Experiences can never be useless. They are part of us – whether exciting or hurting. For that reason, they should be made to count in making our lives better and more fulfilling.
In a world where everything is judged by its usefulness, it’s the height of self disservice not to get the most out of ugly experiences, knowing that we as individuals are constantly being judged and rewarded according to the perceived value of the contribution we make.
This pattern of looking at things in our world made it so certain that anything that did not go as those to whom it matters would want it go, is highly frowned at or immediately dismissed with impatient awful thumb down. Often times, even the affected individual suffers the same ugly fate of various forms of negative public review, dished out with such reckless abandon, sufficient enough to close the chapter of one whose mind is not strong enough to bear the pounds of the punches and still keep faith.
Whatever be the case, it does not in any way reduce the promise of usefulness inherent in ugly experiences, mistakes or failed attempts. This is so, notwithstanding the impatience of the public. But it is the individual concerned that must constantly review the ugly experience in the light of other realities to ensure that the same route, that led to previous ugly destination, is not taken.
History has been very kind to those whose painful experience influenced them to push for innovative reforms, more justice and fairness as much as it’s been to those who, through their exciting exposures, made a positive impact in their societies.
Rising above the negative reviews, which are usually a given, to focusing on lessons that can be learned and converting those lessons into valuable personal guides for delivering better services (including sharing the knowledge to those it might help) are the most important uses to which one can apply an ugly experience.
Construction of magnificent structures have been one of the great characteristics which have differentiated the human race from other species. These structures include the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World of the remarkable constructions of classical architectural splendors built during the 1st-2nd Century, including:
Temple of Artemis in Ephesus (near Selcuk in modern day Turkey),
Statue of Zeus at Olympia in Greece,
Mausoleum at Halicarnassus in modern day Turkey,
Colossus of Rhodes in Rhodes Island Greece,
The Pharos Lighthouse of Alexandria in Egypt built during the reign of legendary Greek emperor Alexander the Great whose territory expanded into the city which was named after him,
The Great Pyramids of Giza, Egypt also known as the Pyramid of Khufu which was constructed by Pharaoh Khufu(4th Dynasty) between 2560-2580 BC as a tomb at 146.5 metres (481 feet) and was the tallest man made structure in the world for more than 3,800 years.
Largely, for centuries, man has always craved for the design and development of architectural masterpieces. The tomb of the Pharaoh attracts millions of tourists from around the world annually, who come to Egypt to visit the ancient wonder which still stands today thousands of years since it was built.
As human civilization grew in leaps and became unbounded and unconstrained, the Medieval (Middle Age) era saw architectural masterpieces which challenged the landmarks of its predecessors.
The Ancient Roman Empire during the era of Emperor Vespasian in AD 72 began the construction of the Colosseum, an oval shaped amphitheater in the city centre for entertainment which could take about 50,000 spectators. It was built with travertine limestone, tuff (volcanic rock) and brick faced concrete and completed in AD 80 by Titus and had some modifications during the reign of Domitian(1081-96), all rulers from the Flavian dynasty.
The Great Wall of China was begun during the reign of Qin Shi Huang (220-206 BC), the first Emperor of China and completed during the Ming Dynasty(1368-1644) to protect the various parts of China from foreign invasion, for border controls, imposition of duties on goods along the Silk Road Route, regulation of trade and immigration and emigration control. To serve its original defense purpose, it had watchtowers, troop barracks, garrison stations, military signals through smoke or fire while its path served as a transportation corridor.
Hagia Sophia, Istanbul, Turkey started in AD 360 and completed in AD 537 as the former Greek Orthodox Church Cathedral was the epitome of Byzantine(era of Constantine The Great) architecture which redesigned architecture. It was designed by Isidore of Miletus and Anthemius of Tralles. The construct was built using the best masonry available with a combination of brick and mortar joints, which are 1.5 times the width of the bricks, and the mortar joints are composed of sand and minute ceramic pieces displaced very evenly throughout the mortar joints, which were considered to be equivalent to modern concrete at that period.
The Porcelain Tower of Nanjing, a pagoda which was part of the Great Baoen Temple located on the South Bank of external River Qinhuai in Nanjing, China constructed in the 15th Century during the Ming Dynasty and was destroyed during the 19th Century Taiping Rebellion. Chinese real estate magnate Wang Jianlin of Dalian Wanda Group donated about $165 million to get it redeveloped to modern standards which has been accomplished.
The Taj Mahal was an ivory white marble mausoleum built on the South bank of the Yamuna River in Agra, India during the reign of the Islamic Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan(1628-1658) as a monument of love for his departed wife Mumtaz Mahal from 1632-1653 after architectural design by Ustad Ahmad Lahauri for 32 million rupees ($1billion today) with 20,000 artisans. It covers 17 hectares and is 73 m(240 ft ) and receives about 8 million tourists annually.
Fascinated by all these ancient masterpieces which were reference points, five years ago, a young Nigerian entrepreneur Sijibomi Ogundele established Sujimoto Construction to redesign Nigeria within Africa’s luxury landscape by bringing the best construction available in the world to Lagos and other cities across Nigeria. Sujimoto which means excellence in Japanese has never compromised on its quality standards since it commenced operations as it replaces faulty fittings or amenities in its tenants apartments within the first five years.
It has developed game changing projects such as Medici By Sujimoto terraces in Milverton, Ikoyi named after the famous Medici family of Florence which was the architect of the Italian Renaissance that transformed human civilization with intellectual capital and sprung forth creative artists like Michelangelo, widely considered to be the greatest artist of all time. The Medici won the prestigious International Property Award 2017/2018 for Best Residential Development in Nigeria.
Guiliano By Sujimoto, in Africa’s richest neighborhood Banana Island which is redesigning human living standards from the foundation, to its finishing exhilarating luxury of the finest order with its Porcelanosa by world acclaimed Zaha Hadid Sanitary Wares which won the best bathroom collection at the World Built Awards 2018 to smart home features and private elevators in each unit earning early investors over 90 percent returns on investments with guaranteed rental value of about 30 million naira per annum. Integrity is key to its success as it not only doesn’t compromise on the quality of each project but does refund to clients when it fails to deliver at the expected date to clients.
Sujimoto is currently developing the Lucrezia, an architectural wonder which will feature the best condominium in Nigeria with sanitary wares from Zaha Hadid Sanitaries, latest 2.0 Crestron Home Automation which is one of the best in the world, an Imax cinema effect for every residence to experience Hollywood standard cinematic experience, Interactive lobby, standard and convenient crèche, 4 metre floor to ceiling height which gives the royal effect in each room, Olympic size swimming pool, state of the art gym and a Glass Reinforced Concrete Façade which is the first of its kind in Nigeria. The Lucrezia Penthouse will feature a private golf garden, private elevator, private pool on the 12th floor and private gym and upon completion of the structural stage and Structural Integrity Test, it is expected to last for the next 1,000 years which is worthy of commendation in a country saddled with reported cases of buildings collapsing less than 50-100 years after construction.
Sujimoto does Construction As A Service for its clients in Banana Island, Ajah, Ikoyi and Victoria Island and should scale this into a digital platform integrating artificial intelligence, data analytics and mixed reality in order to better understand its existing and gain new clients from across Nigeria with different tastes through predictive, prescriptive and recommendation insights based on various sources of data it will generate in delivering personalized experiences to them. Also, it should launch a Construction Startup Fund to invest in cutting edge technologies transforming real estate which will be developed to transform the real estate industry with accessible, affordable properties for millions of unserved Nigerians.
Its future projects scheduled for 2020 include The Leonardo another tall masterpiece on Banana Island, an African inspired luxury hotel brand, Sujimoto Center, a 6 in 1 commercial space which will be the first of its kind in Ikoyi and Nigeria with a boutique mini mall, a 4,000 event sitting capacity detachable to 1,000 or 500 as the user deems fit, approximately 20,000 square metre of office space, 60 suites for guests lodging, state of the art gym, rooftop pool and lounge and parking space for 1,000 cars.
It is a recipient of various awards as ‘’2019 Bold Initiative In Property Development’’ by the Nigerian Institute of Architects and ‘’Luxury Developer Of The Year’’ at the Nigerian Business Leadership Awards, a globally acknowledged award organized annually by Business Day Media, Africa’s premier business publication. As it looks ahead to another five years, it should be a major contributor to the Nigerian Stock Exchange economic activity.
First, I do not like sharing photos of “invented” cars in Nigeria. My challenge remains that the only part of the invention is the body of the vehicle, not the engine. So, I am not ignorant of that. Flashback: your classmates in secondary school that would put dc motors in cartons shaped as cars, and they would say they have built cars!
But here, this is different. The Bennie Purrie by Bokkos(Plateau state) based Jerry Mallo is a great stylist design. The 25 year old made this sports car using carbon fiber materials, and it looks really amazing. Whether it is running on Toyota or Ford engine, his aesthetics and ergonomics are top-grade. For that, I am sharing and commending him for creativity in luxury car body design.
Government is doing a lot of right things these days, however, it is sad that negativity has taken over the minds of a lot of us that we fail to acknowledge these positive moves of the government, thereby starving ourselves of needed energy to start or save our companies, businesses and families. This week’s review focused on the positive moves of the Government through the eyes of the Central Bank of Nigeria Governor.
At his maiden address on June 5, 2014, Mr. Godwin Emefiele, the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) stated that: “… my vision would be to ensure that the Central Bank of Nigeria is more people-focused, as its policies and programs would be geared towards supporting job creation,reducing the high level of Treasury Bill rates, improving access to credit for MSMEs, deepening our intervention program in the Agricultural Sector, building a robust payment system infrastructure that will help drive inclusion …”
How far has he gone? Let’s put this vision to the test.
Test No. 1 – “Reducing the high level of Treasury Bill rate…”
Treasury Bills are short-term debt instruments issued by the Federal Government through the Central Bank to provide short-term funding for the government. Put simply, anytime you participate in T-Bills primary auction, you are borrowing government money for a fixed and certain return.
The return on T-Bills is so sweet, yourself and banks would rather invest in T-Bills rather than start a business or lend money to SMEs. In Nigeria, anytime you borrow government money, you starve an Entrepreneur the needed funds to start or grow a business, you deplete the real sector. It’s not your fault neither is it the Banks’ fault, Government asked you for money in exchange for fixed returns free from risk and you gladly obliged as a logical being.
However, burdened with the rising cost of debts and unimpressive economic performances, the Government is on a mission to reduce her debts and encourage lending to the real sector. How can Government discourage Investors and Banks from lending her money? One of such ways is to reduce T-Bill rates.
At the T-Bills Primary Market Auction (“PMA”) held on 13th November 2019, T-Bill rates fell to a 3-year low of:
91 Days: 7.998%
182 Days: 9.00%
364 Days: 10.00%
Two weeks after, another Treasury Bills Primary Market Auction (“PMA”) held on 27th November 2019, rates fell to a 4-year low of:
91 Days: 6.495%
182 Days: 7.23%
364 Days: 8.37%
These rates used to be as high as 14%. Finally, the T-Bills party is coming to an end, no more ‘owambe’. Banks are now forced to give loans to SMEs instead of lending to the Government.
Clearly, CBN is using T-Bill rates to discourage banks and investors from lending to government and using other measures and directives to direct the funds to SMEs who need them most.
Test No. 2 – “Improving access to credit for MSMEs”
Currently, there are quite a number of CBN initiatives to increase credit to SMEs, the focus of this article is LDR. Loan-deposit ratio (LDR) is a ratio between a bank’s total loans to customers and total deposits from customers, measured in percentage terms.
In a letter dated 3rd July 2019, CBN directed all banks to maintain a minimum Loan to Deposit Ratio (LDR) of 60% by September 2019, subject to quarterly review. Put simply, this is CBN saying if customers bring N100 to your bank as deposit, N60 must be given back as loans.
In the same circular, CBN specified that those loans must be directed at SMEs, Retail, Mortgage and Consumer Lending – this is what you call a people-focused directive, this is CBN Governor living his vision.
Naija Banks have a way of avoiding loans to people like you and me in the name of risk, so CBN closed the directive with a threat that “Failure to meet the above minimum LDR by the specified date shall result in a levy of additional Cash Reserve Requirement equal to 50% of the lending shortfall of the target LDR”. In the simplest terms, if a bank gives out N40 as loan instead of N60, CBN will collect 50% (N10) out of the balance (N20) and keep it, a case of “shebi u no wan loan SMEs, I go kuku collect am for your hand”
Is this directive working at all?
According to CBN, Nigeria’s credit sector recorded a 5.33% growth from N15.57 trillion at the end of May 2019, to N16.40 trillion as at September 26, 2019. That is, Banks forked out extra N830 billion as loans in 5 months, Wow! Apparently, CBN was ‘wowed’ as well, so they increased the LDR directive to 65% with a new deadline of 31st December 2019.
Just in case you are still doubting this directive, after all, all the quotes ‘na from CBN’. Below is a review of the total deposit and loan balances in the books (financial results) of some selected banks in Nigeria.
Clearly, you can see the growth in loan to customers between June and September, also, the room that must be covered before December 2019. This is not an advert but you have to respect the LDR performance of Fidelity and Sterling Bank, best in class.
Insights:
the gap between the regulatory 65% and the average 61.94%, hundreds of billions will be forked out in the coming days, also observe the gap among individual banks, this should serve as a guide for the banks to target between now and December. Depending on your financial advisers, some of those loans must be won by your company.
if you have a decent business plan and the banks have been chasing you away, this is the time to go back. If you already have a loan with a bank and you want more for business expansion, this is the time to go back. If your current loan with your bank is at 30%, this is the time to go back and negotiate the rates down to 25%.
If you are an Investor in T-Bills, this is the time to go back to the equities market to hunt for dividend yields that will match the yields you use to get on T-Bills. In any case, the yields must beat the 11.61% inflation rate
Leave a message if you seek more clarifications, reach out if you need more insights and financial advisory.
Is there any relationship between LDR and the development of a country? Be the judge, see images below to guide your conclusions.
Recently, Babcock University was in the news. Two ex students of the university were seen engaging in sexual intercourse in a video that went viral online. The university authority took the bull by the horns. The female student was expelled. Her male partner had earlier been sent away from the university on the basis of his abuse of substances. Reactions followed the university authority’s decision. The aim of this piece is to draw out six takeaways for both students on internet usage and the management of universities on how to handle such matters going forward.
# Digital Native Undergraduates. First, it is high time that management of universities understood that the demographics of undergraduates have totally changed. The demographics have changed over time. From digital migrants to digital natives, the undergraduate ecosystem is replete with students born shortly before the arrival of or during the millennium. The average age for admission into Nigerian universities is 16. The implication of this age bracket is profound. But, it simply signifies that most of the students are digital natives. Digital natives are the generation of young people who are “native speakers” of the digital language of computers, video games and the internet. These sets of young people are reported to have lower anxiety scores about the internet and higher web, email and social media usage. Generally, digital natives are considered to be intuitive learners, social, empowered by the internet and impatient. This calls for more appropriate ways to manage these students in their learning, character building and even crimes. Every generation has its own issues. Unfettered access to the internet and the quick get-it-online syndrome is the undoing of this generation. From Babcock to FUTA to Queen’s College, it is obvious that the share it online rule is prevailing among the youths. And those charged with the responsibility of managing them must understand this clearly.
#Digital Public Relations. This is related to the first takeaway. It still bothers on the management of the generation also popularly called Generation Z. This particularly concerns those who manage information in educational institutions in Nigeria. Students are key stakeholders in any educational setup. What they do and do not do reflects on the image of their schools. This is why despite the fact that the sex video has no logo that links it with Babcock. The culprits were identified students of the university. And all hell was let loose. There was a dip in the university’s goodwill both online and offline. People have a tendency to relate the students’ conduct with the moral standing of a school. A learning place is a socialization agent in the society. Therefore, PR practitioners should begin to strengthen their digital capabilities to monitor activities of their students online so that they can be better placed to handle crisis when they occur. This generation does not look like one that will not rock the boat online either for genuine reasons or pure carelessness as we had in the case under review. As at the time of writing this, attempts to search for Babcock online links one with the sex tape scandal.
This implies that Google has normalised the search for sex with Babcock University. For instance, the first 5 related queries when people searched for Babcock University online from 20th- 29th November, 2019 were Babcock university video, Babcock University student, Babcock University student video, Babcock news and Babcock University girl. Similarly, the top 5 terms people searched for online after searching for sex within that same period were Babcock sex, Babcock sex video, Babcock University sex video and Babcock student sex video. This has a lot of implications on the goodwill of the university. The communication unit of the university must, as a matter of urgency, rev up positive content that speaks to the core values of the university. They have to generate positive value for the university by popularising such online if they desire to see the negative trending online abate.
Source: Google Trends, 2019; Adebiyi, 2019
#Digital footprints hardly go away. This concerns students and other youths of this generation.Since they grow up with digital devices, they are wont to leave their footprints online. This is especially common for social media platforms. This is a generation that wants to capture every moment of their lives in photos and videos. They value the likes, the shares and the comments. They are the meme tribes. However, they pay little attention to how their footprints are stored on the internet and for how long. With the recent scandals we have witnessed, these sets of youths must be informed that the Internet of Things does not forget the footprints impressed on it. It should be understood that if it has not been shared, it is within control. Once it gets online, it is totally out of control.
#Popular wisdom is not real wisdom. The generation suffers from the paradox of access to information. Even though there is so much information available, they are less familiar with the accumulated wisdom of humanity. The tendency is for them to join the crowd. The crowd mentality is supreme. When they see what others do, the Generation Z is likely to copy. They crave attention. But, they should be made to understand that life is not lived by comments and likes.
#Every freedom has its own limitation. The digital natives have access to technologies and digital devices. This gives them the freedom to express themselves in words, images and videos. They find it difficult to separate public from private issues. That is where the problem is. Youths of this era should take heed: freedom has its own limitations. And in this case, the consequences are graver than they could think off. While click, post and share rule their world, there is wisdom in exercising restraint before any act is recorded and shared. Questions to consider include: would I be happy if this gets to the public? Will my parents and family members be proud of that post or picture? Will the consequence not come back to haunt me? Youths should learn to think before they click. Thinking appears no more fashionable in this fast internet driven world. Yet, it is a virtue highly needed now more than ever before.
Currently, there are quite a number of CBN initiatives to increase credit to SMEs, the focus of this article is LDR. Loan-deposit ratio (LDR) is a ratio between a bank’s total loans to customers and total deposits from customers, measured in percentage terms.
