7 Ways To Get Rich Fast In Abuja

I'm a Lagos boy through and through.
 
However, since 1991 I've been visiting Abuja, the administrative capital of Nigeria. I wouldn't have been visiting the city so much if my mother weren't a retired civil servant there.
 
Quite frankly, I feel unless you're a civil servant or you're dead, Abuja has little to offer you. The place is full of administrative buildings and very nice places to bury the dead.
 
Anyway, I've dug deep and uncovered the "little more" Abuja offers.
 
If you've got the itch or hots for Abuja, then here's a list of seven "businesses" that could add more zeros to your bank balance:
 
1. MONEY LAUNDERING
 
Seriously? Yup, as serious as a heart attack.
 
President Jonathan once quipped that in Nigeria, "the money is generated in Port Harcourt, shared in Abuja, and spent in Lagos". What he means is that the monthly federal allocation to the three tiers of government, which has made beggars of Nigeria's state governors, is dished in Abuja.
 
If you're good with moving looted funds around the world, then relocate to base camp in Abuja. You will be handsomely rewarded for your expertise, even if you're busted.
 
2. REAL ESTATE DEVELOPMENT
 
Hotels, housing estates, government buildings. You name it. In Abuja it's like everything is under construction except prisons, many more of which Nigeria arguably needs.
 
The more connected you are as a developer the bigger the contracts you'll get.
 
3. POLITICAL LOBBYING
 
Wherever you find a carcass you'll find a vulture feeding on it. So it is with politicians and lobbyists.
 
The number of politicians from all levels of government assembled in Abuja at any given time is huge. These people are rich pickings for astute lobbyists.
 
If you've got excellent persuasion skills, then you could make a killing getting paid to persuade politicians, especially legislators, to do things favorable to whoever employed you to lobby.
 
4. PIMPING
 
Abuja has a reputation of a city flush with cash, so of course the "world's oldest profession" flourishes here. 
 
It's hard to separate money and sex.
 
Now, if you've got good organizational skills, you could get into events organizing in Abuja. However, from many indications, you could make more money faster by organizing hookers for legislators and top civil servants looking for a bit of home away from home.
 
5. CABING
 
I've heard people say that the way Abuja is built is not what the original design master plan called for. I've not seen the master plan but the set-up of the city is dumb.
 
You've got a central area of four high-affluence districts, where the minority rich live, totally surrounded by low-affluence districts where most of the city's workers live. It's like a gated community totally bounded by ghettos.
 
Anyway, the municipal authorities recently banned danfos from plying the central area. Naturally, this has been a boon for organized taxi cabs within the area as taxi fares have risen.
 
However, if you've got a car or a fleet of cars, you could get into private cabing (kabukabu) within the central area or between the central area and the outer districts. Demand for taxi is high during the peak periods - when the so-called "el-rufai" big buses are scarce or unavailable.
 
6. LAWYERS
 
Obviously, lawyers are needed everywhere. However, the administrative nature of Abuja has created huge opportunities for lawyers interested in government-related work churned by the myriad of ministries, departments, and agencies that dot the city.
 
Furthermore, wherever politicians and civil servants abound in Nigeria, sleaze festers. Therefore, you could make a killing getting these people out of trouble. Or even getting them into trouble. 

Afterall, there is a saying that if you want to create a problem where there's none, just get a lawyer involved.
 
7. DRINKING JOINTS
 
No, I don't mean clubs and bars - there are plenty of these in the central districts. I mean the low-key, indiscreet joints found mostly in the outer districts.
 
Often tucked away in villages with relatively cheaper real estate, these joints look dry during the day but come alive at night. One time I spent a whole day with an uncle who lives in Kuje just hopping from one joint to another - and I don't even drink.
 
These joints are places where most of Abuja's workers relax and mingle. And don't think drinks are the only pleasure (or leisure) you get at these places.
 
If you can buy or lease land in these outer districts, then a drinking joint could get you rich faster than a residential block.
 
So there you have it. Abuja has not grown on me. But if you're ready to call it home, at least now you know how to hustle in the Rock City.

CONFORMITY: WANTED FOR THE MURDER OF BUSINESS CREATIVITY IN NIGERIA

The most powerful religious leader in Nigeria is "conformity".

Dictionary.com defines conformity as "action in accord with prevailing social standards, attitudes, practices, etc."

In Nigeria today, you dare not start or close a public meeting without prayers; you're probably going to hell if you don't attend church on New Year's Eve; and something must be wrong with you if you don't believe "only" God can save Nigeria.

Even your social credibility and acceptability is widely accepted to be directly proportional to the extent of your involvement in church or mosque activities.

It's like on religious matters Nigerians won't think or act different from the next man, in order to not be labeled an outcast.

This group-think seems to also permeate the business arena. What got me thinking about this conformity in business thinking are some comments and reactions to a new business i just started on the "dream big and start small" tip.

ChinChin is one of the most popular pastry snacks in Nigeria. Early last month i got a brainwave to make a healthier and more nourishing type of ChinChin by using whole wheat flour instead of the usual white flour, honey instead of white sugar, and changing other ingredients.

Using three test batches, we sampled the public for opinions on the look, texture, taste, and price of the new product. I must admit that people were generally receptive to the product and a majority of the feedback were positive.

However, the most negative comments bothered me somewhat, because they were not even about any of the things we sampled. Instead, the naysayers essentially questioned why we bothered to make a new kind of ChinChin.

Were they just trying to say that people won't buy the product? I don't think so, because that's not what we asked them. In any case, how will we know that people won't buy it unless we make it?

There's no doubt that Nigerians are entrepreneurial. However, entrepreneurship and creativity are not the same thing. When you come up with a new idea (creativity), you are not entrepreneurial until you turn the idea into a service or product.

What I'm saying is that while Nigerians embrace entrepreneurship they seem to abhor creativity. Invention and innovation are the two creative processes, and we don't invent while we hardly innovate.

I don't know why we are not as creative as we are entrepreneurial, but i suspect two conformist tendencies have something to do with it.

The first tendency is the fear of failure. To most Nigerians failure is like a body odor everyone reminds you of so we are very scared to fail.

The second tendency is a hostility to locally manufactured products. I really don't understand the pervasive mentality that imported goods are always superior to indigenous alternatives. Many goods imported into Nigeria are actually nothing but sub-standard knockoffs and rejects.

So is conformity killing business creativity in Nigeria? Well, if it's not conformity then something is definitely stifling creativity. Since conformity has all but destroyed independent religious thinking in Nigeria, i suspect it's also the culprit in the murder of creativity.

Therefore, I hope Nigerians will embrace and encourage the creatives amongst us more.  We must stop this tendency to conform in thought and action like sheep in a flock.

Conformity only breeds mediocrity.

5 PRACTICAL SIGNS YOU'RE NOT READY TO BE RICH

Let's get straight to it.

1. YOU'RE NOT FRUGAL: For instance, do you still want to go to business school when your family already runs a successful business? For what?

This indicates you don't have the mentality of frugality. And you can't be rich unless you're frugal.

2. YOU DON'T TAKE RISKS: Ever heard of anyone become a multimillionaire doing just a 9-to-5? Me neither.

Now, before you shoot me, not all risk takers become rich. But you'll never become one unless you take risks. Sorry.

The corollary to this sign is when you're afraid to fail.

3. YOU CONFORM: If you always want to fit in or be like everybody else, forget it. You'll never be rich. Ask Richard Branson. Or Mike Adenuga.

4. YOU DON'T READ: I've never come across any wealthy individual who hasn't stressed the importance of reading to creating wealth.

Jim Rohn, famous American author and motivational speaker, famously quipped that "Poor people have big TVs. Rich people have big libraries". Nuff said.

5. YOU'VE NEVER THOUGHT OF TURNING YOUR HOBBY OR PASSION INTO A BUSINESS: What do Oprah Winfrey (speaking), Arianna Huffington (blogging), and Oswald Boateng (tailoring) have in common?

Yup, you guessed it. They all turned their hobbies into multimillion dollar businesses.So what are YOU waiting for?

There you have the five signs.

So have i missed any other signs?

MY EXPERIENCE SO FAR WITH MOBILE MONEY IN NIGERIA

Disclosure: No organization has either endorsed or paid me for anything said in this article.

Unlike Kenya, Nigeria is just coming of age in Mobile Money. Mobile Money was really started in Africa for the rural dweller and the urban "unbanked".

Nonetheless, as an "urban banked" in Nigeria, here are the reasons i got into Mobile Money:

1. MOBILE TRANSACTIONS: I increasingly want to do my banking transactions without using an ATM or setting foot in a banking hall - except to complain or abuse.

2. EMERGENCY USE: Sometimes i cannot find a GSM recharge card vendor when i really need one.

3. CHANGE PALAVA: I'm tired of the "no change" palava with recharge card vendors.


MOBILE TRANSACTIONS

Three months ago i signed up for FirstBank's "@FirstMonie" Mobile Money Service because i already banked with FirstBank. However, you don't have to be a bank's existing customer to have a mobile money account there.

My first goal was to link my existing FirstBank savings account with my new mobile money account. This way i could transfer funds between both accounts using my android.

Since FirstBank is always tweeting that "to link your FirstBank account with your FirstMonie account just visit your nearest FirstBank branch", i thought linking the accounts would be a slam dunk. Oh, how wrong i was.

Contrary to FirstBank's claim, my "nearest" branch didn't have any mandate forms to link accounts. In fact, one of the branches i visited had no idea i could link the accounts.

Eventually, FirstBank linked the accounts a month after i filled the first of three mandate forms at three branches. Since linking my accounts, I've successfully transferred funds between them once using the FirstMonie moblie app.

Since FirstBank was still rolling out FirstMonie when i signed up i put the frustrating start behind me and focused on the other reasons i got into mobile money.

EMERGENCY USE

While you can use the mobile money account to do many things, I use mine primarily to buy GSM recharge cards.

You see, GSM recharge card vendors seem ubiquitous in Nigeria. Yet sometimes you can't find or get to one - like late at night or when you can't go out in the rain.

Unfortunately, FirstMonie has been a huge disappointment during emergencies.

Whenever it rains in Nigeria everything goes down...power supply, ATMs, GSM networks. Therefore, I'm not suprised that FirstMonie's USSD code channel or the mobile app has never worked when it's raining.

How about during "normal times" - no rain, no labor strikes, weekdays, etc.?

Well, since the USSD channel tends to be out of service a lot, I thought the app would be a more reliable alternative access channel during normal times. However, this hasn't been the case. Both channels have often had accessibility issues concurrently.

To lessen my dependability on FirstMonie, i opened another mobile money account with @StanbicIBTC. So far, Stanbic's app has been more reliable than FirstMonie's.

All told though, for me mobile money hasn't been that reliable for emergency use.

CHANGE PALAVA

The most annoying phrase in Nigerian retail is "no change". I feel so incensed whenever i really need a recharge card and the vendor says no change.

Fortunately, there's no such problem with mobile money. Starting at N100 you can purchase any amount of recharge you want and don't have to worry about lack of change.

6 HOT Global Trends You Should Invest In Now: AGE OF ROBOTICS (5)

Japan is the world's fastest aging country. Yet the Japanese just shrug their shoulders at all the noise the world makes about how this greying could ruin their way of life.

Why?

Because they are counting on robots to save them.

Japan has the most robots of any country in the world. While robots have been in and out of fashion for a long time the Japanese have been saying the age of robotics was imminent.

It seems the world is now truly on the cusp of a robotic resurgence unlike anything in the past.

As a self-directed investor staying ahead of the game, you should position to profit from this global trend by researching and investing in companies or businesses leading this resurgence.

Four factors driving the global resurgence of robotics are Aging Population, Robotic Surgery, Advanced Manufacturing, and Automation of Services.

1. AGING POPULATION

Imagine two robotic nurses in a nursing home fighting each other to care for an octogenarian hunk. This scenario may seem far-fetched but it's a real possibility in a world where senior citizens will constitute the majority of the populations of some countries by the end of this century.

While most rapidly-aging European nations see immigration as the key solution to a declining indigenous birthrate and shrinking workforce, anti-immigration Japan is developing "humanoid" robots to care for the elderly, entertain crowds, and even be girlfriends.

Anyone who's seen the movie Terminator will probably shudder at having a robot as a "BFF". However, humanoid robots that do more than entertain will become more common in the next few decades, and this will be a boon for leading global manufacturers like SONY, iRobot (IRBT), and Toyota.

2. ROBOTIC SURGERY

From Orthopedics to Neurosurgery "robodocs" are slowly taking over from doctors.

Perhaps the strongest indication of this in the past decade has been the growth of Intuitive Surgical's (ISRG) da Vinci surgical robot. Amid growing concerns about the safety of its robot, the American company claims more than 2,500 of the multimillion dollar machine have been installed in hospitals around the world.

If concerns about robotic surgery can be adequately addressed it could be the biggest driver of robotics in the next decades considering the growing number of the elderly around the world.

Furthermore, tele-medicine and long-distance surgeries could become common, which will significantly increase the adoption of robots in the medical arena.

3. ADVANCED MANUFACTURING

Robots have always been at home in manufacturing. For instance, the use of robots in the automobile industry is almost as old as the industry itself.

In the past, industrial robots were delegated one or two roles complimentary to those of workers. However, with advanced manufacturing robots are now taking on multiple roles and in many industries entirely replacing workers.

This is the future of manufacturing: robots advancing the automation of processes and tasks with minimal human intervention or even supervision.

The newer frontiers for industrial robots are war-zones/battlefields and disaster relief (including search-and-rescue) operations.

In March 2011, when disaster struck at Japan's Fukushima nuclear plant, the world expected hi-tech robots to immediately swing into action. However, the world was shocked to learn that Japan, the land of robots, didn't have a single robot capable of nuclear damage assessment and disaster relief. They had to seek assistance from the U.S. and France.

Since "3-11" Japanese companies have intensified research in disaster relief robots.

There's an interesting cultural dimension to the resurgence of robotics: While the Westerners have focused on the use of robots for military and disaster relief purposes, the Far Easterners have concentrated research in hi-tech "buddy" robots.

In war-zones and on battlefields robots now work alongside soldiers. The world's most battle-hardened robot is iRobot's PackBot. The Americans deployed it in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Furthermore, to the horror of the Japanese who are so proud of their technological prowess, PackBot was the first robot deployed to the scene of the Fukushima Nuclear accident.

In the next few decades robots could actually replace soldiers, rather than just spy or do reconnaissance. That's a little scary because if soldier robots do battle, humans will be the collateral damage.

4. AUTOMATION OF SERVICES

When the robot cashier, aka the ATM, first came out all it could do was dispense cash and you had to see a cashier for other transactions. Now, in many industrialized countries, you really don't need to go into a banking hall for any transaction, except, perhaps, to complain about the ATM.

The last stand we humans have been making against robots has been in services. However, with the resurgence of robotics, the writing is on the wall for us.

Even the skilled worker is not safe from the kinds of automation coming down the pike.

Our only saving grace is that as robots take over our old jobs, new jobs will emerge. However, these new jobs will require teamwork with robots. In other words, in the near future, you may not get a job unless you can lunch with a robot.

This is the fifth in a series of posts that examine six hot global trends you should invest in now. In the final blog, i examine the hot trend of Frontiers Exploration.

6 HOT Global Trends You Should Invest In Now: SCARCITY OF FRESHWATER (4)

Water covers about 97% of the earth's surface yet the world continues to face severe water shortages.

Why is this so and how can you as an individual investor profit from this global conundrum? Please read on to find out.

Neither North Korea nor Iran will start World War III.

WATER, the "Blue Gold", probably will.

All around the world tensions are rising or remain elevated over water.

In Africa, Egypt is ready to go to war with Sudan and Ethiopia over the River Nile.

The Jordan River basin remains a flashpoint because it serves Israel, Palestine, Jordan, Syria, and Lebanon.

The UN says there are tensions and disagreements among countries along the Mekong River in Indochina as well as around the Aral Sea in Eastern Europe.

In the U.S., the Colorado River, which serves California, Arizona, Nevada, Texas, and Utah, is drying up, while Florida, Georgia, and Alabama routinely butt heads over a shared river basin.

Although we are a water planet, the bulk of this water is "saltwater", which is unfit for human consumption. The little "freshwater" available is what countries are fighting over.

As the world's population explodes and urbanization rages over the next decades, demand for potable water will be unprecedented. Luckily for you as an investor, there are more than a handful of companies around the world pouring billions of dollars into making the abundant saltwater fit for human consumption. Water service providers, especially companies involved in saltwater desalination and waste-water treatment, are poised for phenomenal growth.

The water services industry comprises primarily high-growth, small to medium-cap companies whose stocks tend to be very volatile. If you can't stand the volatility of individual stocks, then pick an index fund or exchange-traded fund (ETF). There are several popular ETFs focused on water service companies.

If you have the stomach for high beta, then consider individual stocks of companies that derive all or the majority of their revenue from water resources. Don't be tempted here by big companies, like GE and ABB, that derive a minority of their revenue from water services because you'd be getting too much of what you may not want.

Now, i don't know at this point if saltwater desalination will be more important than waste-water treatment in the quest to meet the world's hunger for freshwater. Therefore, at first i wasn't sure which companies to invest in. You may have the same dilemma.

After much research i eventually picked one pure-play desalination company and one firm involved primarily in waste-water treatment. My desalination pick was Energy Recovery, Inc. (ERII), an American firm that has been expanding its global footprint. It also has ambitions in the oil and gas industry. Abtech Holdings (ABHD), a micro-cap company that partners with industry giant Waste Management (WM), was my waste-water treatment pick.

Invest in the global scarcity of water now, so that in future mandatory water rationing won't feel so bad if or when it comes to your neck of the woods.

This is the fourth in a series of posts that examine six hot global trends you should invest in now. In the next blog, i examine the hot trend of Robotics.

3 WAYS THE NIGERIA STOCK EXCHANGE COULD BOOST DOMESTIC INVESTOR INTEREST IN STOCKS

South African telecommunications giant MTN Group, which operates in 21 African countries, makes its biggest operating profit in Nigeria. Yet the firm is not listed on the Nigeria Stock Exchange (NSE), so Nigerians contribute immensely to the company's wealth but have no say in how it's run.

Similarly, none of the International Oil Companies (IOCs) in Nigeria have listed their upstream businesses, the most profitable part of their operations.

Why are are local and especially foreign companies so reluctant to list on the NSE?

The fundamental reason is that there are few investors to buy and sell their stocks.

According to Oscar Onyema, CEO of the NSE, there are 5 million investors on the bourse. Now, considering that over the past five years foreign investors have accounted for an average of 60% of daily transactions on the NSE, one can assume that at least 60% of the 5 million investors are foreigners.

This leaves only 2 million domestic investors in a country of over 160 million people - that's less than 2% of the population, compared to the U.S. where 54% of the population were stockmarket investors.

The NSE and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) have commendably embarked on all kinds of reforms to encourage more equity listings on the NSE. What they haven't done is generate huge domestic investor interest in the market.

So who's going to buy and hold all the stocks when they list?

Foreign portfolio investors mostly hit and run, so the NSE can't depend on them for the long-term development of a highly liquid and sophisticated market. Domestic institutional investors, which form the bulk of domestic investors, are too few and too risk-averse to massively deepen the market.

Therefore, the NSE needs individual investors.

Here are three ways it could encourage more of them to enter the fray:

1. ONLINE STOCK BROKERAGE

I don't understand why you can't trade Nigerian stocks unless you go through an offline stockbroker.

Many of these stockbrokers do nothing but take buy and sell orders. At the extreme they hoard valuable insider information used as leverage in opaque dealings with unaware clients.

Stockbrokers who exist only to take transactional instructions offer no value. In fact, they are a dying breed across the world.

Most clients of stockbrokers already do the research behind their buy and sell decisions anyway, so why can't they have the option to directly transact online?

The NSE should compel stockbrokers to offer their clients an alternative online trading platform and should facilitate the provision of such platforms to overcome any technological barriers.

2. FOREIGN-INVESTED EXCHANGE TRADED FUNDS (ETFs)

At the moment there's huge interest from the international investment community in Nigeria's growth story. A few weeks ago, a new pure-play Nigeria ETF debuted on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE).

Ironically, foreign investor interest in Nigeria has generated a reciprocal domestic investor interest in foreign equities.

Since foreign companies won't list on the NSE to give Nigerians direct access to their stocks, an alternative strategy that gives indirect access is NSE-listed ETFs that invest in foreign securities.

There's already a precedent somewhat with the December 2011 Absa Capital listing of the NewGold ETF - Vetiva Capital Management reportedly oversees the fund.

These foreign-invested ETFs could attract individual investors because they (investors or their stockbrokers) don't have to spend time and money to pick individual foreign stocks.

3. INDIVIDUAL INVESTMENT PROTECTION

In the U.S. the Securities Investor Protection Corporation (SIPC), a non-governmental non-profit founded and operated by broker-dealers, exists to protect small investors. The SIPC has been instrumental in encouraging individual investor participation in the U.S. stockmarket. Small investors know they can recover their cash and investments up to certain limits if a stockbroker goes bust.

Since individual investors mostly shun securities insurance offered by traditional insurance companies, the NSE could mandate its members to establish a SIPC-like protection for individual investors.

Obviously, protection limits have to be set to prevent a moral hazard of excessive risk taking by individual investors. Furthermore, individual investors could be required to post cash collaterals proportionate to their account values beyond protection limits.

CONCLUSION

There's just no way the Nigeria Stock Exchange (NSE) will grow if millions of individual investors don't invest in the stockmarket.

Nigeria's capital market regulators are making so much effort to attract equity listings to the NSE. However, the companies they're chasing know there are hardly any investors to buy and sell their stocks. Therefore, regulators should double-up on attracting more individual investors.

In any market, it's demand that drives supply, not vice-versa.

5 EMERGING NIGERIAN BUSINESSES THAT WILL THRIVE IN THE NEXT 5 YEARS

While addressing the audience at The Economist's Nigeria Business Summit on March 19, 2013, Nigeria's Finance Minister, Mrs. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, told potential foreign investors that if they were not in Nigeria, then they were not in Africa.

Well, if you're a foreign investor looking to start or support a business in Nigeria, then this article is for you.

You're probably already familiar with the bad (mostly real) and ugly (mostly perceived) side of Nigeria. The good thing about this country of 167 million people is that there's hardly any sector of its economy bereft of entrepreneurial opportunities.

Still, you should be careful where you invest. Many businesses are unattractive because they are fiercely competitive, have low barriers to entry, are threatened by emerging businesses, or just don't create much value for customers. Such businesses, like GSM recharge card vendors and pure-play "cyber" cafes, won't be around for much longer.

Conversely, based on my on-the-ground observations, the following businesses are primed for the big times in the next few years:

• Mobile Money 
• Mobile Applications Development
• Agricultural Produce Storage/Warehousing
• Plastic Waste Recycling
• Securities Investment Services

1. MOBILE MONEY

Mobile money is an African innovation rooted in Kenya, where more people now have mobile money accounts than bank accounts.

In Nigeria, less than 30% of the population have bank accounts but over 60% have mobile phones, so the potential for mobile money is just huge. In January 2013, Minister for Communications Technology, Mrs. Omobola Johnson, predicted that the value of mobile money transactions will increase from USD1.2 million currently to USD1 billion in 2015.

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) officially introduced mobile money in November 2011, through the issuance of licenses to a wide array of providers, including retail banks, independent financial transaction providers, and micro-finance banks. Unlike in Kenya though, the CBN excluded GSM providers to avoid a "cartelization" of mobile payments - GSM providers can still forge partnerships with license holders.

Currently, there are 16 licensed mobile money operators and not all have commenced operations.  Therefore, opportunities exist for financial service providers to partner with these licensees to roll-out services.

You may also want to become a mobile money agent, which is a potentially lucrative point-of-sale representative of a mobile money provider. Mobile money agents will be crucial to the success of mobile money in rural Nigeria, where half the population live.

2. MOBILE APPLICATIONS DEVELOPMENT

App development is no longer just for geeks or nerds. It's now an industry that was growing at around 15,000 apps per week in 2011. Furthermore, the average smartphone now houses 41 apps.

Gone are the days when technological revolutions like app development took years or even decades to reach Africa. Africa now leads tech revolutions, like the aforementioned mobile money, which is transforming banking and payments worldwide.

From the regional tech strongholds of Kenya and South Africa, tech hubs are now springing up all over Africa. In Nigeria, innovation centers like the Co-creation Hub in Lagos have emerged to support the nascent app development industry.

Although banks and telecommunications firms have taken the lead in launching apps for their customers, app usage in Nigeria hasn't yet hit critical mass. Therefore, as an investor you could build, or support indigenous developers to build, locally relevant apps.

To get up-to-speed on Nigeria's burgeoning app development industry, your best bet would be to plug into innovation networks like the Co-creation Hub. This interview with one of Nigeria's earliest voyagers into app development is captivating, insightful and informative.

3. AGRICULTURAL PRODUCE STORAGE/WAREHOUSING

Nigeria is not a huge agricultural exporter partly because it lacks modern storage facilities for its exportable produce.

Last year, while in my ancestral hometown of Ijebu-Ode in Ogun State, i had an insightful conversation with a middle-aged woman who sold roasted corn by the roadside. She told me that due to lack of proper storage facilities she had to do two things everyday: in the morning she had to go directly to a farm to buy corn cobs, and in the evening she had to dispose of all unsold fresh cobs by any means necessary.

Rural farmers in Nigeria usually store popular grains like rice and red beans in jute sacks, baskets, or barns made of bamboo, where microorganisms easily infest the grains. To avoid overage and minimize loses, farmers try to cultivate just enough produce that they can safely sell without a need for prolonged storage.

Rice is the most widely consumed grain in Nigeria. According to the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, Nigerians consume about five million metric tonnes of rice annually, almost half of which is imported at a cost of N356 billion (about USD2 billion). By 2050, Nigerians will consume 35 million metric tonnes of rice annually.

Obviously, the cost of rice importation is unsustainable. Therefore, there's a strong drive at the federal and state levels to massively boost local rice production and reduce imports.

To this end policy makers have touted strategies and incentives to enhance the rice value chain and attract private investors. However, they've paid more attention to the cultivation of rice than to its storage and transportation to markets, which remain the weakest links in the value chain.

This has created opportunities for private investors in the provision of modern storage facilities for seeds and grains, rice and beans in particular.

4. PLASTIC WASTE RECYCLING

Sachet water, popularly known as "pure water", is the biggest commodity in Nigeria. Over 70% of Nigerians reportedly consume at least one sachet of pure water everyday. That's about 120 million sachets daily!

While the pure water business has helped many Nigerians move up the socioeconomic ladder, it has now become an environmental nuisance. Everywhere you go in Nigeria empty pure water sachets litter streets, block drainages and canals, stuff dried-up water wells, and crowd-out landfills. Add to pure water sachets other plastic waste like used tires and water (PET) bottles, and you see that Nigeria has a huge plastic waste disposal problem.

Although there are other types of waste to battle, the explosion in pure water consumption seems to have compelled policy makers to prioritize plastic waste disposal.

In the past few years many states have commissioned more plastic waste recycling facilities than any other waste recycling facility. However, the scale of the waste disposal problem is now so huge that state governments are keen to involve private sector participants, especially in a Public-Private Partnership (PPP) context.

Both large and small private investors have become increasing active in plastic waste recycling, yet the business remains profitable. Lagos and Ogun states have been very aggressive in pushing PPPs, perhaps because they have large and growing industrial bases. You could begin your investigations into potential ventures in these two states.

5. SECURITIES INVESTMENT SERVICES

The growing interest of portfolio investors in Nigerian equities has encouraged the Nigeria Stock Exchange (NSE) to expand its product offerings, boost liquidity on its trading platform, and make trading more sophisticated.

In December 2011, Absa Capital of South Africa listed the first Exchange Traded Fund (ETF) on the NSE. The bourse says five more ETFs would be listed this year and that plans are advanced to introduce options and futures trading.

Although foreign investors still dominate trading on the NSE, domestic investor interest has picked up from the low levels reported after the 2008 global financial crisis, which wiped out more than half of the NSE's equity value as foreign investors pulled their "hot money" out of Nigerian equities.

Going by discussions on popular fora like Nairaland, domestic investors are very much interested in owning and trading foreign securities. With the NSE flood gate now open to ETFs, opportunities exist for investment service providers to offer ETFs that invest primarily in foreign-based companies and foreign securites.

This type of ETF will give domestic investors international exposure, enhance diversification of their portfolios, and generate more domestic interest in the NSE. The Director-General of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Mrs. Arumah Oteh, has in the past alluded to this sort of ETF, so regulators will likely welcome it.

Nigerians invest more in real estate than in stocks. Therefore, domestic fund managers have expressed interest in Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs).

One of Nigeria's leading property development companies, UACN Property Development Company PLC (UPDC), is about to list a N30 billion REIT on the NSE. This IPO will be a real gauge of domestic investor interest in REITs. It will also serve as a signal to foreign investment services providers interested in offering Nigerian investors REITs.

AFRICANS, NOW THE IMF COULD FORCE YOUR GOVERNMENT TO SEIZE YOUR BANK SAVINGS AND DEPOSITS!

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has a bad reputation in Africa. Many Nigerians, for instance, will tell you the country has never recovered from the debilitating effects of the IMF's Structural Adjustment Programs (SAPs) of the late 80s.

The fund's conditionalities for bailout loans to Africa often appear to be harsher than those for loans to other continents.

Now, because of a shocking, unprecedented development over the weekend in the little island of Cyprus, these conditionalities could get even harsher.

Cyprus, with Nicosia as capital, is a small east Mediterranean island of around one million inhabitants. You've probably heard that for years Turkey and Greece both laid ownership claims to the island, going to war over it in 1974.

What you may not have heard about Cyprus is that it's a tax haven for high net-worth non-resident individuals, from Russia in particular.

Tax havens like to keep a low profile to avoid much scrutiny, so i don't even know why Cyprus joined the 17-member Euro zone.

Anyway, the country seems to have been doing just fine until Greece got into financial trouble, and Brussels forced Cypriot banks to play good neighbor by loading up on toxic Greek government bonds to the hilt. It was only a matter of time before this heavy load became unbearable for Nicosia.

Well, the chicken has come home to roost.

On Saturday, the same Brussels forced down the throat of Cyprus a multi-billion bailout package with an unprecedented condition that has shocked the world: Nicosia must grab at least 6.75% of ALL savings and deposits in its banks and contribute this seizure to the bailout package. Otherwise, Brussels will simply cut off funding to Cypriot banks and let the country of one million go to the dogs.

This is a scary development for Africa because the IMF was heavily involved in thrashing out the bailout package.

Hate to say it but the IMF still tends to push Africa around. If it can support this kind of bank raid by a Euro zone country, albeit a small one, on its citizens' deposits, then it can surely push for stricter versions of this poison pill for African countries that seek bailouts.

African governments should see the writing on the wall.

6 HOT Global Trends You Should Invest In Now: ENERGY EFFICIENCY OR RENEWABLE ENERGY? (3)

Energy efficiency and renewable energy are flip sides of the same coin. They are two means to the same end we humans desire: a substantial and sustainable reduction in our consumption of fossil fuels, which we blame for global warming.

Energy efficiency technologies (EETs) reduce our fossil fuel demand while renewable energy technologies (RETs) replace our fossil fuel supply.

Which of these two techs will gain more traction over the coming decades, and how can you as an investor best position yourself to profit from this drive to save the planet? This article helps you decide.

There's little doubt that we humans need to ditch fossil fuels. However, this is proving to be a massive challenge.

According to BP's Statistical Review of World Energy 2012, fossil fuels still dominate global energy consumption, with a market share of 87%, while renewable energy accounts for only 2%. By 2030, these numbers are projected to be around 81% and 6% respectively.

So we won't be totally ditching fossil fuels anytime soon. Sorry tree-huggers.

Instead, what we'll continue to do is reduce our consumption of these fuels using:

• A "supply-side" solution of replacing them with renewables; and/or 
• A "demand-side" solution of becoming more energy efficient.

Unfortunately, substituting renewables for fossil fuels on a massive scale is not going to happen because of the following factors:

• Lack of International Trade: One big reason we consume so much oil, natural gas, and coal is that these fuels are internationally traded. This makes it easier for governments and corporations to manage their supplies. Conversely, you can't transport the sunshine from the Californian desert to Siberia;

• Single Use: While the use of say, natural gas, cuts across many industries like manufacturing, transportation, and electricity generation, renewables are used primarily in electricity generation. And even in electricity generation, renewables have to compete with  fossil fuels;

• Subsidy Burden: Governments around the world continue to heavily-subsidize the consumption of renewables, despite rapid reductions in the production costs of some RETs like solar and wind. This subsidy dependency suggests there is low "natural demand" for renewables. When these subsidies go, and they will have to go at some point, the artificial demand for renewables may fall off the cliff.

So the supply-side solution is constrained.

Fortunately, energy efficiency is not burdened by the aforementioned factors.

Moreover, studies show that EETs are more cost-effective to deploy and pay back faster than RETs. Some studies even say that EETs cut more carbon emissions than RETs.

I'm not saying RETs are doomed. Far from it. However, as an investor you should know that in order to accelerate the reduction in global carbon emissions, policy makers around the world are likely to shift their focus from RETs to EETs in the coming decades.

Therefore, the best way to play this hot global trend of tackling global warming is to buy and hold an energy efficiency company, or a clean-tech exchange-traded fund (ETF) with considerable holdings in energy efficiency companies.

Now, during my research for such a stock, I avoided large-cap companies like ABB (ABB) and Johnson Controls Inc (JCI) because they were not "pure-plays" on energy efficiency, i.e., they were involved in other businesses i'm already exposed to through other stocks i hold.

Rather, I zoomed in on a small-cap U.S. company called Ameresco, Inc. (AMRC), which primarily designs, manufactures, and deploys EETs to a diversified customer base. As an icing on the cake they also have a smaller RETs business. So the stock gives me exposure also to renewables.

Fellow individual investors. Right now renewable energy is all the rage. But energy efficiency is about to come out of the left field. Hop on this money train now before the bandwagon arrives.


This is the third in a series of posts that examine six hot global trends you should invest in now. In the next blog, i examine the hot trend of Scarcity of Freshwater.

HOW MY CURIOSITY ABOUT 3 SMARTPHONE APPS GOT ME A TRIPLE-DIGIT GROWTH STOCK

This is a story about how my effervescent curiosity led me to a little-known small company that may become the IBM of mobile application software in as little as five years.

Before i pick the stock of a company as a long-term investment i always do some fundamental research.

Sometimes, however, i go with my gut instinct first. I do this when the company I'm investigating is in an industry i perceive to be "futuristic" and highly growth-oriented.

This gut feeling got me into the stock of Chinese mobile security firm NQ Mobile Inc. (NQ), already up 66% year-to-date (YTD) as of closing yesterday.

There's no doubt that the future is mobile.

Therefore, for the past year i was already on the prowl for a stock to ride this hot global trend of mobile consumption like a horse whisperer. I didn't think it would be Microsoft (MSFT), which i dumped two months ago.

One day in October 2012 i noticed an in-app cross-selling ad linked three of the apps i used the most on my android phone. This aroused my curiosity so i dug deeper.

Boom! Lo and behold, the three apps - NQ Mobile Security, NQ Mobile Vault, and NQ Android Booster - were made by the same developer.

Wow, i reasoned, since these three apps did what they were supposed to do excellently, their developer must have an ace up its sleeve.

I quickly googled NQ and read EVERYTHING i could find on the company. I was even tempted to call China or a Chinese friend to ask about the company.

Luckily at the time, NQ was just over a year old as a publicly-listed company and was trading well below its IPO price. I thought that was weird because all my research indicated this young company was going places in an industry that was exploding.

I jumped into the stock without delay and now this small-cap tech company is 6% of my portfolio and already my biggest percentage gainer YTD.

I suspect NQ Mobile will eventually become the IBM of mobile security or it will be snapped up in the not-so-distant future.

Fellow stockmarket investors, you don't need your commissioned stockbroker to pick stocks.

Just tune in to changes around you and around the world. Then pick companies you believe are best positioned to exploit these changes going forward.

With a little intuition you can find a gem in the rarest of places.

WHY SAVING IS FOR LOSERS

The banks will hate me for saying this but it's nothing personal.

No one knows tomorrow, so by all means put some money aside for EMERGENCIES.

However, if your goal is to grow this stash of cash at a decent clip over more than three months, then the worst thing you can do is stash your cash in a bank savings account.

Why?

Because of INFLATION.

Inflation is simply the general rise in the cost of goods and services from one period to another.

When you were thinking of saving you probably didn't even remotely think about inflation right?

Please do so from now on.

You see, when inflation is higher than the interest rate on your savings, what you're essentially doing is lending money to the bank at a cost to you. It costs you because inflation "devalues" your savings.

Think about that for a minute.

It's like you lend someone money (the equivalent of your savings) today at a very cheap rate (the interest rate on your savings). Then by the time they pay back all your money (the savings plus the interest you earned) the whole thing is now worth less than what you originally lent them.

That's how inflation turns savers into losers.

Rather than dump your money in a savings account, which just makes your bank richer at your expense, consider inflation-protected instruments like Treasury Inflation-Protected Securities (TIPS), inflation index-linked Bonds, Money Market accounts and Certificate of Deposits.

So here's the bottom line: ALWAYS CHECK THAT THE INTEREST RATE IS HIGHER THAN INFLATION BEFORE YOU PLUNGE YOUR MONEY INTO A SAVINGS ACCOUNT.

All that said, you should know that nothing beats the stockmarket for growing money, inflation-protected over the long-term. Not even real estate.

6 HOT Global Trends You Should Invest In Now: AGING POPULATION (2)

The world is aging, fast!

According to the United Nations, by 2050, the number of older people (60 years or older) in the world will exceed the number of young people (under 15) for the first time in history. By then, senior citizens will make up 21% of the projected world population of 9 billion people - that's like the whole of China and Europe today full of senior citizens!

Wait, there's more.

In industrialized countries, the UN says older people had already outnumbered young people by 1998! Furthermore, according to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), by 2050, senior citizens will constitute more than 30% of the population of Japan, Spain, Italy, and Germany. For Japan, they will be over 40%, the highest in the world.

The world is graying fast because people are living longer just as they are having fewer babies - whether fewer babies are being born due to people's choices or to decreasing fertility is not so clear.

One thing's for sure. This rapidly aging global population will fuel a huge, unrelenting demand for long-term healthcare around the world, giving you the investor the golden opportunity to make a killing over the coming decades.

You should know that while demand for healthcare will boom worldwide, the United States spends a larger percentage of its Gross Domestic Product (G.D.P.) and more per capita on healthcare than any other country. This is unlikely to change over the coming years.

Therefore, you really should have some exposure to the U.S. if you're serious about making money from the growing global demand for healthcare.

To ride this healthcare money train all the way to the bank you should consider investing in these four areas: Drugmakers (Pharmaceutical and Biotech companies), Medical Device Manufacturers, Healthcare IT Software Developers, and Healthcare Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs).

DRUGMAKERS

Investing in drugmakers is the most obvious play on the aging world population.

Pharmaceutical companies and biotechnology companies both make drugs. However, as an investor you should note these differences between them.

The drugmaking business is a notoriously hit-or-miss business.

If you're lucky to invest in a drugmaker that delights with a string of "blockbuster" drugs, then you can make a lot of money. Last week, Bloomberg reported that Swiss drugmaker Roche, which makes the world's best-selling cancer treatment, has minted at least 12 Swiss and German billionaires.

On the flip side, a "flop" drug can be very devastating for the drugmaker and your investment. Therefore, don't get into drugmakers unless you can stand the Russian Roulette nature of the business.

The 800-pound gorilla that may totally put you off this space though is "generic competition". Once a drug patent expires, even a dog can make a copycat of the drug and sell it over the internet.

Generic competition can crush the long-term return on your investment in drugmakers because the tenure of patents seems to be on a downward trend. This means drugmakers are increasing likely to have less time to just recoup investments in their drugs, let alone make any profit off them.

MEDICAL DEVICE MANUFACTURERS

Here's a great description of a medical device by Wikipedia.

If generic competition puts you off drugmakers, then consider medical devicemakers (note, however, that some pharmaceutical firms also manufacture medical devices).

A majority of medical devicemakers around the world don't make just medical devices. They have other businesses to fall back on as this space is as competitive as the drugmaking industry.

North American companies dominate this space, and you can find both small and large players as picks. The biggest global medical devicemaker by revenue is American company Johnson & Johnson (JNJ).

All the research I've seen forecast the growth of the global medical device market to outpace that of the pharmaceutical drugs market for years to come.

I've no positions in any medical devicemaker.

HEALTHCARE INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY (HCIT) VENDORS

Another way you can board the money train of aging global population is to invest in HCIT software developers.

Obviously, medical devices come with integrated software to optimize their uses. That's not the type of software I'm talking about.

What i mean by HCIT sofware are Electronic Healthcare Records (EHRs) software. These software allow medical professionals and facilities to jilt paper (phew!) and electronically capture, digitize, and share medical records of patients across multiple platforms (web, desktop, mobile) and multiple patient engagement points (hospitals, labs, doctor's office, etc.).

The HCIT software industry is highly fragmented across many lines in most countries so you may have a hard time picking a stock wherever you are. In the U.S., the biggest healthcare market in the world, there are over 350 EHRs software vendors of various sizes.

The industry's future seems to be tied to the growth of mobile devices. Therefore, your best approach to picking a stock may be to find a vendor with strides or ambitions in mobile. This is how i got into the voice recognition technology and document imaging company Nuance Communications (NUAN).

The American company is more known for its voice recognition and language translation products but its HCIT business accounts for 30 - 40% of its annual revenue.

HEALTHCARE REITS

As the world's number of senior citizens explodes, developed economy countries will need more of these healthcare properties: Senior Housing Facilities, Skilled Nursing Facilities, and Medical Office Buildings (MOBs).

Developing economy countries will most likely need more MOBs and hospitals because most people in these climes tend to look after their elderly at home. Therefore, senior housing facilities are not common.

Healthcare real estate investment trusts (REITs) own and/or manage these healthcare properties.

REITs are my favorite way to play this hot trend of aging global population because they give you exposure to the two most popular asset classes of stocks and real estate. Throw in the recession-proof nature of healthcare and you're good to go.

Furthermore, you get steady income as REITs typically have to pay out a majority of their profits as dividends to investors.

The healthcare REITs space in most countries tends to be highly concentrated in a few big players and fewer small players. Therefore, you may not have to sweat so much to find a good pick. I used to own Nationwide Health Properties (NHP) until it was acquired by another American REIT, Ventas (VTR), in 2011.

I'm still on the prowl for a small-cap U.S. healthcare REIT. Wish me luck.

Remember, always do your own research before you get into any stock.

Of the six hot global trends discussed in this series, the aging global population is the most sustainable. People will get old and seek healthcare. There's nothing anyone can do about it.

This is the second in a series of posts that examine six hot global trends you should invest in now. In the next blog, i examine the hot trend of Energy Efficiency/Renewable Energy.

6 HOT Global Trends You Should Invest In Now: MOBILE CONSUMPTION (1)

 Mobility is the new normal.

Although sustainable mobile consumption in the future may happen on other devices like wrist watches, smartphones are going to be with us probably till the Martians invade.

Whether in Africa or America, people increasingly want to run their lives on the go, and this is driving an explosive growth of the smartphone, first introduced by Finnish company Nokia (NOK) in 1996.

There are many ways to board this money train.

The most straightforward way is to invest in companies that make the actual handsets - companies like Apple (AAPL), Samsung, Blackberry (BBRY), HTC, Nokia (NOK), etc. However, when it comes to technology investing, i prefer "software" stocks.

If you're also biased towards software, then the smart way to play this trend is to zoom in on companies that make software components for the handset makers. These components typically tackle the three crucial aspects of mobile consumption: Privacy, Security, and Productivity.

Productivity probably determines the buying decisions of most smartphone users. Therefore, in this space you can consider Israeli company LivePerson (LPSN). They make engagements like chat, click-to-call, and email easy on smartphones, so they're big on productivity. So is Nuance Communications (NUAN), the company behind the speech recognition technologies in Apple (SIRI) and Samsung phones. I'm long Nuance.

Productivity and privacy are important but i think the sweet-spot of mobile consumption is security. You may not want to chat with Whatsapp or may feel uncomfortable with mobile banking, but would you want to take a chance with malware squatting on your phone?

That's why I'm also long Chinese firm NQ Mobile Inc. (NQ). NQ is primarily a mobile security firm, but as it turns out, also provides privacy and productivity services in over 100 countries worldwide. This company, which identifies and neutralizes over 75% of all global malware threats before any other company in the world, is adding 400,000 new customers a day. It's currently trading below its 200-day moving average, so this is a good time to long the stock. I expect NQ to ride this wave of exploding mobile consumption high.

This is the first in a series of posts that examine six hot global trends you should invest in now. In the next blog, i examine the hot trend of Aging  Population.

6 HOT GLOBAL TRENDS YOU SHOULD INVEST IN NOW!

40 years ago, Motorola had not invented the cellular (mobile) phone.

Today, wherever you are in the world, you've probably heard of the mobile phone - unless you're a member of a recently discovered ancient "tribe" in the Amazon rainforest. There are now almost as many mobile subscriptions in the world as there are people.

Imagine if you knew today what could be a business phenomenon like the mobile phone 20, 30, 40 years from now. Even better, imagine if set yourself and/or your dependents up now to make money from such a phenomenon.

Well, fellow self-directed (retail) investors, one way to discover future business gems is to research and study trends. A trend simply is the progressive tendency or inclination of something.

I have identified the following six global trends that are facilitating the emergence of companies and businesses likely to make their investors very rich years from now:

1. Mobile Consumption
2. Aging Population
3. Energy Efficiency/Renewable Energy
4. Scarcity of Freshwater 
5. The Age of Robotics
6. Frontiers Exploration.

WHAT’S WRONG WITH NIGERIAN STOCK MARKET REPORTS?

The short answer is that they are useless for stock market investors.

Whenever I read a local newspaper report on market activity on the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) I’m just frustrated. All you get is that the market gyrated by some basis points and who the gainers and losers were. That’s it.

There’s hardly any mention of what moved - or could have moved - the market or a stock. Nothing inspires or motivates you to look deeper into the market or a stock for possible investment. Nothing makes you curious about stocks or the stock market. It’s like the journalists are too lazy to write something insightful.

For example, look at the stock market report for Monday, February 11, 2013, from Nigeria’s Business Day. Now compare that report to this report for Tuesday, February 12, 2013 from Reuters on U.K. market activity. See the difference? Nigerian commentators don’t try to connect the dots for uninitiated readers.

It’s no different when I hear a market report on radio.

Maybe this lack of easily-accessible and insightful stock market information is why most Nigerians don’t care about investing in stocks, which remains one of the easiest and fastest ways to make money wherever you are in the world.

I’m amazed at the increasing number of Foreign Exchange (forex) trading seminar ads I see in Nigerian newspapers. I doubt Nigerians trade forex in droves. Nonetheless, if Nigerians can take to forex trading then they can take to stocks trading because the forex market is a lot more complex than the stock market and Nigerians love simplicity.

Nigerian stock market commentators and writers need to do more than report statistics. The Financial Times and The Wall Street Journal are dailies yet they certainly try to get behind the numbers.

The regulators should take note. There’s no point in the Central Bank of Nigeria and/or the Securities and Exchange Commission compelling companies to list on the NSE when a majority of Nigerians don’t have the financial education to invest in the stock market.

I became a self-directed investor in 2006 - a year after I got out of B-School in the U.S. At the time I knew nada about investing in stocks, other than what I’d learned at B-School.

I learned the basics of stock market investing mostly from reading financial dailies and periodic magazines – Fortune Magazine is great for investigative journalism. I also frequented educational sites like the Motley Fool (www.fool.com) and Investopedia (www.investopedia.com).

I was so excited about what I was learning that I started this blog to share as I learned.