 Thank you for staying with us. And so my name is Fumonua Jaffee and I'm still here with Tololokwe. So we're starting out with our first partner and it's Shola Adishake. She's the founder of Smart Stewards. Shola, how have you been? Good morning and a great place. I'm happy to be here today as well. Thank you. We're so glad you could make our time to join us today. So I went to find out if your Haka women balance their short-term financial needs and their long-term goals and aspirations. All right. So I love the question. When we talk about balance, a lot of things come to mind. But I think a first place to start from is for us to understand what our priorities are. So you can't balance anything when you don't even know your options. Let me bring it back home to you wanting to balance your business, your career, your marriage and a whole lot of things. So you're looking at different options and you're thinking, what am I going to prioritize? What am I going to do? Which am I going to put on the front burner at a point in time? Do you see? Well, let's bring it back home to personal finance, which is what we're talking about today. How do you balance your long-term goals and your short-term goals? I see a lot of people wanting to just set goals. You know, it's a word that we use all the time. I want to set my goals at the beginning of the year. I want to set my goals. And by February or second week of the year, goals are in the mode already. I think I should first of all quickly talk about financial goals. And my perspective about sharing financial goals is quite different. I know there's this thing about setting smart goals, making specific, measurable, attainable and all of those things. I love those things. But I think when it comes to finances, if this approach that I am about to share would help us, you know, achieve our goals better, I teach certain three types of goals, financial goals, short-term goals, mid-term goals and long-term goals. So short-term goals are the things that you would like to achieve within one year. Mid-term goals are things you would love to do within three to five years. And long-term goals are things you would like to do seven years and above. Now, the reason I say this is because in the course of setting goals, a lot of people want to do what is meant to be a long-term or a mid-term goal within a short-term duration. And then they burn out. You're earning $50,000 a month, but you want to build a house, which is not a bad thing. Don't get me wrong. You will build a house, but in terms of prioritizing it, your current reality cannot support that goal. So it will be safe for you to say, you know what? I want to build a house, which is a good goal, which is a good dream, but I know that realistically, and yes, applying free, I can do it within 12, three or four years. I will save, I will do this and that. And then some people, some things that they are meant to accomplish within a short-term period, you know, they keep moving it and pushing it ahead and then they feel totally dissatisfied. So what am I saying in essence? First of all, set your goals by duration. Short-term goals in the world of personal finance might include, I need to pay my rent within one year. That is sacrosanct. We all know that for those who don't have their houses yet, they have to pay rent within a year. That's a short-term goal. Another short-term goal might be, I want to relocate. I want to maybe go for my master's or I want to buy a car. A mid-term goal, I mean, and these goals will differ from one person to another. So by the time you realize what your short-term goals are, your mid-term goals are, your long-term goals are, you then can prioritize and then prioritize your resources as well. If you say, I want to relocate, I want to go for my master's within one year, you know that, okay, from every money I make, this is what I'm going to be saving towards it. So how do we prioritize? Know your options. Break your goals into short-term, mid-term, long-term, and then start to prioritize and then start to balance. It helps for effective planning of your resources. When we talk about budgeting, when we talk about saving, we talk about these things but realistically, we don't sit down to say how realistic are these things I am writing down. I hope that helps for starters. That's really a good foundation for us to start with. I hope everyone has a notepad ready for this session. So before we dive right into the panelist session, Shola Areshaki will be taking us through a presentation on plan your money and plan your future. So what are appetites and give us the right information we need just before we engage the other panelists? So Shola Areshaki, please let's have your presentation planning your money and planning your future. All right, thank you. I will go straight into that and just in a few minutes and take the conversation away from there. I love the topic. Please confirm you can see my slides, plan your money, plan your future. I love that thing for the Global Money Week and it simply just says that you know what? What you do right now, what you do currently would affect what you get in the future. You want to see or enjoy a good financial future, it starts from now. And I'm going to start by sharing three things, three reasons why as women we must fund our finances. Now a survey was done you know by I think the DNA of Wellness Group or something and one of the things they realized is the fact that one of the greatest unnoticed drains on individual's productivity is the distraction that financial stress puts on people. Now these days when people say my mental health, my debt health, when you drill down, when you talk with people, when you coach with people, more often than not, financial stress is one of the things causing the mental health issues. Not in all cases, causing stress in marriage, causing emotional stress, do you see? And there was a survey that was done and you know they're asking people you know what are some of the things that would usually cause you stress? Physical, career, social, community and financial stress. And look at it, 27% which is the highest of all of those you know stuff was financial. So people have career stress, social stress, community stress and all of those things, but financial stress ranked at the highest. So why should we plan our finances? Why should we as women especially? So the first thing is that financial stress is real. And more than ever before, when you look at the state of the economy, not just national economy, but even the global economy, you know I was talking with a friend at the gym earlier today and she wanted to get some things from the UK and she was saying these things have gone up. I mean like these are busy things. You know I read an article, I think it was last month and they said that vegetables in the UK were scarce and even when available they were expensive. So it's not just a Nigerian thing, everywhere inflation, devaluation, so many things are happening. Now if there's any time that we need to plan our finances better, it has got to be known as women. Now what is another, sorry, reason why as women we must plan our finances? You know I looked up and at some statistics and I realized that see we're not playing the gender or you know whatever card here, but as women there are a lot of odds stacked against us. There's a gender pay gap. Those in the career field, those were employees, can attest to this. There's a guy on the same level with you for whatever reason is earning higher. Right? Yes, I mean the reason for the International Women's Day celebration and all of these things is to bridge the gap. But these things exist realistically. So if a guy is earning about 2 million on a roll and as a lady you're earning about 1.5 million as a roll, if both of you are single, I mean the expenses are literally the same. But the guy has more money at his disposal either to save, to invest or to do whatever he wants to do. So as women we must constantly realize that hey there are these odds against us and we must continue to work at navigating them. Another reason as women, we take career breaks. A woman in our career lifetime would usually go on two or three maternity breaks. Yes or yes. And some people go on five. I met a lady recently who said during her career break she took seven maternity leaves. I'm like mommy, well done man. You know we take those breaks. Yeah you might have a good job where they're paying you in all of those maternity perks and all of that. But you know that when you take care of your children, take care of your baby by the time you come back to work in one way or the other your productivity levels are sort of reduced. Maybe not all of the time. But apart from even maternity breaks sometimes we know the things that we deal with as women. Sometimes you have to just take off some time off work because of your child, because of your family. And what it means even as business owners is that you're not able to generate as much money as you would have love to do. Another thing is women live longer than men. I don't know if you read the statistics. A lot of women outlive their husbands. So when the husband is gone the woman is one dealing with all of those things. So we need to plan financially even if your husband gives you stuff. You must also plan your own stuff, your own finances, so that you're not absolutely depending on what somebody has done. Another thing is lack of financial confidence. My sister's hair, shellacway, dame lola, they operate or we all operate in a field where you know we're talking about money, we're always talking about confidence, you're always talking about investors. You're always having to face a lot of things. But women lack that confidence. You know men will show up and you know they start to talk but that's women. And these are some of the things that hinder us from getting access to the things we need. Women are not able to negotiate properly during interviews. Women are not able to sell their businesses but these things affect our financial bottom line either on a personal or a business level. In adequate retirement savings women don't save as much. So these are some of the reasons we must deliberately and intentionally plan our finances. And of course higher healthcare costs for women. Women we know now. We know all of us, you know, we have to do this every year, you have to do your pap smear, you have to do this, famogram here. Men don't do as much healthcare routines as we do. And then limited access to financial resources. I'm still just laying a quick foundation to make us realize that as women we must plan our finances. Now this is the third reason and this particular image changed my life when I encountered it. And it just simply sums up the human life cycle. It says that between zero and about 22, 23 years old you are in your learning cycle where you go to school, mommy and daddy, uncles and brothers are giving you money. A time comes where you start to work. So you're not depending on anyone. You start to work, you get married, you have your children and then your children before your eyes start to get married. I left school at 20 and I thought I had the whole world before me. I look back and I'm like, where have the years gone? And then you work, you work, you work, you're 60. You enter into your retirement phase. Now when you have this at the back of your mind, you realize that you don't have all the time in the world to plan your finances. You see that phase two is very important. Some of us right now we are in either any career, some are in their peak career, some are in their almost retirement. I want to believe that a lot of people on this top are either in their early career or their mid-career. Always bear this in mind that, you know what, the days seem so slow but the years fly by so quickly. Nobody is going to plan your finances for you. A time will come, you look at you and I look at my mom this is, I'm like, when I was younger this woman was working as a secretary and she had a lot of businesses. She would close on a Friday night, get on a plane, go to London, go to Europe, buy things by Monday evening I kid you not, my mom was back. She did multiple businesses. By virtue of those businesses, my mom should have been a billionaire today but nobody was teaching them financial literacy and I look at her, she's 73 and I'm like, God, one day I'm going to be like this. This is the time. So understand that there is a window available to you within which whatever you are doing applies sense and plan for the future because nobody is going to do it for you. And this is another image that you can just, you know, screen grab to show you that you are young, you are very energetic, you are full of vitality. You will continue like this not because of anything bad happening but a time will come. The energy you have at 20 or 30 is not the same energy you will have at 50. By 40, some of us are in our, you know, 40s already. I'm like, in the next five years I don't think I want to be running around like this or shall I quit. All of these things we must have consolidated. Do you see? So it is important to plan and what is financial planning? Simply the process of creating a roadmap or a blueprint to help you achieve your financial goals. And it involves analyzing your current situation financially, identifying your financial goals and developing a plan to help you achieve those goals. Women, this is not a time where you would say, I know my daddy or my mommy, my husband, my accountant is the one handling my finances. You must be involved. You must take responsibility. Don't abdicate your responsibility, your financial future to anybody. Now, let me run through a couple of things that will help us plan. Of course, financial literacy sits at the foundation of financial planning. If you don't have the right knowledge, the skill set and the mindset, we can't plan anything. Let me tell you guys, when I finished, so, so I started my career very early. And as of 18, 19 years ago, I was earning about half a million per month as a chartered accountant. But my finances were all over the place. I was chartered, but my finances were scattered. You know, I was that girl that BA was doing a sale, we go public holiday three days. Delta, 90,000 to Atlanta, we are there four days. I remember my very first trip to America, they stopped me at the point of entry. How many days are you here for? I say four days. You came all the way from Nigeria to America for just four days. They delayed me at the airport for about eight hours because they thought I had drugs on me. I was very spontaneous until things happened. No plan, no future, nothing just, you know what? The money will continue to come because I lacked financial literacy. And financial literacy is a function of three things. Having the right mindset about your money. That money is a servant. I am the leader. Money is in animate. I am animate. Money is not going to get me exasperated. Because that's what I see. When we talk about money, people, ha, this money thing, money. Hey, this money thing, I don't know where my money has gone. You've got to be in charge. The second thing is the skill set. I'll talk about this during the Q&A. And of course, it's knowledge. And so thank you to Narametic Metrics for organizing this. May this be on this, you must go back to say, this is not a time where they're talking about economic news and you're saying, no, please flip the world. Next, next channel. We see many things happening around the world that are not within our control but that are constantly affecting our finances. COVID, Russia, look at how those things are affecting us. Now, seven things and I'll wrap this up. Tools for your personal financial planning. You need to make money. Money is what will help you plan. So look at your income. Read this book by Robert Kiyosaki. Shalabbe has also written a very good book about building generational wealth. I've written a book about, you know, the basic things, 40 frugal rules for your journey to financial freedom. Learn how to make money because that's what you're going to use to plan. I mean, you can't spend any sacrosancts, whether you make money or not. You must spend. So you must necessarily figure out how to constantly make money because it is from what you make that you will spend. Pillar two. Talk about budgeting. Now, I know a lot of people don't like to hear the word borrower. But it is what it is. Their budget is a navigator. Sit down. So some people don't have spending problems. It is income problem. But because you have not written it down, your expenses on a monthly basis are like 300,000 and you're making 200,000. You will burn out. But you don't know, you keep saying, I have money problems. Like in my early days, each time they were praying for those 100 believers, I would go out because I thought I needed a dilettante. So sit down with your finances, interact with your figures. How much am I earning? How much am I spending? Is there a deficit? Is there a surplus? What can I do? Number three, you need to save. Yes, you can save your way into wealth, but it's a good place to start from. And I need you to screen grab this particular image. You earn the money, you spend part of it, you save the other half, and then you invest it. And that's how wealth is built. Rains and repeats. Number four, investing. So I tell people saving money is putting money aside. Investing is putting money to work. Saving helps you build consistency. Investing helps you build tenacity because things happen. There's no time, but these are some of the things you can invest in. We'll talk about that during Q&A. Number four, debts and credit money. I see people borrowing money for consumables, and it breaks my heart. You want to travel, your friends are going on vacation. You don't have the money, and you have to borrow. I see people borrowing money for actually a B and so many things. In this part of the world, Nigeria, credit is not something that is so common, but there are people are using informal ways to get credit to sort of live their lifestyles or fund their lifestyles. You won't go anywhere. Debt is an obligation to the past. Saving and investing is an obligation to the future. So manage your debt and stop digging that debt hole. And number six, we don't talk about this a lot, but you need to manage your risk and get insurance for your wealth. It is in Africa, you'll see that premium is a waste of money. You pay insurance, what? Insurance premium. What if it doesn't happen? It is that very most that you don't renew your insurance, that things happen. Remember driving on Third Milan one day and somebody's tire on the other side, got detached from his car, rolled and bounced on my own car, passing through Third Milan bridge. And my God, I was driving. Shattered my windscreen and forced the car to stop. If I tell you what, I mean, that was many years ago. In short, things happen. Thank God I had insurance on the car. Emergency funds is also a way of secrecy. In Africa, we have more about accumulating wealth, but we don't think about protecting the world. If something happens, may God forbid, it can wipe everything you have built for years. So we need to take risk management and insurance more importantly. And finally, ladies, understand that you operate in three economies. Your personal economy, the national economy, the global economy. Your personal economy is what you do with what you make, what you spend. You have control over it, swallow, not entirely, but at least you can know that, okay, this is what I am spending. I don't teach people, don't spend money. I teach, spend reasonably. Now, the national economy is what is happening in your country, for example, in Nigeria. These days, we must become more interested in politics because we say, no, it's not my business. Anybody that comes in, no, the person who comes in affects your business, affects your finances because their policies would indirectly affect what is happening. So put your ears on the ground. And of course, the global economy, I tell people, when the president of America sneezes, it affects us. Look at how COVID, you know, affected the entire world. Look at how Russia and Ukraine were affected the entire world. So ladies and gentlemen, no, there are no gentlemen here, I believe. We must understand all of these seven things that I have discussed or that I have shared with you in planning our finances. Ultimately, building wealth is a marathon, not a sprint. Yeah, don't be like, yes, you know what, I want to start now. And there's this initial grub I want to save, I want but I'm not, my investment is not yielding so much. You know, it takes time. It's a lifetime project of raising and repeating. You will make mistakes. You will lose money. You will feel, even as a finance court, sometimes I spend some, I'm like, ah, what happened? Was that village people? But I get back on track and I continue to build. But see, I was an unrepentance pensioner who couldn't even save 100K in my account, despite only 500K per month. But with knowledge, with literacy, with the skillset, here I am today, I'm able to save and invest seven digits, eight digits, without even touching it. So everybody and anybody can take their finances into their hands and begin to achieve great things. I hope that with these few points of mine, I've been able to convince you that, eh, you can plan your money and plan your future. Of course, I'm the lead coach of Smart Stewards and we provide financial literacy resources for people, Africans at home and in the hospital especially. Thank you. And I look forward to, you know, the panel sessions. Oh, wow. That was, that was, I don't know, very interesting. Well, thank you so much. Shalata, what did you make of that session and presentation? It's a very, very enlightening session. I took down a few notes. For once, Shalata said something that she was shattered but scattered. That took me, that really took me off balance because you can be financially buoyant and then you don't have a financial safety net. So she really eats the nail on so many, so many salient points. Another one is savings build consistency and then investment builds tenacity. So there's a whole lot to pick from what Shalata said. Yeah. I also like when she talked about the fact that oftentimes many women outlive their partners and then you are there to bear the burden of so many things that, you know, you're just some people just like, you know, and like many of us say it now, I want to be a baby girl. I want to be a soft life and a billionaire's wife and we don't even know, understand the run-ins of what is really happening and then your husband passes and then you are clueless about how to handle the women. And a better way to really understand that for me is when she mentioned the life cycle for every woman. I mean, we have so many young ladies now that feel, oh, when I'm 30 years, I'm going to save or when I'm 40 years, I'm going to save. But it is time for you to save, there's time for you to spend or time for you to relax and enjoy. So it's also important to understand what cycle you fall into and save accordingly so that you don't get caught off balance. And I like that Shalata speaks from experience. It's really great she was telling us about how she went to America for four days. Shalata, you're already leaving Lajo, she was born in. She was born in. So I just wanted to find out from you, even though you've shared some with us, what are the financial mistakes that many women make now, especially across board, young women, middle-aged women, older women, what are the, you've shared some from your own personal experience, but I'd like for you to just share with us some mistakes that women make in their food. Thank you. I think one of the first things is that we don't take responsibility. I would share that from my experience and what I see. When I coach people one on one, some of the things I hear is, you know, my husband has been the one handling all the, I don't know, you know, and then we blame everybody. We blame our parents. Some people's parents are dead. You're still blaming them that they didn't give birth to you in America or Canada or UK so that you could have held, you know, the citizenship. We blame the government. Some people blame their children. I have seen women who would say, if not for you, I would have gone for my masters and my finances would have been better. Some of us, we are still blaming Abacha. 25 years ago, 30 years ago, GC, I mean, I was just kidding, but ladies, take responsibility. Number one, financial mistakes that people make. We blame everybody for ourselves. We don't see that we are actually the ones behind the driver's seat of a financial future. Like they say, the day you wake up is when your eyes are opened. I mean, let me tell you ladies, I was earning half a million and I was going to get married and I resigned. And my husband to be was like, where are you? I resigned without having savings because I felt that we might see a fellow like all of those qualifications. And then I resigned. I became like a donor to my husband because at that time also, they took some financial decisions in their business. And so from earning half a million per month, there was a day I didn't even have 1,000. And then one month after married, I got pregnant ahead. I know people like us all weeks after pregnancy, everybody knows you can't even hide it. So no job was coming, nobody was employing me. I saw Shege. And then six months after I got a consulting job and I told myself, never, I will never make these mistakes again. So number one, take responsibility. Number two, embrace knowledge. I am happy that these days, women are more interested. Going to the days where the only things we are talking about is going straight to Clamanko, you know, going straight, Morzupo. You go into a place where you have women. We're talking about investors. We're talking about venture capital. Look at them. When we got on this call this one, the first thing we say, congratulations, we start. Two certain things we are talking about, knowledge. We have signed out of the School of Art. Financial news and economic news is only for men. So women in the past would not just embrace knowledge, but that is going out of fashion. And then I think the third thing, third mistake that people make is, we think we have time. There are things I already mentioned. I know there's time. Once I'm 25, no, once I'm 30, I will start to take my finances more seriously. It starts now. For my experience, I'm 43 DC, I'm like, wow, 23 years after I left school, what happened? It was just as if I slept and I woke up. So these are mistakes that, you know what, when we put a heart rate, we can correct. And I think the fourth thing is collaboration. Women are so competitive in nature, but these things are changing and I'm happy. And I teach the concept of competition, competition. Competition means that you're cooperating and then you're competing at the same time. So we must learn to work with one another and say, hey, Charlotte, please, come and help me. And then I'm calling somebody in the same field to say, help me. So as women, we must leave that mindset of, ah, we are competitors also, they must not know what I'm doing. If you want to do it, they must not know what you are doing. You will make a lot of mistakes and you will not be able to achieve your goals. So collaboration is gold. Knowledge is gold. You know, they will help us correct some of those mistakes. Thank you. All right. Thank you very much, Charlotte. And I think I learned to knew what's doing, competition, because you often see women go at loggerheads trying to compete with each other when no one is actually chasing us. All right. So let's try and build some kind of financial foundation. Let's talk about building financial foundation. So I'll allow Charlotte to rest for a bit and I'll come to Charlotte Bay, right? Hi, Charlotte Bay. So good morning. Good morning. Good to have you once again. So talking about financial foundation because it's easy to teach how to save, but then when the foundation is not right, you know, a lot of things can go wrong. So for you, Charlotte, but what does it mean to build the financial foundation? Where do we start from? All right. Thank you so much, Tolu. And thanks to you, Naira Metrics and Plus TV for putting this together. Like I always say, we cannot emphasize on achieving financial wellness and financial independence for women, for our society, because like I said, no matter how much you pump, no matter how you adjust monetary policies and all of that, there's nobody can lift over 200 million out of poverty without the right financial literacy. The money will be then and it will just be carouseling and going into all the waste and excesses that Charlotte had discussed. Having said that, the way I perceive financial foundations is funny. I was just thinking about it this morning. Typically, when you go to school, you study, then you graduate and get your certificates. Now, using the analogy, what typically happens is that while a lot of us are schooled, we are well, you know, numbered, we get when it comes to money, when it comes to finance, we get handed the certificates in the finance economy without having the knowledge, right, which is a, you know, and that's why we have the challenges that we typically have. So money here is the certificate and then you do not have the knowledge, you know, to make the most of that money, to grow it, to pass it on, you know, to make it impactful, essentially. So having established that even at 60, even at 70, you shouldn't be surprised that some people still need to go and get certified for that, you know, certificate they've been handling since age 18 or so. So I'll say first, the first step to financial foundation. I'm sure when Charlotte was speaking, I just said, you know, well, let's just share the grace and go home. Our jobs are done here, right? You know, so without delivering what she said, it's about making that money. It's about any, and it's about expanding, you know, your, your any sources, your income sources. I always say that 100% of zero, what does it give you? Certainly zero. Okay, so if you do not expand your means, it's just going to be nickel and dime and nickel and dime. And so you can have these great dreams, you can have these huge dreams. However, if you do not expand your sources of income, you can't move significantly from where you are. And secondly, of course, budgeting. Budgeting in a way that you do not, you know, leave out of your means with people spoken about means. And so because Charlotte also spoken about budgeting, I'd like to speak about something in that usually gets people off the of the train went between earning and budgeting and it's lifestyle creep and it happens to the most of us, especially women, right? Because we like, you know, and then go take. So it's lifestyle creep. You are earning and living comfortably on a salary of less hypothetically 1000 Naira. And then you landed this promotion or you know, maybe your business got this great gig and all of that. And your income less than one thing come went up to 3000 Naira, particularly. And the next thing you want to buy a brand new car, you want to move out of your neighborhood, you want to obey your bags, you want to. And before you know it, you teach yourself from an excess into debt again. So lifestyle creep is one thing that we need to be essentially, you do mindful of, you know, having said that, you know, once you expand your means, you budget and then you save to invest, as Shalak said, you save to invest, you keep money aside and then keep investing once you've kept the side, you know, that being said, you are, you know, you are rightly established for a great financial future. All right. All right. Thank you so much, Shalakbe. Thank you. Thank you for that. I mean, you have to live within your budget and within your expenses, right? But there's something to say about sharing life, life experience with people. It rings better. So I'd like to, I'd like to ask Shalakbe for you what life lessons have you learned in terms of building financial habits and then how has that helped you to save or spend wisely? Can you share with us briefly? Okay, yes. Firstly, speaking of all lifestyle creep, right, I recall where, while I was working before I started, you know, harvest, there was a particular day, when they bought there was living, there was a particular day, you know, junior officer of mine. I think I didn't drive that day, you know, you know, offered to drop me at home. And she couldn't resist it. She was just sighing, wailing and sighing. And I recall she went back because she felt like, why would she be living in this neighborhood? No, when I was critically saving to start my business, her business then, right? So of course I had goals. I knew that I was saving to invest to give my business off the ground. Very well, one way ending, what my household was ending, then proved, you know, you can afford to leave in the choices, you know, part of turn, all of that. But again, you know, we have goals and we're saving towards that. So, you know, at times, you just see people, especially women, I keep emphasizing, I see, it's not as if men do not do this, right? But here, we are talking within the scope of women and how they are the geniuses. You're just moving for the more, right? And before you realize this, you know, you shot the best way to test the fragility of life. Actually, I said, it resonated greatly with me. One of my parents is currently in the other one, and I look at them and all you can recall is how they were thriving, how they were healthy, and they would do things. And now, you're essentially just, you know, they've been rocking them, right? And even that. So when you look at that, when you look at life through that lens, you realize that, hey, yes, you know, and even if you live up to 80, up to 90, your lives would be that strong. And these are things that I captured in my book. So essentially, you just go to, essentially, the plan. And they're talking about life experiences. Expanding an income was something that wasn't taught to me. I saw my mother leave that, and I jumped on it. I tell people, I started my entrepreneurship journey, or entrepreneurial journey, at age eight. I was, I got into secondary school, eight and nine years, you know, in GS's one. And I was a student. I was raised in Ijepo, they were hosted by the way. So I, you know, that they say that Ijepo people, and they were, well, because then my mother, who was a high school teacher? But I knew then that when she closes from school, she tells this back, you saw that the point time, we're not seeing that for the longest time. She took that back. She was selling clothes across all the ministries, and she would go from there back to that. And then when she comes home, we'll do, she was an own economic teacher, so we'll bake, so that she can, you know, distribute the other day. So I saw all of that. And guess what? No one told me. When I got into school, I started saving my pocket money, and then, you know, started buying biscuits and saving the school, and then there's some trouble from there. But, you know, essentially, and that's why we say that women have to be, and parents generally, have to be living example, you know, for their children. And I'm glad these days, my own children, you know, they are being carried along in how a building business is saving. And they know that, yes, that's essentially the rights which pass in non-generational levels. Thank you very much, Alakbe. As a matter of fact, I like the fact that you closed out on talking about entrepreneurship, and how it's important to imbibe this culture early in our children. It's never too early, trust me. It's never too early to teach them about money, to let them know about money, and what money means. Because already, a two-year-old can tell when you give them money. They know the bigger one. They know the smaller one. So why not just expose them to it, for them to learn about it? Thank you very much, Alakbe. So I'll be coming to you, Damilola, talking about entrepreneurship. You run a startup company, and I know very well that it must have been really capital intensive to start this, and run this organization firmly. So for female entrepreneurs, maybe startup founders as well, that are just starting. What experience can you share with them, especially when you're planning to start a company, and you need capital to start it or to run it, whether you're still working a nine to five, and you have your idea, or you're running it already currently? Please share with us your experience, Damilola, on working as a female entrepreneur, and how you can raise capital. Okay. So my financial journey as an entrepreneur, first, I would say that, you know, I always, this past of times principle always has, you know, cost of, to me, since seven and nine, when he says, you know, start small but dream big, right? So at the initial stage, the dream was huge, you know, was big, do something as big as Airbnb, as big as Uber. But we did not think that it was going to be capital intensive at the beginning, because the idea was to start as lean as possible, because I mean, I don't have any rich dad or, I didn't have any rich dad or parents or relatives. So there wasn't any plan to even get funding at the beginning. It was, how can I start this business as lean as possible, such that, you know, we can scale from there. So we, I mean, you know, I always say that I started this with, you know, my house rent money. And, you know, giving my mom are giving me, I think 200K then for a house in Surile, then the landlord jipped me. I got the money back. I got 150K back by police issue. And then 150K instead of me going to go and rent another place. I took that as a seat for, to build our first website and went to school with a church member, right? And just similar to what, you know, like we said, at that point in my life, this is me as a graduate of chemical engineering. My colleagues already were working in all our gas company. They were, you know, working in, either working in consulting, they were anywhere they were, I thought I was not, I thought I was waving on social media. I remember my friend telling me, how are you coping? You know, seeing your friends and your colleagues, you know, moving ahead and you are here suffering, you know, working from one place to another. Just, you know, I was very mean, very committed, very, and the vision was very clear, right? Because, you know, I knew that I wanted this to be as big as a global company, right? So, but I was ready to do the work. So we worked very mean, currently from, you know, starting very small to building this, the MVP product. And, you know, we ran the business, you know, bootstrapped. I said yesterday in a panel that I think that when I tried to raise funds and I was seeing that I didn't get investors that were going to be, they were believing what I was, I was capable of doing. I decided to turn my customers into my, my investors. I found a way for customers to pay us before we even deliver the products so that we can deliver the products and pay our suppliers. You know, when you are under, you know, immense conditions, you will be very crazy. True. But you don't have money, you have pocket. Very true. So, that kind of culture, right, had already, had already formed the culture, that discipline culture of learning how to turn the tool to, you know, plenty. So when we got funding, it was easy for us also to continue with that same discipline culture. So really, I'll say that's my, my own journey. We didn't start off as, you know, looking for huge capital to start, you know, the business before it was viable, before it was, you know, up and running. We started very mean, we said, you know, our first, even that website that we even built, we didn't even use the website. We used WhatsApp to communicate to customers. I used Excel sheets to gather my data. I emailed to email to the customers. Our first technology was free. So even the social media page, I did all of those things on Canva. So we were very, very, you know, creative and, you know, looking for ways to use free tools online that can help us start the business as, you know, as to catch as possible. Yeah. Yeah. Well, that's, that's, that's really, really deep. Thank you for sharing, Damilala. If there's anything I learned from everything she said, I think what stood out for me basically is your drive and the passion to stanchery, right, for me. It's the drive that she has because she said something about she used that rents 200K. Yeah, they want to know what 50K, you know, they duped her, they had to go back to the police station to try it. Yeah, they're welcome to another episode open. So yeah, so it's that drive, that, that drove her and the fact that you always have to stay true to your dream, right? But before we proceed into the panelist session, we'll be taking a quick commercial break. Remember, we are running on TV as well as on Zoom. So we'll be taking a quick commercial break and we'll be back shortly.