Life in Dubai...

Hundreds of thousands of young Africans are throwing everything into the unknown, traveling to foreign countries in the hope of a better life. This story is important for those aspiring to venture on such journey... It is the reality faced by those who chose to go to Dubai in search of greener pasture...


Every evening, the hundreds of thousands of young men who build Dubai are bussed from their sites to a vast concrete wasteland an hour out of town, where they are quarantined away. Until a few years ago they were shuttled back and forth on cattle trucks, but the expats complained this was unsightly, so now they are shunted on small metal buses that function like greenhouses in the desert heat. They sweat like sponges being slowly wrung out.


There are three different Dubais, all swirling around each other.
* There are the expats, about 9% of the population, who are primarily attracted by the employment and investment opportunities of the United Arab Emirates,  * there are the Emiratis, or are citizens, headed by Sheikh Mohammed; and then * there is the foreign underclass who built the city, and are trapped here. 
They are hidden in plain view. You see them everywhere, in dirt-caked blue uniforms, being shouted at by their superiors, like a chain gang – but you are trained not to look

Sonapur is a rubble-strewn patchwork of miles and miles of identical concrete buildings. Some 300,000 men live piled up here, in a place whose name in Hindi means "City of Gold". 
In the first camp I stop at – riven with the smell of sewage and sweat – the men huddle around, eager to tell someone, anyone, what is happening to them.

PART 3. WHEN MICROFINANCE BANK IS A BAD CHOICE BY DON ABIODUN ODEDEYI

Yesterday (November 5, 2014), while putting an article together, I got a report that a microfinance bank customer was stopped from taking her own life. She is a customer to three different microfinance banks and, in total, owned them about 1 million naira, her business has taking a nosedive and banks are pressing for their money.

She had gone to a river near her house around Orimerunmu (between Ibafo and Mowe, Ogun state, Nigeria). Fortunately, she was spotted by fishermen before she could accomplish her task.

Who is at fault?

How did she get to this state?

Would she have been better off if she is never involved with microfinance and had opted for commercial banks?

Part 2: MYTH OR REALITY: MICROFINANCE BANKS RUN AWAY WITH CLIENTS’ MONEY by Don Abiodun Odedeyi

This is the second part of my Microfinance Bankable or Not series. I hope you read the first part else, click here. Today, the theme is CONFIDENCE in the sector. Is it real or myth? What you need to know and how you can best be on the advantage side.

Misinformation is the second biggest problem facing the microfinance sector. 

Many cry 'foul' when a mfb is suggested for business...

May I ask you this? "What are you going to the mfb for?"

Many, today, know mfbs for credit lending MEANING you go there to get loan then repay over a period of time (usually 6 months to 12 months). To this end, who should be wary of the other?

ARE MICROFINANCE BANKS RELIABLE? CAN YOU BANK WITH MICROFINANCE BANKS? Part 1 By Don Abiodun

I never planned this to have parts, my intention was to put together a problem solving article for my audience but along the line, it was too glaring that if I am to help those who will find this article helpful, I need to take time in explaining my points hence, I will make this a daily affair until this issue is trashed.

December 2013, Mrs Daniella Arul*** paid the last installment for her 500,000naira loan to a microfinance bank. It was her third cycle. To access another, she needed to shore-up her cash collateral by 20% of the loan she will like to access.

Every week, she contributed 15,000, proceeds from her cloth sales. She eye early March for her date of accessing another 800,000naira loan.

February 21, 2014, Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) revoked license of 83 Microfinance banks. Mrs Daniella's Microfinance bank was one of them.

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Robust economic growth, the goal of any country cannot be achieved without putting in place well focused programmes that increase access of poor and low income earners to factors of production. This was the main challenge defeated with the introduction of Microfinance Banks. Evidently, Micro-financing is here to stay yet the trend of closure of these institutions raised great concern and erode public's confidence?

Thus, I have come across many people who wish to do business with the sector but the same question seems to come from them all...  

ARE MICROFINANCE BANKS SAFE AND RELIABLE?

Yes, The Trains Are Back By Bayo Adeyinka

I also took some time to talk to the elderly woman right behind me on the queue. She told me she was on her way to Ilorin and she rides the train regularly. 'It's so convenient for me', she said in Yoruba. Without any further prodding, she told me about how she was able to carry more load with less hassles as a trader unlike if she went by road. I wondered how many of such women not captured by the statistics of our formal sector who are actually the true beneficiaries of a re-engineered railway.

I bought my ticket and we moved towards the platforms. It was at that point that I asked if what I paid for was the express train. Initially, I was disappointed when I was told that the express train would leave by 12 noon and it was the regular train that departs by 9am. The fare was still the same. 

Ebola, ECOWAS, and flight bans by Olusegun Ogundeji

Still on the Ebola Virus Disease, a friend in Freetown got his ‪visa‬ mid August to undertake short media training in the ‪US‬. He was shocked when the airline asked him to pay how much? $4,400 for a return trip ticket between Freetown and Miami. That was in addition to the information that there was no seat throughout ‪September‬.

He hoped for a better option with time because only two airlines were operational in Sierra Leone since late July when regional flight operators from Nigeria, Cote d’Ivoire, Togo and Senegal bowed out for Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea to settle their differences with Ebola – alone.

Unfortunately, it’s been three months now. Nothing has changed except more deaths, and spiraling figures from WHO. I want to maintain that most ‪West African‬ states reacted to the ‪Ebola‬ Crisis, especially the treatment meted at countries worst hit, in an appalling manner.

Lagos from a visitor's view by Don Abiodun Odedeyi

A close friend #Divine Patr***, from #Kaduna, came to Lagos recently. Her 5-day visit gave me a different view of #Lagos... While I won't define Lagos from another man's view, it is good to see, once in a while, from others'.

Sadly, I got carried away with laughter so much I forgot to turn on my audio recorder but never mind, I have a perfect photographic recall of the whole affair.

On her way home, #Divine Patr*** was opportune to see a train plying Ikeja-Yaba axis. It was around 6pm, rush hour; when many workers are struggling to get home. The sight of human bodies on every available space around/on the train stunned her.

Her exact words were, "How can men pack themselves on train like Sardine"?

For many of us, we've seen this sight many times and it doesn't count for anything again . Now, we are somewhat blind to this gory sight...

Yesterday, I read Lee Abbamonte's piece about Lagos in his 'Worst Places to Live', though grossly exaggerated, scene like this will give foreigners nothing but nightmares about Nigeria.