Be prepared for opportunities

CBN: Leaving leprosy to cure ringworm

Tunde Oyedoyin is a London-based personal finance coach and founder of Money Intelligence Coaching Academy, a specialist academy of personal finance. He can be reached as follows: +447846089587 (WhatsApp only); E-mail: tu5oyed@gmail.com

When yours truly arrived at the Kingswood Baptist Church in Basildon for the Celebration of Life service of Mrs Rebecca Olaniyan on the third Thursday of last month, it was simply to pay one’s last respect and to commiserate with her children, grandchildren, loved ones and the church.

Though she was just five days short of her ninetieth birthday as of October 4th, when she slept in the Lord, losing a loved one, especially a parent, is naturally painful. So, as already stated, being there to support her daughters, Funmi Williams, her elder sister and the rest of the family was necessary. As it turned out, one was even on the same row with some of them.

But soon after the service commenced at 10 a.m., Williams signalled to me and asked if I could take the last of the five tributes, as the lady pencilled down on the programme was running late.

Though totally unexpected, yours truly jumped at the offer and said “yes”. Reason being that, before she relocated to the United Kingdom over a decade ago, I’d known “mama Olaniyan” – as we called her – from our days together at the Foursquare Gospel Church in Lagos in the 90s. More importantly, she was a friend of my mother. So, grabbing the opportunity to eulogise her made a tonne of sense.

That being said, I had less than ten minutes to compose the eulogy as the tributes had already started when Williams beckoned on me.

Here’s the thing. As it happened at that service in Basildon, opportunities do crop up in life. Even in these harsh economic times, some may land at your doorstep and others may come as a phone call.

But being prepared is the key to grabbing opportunities and the way to prepare includes building up your knowledge base. If I’d not known mama Olaniyan nor quickly figured out what to do, yours truly couldn’t have said yes to the offer.

One’s knowledge, and by default the eulogy, was very unique. I used the opportunity to let the congregation know that mama Olaniyan was mummy’s friend, a prayer warrior and a regular at the women’s Tuesdays’ fellowship in those days. So, being knowledgeable and quick thinking are strands of being prepared for when you’ll get the opportunity.

That five thousand Naira that you’ve been putting together since June will surely come handy sooner or later. Trust me. It may even be to save you from embarrassment or shame.

CBN: Leaving leprosy to cure ringworm

Yours truly was watching Channels TV last week when the news flashed on the screen that the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, plans to block the accounts of people without BVN and NIN from April.

I thought how can the apex bank contemplate doing that to millions of bank customers? That’s actually a case of leaving leprosy to cure ringworm.

CBN should concentrate on its core business and support banks to do the needful for those customers.

In other words, the CBN should support commercial banks to support their customers to register for both and give an extra window beyond the current deadline.

So, CBN should think of creative ways of getting more people to register for their biometric verification numbers and National Identification Numbers rather than seeking the easy route of bringing down the sledgehammer on them.

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