By Hadassah-Esther Osimen
No matter what, money invested is more valuable than money sitting in some bank account or online wallet. Letting your money grow is one of the many ways you can make it do more. In even the most difficult terrains, you need to create investment opportunities for yourself and your money. This does not have to follow traditional pathways if the economy is too bearish and therefore, too risky for you to invest in the traditional money market instruments such as Bonds, Treasury Bills, stoks and hedge funds; add cryptocurrencies to the list.
Although, many pompzi schemes have filled the online and network marketing space, we all can still find windows for investing our money in platforms that will enable it grow exponentially even if it means creating such platforms ourselves, be it among friends and colleagues or families and neighbors. I did get introduced to some online schemes where people could buy into online stores, investment holidays, online Esusu etc, but they were all pomzied! It then occured to me that it would be best to start something financially creative rather than fall to such schemes. I once lost over 300,000.00 to one introduced to me by a family. So, you should not trust any of them. One of the few lessons I learnt from the sad experience is to run thorough physical background checks, including visitation; investing only a little first not much, doing a comprehensive google search, finding online communities, testing the platforms for results first, not to commit innitially but plan to revert so you can investigate and check for their performance, etc. Many such schemes are usually new (less than 2 years). While we must step out in faith to do business, even running a background check on the individuals behind start ups can prove effective. An individual with already proven track record of intergrity and performance is a safer investment window than a poported big fat foreign business stake which background you are unable to check.
Please note that you should still have some of your liquid safe in some investment such as government Bonds, Treasury Bills and fixed savings with a reputable bank, then you can invest in other lucrative opportunities such as investment in new ventures, etc. Personally, even though the crypto market has experienced some boom, I still do not see the logic in online money on a long term. Caveat Emptor.
The current situation in the Nigerian money market is a reflection of its low economic activities. Notice how exponentially expensive food stuff became last December, post Covid, and the prices are still up. What is happening in the food market? There is a need for serious concern to everyone because if food continues to go up, a nation is in serious delima. But wait a minute, why should the price of food rise at all? Why should garri, meat, rice, vegetables and so on go up in price after covid? Obviously many farmers were scared to die, government bought up their produce and stored in warehouses where many of them spoilt, plus a whole lot of back logs caused them to stock away too rather than sell. Worse still it showed we were importing rice. Anything that grows from the ground should not be going up in price because it comes from the earth, therefore, please invest in agriculture as soon aspossible.
Everyone must eat and drink, defecate and remove refuse. Even in poverty, everyone must bath at some point, clean themselves and cover their shame; therefore also invest in soap and cleaning agents, refuse removal and recycling, body care, drinkable/usable water, durable clotheings and foot wares. I could go on. Consider untapped markets outside of Lagos, look at opportunities in the real sector, agro-allieds, industrialisation etc. Avoid the rush to plunge into the crude oil market. Something about that industry has jinxed a country like Nigeria. Although data is said to be the new oil, data intergrity makes this window a wait for less developed societies because data must be trusted. Many developing countries are not developed because of corruption, making trusting their data unlikely.
Nevertheless, big data pulled by big corporations on user analytics can be mined even for developing societies where their servers are abroad and their hosts are recognized. For instance, google, Microsoft which free services have been pulling data for analytics for themselves and their Third Party partners. The Technology market remains a boom if we continue to access Main1, otherwise, all are in trouble online and technologically.
Is it best to invest abroad? That would depend on global economic trends which does not look encouraging as far as I am concerned. Please be weary of any bogus investment windows for now. Read and listen to both foreign and local economic reports including conversations trends as these will give useful analysis of what is going on and help you make informed decisions.
The safest business for Third World economies seem to be food related, that is, agro economy. Entertainment only follows because it helps people relax, especially music and comedy. But who wants to laugh when they need a meal, wear expensive clothes when they are hungry? Remove elementary problems first. Invest in solving elementary problems. I am convinced that the Third World economies must first eradicate poverty and introduce other basic necessities then industries will thrive. Their are several factors affecting development in places like Africa. These include babarric cultures which affect social lives and belief systems (for instance a culture that does not allow women to work, one that does not promote talents in children, one that dismisses abilities because of physical challenges, one that uses religion to siphone its congregants etc, is doomed no matter the number of agro). There is therefore, a need for a whollistic approach to development in Africa. Nevertheless, let’s start somewhere, invest.
For more counselling, Think-tanking and consulting about making your money do more, please email estherjoy600@gmail.com.
Have a splendid weekend and see you at the top!
