General Manager of Enza Zaden South Africa Commercial, Matome Ramokgopa is back in the African Farming studio to discuss staggered vegetable production and how it can help farmers farm sustainably.
Agricultural Economist from the University of Pretoria, Dr. Mmatlou Kalaba discusses opportunities in agriculture with Bathabile Modutoane.
Storyteller, Producer, Content Curator and Screenwriter, these are some of the career roles in Nicole Asinugo’s bag. She recently bagged the Africa Magic Viewers’ Choice Awards for Best writer in a Movie or TV series in 2020 for her first screenplay; Living in Bondage: Breaking Free, further setting her apart as one to watch. Nicole didn’t discover her flair for creative writing at an early age, in fact she initially had her eyes set on becoming a lawyer; “My parents encouraged me to study law from an early age, I actually wanted to study law. I loved reading and was particularly taken by John Grisham’s vivid tales of courtrooms and the seemingly exciting lives of lawyers. But by the end of my first contract law class, I knew I had a mistake. I found the information technical and hard to follow and that was really the beginning of the end between me and law.”
There are so many layers under procrastination, so if I was to really answer honestly it would be fear.
Looking back at some of her early literary inspirations, she talks about how her love for reading made her want to be a writer as well; “The first book that really jolted me in terms of just description and depth was Ayi Kwei Armah’s ‘The Beautyful Ones Are Not Yet Born’. I still remember the way he describes a man hurling spit into the ground. It was visceral and jarring and I wanted to write in a way that people could see it, just like I saw his words. Chinua Achebe’s ‘Things Fall Apart’ was another favourite of mine. As I’m thinking about it, I realise that it was all the African Literature required reading in secondary school that probably inspired me the most to write.”
Every writer has trouble writing, when asked what her biggest hindrance was, she said procrastination. Here’s how she’s coping with this particular hindrance; “There are so many layers under procrastination, so if I was to really answer honestly it would be fear. Fear that I’m not as good as I think I am. Fear that I’ll never finish. Fear that I might succeed and my life would change. Sometimes, staying in the same place is far more comforting than the unknown, even if that unknown is success.” Still on the topic of discussing hindrances and fears associated with writing, Nicole also shared her thoughts on imposter syndrome and how she is dealing with it. “I do think imposter syndrome is inevitable. However, rather than struggle with it, I reject it. The moment I feel like an imposter, I reject the feeling and remember who I am and that I deserve to be exactly where I am.”
Getting the right type of support can make career dreams come true and this has been the case for Nicole. While talking about what has been her biggest help so far, she references God and receiving support from other writers. From writing retreats to just being in spaces with accomplished and phenomenally talented writers who share similar fears and how they’ve overcome them, this has helped her not to feel alone. “The writer, Chibundu Onuzo once told me that she doesn’t believe in writer’s block because God is the ultimate Creator and her creativity comes from Him. That never left me. When I am feeling blocked or lost or just completely helpless, I look to God and He has always filled my cup with new ideas.” she shared this memory as an example of how she has received support from the writing community.
I do think imposter syndrome is inevitable. However, rather than struggle with it, I reject it.
Talking about balancing a full time job, finding time for other creative jobs and getting rest, Nicole shares what she has learnt so far and some of her coping mechanisms; “I have a post on my mirror that says ‘Remember to rest’. I need this reminder because I realize that if you do not take in your life, life will take you. I would never be able to write and do all the other things I do alongside having a job if I didn’t absolutely love it. I was created to create. And I am always thinking of the next project and what I can do next. I think working from home for the past year has been very trying for me. This is because before I was able to leave work at work. And my home was my creative space. But now, the lines have blurred and I’m still trying to find my balance. I’m learning that you can’t cheat the balance. If I’m not getting enough sleep or time to journal, pray, rest – then everything just goes downhill. I’m trying daily to make better decisions so that I can show up properly for my full-time job and my writing which sometimes feels like a full-time job in itself.”
With a new award in the bag, an international portfolio and a novel in the works, when asked what her 5 year plan was, she had this to say; “I don’t even have a 5 month plan. In 2019, people were asking me what my plans were after my contract at Expo 2020 Dubai is over. Would I stay in Dubai? Would I move back home? “Whatever God’s plan is” was my default response. And then the pandemic hit. And Expo 2020 Dubai was postponed for an entire year. No one could have planned for this. Sure, I have goals and dreams but they are not set in stone. I lean on Jeremiah 29: 11 which says; “For I know the plans I have for you. Plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you a hope and a future”.
EPISODE 1 – The Smart Money Tribe Podcast
The first episode of The Smart Money Tribe Podcast kicks off with Arese talking about money mistakes and how to overcome them.
“Learning from your mistakes is always a great place to begin when you want to revamp your personal finances”, she says.
As someone who had to learn from her personal finance mistakes, she walks us through some of her money mistakes and shares tips on how she overcame them.
The first mistake that Arese talks about is the habit of saving to spend as opposed to saving to invest.
Speaking of saving habits, she says, “I‘ve been really good at saving towards important financial obligations like rent and even better saving towards lifestyle expenses like buying a Chanel bag or paying for a holiday but I wasn’t saving enough towards assets that could protect my financial future”.
Profound righttt!
She further states that it is important to save to invest because saving to invest helps to improve your net worth, which is a measure of financial success.
Arese goes on to share her second money mistake which is; not having separate and specific savings accounts, each targeted to a particular goal.
She stresses the importance of having separate savings accounts for each savings goal like rent, holiday, emergencies or even retirement.
In her words; “by organising my money I now had clarity around where my money was going and it helped me save more efficiently and more importantly I had a clearer understanding of what I could afford and what I could not afford at any given point in time”.
Lastly, Arese talks about underestimating the need for an emergency fund.
For her, it’s not just about having an emergency fund. It is prioritising the fund and replenishing it when you take from it to fund an emergency.
Arese advises Africans to have at least 9 – 12 months in living expenses in emergency funds as this reduces your chances of having to dip into your investments to fund emergencies.
She says, “it’s not necessarily there for money making, it is there to protect your long-term investments from short-term unexpected expenses”.
Some of the key take aways from the podcast are:
1. Know your net worth. You can calculate this by adding up all your assets and subtracting what you owe.
2. Financial success is not about how much you earn but how much you can retain and grow.
3. Emergency funds are an important tool in one’s financial life.
EPISODE 3- The Smart Money Tribe Podcast
This episode of The Smart Money Tribe Podcast is about risk, return and due diligence.
If you’re the kind of person that is always looking for investments that offer high returns with zero risk, this is episode was made just for you.
Yeah, Arese has been shaking tables, and we know a lot of people are sitting on this particular one.
“ Most of us have heard the phrase no risk, no reward or high risk high return. But when it comes to making investment decisions, do we really understand what risk means?”
On this episode, Arese explains the concept of risk and shares strategies on how to manage risk.
Risks are a prediction of future outcomes, and nobody is ever 100% sure of what the future holds. So every investment bears some sort of risk, even the so called risk free ones.The next time someone tells you to bring 1 million and collect 2 million next week, claiming there’s no risk involved, just tell them not today. LOL.
In Arese’s words, “It’s clear that there’s no such thing as a risk-free investment because anything can happen and even a government can fail you. Anyway it’s important to note that although i think the government defaulting is unlikely, I’m saying this because we need to bear the risk in mind not dwell on it because if you don’t risk anything you don’t get anything”.
One of the keys to managing risk which Arese touches on is understanding your risk appetite. Discovering your risk appetite shouldn’t be based solely off of your emotions or the prospect of returns. It’s important to also consider the downside to the investment you’re making. You can do this by asking yourself questions like what the effect of a loss on that investment will mean to your finances.
She says, “considering how large your appetite for risk is, ask yourself, how does your life change if you bet wrong. So, does it affect your financial obligations is it your entire life savings that you’re risking in bitcoin or does it you know change your lifestyle does it change your cash flow”.
Furthermore, portfolio diversification is very crucial to managing risk and helps to spread your investments risks across several asset classes.
As a final point, due diligence is your responsibility as an investor and Arese touches on the need to conduct due diligence before investing. Research, research, research. And ask questions. Understand what you are putting your money into to avoid stories that touch.
Some of the key take aways from the podcast are:
1. Don’t invest in what you don’t understand.
2. Investment decisions shouldn’t be driven by emotions.
3. Do not put all your investment eggs in one basket.
Episode 8: 2020, A Year in Review
The New Year comes with its hopes and dreams for the future and the humble review of the past. Arese walks us through her lock down Journey in 2020, her constant struggle managing her weight which is in no way the result of her love for well-made amala which she finally was able to keep off after renewed dedication to the Gym.
We got a front row seat into her personal balance sheet and income statement, which everyone should have to actively track their net worth and their growth as an individual. She mentions how she even views herself as a business whenever she undertakes her annual review of her financials.
Arese explains how she tracks her expenses and its increase during the pandemic against a reduction in her earned Income as a result of the initial panic that comes with a the news of the pandemic in the news. She unpacks what financial freedom means to her, and which is the ability for her assets to earn enough for her to maintain her lifestyle and fund some of her guilty pleasures, which may or may not include a warm bowl of amala.
Arese talks about how she looks out for high yield investment vehicles and she preference for aggressive investment strategies, and building multiple streams of Income for the sake of reaching the goal of Financial freedom each year.
Arese, having learnt a lot in this past year talked on the lessons she learnt in the process of creating the movie series surrounding The Smart Money Woman Franchise. Most outstanding of these lessons was that of not internalising failure. The whole process was new and exciting where she had to learn to be an Executive Producer on the fly and create the success that the series became today.
She also learnt the fine art of setting realistic timelines and understanding that experience creates a certain level of results that have to be built with time. Even though she was only able to meet 72% of the expected revenue of the series it was a great experience in getting people and brands on board, on the project. The many partnership pitches taught her not to take the “No’s” personally. In her words, “Don’t take the no’s personally, ask why. Use the feedback to improve on your pitch for the next brand, be persistent, follow-up, follow-up, follow-up”
Maya Horgan Famodu the founder of Ingressive Capital and a partner at Ingressive for Growth which is set up to encourage young Nigerians to acquire viable and valuable technical skills, sits down to talk with Arese about her Journey from her first private equity company when she was 23 after she had left her role at Morgan Stanley to currently being the Founder and Partner to the company responsible for the success stories of the likes of Paystack. She lived most of her life in America and it wasn’t until a series of unsuccessful deals did she look inwards into her Nigerian heritage to find a viable an opportunity-rich economy to raise funds in
She discussed how as a young entrepreneur at the age of 23 she had to learn how to pivot to find other viable opportunities for her business. Having made the mistake that most entrepreneurs make, that is to keep pursuing leads that do not align with the idea profile of their customer she narrates how she had to manoeuvre to identify the right kinds of clients by spending more time at the front-end of operations and how she learnt to be go after smaller wins and work with them as she prepared for the much bigger clients.
After Arese pointed out the at time forceful and often predatory nature of PE firms in Nigeria the conversation proceeded to go in-depth to the tendencies to focus investable funds into more infrastructure dependent ventures and Businesses like real estate, oil and agriculture instead of their counterparts with more intangible products and a different business model.
She and Arese touched on the topic of self-improvement which can only come from a certain level of self-awareness and this took a different turn for her as she realised that the quality of her work was directly related to the state of her mind because she mentions how her company’s productivity improved. She mentioned how self-affirmation is an important part of her self-development process. Arese, mentioned the tendencies within the Nigerian corporate space for things to, ”take time” to which Maya went in depth to explain that it is a function of lack of focus on Key Performance Indicators and how her company culture is based on personal responsibility to completing a task and not how long or how hard you worked to complete the task. As she said, “Either you do it or you don’t”. Being a self-starter or being willing to do a deep dive into the work you are given is an important aspect of her hiring process.
Chinwe Egwim is an active member of the Africa Development Bank meeting and a fixed Income specialist. Chinwe Egwim sat down with Arese to talk about Nigeria’s fiscal outlook for the year 2021. She is an economist, who has made it a mission to break down how larger economic events will affect our pockets.
Chinwe’s undergraduate journey began with her interest in engineering and actively sought to pursue a path in that regard; her father’s intervention changed the course of her life when he registered her for an undergraduate course in Economics. After her time in school she secured employment at the Central Bank of Nigeria where she was able to cut her teeth in the Bank’s research department under Fiscal Policy. As a young lady she had the privilege to learn from former Governor of the CBN Lamido Sanusi and the current President of the World Bank- Dr. Ngozi Okonjo Iweala; at least from a distance and this helped to shape the trajectory of her career.
The conversation shifted to current fiscal policies by the Federal Government of Nigeria and the expected loan restructuring that will take place as a result of the COVID-19 Pandemic. They discuss the various government intervention programs that seem all but visible to the naked eye, Chinwe believes they are all around and available to be taken advantage of. In her words, “What they need is there but they don’t know where it is”
According to Chinwe, the constant dependence on oil as Nigeria’s main source of foreign exchange leaves the country in a deficit. As the conversation went on Chinwe and Arese both come to the conclusion that, Content in terms of Entertainnment (Music & Film) using the power of the Internet and potentially agriculture will be the new sources of Forex, as Entertainment returned a higher contribution to the Nation’s Income in 2020 according to Chinwe.
As a fixed Income specialist Chinwe sees a trend of the central Government spending on re-curring expenditure in its budget. The conversation proceeded to touch on the Government recent trends and policies that concerning Foreign Direct Investments into the country and the structural deficits that Investors know that, “Nigeria is open for Business” citing the propaganda surrounding MTN Nigeria’s listing on the Nigerian stock exchange.
On this Episode Arese interviews Mariah- Lucciano – Gabriel; she is the Head Business Commercial Development at Sahara Energy. She and Arese have been friends for the last 2 decades as they go way back to their early years in England as young school girls.
Mariah’s professional journey starts in after she returns from England for her National Youth Service. Her initial interest was in Investment Banking and she had set her eyes on Vetiva Capital to begin her career as a banker. She was posted to Diamond Bank and served at their Oil and Gas desk where she came across Sahara Group and was so impressed by the ambience she was set on returning after her service year. After getting in she recalls the grueling experience during her Internship at Sahara and how it solidified and set the foundation of a career, surrounded by consistent learning and getting better at her craft.
She talks about the stark differences in culture at her former role in Diamond Bank and her new role at Sahara Group and how adjusting took a while and getting into the groove of things.
Discussing with Arese, they both dive deep into the lower participation of women in C-Suite roles amongst Nigerian firms and Multi-nationals operating in Nigeria. Mariah, talked about having to work very hard and constantly prove her value repeatedly to overcome gender and age-biases that underestimate the value she offers. She admits to her fear of speaking up in her early career and her fear of not meeting up to expectation. She learnt to document her wins and in her words, “never down-play your genius”
They addressed the sensitive topics on, the “sleeping her way to the top” narrative that hangs over the reputation of the few female executives in the Nigerian corporate space. They discussed how many female executives sacrifice a lot on their journey, like delaying starting a family, they discussed Mariah missing a bridal shower she herself organised. They noted how more often than not women contribute more to this narrative and the tendencies to limit themselves and by extension other women they may be involved with at work .
Mariah discussed how invaluable her networks have been in furthering her career and solving business problems that come up daily, and how building the connections takes time and intentionality on your part.
What was most striking was the exemplary standard her mother set for she and her eight siblings she raised by herself and how that helped shape her world view and how she treated herself.
On this episode Arese interviews Irene Kiwia who is our first Pan-African guest. She is a champion for socio-economic development for Africa, who’s experience spans over 17 years in media, marketing, communication, technology and development programs that are focused on youth and women empowerment. She is the founder of Frontline Media Africa.
In this interview Arese has a wonderful sit down with Irene Kiwia; discussing life as an entrepreneur living and making an impact across East Africa and sub-Saharan Africa through her various Profit, and not-for profit organisations she is actively involved in. She talks about Life as a young teenager and her love for media and communications and pursuing this desire in her early years right after her high school education, and her various experiences working and schooling throughout university.
Her big break came after starting out at 25 and deciding to runn her own business after “90%” of her schoolmates from the university sought employment in companies”. In her words, “I was like a child, they don’t really think- ‘If I do this, that will happen’, they just go with Faith”. This sums up her philosophy as she makes her way through the value chain and building the capacity as an industry leader.
They proceeded to delve into her investment strategy, and her pie-chart model she uses where she divides her investable funds across businesses, real Estate, commodities, Stocks/Bonds, and in products that are a necessity.
She talked about TWAA, which is a brain child of the need to empower young women leaders in rural Tanzania and giving them the leverage to compete and expand their capacity. She takes us through the 14-year Odyssey, from when the idea first dropped in her mind, to it’s bootstrapping process, then raising capital and making strategic partnerships and her ultimate dream of having it listed on the New York Stock Exchange.
She discussed the structure and the wide spread influence of community saving programs, and how this model has worked for over 20-years in the East African regions and providing a solid investment options and opportunities. She discussed how she is using Ekoba, to build value for this model, increase capacity and expand the value chain for users of the savings program.
Irene goes deeper into the kinds of skills and processes that have brought her this far in her journey. She discussed the need for her to be open-minded and teachable at every turn and a never ending curiosity to know more and a little of everything and in her words learning that she is , “perfectly imperfect”.
Using equity to build her house against exploring other financing options is her number one money mistake, especially as she has come to realise that a house (real estate) is an asset with very high running costs especially without being commercialised.
The conversation concluded with Irene’s advice to young women to create products that are valued and to have a plan and to know what to do and when to do it.