Dr. Olumide Emmanuel, Chief Executive Officer of Common Sense Group, is a personal finance coach, business growth expert and financial analyst. In an interview with GEOFF IYATSE, he spoke on what the current administration needs to do to stabilise naira as well as survival strategies for individuals and businesses.

A few policies, such as the floating of the naira and the removal of fuel subsidy, have been embarked upon since the new administration came in. Do you think these policies are in the right direction?
The decisions are in the right direction but because of the peculiarities of Nigeria, they cannot produce the intended results on their own without other factors being considered. For instance, removing fuel subsidy is the right thing to do because we all know that fuel subsidy is a fraud, but the repercussions of the removal need to be cushioned. So, there has to be a holistic review of policy because removing subsidy when you have not yet put structures and systems in place to cushion the effect will produce a negative impact.

If you look at what has happened since naira was floated, you would discover that people are bringing in money. So, we have had the highest inflow of foreign currency within the last month in recent years. Still, the repercussions on the locals are negative. This is because the reason we have different market crises is a result of corruption. That has not changed.

The policy is good. The reason why people were getting dollars at N440 and going round trip was because there is corruption. But that has not changed.

Today, they can still get the dollar at N690 at the official market and sell at N780 at the black market. Then, the people who need the dollars will still not get it. That has to break.

Also, we are not a productive economy. For you to earn a dollar, you have to sell something. Nothing has changed in the direction of what we are selling.

So, while it is the right policy, the effect may be negative. And it will continue to be negative until some things are put in place. These include addressing corruption, productivity and education issues. We need to educate our people. People need to know that when a positive policy is made, there is a time lag or a gestation cycle in policy implementation and policy actualisation.

When a policy is made, it will take sometimes – six months, sometimes eight months or one year. It could take two years for the effect to come. For instance, when the telecoms industry came to Nigeria, we were buying a SIM for almost N30,000. But it is almost free now. How long did it take to go through that cycle? Almost 10 years.

In the same way, removing subsidy is good but it will take at least two years for us to see the effects because there are a lot of other things that have to be done. The same thing applies to the FX issue. A dollar may get to a N1000 while a pound may get to N1,500. It will continue like that until it hits a ceiling, then it will begin to come down and then we will come back.

What then are those things that have to be done for the policies to begin to have positive effects?
The challenge with Nigeria is that when we want to solve a problem, we always think monolithically; we think that this is the answer. But we don’t realise that what we think is the answer is not the only answer. There may be six other answers that must be taken into consideration with that particular answer.

The issue here is that between when you removed the subsidy and the time you put the cushioning effect in place, a lot of things would have gone wrong. So, before you remove, first have the cushioning effect in place so that everything will be happening hand-in-hand.

If you are announcing that you are removing the subsidy on July 1, 2023, 30 days before the date, 33,000 buses would have been brought. Every state would have already taken delivery of 1,000 buses each. Then, students would be entitled to free bus rides. Senior citizens would also be entitled to bus rides for free. All civil servants would be made to work for three days a week as a national policy while the minimum wage is increased to N75,000 with immediate effect. Then, you would announce a policy and cushion the effect at the same time.

That is the way it is done. You cannot choose one and leave the other.
Life and livelihood will have to be balanced. Don’t forget that when the President remarked that the subsidy was gone, it was an error because it was not in his speech. All they needed to do was to do the other things. But it is too late to reverse the policy. Whatever problem will happen, let it begin to happen. Going back would be more dangerous.

You know the problem again, as they are removing the subsidy, has anybody been arrested or jailed? You have to attack the issues frontally and block the leakages. Elsewhere, they would have arrested and jailed dozens of people by now. That is how you change a system. As long as they are not prosecuting anybody, we will just be going in circles.

Since the cushioning measures are not in place, what advice would you give business owners?
They should sit down and reflect. What we are going through now cannot be worse than COVID 19 and if we could survive COVID, we will survive this one. What I would advise now is that we should operate with the COVID mentality, that while we are moving around, we are now on another lockdown. I have a book called ‘How to Increase Your Value in the Market Place’ and another one, ‘Leading in Tough Times’. I also have shared extensively how we can handle such situations

If you are facing a tough time, first, go back to basics. A lot of organisations over the years have brought a lot of things on board that were not part of the basics. Take for instance, if you lodge in a five-star hotel, they are charging you for a gym and swimming pool which you may not use. Meanwhile, some cheaper hotels are just bed and breakfasts.

Business owners should ask themselves the following questions: Why do we exist as a company and what are we here to do? The telecoms companies are here to sell airtime, but many of them are doing some other things like conducting seminars and bringing in foreigners to come and do training. You are not a training company. Every organization should go back to its core reason for existence so that it can remove all the excesses.

Secondly, be creative. We as a company have been doing virtual work since 2014. Now, everybody is talking about virtual work. Everybody should be able to identify where they can cut costs. The only way to make money available is either to increase your income or reduce your expenditure.

People don’t always consider reducing expenditure. There are a lot of things that can be done. If you reduce work to three days a week, the work will always still be done. I have always said it, every developed nation on earth pays people per hour and not per month. We need to go back and revisit that. An average Nigerian staff, except in multinationals where there are systems and structures, works only three to five hours a day.

At the individual level, since some of these palliatives are not forthcoming, what should the survival strategy be?
One of the things we have not understood in this part of the world is that collaboration is a new competition. A lot of times we try to do things on a solo level and that solo level has affected us.

In the UK today, people have cars but they don’t go out with their cars. They engage in carpooling. We should be thinking of the major things that cost us money and find ways to reduce them.

For shelter, feeding and transportation. When you look at shelter, you now begin to think of how to live communally. In the UK, you find three different people renting a one-one room, sharing the kitchen, parlour and other amenities. They never knew each other anywhere.

Why do you need a two-bedroom apartment as a single man that is not ready to marry in the next two or three years? Is the hotel, not face-me, and I face you as everybody is in his room? It is just that our mindsets have not been developed.
The next is feeding. Instead of going to the supermarket to shop for things that are too expensive, why not a few people coming together, pool money together and go to places like Mile 12 or Otto where food stuffs are sold at wholesale prices? Then come back and share. Besides, when they say three-square meal, where did they get that from? Is it three-square or a triangle? Why do you eat? You don’t live to eat but you eat to live.

You only eat because you are hungry, if you are not hungry, you are not supposed to eat. Two meals a day is ideal for any normal human being. Once we begin to think in that direction, it will help us.

Then on transportation, why must I be driving and three or four spaces are empty in my car? If we live in the same neighbourhood, we can come together and use each other’s car every week. And we begin to carpool. We have to survive anyhow. The White man said, if you cannot fly, run, if you cannot run, walk and if you cannot walk, crawl. Just make sure you are making progress. That is the way out, everybody needs to tighten their belts.

As a wealth creator, what do you think people can do to regain their balance?
The principle for wealth creation has never changed and will never change. And like I have said over and over again, principles are universal. But the application of those principles is personal, contextual and geographical. Savings is sacrosanct, but why do you save? You save to put money for your rest. One of the reasons why you save is for the eventuality, emergency and a financial planning mechanism because everybody has to have six to eight months of their earnings saved up in cash. And thereafter, you invest it into something that can be giving you returns. You cannot but sit down and face reality.

Your expenses will be higher while your income will be stagnant. It is time for a family belt-tightening discussion. Once you can navigate all that, you are going to survive it because tough times never last but tough people do.

Can you please shed more light on the monetary policy as well as the ongoing meeting between the power distribution companies and the Nigerian Electric Regulation Commission (NERC) on the planned electricity tariff review?
Let me talk about the issue of power. The hypocrisy of Nigerians is so amazing because we are already spending the money they are asking us to come and spend. Let us face the reality and say that the problem is not what they are asking us to pay. The problem is that we don’t trust the government. What they are asking us to come and pay is still cheaper than the generators we are using. Electricity is cheaper than generators any day, any time.

If they increase it and make it competitive, after a gestation cycle, it will go down. One of the problems we have is that as long as they are not in that realm of metering people, we will be losing more money. When everybody is metered, water will find its level.

But let me also say this again, many of our policies cannot work independently. People say economics is a science. The economy is only a science in a sane economy. In Nigeria, many scientific laws have failed. Even scientists know it.

Should you be hired to consult for the government on wealth creation, what are the things you will put in place?
First, permit me to quote the scripture as the pastor that I am. God that created all of us gave us the solution to everything on earth. During creation, the first thing that God did was to declare: Let there be light.

As long as we are in darkness, we can never go far. The first thing I will provide is power, by all means. Anything that is blocking it, will be dealt with.

Two, shed the same light on all the corrupt places and all the different things that have been in darkness. Multiple accounting, multiple agencies, multiple money and multiple things that are happening. In the morning somebody is a governor, in the evening he is a senator, we will shed light on all those darkness and deal with them decisively.

Three, light at the end of the tunnel. To give people a future, ensure there is light at the end of the tunnel.

The second thing that God did was to say that the sky should be separated from the ground. And the Water from the land. Who is a Nigerian? We have a driver’s licence, we have BVN, we have NIN, yet no national identity card. Until we do that, we will be fooling ourselves. Until every Nigerian is known and we have accurate data of who we are, all these stories that people are talking about will cease to be. Trust me, if things are done correctly, everybody can be getting N20,000 every month in their accounts and nothing will shake.

Then, communication comes in. They will be hearing my voice every week on a national broadcast. I will not be doing national broadcasts on May 1st and October 1st alone. No! I have written a book: Birthing a New Nigeria. From our National Anthem, we have 45 values. Arise o compatriots (patriotism); Nigeria’s call, Obey (obedience) and many more. Each of those 45 values is what I will undertake per week. All the radio and TV stations and every individual will have to sign up for it for free.

Before you know it, we will be renewing people’s minds because our greatest asset is human capital.

Can you talk about trans-generational savings?
One of the assets of a nation is its foreign reserve, national asset and human capital. If your foreign reserve is not strong, you are not strong in the scheme of things. So, we need to save.

One of the things that we need to save is all the recovered money that we are getting. Any time you discover new money that you didn’t plan for, just put it in savings. Abacha is still paying us from the grave after over 20 years. All the loot from everywhere should be saved. Nigerian banks have billions of people’s money that are frozen and stolen in vaults.

People are not aware of them. Look into the banking sector and fish out all the money/accounts that are dormant. All the Wonder Banks that were closed, where is the money in them? You mop up everything and then you save it. Have you noticed that in every organization that they say AMCON has taken over, people are still the ones that suffer from them? So, what are we still talking about?