Tell us a bit about your background.
I studied Law at University of Warwick as any good Nigerian child would. Following graduation, I worked for a financial PR company and a lot of my clients were banks and investment houses. I worked as a researcher and I became familiarised with how banks and the monetary system works. I was also learning the value of research, data and developed my communication skills through the writing of press releases & articles. Since then, I have worked both in marketing and more recently as a Finance Manager in the charity sector. …
How to Start Investing with Zero Experience
For almost anything in life, taking the first step is the hardest. No matter how prepared you think you are, taking the first step at anything new, is always the hardest thing to do. Whether you’re learning a new language or starting a new job, the initial hurdle is half of the battle. When it comes to investing, it is no different. Whether you want to invest £500 or £5000. If you have never done it before, it can be overwhelming and intimidating to figure out how to start.
Here are a few tips on how to start investing with little or no experience. …
The Racial Investment Gap
A look at pretty much any dataset relating to wealth outcomes in the UK reveals a similar theme: people from ethnic minority backgrounds hold less wealth, are lower paid, and have higher rates of employment than their White British counterparts. This theme is even more pronounced when you look at the black community in particular.
The Runnymede Trust’s ‘Colour of Money’ report published in April 2020 showed that for every £1 of wealth held by White Britons, Black Caribbean Brits had 20p and Black African Brits had 10p. …
Tell us a bit about your background.
I had my formal education in Lagos, Nigeria; secondary school at Queen’s College and my undergraduate degree in Accountancy at the University of Lagos. After that I completed my professional accountancy exams (ACA) in the UK, whilst working with Coopers and Lybrand in London for 5 years (which has since merged into PwC). After qualifying as an accountant in the UK, I returned to Nigeria for a while before going onto to Harvard Business school for my MBA.
Tell us about your journey into Healthcare and your experience so far?
I decided to pivot from accounting and financial services into healthcare and business school was a very deliberate way of doing that. After illustrious careers in academia, both my parents (who were medical doctors) set up a private healthcare company in Nigeria — Hygeia Nigeria Limited. Through this company, they set up their first private hospital, Lagoon Hospital, in 1986. I was very keen to help them grow the business and especially because health insurance was just taking shape in Nigeria and it was an area in which I was particularly interested. While I was at Harvard Business School, I spent my time researching the HMO model of health insurance in the US. After business school, I spent 17 years working in Hygeia, holding various positions and I became the CEO at the age of 32. I also served as Chairperson of the board of Hygeia. One of the proud achievements of Hygeia under stewardship, was being able to launch several Health insurance schemes including the government’s NHIS, corporate schemes and community health insurance schemes for the urban and rural poor which attracted international subsidy funding. Through these schemes, Hygeia created access to healthcare for over 1m Nigerians. …
Millennials and Consumer Activism
Millennials [i] are the most likely generation to base the choice of brands they patronise on the business ethos of the brand. The younger generation increasingly expect business and companies to be value-driven, linked to social causes and express political values similar to theirs. This extends beyond buying behaviour and is also reflected in the investment decisions they make. In 2019, an Allianz Life ESG Investor Sentiment Study from 2019[ii] found that although only 17% of millennials actively investing in ESG (Environmental, Social & Governance) products. About 64% of them acknowledged that ESG issues were important to their investing decisions. …
The Good and Bad of “Buy Now, Pay Later” Services.
Chances are that many more of us are shopping online in these days of Covid-19 lockdowns! So, you must have come across the option to “buy now, pay later” (BNPL) BNPL financing services are as simple as they sound — they allow you to defer payments for goods and services purchased online, from a few weeks to a year and to spread out the payments over a number of small payments. BNPL services are on the rise. A survey by Freeze Debt found that over half (54%) of Brits use ‘buy now, pay later’ services and that 60% of people do not actually consider these schemes as “real debt”[1]. During the lockdown this year, Klarna, a BNPL provider and the popular fintech company amongst millennials in Europe reported a 20% increase in new UK merchants using their payment portal[2]. This could be interpreted as due to the fact that BNPL services cushion the financial uncertainty that consumers face which could adversely affect their shopping habits. …
An uncertain calm returns to the streets of many Nigerian cities, especially Lagos, following the aftermath of the peaceful protests which turned violent, when the government deployed the army with live bullets to disperse unarmed protesters at a sit-in at the Lekki toll gate in Lagos. …
1. Tell us a bit about your background.
I was born and raised in the UK to a Nigerian father and Norwegian mother. I got a scholarship to an independent school and I later studied Economics at Cambridge. After completing my degree in 1998, I worked in management consulting for a year and in the height of the internet boom I worked for a sports company and after the dot-com bust, I moved to the mobile company Three which at the time was the biggest start-up in corporate history. I later joined my former CEO from the sports company to help start a private jet company called Marquis Jet Europe which was later sold to Netjets, a subsidiary of Berkshire Hathaway. I then took a break to manage a friend’s band as well as short period working in Warner Bros due to my love of film. …
With so many changes since lockdown, and a number of government backed schemes introduced designed to boost the UK property market during the pandemic, now could be a great time to buy your first home or move to your dream one.
In mid-May the UK property market exploded back into life after a near two-month shutdown, and activity, demand and sales have been on a level not seen for quite some time. Rightmove recently revealed a record month for property sales, with more than £37 billion worth of transactions between July 12 and August 8 … a 38% rise year on year (1). The mini boom showed no signs of slowing down, with people swopping their summer holidays for a house move instead. Many have found themselves asking — is now a good time to buy, or will there simply be too much competition? Is it better to wait to see if prices fall a bit or act now while buyer conditions are favourable? …
COVID-19 has changed nearly every aspect of our daily lives, and consumer spending is no exception. With the UK economy already more than a fifth smaller that it was at the end of 2019 (1), consumer spending has altered massively since the pandemic began, from socially distanced supermarket checkouts, a surge in online spending and restaurants pivoting to offer takeaway services.
COVID-19 has forced many of us to question our lifestyle habits, with more time at home and less security about money, many people in lockdown developed a thrifty ‘make do’ mindset, with a focus on fixing and maintaining what they have rather than buying new. As a nation we spent more on gardening and DIY supplies, as well as hobbies, crafts and technology. It could be said that people started seeking activities that give them longer lasting feelings of wellbeing rather than the instant gratification of buying something new. It’s given people a chance to reconsider what they value the most — health, family and friends and suddenly the latest gadget may not seem worth spending money on. …
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