Who are you without that work and job title?
The greatest career liberation is when your job title and where you work do not define your personality and relationship with people.
Titles and workplaces are ephemeral, and if you use both to absolutely relate with people, the day they go, you will become miserable.
Your personality does not expire in the minds of people even when titles and workplaces go. Change your attitude and plan for post-career freedom.
Greetings and Happy New Year.
Tekedia Institute is emerging as a prestigious academic institution where people are coming to master the mechanics of entrepreneurial capitalism and business systems. In just less than two years, we have built a brand that has attracted scholars, innovators, students, makers, workers, project champions, and more, from 39 countries.
A central part of this success is our world-class faculty which we think is one of the best in continental Africa in depth, quality, excellence and professional diversity, across industrial sectors and domains. Through them, we have unified markets and classrooms, creating impacts in communities and boardrooms.
With these impacts, philanthropists and donors are donating and supporting our mission. Today, we’re proud to announce an additional donation of $US7,000 from David Onaolapo; we thank David.
Our selection partner, non-profit YouthUp Global, is handling the selection. The focus is on rural teachers across Africa in primary and secondary schools. To apply, email a signed letter of attestation from your principal or head teacher to info@youthupglobal.com .
We also have scholarships for workers in orphanages, places where people with disabilities are cared for, and rural health centers in Africa. Simply ask your CEO/Head to give you a signed letter confirming you work there. [Send all to YouthUp, not to Tekedia Institute].
To learn more about Tekedia Mini-MBA, visit our website. The next edition (Feb 7 – May 7, 2022) begins Feb 7 and we’ve updated our curriculum with new courses. The cost remains N90,000 or $170. Early bird registration ends as noted on click. The Tekedia Startup Masterclass: from start-up to unicorn is priced at $400 or N200,000, and runs for 8 weeks with one-on-one live Zoom; register here.
Our promise is to continue to do what we do best: design, develop and deliver world-class business education with global and local cases, at the lowest cost possible. We thank you for your partnerships.
Sincerely,
Tekedia Institute Team
Boston (USA)/ Owerri (Nigeria)
Payment processing company Visa, said many small and micro businesses (SMBs) are willing to adopt cryptocurrency as means of payment in 2022. Visa made this finding after conducting a research study titled “Visa Global Back to Business Study – 2022 Outlook.”
According to the study, 82% of SMBs surveyed said they will accept digital options in 2022 and nearly half (46%) of consumers surveyed expect to use digital payments more often in 2022, with just 4% saying they will use them less.
The study surveyed small business owners and consumers in nine markets – Brazil, Canada, Germany, Hong Kong, Ireland, Russia, Singapore, United Arab Emirates and United States, with a higher percentage of the businesses indicating interest in accepting one form of digital payment.
“An overwhelming 82% of SMBs surveyed said they plan to accept some form of digital option in 2022 and 73% see accepting new forms of payments as fundamental to their business growth. Of those surveyed, 24% said they plan to accept digital currencies such as the cryptocurrency Bitcoin,” the study said.
Visa has been exploring ways to expand its payments system by including cryptocurrency, which offers cheaper and faster payments. With so many SMBs on its platform, the payments giant needs their opinion on its quest to onboard the burgeoning new financial system.
The Visa Back to Business Study, which was conducted by Wakefield Research in December 2021, surveyed 2,250 small business owners with 100 employees or fewer in the above mentioned countries.
This has become imperative in the wake of the pandemic-induced shift to digital life, which businesses are adopting, mainly to stay afloat. Of small businesses surveyed with an online presence, 90% agreed their survival through the pandemic was due to increased efforts to sell via e-commerce, and reported that, on average, over half of their revenue (52%) came from online channels in the last three months, the report said.
“Payments are no longer about simply completing a sale. It’s about creating a simple and secure experience that reflects one’s brand across channels and provides utility to both the business and its customer,” said Jeni Mundy, Global Head Merchant Sales & Acquiring, Visa. “The digital capabilities that small businesses built up during the pandemic – from contactless to e-commerce – helped them pivot and survive and, by continuing to build on this foundation, can now help them find new growth and thrive.”
While the study focuses on digital outlook for businesses, it paints a positive future for the cryptocurrency market. The large number of SMBs willing to adopt cryptocurrencies means its mainstream acceptance will see an increase in 2022.
On Friday, Tesla CEO Elon Musk tweeted: “Tesla merch buyable with Dogecoin,” shooting the meme coin’s price 10% up.
With the crypto market going bearish currently, investors have been enveloped with worry over what 2022 holds for the industry.
Do not be carried away because you’re wearing that company’s badge. Companies have no kids, only families do! Work hard and offer value but stay professionally focused.
Never fall into the illusion that your office is your family. Don’t be carried away when HR managers say “Welcome to the family”.
Your office can never be your family. Workers are like villagers who gather in village squares with shared purposes to accomplish tasks together.
In your family, you have unalloyed rights. But in that square, your efforts are noted but the tasks can if necessary move ahead without you.
Change your attitude at work; you’re nobody’s kid. Families do not throw kids to the streets during recessions or bad quarters as companies do!
Nigeria, like other countries, has made a number of commitments following a series of national and international discussions on how to effectively manage the consequences of climate change on people and industry. Most of the time, after making firm commitments, plans and institutional governance or structure are put in place to ensure that the pledges are fulfilled. Despite this, putting the goals, objectives, and projects of the plans into action has always been difficult. The governor of Rivers State has stated that the high level of black soot production from refineries, particularly illicit ones, has the potential to pose serious health risks to residents.
Several studies had previously demonstrated that particle pollution, such as black soot, is positively linked to a number of morbidities, with a high risk of mortality among exposed populations, before he made this known. “Minimum and maximum emission concentrations dispersion across Port Harcourt ranged from 0.000035 mg/m3 to 0.18 mg/m3 (0.035-180 g/m3),” according to current research. For suspended particulate matter and black smoke, the maximum value produced from these modeling results exceeds the national annual average limits of 40-60 g/m3 by 77-85%.”
According to another study published in a national newspaper, heavy metals concentrations identified in soot imply that thousands of individuals in the state will be exposed to carcinogenic and non-cancerous disorders as a result of the soot in the air. Specifically, Asthma, Tuberculosis, COPD, Pneumonia/Lung infection and Lung malignancies, Interstitial Lung disease, Pleural diseases & others, Upper Respiratory Tract disease, Sarcoidosis and OSA/Sleep disorders were found as the leading respiratory conditions of some residents, studied between 1st January 2013 to 31st December 2018. According to the researchers, ‘the pattern of respiratory diseases reported in this study corresponds with the global pattern of leading respiratory diseases.”
What Happens When Awareness Doesn’t Lead to Action?
Our investigations, interactions with some individuals, and existing research on black shoot pollution around the country demonstrate that people are well aware of the pollution’s existence. Taking meaningful actions to stop activities that perpetually create the pollution, on the other hand, remains a major issue. For example, a study done in Rivers State found that the majority of participants [chosen from the local population] were aware of soot pollution and believed that the main sources of soot were artisanal crude oil refining and land burning of confiscated crude oil and its products. The majority also believed that the soot had caused them to have a chronic cough as well as irritation in their eyes, nose, and throat. Female participants were much more likely to claim that soot pollution had harmed their health.
The Blame Game
Concerned stakeholders have continued to blame one other after the finding of the current high concentration of black shoot in Port-Harcourt. Accusatory fingers have been pointed from the Rivers State Government to the Federal Government and, several civil society organizations to both governments. The state government thinks that the federal government has failed to control illegal refineries in the state on multiple occasions.
“Unfortunately, the federal government has remained inexplicably silent over our request and even complicit to a large extent with the security agencies actively aiding, encouraging and protecting the artisanal refiners to continue with their harmful activities unabated. We have equally appealed without success to our people engaging in this illegal business to consider its negative effects on our economy, environment, public safety and public health and disengage from it,” governor Wike said.
What is to be done?
If Nigeria is serious about reducing carbon emissions from the oil and gas industry and other businesses by 2030, the blame game must end. State and non-state actors have important roles to play in executing the National Climate Action Plan and other strategic tools for reducing the effects of climate change. In the realm of environmental reporting, media outlets need to step up their advocacy journalism efforts.
According to available evidence, broadcast, print, and online news outlets are not doing enough to communicate the dangers of illegal refining, military setting ablaze of illegally refined petroleum products, tyre burning, gas flaring, meat roasting with used tyres, refuse burning, and other activities that are harmful to human and animal life.
Nigeria, according to our analyst, needs to use environmental analytics. As the need to reduce carbon emissions grows year after year as a result of national and global engagements, analytic techniques for understanding people’s and organizations’ activities are extremely needed. Machine learning-based methods will aid in identifying the most dangerous sites or locations, as well as predicting spots where serious health difficulties are likely to occur in the short, medium, and long term.