestly, it was difficult finding a bike that will take me to her compound at the amount I could afford. Somehow the commercial cyclists doubled or even tripled their fares. When I finally got one that “pitied me” and conveyed me to my mother’s friend’s house, I asked the man why okada riders prefer going empty to accepting the amount I offered.

The man replied, “At this time of the day, it is better to go empty with the hope of finding someone that will pay you higher, than accepting someone with lower pay and missing out the big offers.”

I think his answer explains it all.

Like mentioned earlier, freelancers are sometimes torn between accepting offers they saw and waiting for better ones they are not sure when it will come. They may pick up jobs only for better ones to show up immediately. This is most painful when they couldn’t do the two jobs simultaneously. But then, they may also decide to leave the offer they came only to end up without a job for a long time. This is truly a difficult situation if you ask me.

Some people may say someone’s luck will decide for him, while others may advise that the person takes whatever that comes his way first because that is the one destined for him. But if you ask me, I’ll say that knowing what to do in a situation like this requires that the person focuses on some simple but important factors.

Study How the System Works

Every system has a way it works. The okada rider already knows when there will be more passengers and when the rush will ease up. The thing here is that, if you study the system, you will be able to tell when you can get better offers if you reject the ones you don’t feel comfortable with. Not understanding the system can lead you to turn down the offer that may be the only one that will come your way in a long time.

Ease of Work

There are some jobs that are stress-laden. The thought of doing the job alone makes your heart skip and beat faster. Some people may decide to pick this type of job because it came with a good pay or because they want to gather experiences. That is ok but they should remember that freelancers are seen as experts and that making mistakes may cost them a lot. What I’m trying to state here is that sometimes it is good to accept jobs that you can do easily. For instance, if the job is not going to pay so well, but you won’t encounter difficulties doing it, you can pick it because if another one comes, you can also easily do the two jobs simultaneously.

Cost of Production

Some freelancers accept jobs that eat deep into the negotiated pay. Most of them that do this will tell you it’s better than nothing. But the truth is that the person worked for nothing and he did deny himself the opportunities to pick up another one. But it will make you fulfilled to pick up this kind of job, no problem.

Time Factor

Sometimes freelancers are tempted to accept good paying jobs that came at an unsuitable time. For instance, we have heard stories of men transacting businesses during their weddings. This may sound hilarious and fake but it happens because I know a man that transacted a business at his wife and children’s burial. He was seen by some relatives when he hid to receive calls and give directions on how the merchandise in his shop should be sold. That was an example of someone accepting job offers at an unsuitable time. Jobs like this can be rejected so that you can have peace of mind.

Have other Arrangements

It is necessary to have back-up plans when you freelance. For instance, the okada rider may have other things he’s doing that will sustain him if he doesn’t meet his daily target. This means that freelancers should have other things they’re into so that if one doesn’t pay, the other one does.

Being a freelancer is hard enough, there’s no need to be caught up in jobs that won’t pay you well and still steal away your resources. But all the same, as you contemplate accepting or rejecting that offer, consider the mentioned factors as well.

On Thursday, Bitcoin price leaped 18.57% to stay at $9,388.30, signaling hope in the wake of COVID-19 pandemic that has plunged the gains of the cryptocurrency giant. The entire market capitalization rose to $35.3 billion in the last 24 hours, the highest since March 7.

Cryptocurrency has followed other markets to succumb to the oppression of the global health crisis, disappointing investors who counted on it to save them from the economic trouble.

In March, over $26 billion was wiped off the cryptocurrency market in 24 hours, and Bitcoin lost 10% at the same time following the 30% plunge of international oil benchmark Brent crude futures to $31.02 per barrel.

The crash in cryptocurrency prices in March dashed the hope of rebound that many investors had entertained. But market players believed that although the market indicators were pointing downwards, it offered the opportunity to purchase more coins.

Jehan Chu, co-founder of Kenetic Capital, an investor in blockchain startups told CNBC that the digital currency has become known for its volatility but it presents an opportunity to long term investors.

“For those who have long term investment horizons, bitcoin is absolutely a buy during these dips. We can expect more of this volatility sparked by macro health and financial shocks, but ultimately long term investments in the digital future and its key asset bitcoin will be a winning strategy,” he said.

Thursday’s price rise in the digital currency market sprang a surprise that has been attributed to central bank monetary policy and bitcoin halving. Almost every central bank in the world has introduced a stimulus package in an effort to boost economic stability against the shocks emanating from the outbreak of coronavirus.

There is also an intervention fund for businesses as countries push to avoid massive layoffs. These are believed to be the stimulation of the sudden turn around. Vijay Ayyar, head of business development at crypto exchange Luno said it’s as a result of the US central bank pledge to keep interest rate at zero until the economy bounces back.

“My sense is that overall markets are not reflecting reality on the ground though, but this is also the result of Fed in the U.S. being extremely clear that they will do anything to make sure there is economic stability. We could be seeing a lot of money flowing into equities and crypto as well, as a result of the new money printing,” he said.

On the other hand, bitcoin halving, where the rewards for bitcoin miners are cut in half has been instrumental to the Thursday growth according to experts. Currently, the reward of bitcoin miners stands at 12.5, but as a procedure, the rewards are halved every few years to help cut inflation and keep the market performance stable. The reward is expected to be halved once again to 6.25 by May, which will reduce the current inflation from 3.76% to 1.8%.

Mathew Dibb, cofounder of Stack, a bitcoin index fund provider said the upcoming halving event has contributed to the rebound of cryptocurrency.

“While part of this rebound may be explained by a renewed ‘risk-on’ attitude of global investors, it is also clear that bulls have been triggered by the upcoming halving event and the anticipated appreciation in value in the wake of it. For those buying into bitcoin now, many see this as an opportunity to buy BTC at bargain basement rates before a price pop post halving,” he said.

One clear message from the fluctuating performance of bitcoin is that digital currency is functioning dependently on the world basic economy, and cannot operate independently.

Crypto analyst Josh Rager warns that bitcoin is tightly correlated to the stock market and could retreat if equities suffer another pull back.

“Bitcoin will continue to follow along the stock market S&P 500 mini-futures. BTC will continue to go strong as long as stocks continue to push to 3,000 and above. The $8.600 level broke with ease but do want to see how the daily closes, if this area holds with $9,000 in sight,” he said.

The concern for investors who are throwing money into bitcoin is whether it is going to fall below the current price following the market trends. With many governments running out of bailout funds for businesses, and the oil market still on its knees as a result of closed businesses, if the COVID-19 pandemic is not contained soon, it will mean that businesses will have nothing to fall back on – and cryptocurrency will lose the gains it has made as a result of government intervention funds.

As the pandemic spreads over the world like wildfire, the effect continues to paralyze activities across our country Nigeria through its mass adoption of imported solutions – lockdown, border closures. Efforts are ongoing from all facets of humanity to curtail the scourge of the pandemic. How well our fragile economy will respond to the twin bombs of Covid-19 and the apocalypse of oil price is unimaginable. The response of governments has been fairly commendable, but the effort of the organized private sector is overwhelming. In Nigeria, as of April 1st (not an April fool joke), the newly birthed Coalition against Covid -19(CACOVID) has realized the sum of N19B (about $47.5m) – confirmed redeemed pledges. Superlative response!

Recently, the Minister of Finance put forward a proposal of a N500 billion intervention fund for the upgrade of medical facilities across the country. One can only imagine the fate of all the CAPEX that has been budgeted/allocated to this critical sector over the years. A quick review shows the Federal Government Nigeria CAPEX budgetary provision over the last 3 years – 2018(N71B),2019(50.15B), and N46 in 2020. Unfortunately, the country has budgeted below the WHO benchmark – 13% of the annual budget to be allocated to healthcare. It has also budgeted far below the Abuja Declaration of 2001 under which African leaders agreed to commit 15% of their annual budget to improve the healthcare sector. The same situations abound in the sub-national governments with over 70% of the sector budget expended on recurrent expenditure.

Whilst the sector has suffered massive underbudgeting of resources, the amounts allocated have not been prudently utilized as exemplified by the abysmal quality of our healthcare infrastructure. Little wonder a notable “His Excellency” in one of the states commissioned with pomp and pageantry a world-class, first of its kind state-of-the-art hospital in his state but unfortunately, upon a minor accident was flown abroad for treatment. What happened to the state-of-the-art hospital? Nevertheless, George Orwell remarked that some animals are more equal than others. One of my good friends’ critique of my last article was my inability to rebuke the government in strong terms, I had retorted, “I write about the living and not the dead”

Evidently, the government has relegated this sector through under provision of resources, massive corruption, politicization of healthcare, mediocre policies, poorly built and maintained infrastructure, and the dearth of modern equipment. The resultant effect has been the massive brain drain of our medical personnel. According to them it is perpetually frustrating to practice the profession in Nigeria where you witness children and adults die daily due to lack of ordinary oxygen or patients are compelled to purchase medical disposables for their examination and treatment. Doctor to patient ratio is still around 2500:1. The scale of this problem has unfortunately become too gargantuan and a Sisyphean task for the government to resolve. An African proverb says, ‘one person does not hear the sound of the gun’. We are therefore condemned to seek the intervention of the private sector. But these corporates pay their statutory taxes and levies to the various tiers of government in addition to the obnoxious operating environment. Hence, they have no obligation to further take up these existential roles of government. Incidentally, recent events have reaffirmed the old labor slogan “an injury to one is an injury to all”. Our government has failed and whereas we continue to demand accountability from them, we need to pick up the gauntlet and make hay while the sun shines. We can no longer stand and gaze or sit and look.

The private sector has not only shown expertise in the management of their various firms but has demonstrated elegant competence in rescuing the government in its core and critical functions – Education, Security, Public Infrastructure, etc. Several corporates have provided operational equipment to the security agencies, built a couple of facilities/research centers for various educational institutions, and even rehabilitated roads and other public amenities. But the question beckons, what has been the fate of these facilities weeks/months after handover to the authorities. Is there a mechanism for a post-handover review of these projects to ensure the retention of standards? How well have they met the objective over time? We can wildly conclude that most of them have been well mismanaged shortly after handover. The corporates need to review their existing model of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) to build sustainable institutions. My call is for business leaders to press the reset button and review their fanfare, advert based, “photo/social media charity” CSR models/programs. Several examples abound of where corporates have adopted a self-sustaining approach to build, operate, and manage (BOM). This model has been adopted by the International Oil Companies (IOC’s) to bring relative peace in the Niger Delta region. They (IOC’s) have succeeded in building several facilities (health, etc) jointly owned and managed with the host community with economic and social benefits. Available data also shows that the Dangote Foundation has constructed faculty buildings across several universities in the country amongst other projects. The current road reconstruction undertaken by Access bank around the Oniru axis, the Zenith bank reconstruction, and maintenance of the Ajose Adeogun road all in the Victoria Island of Lagos are handy examples amongst others. Little wonder the Ajose Adeogun road with an adornment of the spectacular Christmas decoration has become one of our foremost tourist destinations. Even the popular American rapper Belcalis Marlenis Almanzar professionally known as Cardi B took a tour of the road during her maiden concert in the country last December. These private sector-led projects have obviously been outstanding.

The corporates led by the banks need to mine the pool of data wasting in their bases. As banks begin to append their signatures to UN sustainable banking principles, they need to thoroughly review their portfolio. In line with the WHO & UNO guidelines for countries to provide a certain minimum percentage of their budget to the critical sectors – Education, Health, etc, banks should ensure that a reasonable portion of their loan books is available to the healthcare sector. They should not only provide funding but ensure that those firms survive through healthy business partnerships and fair pricing. I can vividly remember a top executive that frowns at any request to support local pharmaceutical companies. The claim is that they produce poisons (technically drugs are poisons), how many of us can afford the imported brands?

The banks also need to fortify their risk management with experienced healthcare professionals to guide them on financing for the healthcare sector. It cannot be guessed work or general knowledge as the partnership is expected to be long term and not solely profit first. As expected, every business should have public health professionals in their human resource management for prompt advisory services.

According to the Federal Ministry of Health, our annual expense on medical tourism is in excess of $1B. I am also aware that a bulk of the “China tents/kits” being purchased by the private sector intervention is imported. This further strains the epileptic foreign exchange (FX) reserve of the country. The corporates should extend this coalition post-COVID towards the development of smart “health/medical cities” to curb medical tourism and conserve our scarce foreign exchange. These medical hubs will have at least one standard (world-class) tertiary and secondary healthcare facility with the attendant ancillary services. The abrupt shut down of several private hospitals upon the visit of Covid patients reinforces the poor state of facilities and the begging need for massive investment in the sector. This shows that our existing health facilities lack adequately trained manpower and capacity to manage an epidemic.

Whilst it is contestable that the continuous lockdown is more hurtful than the virus, the new normal may include the continuation of the existing hygiene rules.  As medical supplies in the international market is now highly prioritized according to the severity of the pandemic – no. of deaths etc, local production of materials – hand glove, mask, sanitizers, etc and other minor medical supplies/equipment need to be invented and upscaled. The creation of these “medical cities” funded by the corporates will not only generate thousands of jobs – MSME’s SMEs, mid-large size organizations but will provide the needed support – trained manpower, etc for the creation of a holistic medical ecosystem of global standard. FX will be conserved, trusted, and sustainable SME’s cultured.

I can only imagine a standard hospital across the country with First, GTB, Access, UBA, BUA, FAMFA, and Zenith logo. These hospitals can boast of any world-class equipment with the capacity not only to carry out several advanced medical procedures but updated medical research and training. These facilities will without doubt possess the wizardry of these great institutions – it will be centers of healthcare excellence. They have a mechanism to create special purpose vehicles(SPV) to manage these institutions without losing focus on their core competence.

Partnership with public health institutions (like the National Centre Disease Control (NCDC), Nigeria Institute Of Medical Research (NIMR), Health Ministries/Agencies) should be strengthened for effective disease surveillance. Prevention they say is better(cheaper) than cure. Such partnerships should be extended to the army of indigenous innovative healthcare start-ups.

The health insurance sector of the economy will require fresh investment. As of 2017, only 3% of healthcare expenditure in Nigeria was paid for using health insurance. This provides an opportunity to explore the untapped potential of the sector.

According to UNICEF, one in four Nigerians (47 million) practice open defecation and the country loses about 1.35% of GDP(N455B) due to poor sanitation with its attendant social, economic, and health impact on national development. In line with the “Clean Nigeria: Use the toilet” initiative to end open defecation in 2025 in the country, the corporates(corporate Nigeria) should explore options of building public toilets across the major markets smartly data-driven and operate with their banks/loyalty cards similar to our friends in Vietnam. That is the right promotion that they need to acquire customers, not our current knee-jerk approach. Expectedly due to the high standards of these facilities, the patronage generated can almost sustain their maintenance – revenue generated can self-sustain some of these facilities without compromising standards.

As it is stated in marketing, ‘put the right incentive on the promotion and the fish will bite the bait’. These sustainable structures are what the corporations require, not the ubiquitous and obscene images of “kalokalo(gambling)”, and lotteries they are wearily using to lure customers. Machine learning, Artificial intelligence, and “thick data” should be applied to build smart health centers. Today in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, citizens can swipe a card on a 24/7 automatic rice dispensing machine and get a measure of the needed essentials. These cards can give a rebate/discount and other entitlements to the existing clients of the host organization upon the patronage of these facilities. I can not only imagine the mass of customers these corporates will unsolicitedly garner but the everlasting public allegiance to the brand – shortest and inexpensive route to brand advocacy and public appeal as against the millions of dollars expended in adverts(especially in international media).

There is an urgent need to look beyond the current management of the galvanized resources. We need home-grown solutions to address these challenges beyond the Covid era. The current make-shift response strategy though commendable and suited for the pandemic is not an ingenious and enduring solution. Unfortunately, the current solutions(donations) will have to rely on the existing poor demographic data in the country to be allocated. The coalition should look towards mutating into a trust, partner, public policy pressure group, and investor in the reform and revolutionization of the healthcare sector.

A stitch in time saves nine! Stay safe and observe all the guidelines as we assiduously wait and work to overcome this challenge. 

Chijioke is an experienced Banker, Financial Services Consultant, and Social Commentator. He shares his thoughts from Lagos, Nigeria.