I did Retail banking for four years and I can comfortably tell you that it is one of the toughest units in the bank. Many people think the job is simply about opening personal accounts. It isn't. You open an account, then you have to make sure it is funded. After that, you need to enroll the customer on the bank's digital channels and ensure they collect and activate their ATM card. If those things don't happen, the account generates little or no value for the bank. Now imagine going to a random motor park for an account opening campaign. The first challenge is convincing people to share their BVN and NIN. Those are probably the hardest pieces of information to get from an average Nigerian. To make things even harder, many of them already have accounts with other banks and see no reason to open another one. After you finally convince someone to open an account, the next battle begins, getting them to fund it. In many cases, Relationship Managers end up funding some of these accounts themselves just to get them active. Then comes ATM card collection. You'll be calling, sending text messages, and following up repeatedly just to get customers to come to the branch and pick up their cards. Retail banking is definitely not for the faint-hearted. – at Lagos, Nigeria

Take a second look before financing clothing business. Don't take loans to start a boutique or clothing business. You'll run into problems along the way. Clothing outlets are best run with personal funds, you sell at your pace with no one coming after you for loan repayment. I have financed a couple of businesses in the fashion industry, especially boutiques and clothing retailers. To be honest, about 80% of those businesses struggled to repay their loans. If you understand how clothing is, you will agree with me that purchases are always discretionary. When money is tight, people prioritise food, rent, transport and school fees over buying new clothes. When this happens, stock can sit in the shop for months without selling. This is the complaint I get all the time. Even before the business owner can sell off the old stock, new designs have already entered the market, making the older ones even harder to sell. Sometimes, when they eventually sell, they have to offer the clothes at discounted prices just to clear the stock. This eats into their profit and affects capital. On paper, the business may look good because of its turnover. But borrowed money is usually tied up in unsold inventory.

Opay has virtually built everything we need In payment collection and digital banking. Others are just trying to gain market share. The only gap I see with Opay is their lending, they're still moving like loan sharks.

If there's one bank that has a swift business loan process, it's Sterling Bank. If you're finding it difficult to get business capital from your current bank, take your account statement to Sterling Bank. They will finance your business, and they also accept Moniepoint and OPay statements, which many banks don't accept. You don't have to use your account for six months before you qualify for a loan. They're that flexible. Sterling don't need your collateral to give you a loan, with your cash flow, stock hypothetication and personal Guarantee you can get as a loan as high as 30M. If Sterling gives you 10M and you're returning for another loan, they will give 20M, that's a 100% increase. Stop ruining your business growth with expensive and complex credit lending.

Don't overlook frozen food business. Today, I spent time around Apapa, Tin Can and the Amuwo Odofin axis, specifically at the frozen food storage and distribution hub. Let me tell you something interesting about how this business works. Many of my Igbo traders operating in this space do not own the warehouses where they keep their products. They rent storage space in existing cold rooms and pay for storage and cooling. Their job is to go out, find customers, negotiate deals and build relationships with wholesalers, retailers, restaurants and other food vendors. Once they get an order, they supply the customer directly from the warehouse where their products are stored. I met a woman who turns over more than ₦300 million monthly, yet she does not own the warehouse she uses. She pays for storage and serves her customers from there. For business developers in banks and fintech companies, this is a segment worth exploring for financing. These traders need financing to increase inventory, fulfil larger orders and expand their distribution networks. Wholesalers come to these warehouses to buy and place delivery orders. And if you are looking for a business to start, frozen food distribution is also worth trying. You may not need to build a cold room from scratch. You could begin by renting storage space, building a customer base and growing your inventory as demand increases. This is where I spent my day today, understanding how money moves. And guess what? I came back with three cartons of free fish.

The solution to Manchester United is simple. If the management truly wants a rebuild, it should openly back Carrick. Then you will see all these overfed babies called players adjust or leave. After Arsène Wenger left Arsenal, the coaches who came afterwards failed to deliver the desired results until the management decided to rebuild and openly back Arteta. Özil, Lacazette, Aubameyang, Leno, Xhaka, and many other big stars either left or were moved on as the club rebuilt. The instruction was clear. If you are not playing at the level the coach expects, you are out. When Arsenal appointed Mikel Arteta in December 2019, the club finished 8th, 8th, and 5th in his first three Premier League seasons before qualifying for the Champions League. Some fans wanted Arteta out, while others believed in him and said, "We trust the process." You don't achieve quick success during a rebuilding phase. It's obvious that some players want Carrick out, and the management needs to make it clear to them that Carrick is not going anywhere, regardless of how bad the results get. The players need to understand that their job is to play at the highest level and deliver results. Any player who fails to perform at that level should be put up for sale, regardless of their name or how much they earn. I'm not happy seeing Manchester United this way even as rival fan. But the truth remains, when you're rebuilding most times it feels like it's not working but you'll need to be patient. You cannot say you are rebuilding a team, then sack the manager every time results don't go your way. At this point, the players must also be held accountable. You cannot keep changing managers while the same players continue to underperform. If the club's management trusts Carrick enough to appoint him, it should give him the backing to do his job. Let the players know that nobody is bigger than the club. If you're rebuilding, you'll suffer until things gets better.

Your rich friend or relative will not deposit millions in your bank because you work there. Don't go thinking that the moment you accept a bank sales job your wealthy friends and family will bring big money to help you meet your target. Some of these people don't even want you to know how much they have in their accounts. They would rather open an account with a random bank officer who doesn't know them personally than expose their financial worth to someone close to them. Even if they decide to open an account, you might just be lucky if they deposit more than 100k to the account. You'll enter PIP straight because you'll be disappointed.

I read somewhere that China has rules requiring people who create certain types of specialist online content to provide relevant professional qualifications for verification. Like if you're creating content around Business, Finance, automobile, law, health and education you must provide relevant professional qualifications for platform verification. Honestly, I would love to see something like this in Nigeria. If you're going to position yourself as an expert and tell people what to do online, you should possess some level of professional experience or authorized training certifications.

You see those provision stores where you sell everything, from biscuits to detergents, noodles and beverages? Sometimes, you can sell plenty of goods and still make very little profit. Six years ago, I facilitated a ₦1 million business support facility for Mama Ada who was into the sub-distribution of noodles. Three years later, her business had grown to the point where her credit request has increased to ₦10 million. From experience, It is more profitable to focus on one FMCG product and build a strong customer base around it. Mama Ada explained to me how she became the only wholesaler selling noodles in her local market. Most of the retailers in her neighbourhood buy from her because they can make over ₦1,000 in profit on a carton, depending on the brand. For her, she buys noodles in bulk and supplies retailers who depend on her for regular stock at a cheaper rate. She buys from distributors and his distributors need reliable sub-agents who can buy consistently, help them meet sales targets and earn rebates and incentives from manufacturers. So to keep the business growing, these sub-agents often need financing to increase their stock and meet demand. That was how I met Mama Ada. Her business generate regular cash flow because retailers need to replenish their stock frequently as demand increases. Today, her business has grown significantly from where it was when I first financed her. To those working in the bank or fintech across business development and credit financing, pay attention to FMCG distributors and their agent networks. One relationship with a distributor can open doors to several sub-agents.

I buy my football jerseys from him. A very reliable guy.

I didn't want to further engage with the tweet. People assume everyone lives the same reality as them. When life puts you in a difficult situation, you become vulnerable. Nobody will help you, but they will ask, "Won't you sell that your car? Just sell it off." People know you are desperate, and the value of your asset suddenly means little to them. That is the reality of being in a difficult financial situation.

Madueke wasn't the upgrade we wanted as at the time we signed him. Only the coach knew exactly what he saw that made him initiate that signing. To us fans, then he wasn't the signing we wanted.

A well-managed company shouldn't need an exit interview to understand why things are not working. When there is a problem in the workplace, HR is usually aware. These HRs make recommendations to management, and most times management don't implement them. So what's the significance of an exit interview? If a company wants data and trends to make better decisions, it should regularly conduct regular surveys among its current employees. These are the people experiencing the work environment daily and can provide useful feedback on what needs to change. The day I decide to leave any company, HR should not ask me to grant an exit interview. I won't. The company always have an opportunity to make things better. Why wait until I'm leaving before asking what needs to be fixed? I no go talk to you.

You get it, even if car price drop to six figures people will still struggle to buy. Our purchasing power is at all time low. The little money people earn goes straight into survival. People are struggling to pay rent, buy food, pay transport fares, support their families and settle other bills. By the time they meet these basic needs, there is hardly anything left to save or invest. Cheaper goods will always remain out of reach for an average Nigerian until cost of living becomes manageable.

Used cars have become cheaper lately. You can easily find decent cars selling for between ₦3m and ₦4m. But who will buy the car is now the problem. A friend who urgently needs money has been struggling to sell his 2010 Toyota Venza V6 for ₦4m. A car that would ordinarily sell for nothing less than ₦8m.