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Awaken the Olympian Within
- By Kasimu Kurfi
- Published March 23rd, 2009
- Smartmoney
- Unrated
RISK taking goes beyond just a necessary step, beyond just a requirement to reach the perfect “10”. Risks-sensible, calculated, prudent, rational risks-are the obstacles that make reaching the destination worthwhile. Without them there would be no struggle and no satisfaction.
I’m not saying all risks are good, and I don’t recommend that we take every outlandish gamble that comes our way, but progress in business or sports occurs only when we risk going someplace we’ve never been before. A new product or a new territory or even new packaging can be risky, but it’s also more rewarding when the risk pays off. To awaken the Olympian within, we should look for those hidden risky opportunities, places to go, and ways to stretch our abilities. These daily challenges and events outside our comfort zone can be a valuable part of our journey through life, and we should resolve in advance to prepare for them in order to meet them and to beat them.
Triumphs that are truly meaningful are triumphs that require effort. If there weren’t a “rough” on the golf course, could we appreciate driving a golf ball dead in the middle of the fairway nearly as much? If the marlin just jumped in our boat, would catching it be as satisfying? If not for risks, rewards would lose much of their value. I currently ride a mountain bike both for the exercise and the thrill of careening down a mountainside. The risk of danger is real (and I’ve crashed more than I care to admit), but I have done my homework there as well. I train hard for the uphill climbs, and I keep my bike’s brakes and shocks prepared for the dangerous downhill descents.
As a result, I feel better physically, and I can’t begin to describe the personal satisfaction I get from being on the mountaintop, the thrill of dodging the trees and boulders, and the adrenaline rush I get from racing to the finish line.
Risks give life its zip. Why else would people bungee jump, climb mountains, jump out of airplanes, or run with the bulls? Approached sensibly, risks can bring excitement. They bring them, they can bring deep satisfaction and impressive results.
My fall in Budapest taught me the lesson well. It didn’t teach me to avoid risks, but rather it taught me that a life without risk, a life of safe mediocrity, hurts more than a “face plant” from nine feet.
Foreign Firms Should Consider Paying Dividends in Naira
THE Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) has just signed memorandum of understanding with South Africa and other African countries.
This is a good development for our economy, especially as we need to go beyond our market alone. What boosted Ghana Stock Exchange (GSE) for instance was when they took Ashante for cross border listing in South Africa and that singular act changed so many things and the entire market of the GSE.
Today they are benefiting tremendously from that singular act. In Nigeria, we started cross border listings in early nineties, when Mnet Super Sports got cross border listing on our market. They were listed as a trial, and most of our local investors did not have a clear understanding of investing in a foreign listed stock. Also, the company on its own had its own problems. For instance when investors need their shares certificates, it usually did take some time.
Also, the issue of the dividend whenever you buy any stocks that deal with cross border
listing you will see that the dividend will be paid in dollar but in Naira.
That means investor who do not have domiciliary account will risk loosing his dividend. With the coming of Ecobank Transnational Incorporation (ETI) in 1997, we had a cross border listing with four countries Nigeria, Ghana, Cote de Voire, and Senegal.
ETI get cross border listed across this four listed country, but even at that time they did not do much in Nigeria despite the fact that a subsidiary of ETI was already here.
Most of our investors don’t seem to have beyond Naira and Kobo. If you are going for cross border stock you must have domiciliary account, when dividend is paid, it comes in dollars. With that, it becomes very difficult for those investors who don’t have domiciliary account to get their dividend. Also there isn’t much understanding of even its worth in the market that is why you see that when on other exchange prices appreciation are recorded as regard to ETI, but in the Nigerian Stock Exchange it is a different story. Today, it is the same thing despite all the performance. If you look at the price of ETI it is N17 which is about half the price of Ecobank Plc. Ecobank Plc is a subsidiary of ETI and the simple reason is that most of the investors doesn’t understand the purpose of cross border listing.
Investors seem not to be familiar with this but what I am saying is that for us to succeed in this kind of business in the cross border listing, I think it is the right time for the regulatory authority and for the stock exchange to look the way that most of the stocks that get cross border listings, when ever they decide to pay their dividend they should try to translate it into the Naira and kobo. By so doing, it will make it easier for our local investors to collect their dividend.
There is a client who participated in ETI Plc when the dividend was given to him, he just kept it and the simple reason was that he doesn’t have domiciliary account, therefore he can not clear the dividend warrant giving to him. So it is very necessary for the regulatory authority to look at the matter and seek to it that dividends are converted to the local currency.
It happened to MTN. MTN today, even though it is a private placement, investors are getting their dividends in Naira and Kobo. You will see that a lot of Nigerian investors are happy with this development and they are fully buying into MTN. you note that Over-the-Counter trading is very simple as you can get it anytime and you can trade it.
I want to assure investors that the Pinnacle Point Group Plc is different in the sense that, it is not only a cross border listing because looking at their projections, substantial income for the next two, three years will come from Nigeria rather than from South Africa even though they are listed here.
From all indications in the next three years, Nigeria will be the determining point for the success of this business.
Profitability in Processed Irish Potato
NIGERIA is a developing third world nation grappling with the menace of unemployment, hunger and disease.
The country’s dilemma is aggravated with the current global economic meltdown that has generated world financial crisis and food shortage. This development has blurred the country’s vision of attainment of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) by the year 2015. Nigerians are struggling to survived from hunger. There is great hunger in the land. Vision 20:20-20, the goal of Nigeria becoming one of the twenty largest economies of the world by the year 2020 may only be realistic by a miraculous crude oil windfall considering the empty excess crude oil revenue account met by the three tiers of government in February and the persistent falling oil prices in the international market. Nigerians, for now, must eat to survive as a race before Nigeria can think of growth and development. Every profitable investment in the country now has to be in the food. Processed frozen Irish potato business is one the virgin food businesses in the country today that a risk-averse investor can commit his money and reap fantastic returns stress-free.
The Project
The project is the marketing of processed frozen Irish potato in Nigeria. The business involves the purchasing of the product from the processing companies and supplying same to restaurants, hotels, fast-food outfits, schools and homes. The potatoes are used by these eateries to make chips. The chips are served with chicken, burger, or fresh fish – a food dish that is becoming so popular in Nigeria. The youths, especially university campus girls love this food. The whites and other foreigners here in Nigeria patronize eateries that have potato chips and chicken in their menu. Frozen potato is a product that takes off the stress from someone. One needs not to peel and start cleaning. Abroad it is one of the biggest money-maker after pizza in the food industry. It is a product most individuals and eateries buy. Not everyone will like to go to market to buy fresh potatoes and start peeling and preparing it they simply go to supermarkets, eateries and hotels to eat chicken and chips.
Potatoes are food crops largely grown in Nigeria, especially in Jos, Plateau states. The harvested tubers are processed by food processing and packaging companies ready for supply to end users. The product is packaged in sachets and cartons. There is the 2.5kg sachet and the 1kg sachet. A carton is of 10kg, that is, a carton contains either 10 sachets of 1kg each or 4 sachets of 2.5kg each. Both the 2.5kg and 1kg sachet comes packed in a nylon and sealed in cartons. The nylon pack is already sliced as chips. The end-user or consumer need not to de-frost. Once he opens the pack, he will just fry the chips. It is delicious. Supplying the product (chips) is a money-making venture.
Marketing
In Nigeria, the rate at which finished products are needed in food and packaging sector has made the demand for frozen potatoes to be high in recent times. The supermarkets, fast food centre, hotels, restaurants, schools, and even homes find the product a better alternative than going through the rigours of peeling, washing and preparing. The product saves a lot of time usually wasted before the food is ready. In as much as large market for this product exist in the country, opportunities for export market abound. The product can easily find market in the premises of those selling frozen foods, pure water, iced block, ice cream. These people can add it to their product line. Housewives who have fridges or deep freezers can as well stock the product and sell to their neighbourhood.
Profitability
The product is a fast moving one and therefore command high turnover. The project operating at an installed capacity of 5,000 cartons per year sales figure with each carton at a purchasing and selling prices of N3,000 and N4,500 respectively; the project is capable of buying and selling 100 cartons per week; the project will be able to record a sales turnover of N22.5 million with an attendant gross profit margin of N7.5 million per annum. The return on this investment will be quite impressive as the pay back period will be very short.
Project Feasibility
This project is very easy to start. It requires small or big start-up capital as the case may be. For an unemployed person, the sum of N10,000 is adequate to start operation. He can buy up to 2 cartons which he may be capable of selling in two days reaping a profit of N1,500 or N2,000 depending on his marketing proficiency. In this manner, he is likely to operate at a profit level of N200,000 per annum. This unemployed person, no doubt will become an employer of labour operating progressively for the next three years. Conversely, our investor operating at the capacity of selling 5,000 cartons of potato chips per annum will be required to construct a cold room or to buy a mobile one or to buy deep freezers and refridgerators depending on his financial strength. This is the major equipment required for this business. Once this storage facility is in place, a sum of N400,000 is sufficient for a working capital.
The supply of the product is readily available from the processing and packaging outfits who are ready to allow credit purchases from distributors buying above 50 cartons. Moreover, consumers are ready to pay in advance to the investor (distributor) the monetary values of their orders before the goods arrive, as the business is quite virgin and a few distributors/sellers exist. Entrance into the business is quite easy and the profitability signal is quite green.
Project Implementation
It is on record that over 60 per cent of private small scale enterprises in Nigeria die young. The demise of these enterprises before they break even is as a result of the operators refusing to greet guidelines of the business. On this note, the writer advises any interested investor in this project to first and foremost, undergo a field study and produce a feasibility report that will guide him to successfully carry out this venture. The study will reveal the various sources of supply of the product from which the investor will select the source that guarantees best product quality at best purchase price.
Also, the report will among other things reveal the cost-benefit picture of the business over time, say five years. All interested investors can contact the writer for the preparation of a detailed and bankable feasibility report, and other information.
I’m not saying all risks are good, and I don’t recommend that we take every outlandish gamble that comes our way, but progress in business or sports occurs only when we risk going someplace we’ve never been before. A new product or a new territory or even new packaging can be risky, but it’s also more rewarding when the risk pays off. To awaken the Olympian within, we should look for those hidden risky opportunities, places to go, and ways to stretch our abilities. These daily challenges and events outside our comfort zone can be a valuable part of our journey through life, and we should resolve in advance to prepare for them in order to meet them and to beat them.
Triumphs that are truly meaningful are triumphs that require effort. If there weren’t a “rough” on the golf course, could we appreciate driving a golf ball dead in the middle of the fairway nearly as much? If the marlin just jumped in our boat, would catching it be as satisfying? If not for risks, rewards would lose much of their value. I currently ride a mountain bike both for the exercise and the thrill of careening down a mountainside. The risk of danger is real (and I’ve crashed more than I care to admit), but I have done my homework there as well. I train hard for the uphill climbs, and I keep my bike’s brakes and shocks prepared for the dangerous downhill descents.
As a result, I feel better physically, and I can’t begin to describe the personal satisfaction I get from being on the mountaintop, the thrill of dodging the trees and boulders, and the adrenaline rush I get from racing to the finish line.
Risks give life its zip. Why else would people bungee jump, climb mountains, jump out of airplanes, or run with the bulls? Approached sensibly, risks can bring excitement. They bring them, they can bring deep satisfaction and impressive results.
My fall in Budapest taught me the lesson well. It didn’t teach me to avoid risks, but rather it taught me that a life without risk, a life of safe mediocrity, hurts more than a “face plant” from nine feet.
Foreign Firms Should Consider Paying Dividends in Naira
THE Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) has just signed memorandum of understanding with South Africa and other African countries.
This is a good development for our economy, especially as we need to go beyond our market alone. What boosted Ghana Stock Exchange (GSE) for instance was when they took Ashante for cross border listing in South Africa and that singular act changed so many things and the entire market of the GSE.
Today they are benefiting tremendously from that singular act. In Nigeria, we started cross border listings in early nineties, when Mnet Super Sports got cross border listing on our market. They were listed as a trial, and most of our local investors did not have a clear understanding of investing in a foreign listed stock. Also, the company on its own had its own problems. For instance when investors need their shares certificates, it usually did take some time.
Also, the issue of the dividend whenever you buy any stocks that deal with cross border
listing you will see that the dividend will be paid in dollar but in Naira.
That means investor who do not have domiciliary account will risk loosing his dividend. With the coming of Ecobank Transnational Incorporation (ETI) in 1997, we had a cross border listing with four countries Nigeria, Ghana, Cote de Voire, and Senegal.
ETI get cross border listed across this four listed country, but even at that time they did not do much in Nigeria despite the fact that a subsidiary of ETI was already here.
Most of our investors don’t seem to have beyond Naira and Kobo. If you are going for cross border stock you must have domiciliary account, when dividend is paid, it comes in dollars. With that, it becomes very difficult for those investors who don’t have domiciliary account to get their dividend. Also there isn’t much understanding of even its worth in the market that is why you see that when on other exchange prices appreciation are recorded as regard to ETI, but in the Nigerian Stock Exchange it is a different story. Today, it is the same thing despite all the performance. If you look at the price of ETI it is N17 which is about half the price of Ecobank Plc. Ecobank Plc is a subsidiary of ETI and the simple reason is that most of the investors doesn’t understand the purpose of cross border listing.
Investors seem not to be familiar with this but what I am saying is that for us to succeed in this kind of business in the cross border listing, I think it is the right time for the regulatory authority and for the stock exchange to look the way that most of the stocks that get cross border listings, when ever they decide to pay their dividend they should try to translate it into the Naira and kobo. By so doing, it will make it easier for our local investors to collect their dividend.
There is a client who participated in ETI Plc when the dividend was given to him, he just kept it and the simple reason was that he doesn’t have domiciliary account, therefore he can not clear the dividend warrant giving to him. So it is very necessary for the regulatory authority to look at the matter and seek to it that dividends are converted to the local currency.
It happened to MTN. MTN today, even though it is a private placement, investors are getting their dividends in Naira and Kobo. You will see that a lot of Nigerian investors are happy with this development and they are fully buying into MTN. you note that Over-the-Counter trading is very simple as you can get it anytime and you can trade it.
I want to assure investors that the Pinnacle Point Group Plc is different in the sense that, it is not only a cross border listing because looking at their projections, substantial income for the next two, three years will come from Nigeria rather than from South Africa even though they are listed here.
From all indications in the next three years, Nigeria will be the determining point for the success of this business.
Profitability in Processed Irish Potato
NIGERIA is a developing third world nation grappling with the menace of unemployment, hunger and disease.
The country’s dilemma is aggravated with the current global economic meltdown that has generated world financial crisis and food shortage. This development has blurred the country’s vision of attainment of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) by the year 2015. Nigerians are struggling to survived from hunger. There is great hunger in the land. Vision 20:20-20, the goal of Nigeria becoming one of the twenty largest economies of the world by the year 2020 may only be realistic by a miraculous crude oil windfall considering the empty excess crude oil revenue account met by the three tiers of government in February and the persistent falling oil prices in the international market. Nigerians, for now, must eat to survive as a race before Nigeria can think of growth and development. Every profitable investment in the country now has to be in the food. Processed frozen Irish potato business is one the virgin food businesses in the country today that a risk-averse investor can commit his money and reap fantastic returns stress-free.
The Project
The project is the marketing of processed frozen Irish potato in Nigeria. The business involves the purchasing of the product from the processing companies and supplying same to restaurants, hotels, fast-food outfits, schools and homes. The potatoes are used by these eateries to make chips. The chips are served with chicken, burger, or fresh fish – a food dish that is becoming so popular in Nigeria. The youths, especially university campus girls love this food. The whites and other foreigners here in Nigeria patronize eateries that have potato chips and chicken in their menu. Frozen potato is a product that takes off the stress from someone. One needs not to peel and start cleaning. Abroad it is one of the biggest money-maker after pizza in the food industry. It is a product most individuals and eateries buy. Not everyone will like to go to market to buy fresh potatoes and start peeling and preparing it they simply go to supermarkets, eateries and hotels to eat chicken and chips.
Potatoes are food crops largely grown in Nigeria, especially in Jos, Plateau states. The harvested tubers are processed by food processing and packaging companies ready for supply to end users. The product is packaged in sachets and cartons. There is the 2.5kg sachet and the 1kg sachet. A carton is of 10kg, that is, a carton contains either 10 sachets of 1kg each or 4 sachets of 2.5kg each. Both the 2.5kg and 1kg sachet comes packed in a nylon and sealed in cartons. The nylon pack is already sliced as chips. The end-user or consumer need not to de-frost. Once he opens the pack, he will just fry the chips. It is delicious. Supplying the product (chips) is a money-making venture.
Marketing
In Nigeria, the rate at which finished products are needed in food and packaging sector has made the demand for frozen potatoes to be high in recent times. The supermarkets, fast food centre, hotels, restaurants, schools, and even homes find the product a better alternative than going through the rigours of peeling, washing and preparing. The product saves a lot of time usually wasted before the food is ready. In as much as large market for this product exist in the country, opportunities for export market abound. The product can easily find market in the premises of those selling frozen foods, pure water, iced block, ice cream. These people can add it to their product line. Housewives who have fridges or deep freezers can as well stock the product and sell to their neighbourhood.
Profitability
The product is a fast moving one and therefore command high turnover. The project operating at an installed capacity of 5,000 cartons per year sales figure with each carton at a purchasing and selling prices of N3,000 and N4,500 respectively; the project is capable of buying and selling 100 cartons per week; the project will be able to record a sales turnover of N22.5 million with an attendant gross profit margin of N7.5 million per annum. The return on this investment will be quite impressive as the pay back period will be very short.
Project Feasibility
This project is very easy to start. It requires small or big start-up capital as the case may be. For an unemployed person, the sum of N10,000 is adequate to start operation. He can buy up to 2 cartons which he may be capable of selling in two days reaping a profit of N1,500 or N2,000 depending on his marketing proficiency. In this manner, he is likely to operate at a profit level of N200,000 per annum. This unemployed person, no doubt will become an employer of labour operating progressively for the next three years. Conversely, our investor operating at the capacity of selling 5,000 cartons of potato chips per annum will be required to construct a cold room or to buy a mobile one or to buy deep freezers and refridgerators depending on his financial strength. This is the major equipment required for this business. Once this storage facility is in place, a sum of N400,000 is sufficient for a working capital.
The supply of the product is readily available from the processing and packaging outfits who are ready to allow credit purchases from distributors buying above 50 cartons. Moreover, consumers are ready to pay in advance to the investor (distributor) the monetary values of their orders before the goods arrive, as the business is quite virgin and a few distributors/sellers exist. Entrance into the business is quite easy and the profitability signal is quite green.
Project Implementation
It is on record that over 60 per cent of private small scale enterprises in Nigeria die young. The demise of these enterprises before they break even is as a result of the operators refusing to greet guidelines of the business. On this note, the writer advises any interested investor in this project to first and foremost, undergo a field study and produce a feasibility report that will guide him to successfully carry out this venture. The study will reveal the various sources of supply of the product from which the investor will select the source that guarantees best product quality at best purchase price.
Also, the report will among other things reveal the cost-benefit picture of the business over time, say five years. All interested investors can contact the writer for the preparation of a detailed and bankable feasibility report, and other information.
