158 quotes found
"I come from a place where there are opportunities staring you in the eye, but it's looking for the people who have the heart and the courage to do it and do it right."
"Sometimes you have to take a hard decision and when you take such a decision, you have to stand by it. It’s not everybody who sees what you are seeing."
"As a people, we have the power of choice. We get to choose who we are, what we become, and what we do."
"When you are pursuing your dreams and trying to leave a legacy, you will find help."
"There are Challenges everywhere you must have Tenacity; you must have the strength of character not to cheat."
"We will not stop until every Nigerian girl-child has found their voice and found their pocket."
"Financial services are the lifeblood of an economy, enabling households and businesses alike to save, invest, and protect themselves against risk."
"Success in financial inclusion entails reaching these users with products that can significantly improve financial lives."
"We should criticise ourselves, but we should criticize to build. We should see a problem and be angry about it and innovate and seek to find the solution to the problem because we know why we want to do it. Because we know that this country must work."
"I want my nation to work, I want to be able to tell my children this is why I say you must live in Nigeria and nowhere else."
"The Nigerian woman is smart, beautiful, fashionable, driven, purposeful and has the capacity to take on the world without fear, that is not a tool you leave at home when you are building leadership"
"For a country that needs help, women are key to the success of Nigeria."
"Wherever you sit, look behind you, how has it benefited other women constructively because sometimes, you can’t do what your friends want, but you must do what is strategically effective and positive for building the power of getting women to the table."
"". I chose to maintain our integrity and retain our credibility.""
""When I started, I displayed some level of commitment to what I was doing and that is what kept me on the track up till date.""
""I said to myself I could do this, and I could do it right""
""In life, you decide on those things that are important to you,""
""I also apply wisdom most of the time""
"Sub-Saharan Africa has the world’s smallest number of motorized vehicles but the highest rate of road traffic fatalities, with Nigeria and South Africa leading the pack. Trauma has become a silent epidemic in Africa, an epidemic that will only spread as the economy grows. More and more Africans are buying cars and working in heavy and dangerous industries. At the same time, infrastructure is poor, safety laws lax, and cars badly maintained."
"We take pride in being the first Nigerian indigenous company to do this...We are training more people to go into the air ambulance sector and I think our paramedics now have a huge amount of management skills. I just think that we need to start thinking outside the box and be more confident in the concept of African innovation."
"True success is about a passion to create a better world, live a life that you can look back on and be truly proud of."
"I did not want to have another charity setup and rely in fund fund rasing to create impact."
"We have a mixed-pool of more than 20 aircraft that we use for different types of evacuation, and about 30 staff all employed in different capacities with us and branches in three major cities in Nigeria."
"One of the most interesting things that happened to me when starting the business was the realization that all my academic medical training and the prestige that comes with the title of being a doctor was not enough."
"I have a very different definition of mentorship, to me, it means 99 percent of giving to a person."
"Mentorship to me is to continuously figure out how i can add value to the lives of my mentors so that those relationships will be sustainable."
"You’ll find true success when you are passionate about improving the world and using your skills and talents to make a positive impact. And, to be honest, it’s impossible to hide the fruits of passion."
"The more passionate you are about the world (and your business), the more likely you are to succeed."
"If you can find a way to combine your passion for making a difference with your desire to live a life that you can be proud of, you will be well on your way to finding true success."
"Persevere – Never give up! Today’s world enjoys electricity because of those who did not give up!"
"We have grown past the stage of fairy-tale. As women, we have one common front and that is to succeed. We have to take the bull by the horn and make the change happen by ourselves."
"It’s essential to draw up a “things to do” list on a daily basis and set priorities in executing them, making sure that any unfinished task gets posted to the next day’s list."
"Unemployment should not be handled with kids’ gloves, but curtailed through the creation of jobs by the instrumentality of entrepreneurship."
"Be diligent to succeed as there is a way where there be no way, only the persistent and diligent find it."
"Thinking opens the doors to our minds and makes us receptive to the very idea of broadening our horizons and learning new things."
"Always see challenges as opportunities in disguise. It’s not really about how much we possess, but rather how well we manage and use what we are entrusted with."
"Just start small with what you have and you can grow the business."
"For as long as one is alive, one will always have other things to achieve."
"My wealth allows me to reach out to others, to those in need. I am a God-fearing woman and I am not in competition with anyone. I use my wealth to touch the lives of others."
"It was a real eye-opener. It made us better Christians. For every battle we fought, a better lesson was learnt”."
"It is not every business one ventures into that one would succeed at."
"“I once dared to dream and if I could succeed, then so can you!”"
"“Rome was not built in a day. As you continue to struggle to make ends meet, somewhere, somehow, you will make it.”"
"“People should not just look at people who are on top. They should go and study how they got there and the challenges they had to face as they while climbing the ladder.”"
"Don’t give up when things get tough, just hang in there, stay focused and be patient."
"if I saw challenges in the past, it has changed and I can tell my own stories my own way and produce my own works."
"I do not see any challenges in being a plus-size."
"Motherhood is the best thing that can happen to any woman."
"" It’s not that the roles come in every time, but once I grab that role, I deliver""
"" I think passion makes you want to have only the best.""
"Co-working spaces are important for the development of the young tech ecosystem in Nigeria."
"A Co-working space operator cannot be a Real Estate manager; co-working spaces need to be managed by people interested in collaboration with, and growth of, the tech ecosystem."
"IF WE DON'T TRY TO SOLVE THE PROBLEM OF GENDER INEQUALITY, NOBODY IS GOING TO SOLVE IT FOR US."
"The digital transformation of Africa is no longer a luxury or a nice-to-have. It has become a necessity; a necessity spawned in fact by Africa’s developmental agenda setters. This is because none of our documented aspirations - the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, Agenda 2063 – the Africa we want, Africa Continental Free Trade Area, Boosting Intra Africa trade, the Single African Air Transport Market can be achieved without significant advancements in information and communication technology."
"The narrative and hype that we hear about digital transformation is again being largely fueled by what people see. And what do they see – they see the tremendous opportunity and potential that is before us to truly transform this continent through digital technology."
"About 50% of Africans own a mobile phone; another 15- 20% who do not own a mobile phone have access to one, making the mobile phone access rate about 65-70%. Arising from this is a paradox: more Africans have access to mobile phones than to pretty much anything else that they really need – only 28% of Africans have access to financial services, only 33% have access to power through their home country’s national grid and only 31% have access to decent sanitation."
"Africa doesn’t have enough software developers, network and communication engineers, data analysts, data scientists and even the few that we have are looking for the next opportunity to board a plane to Canada, Germany or whichever country is the highest bidder for the world class skills that they possess."
"It is not enough to say that women are less likely to own a phone or be connected to the internet than men, which is by itself a serious problem of gender inclusion that needs addressing."
"The goal of universal access requires several billions of dollars to be invested in the expansion and improvement of digital infrastructure across Africa. African governments need to make it easier for both private and public capital to be deployed to finance the expansion of internet/digital infrastructure. All African countries must have a coherent, well-articulated and documented broadband plan that provides the public and private sector with clear guidelines and a roadmap to sector development and gives mobile network operators and other infrastructure providers the legal and regulatory certainty that promotes investments."
"Africa needs to prioritize the funding of institutes of middle and higher learning that focus on the development of STEM skills and ensure that the curriculum for these courses are aligned with the needs of companies in the market."
"There are 1 billion Africans and the continent’s median age is 19.4 years, both of which suggest there is a larger demographic pool of potential STEM students and eventually, professionals, in Africa than in most other continents."
"Technology is a very important part of innovation as it brings new ways of doing old things and new ways of doing new things."
"“Building a greater nation requires all hands to be on deck. Women want to be partners and collaborators on this journey and we cannot behave if we are excluded by law, cultural practices and norms.”"
"“I don’t have pressure of any kind, I do my work the way I should”."
"I’ve lived a life that’s full I’ve traveled each and every highway. But more, much more than this I did it my way”"
"All your hard work will never be in vain, especially if your work is clean."
"Once you set up a company, whether you are a woman or a man, and you have to pay salaries, it does not matter who is involved. When you are in a battlefield or in a competitive field, you forget whether you are a woman or a man."
"If I had my choice, I won’t borrow from Nigerian banks because on three occasions, they threatened us over a loan."
"Whatever idea or concept one has can easily be destroyed by the banks. There has to be some kind of reforms in the banking system for things to thrive."
"Nothing good comes easy. To build a successful business, it takes a lot of patience and dedication."
"I realized many companies did not have enough computers. I saw an opportunity, so I started initially by buying foreign brands and selling to my customers."
"And now, the end is near"
"More than ever before, we have to realise that it is important to come together as a community."
"There are so many opportunities available right now for African designers to access funds. But the no one is taking advantage of these opportunities."
"Life is a journey. Once you understand that some of the most important things are purpose and passion driven, combined with a deeper need to make a difference beyond self as well as contribute in some way to what is happening around you, it certainly makes waking up daily an easier task for me. When you earn a living this way, it is certainly more fulfilling."
"You never know who you are going to meet, what doors could be opened, or what opportunity awaits you."
"Understanding that some of the most important things in life are purpose and passion driven, combined with a deeper need to make a difference beyond myself and make an impact."
"For us as a company, it’s always been beyond Lagos fashion week. I’m more inspired by the work that we do that people don’t see and they don’t even know about."
"To see where we’ve been and coming back to Earth, it’s almost impossible to deny that there is the existence of a higher being, it surely can’t just be science."
"Only the dead have seen the end of the world."
"So I want to encourage us that whatever we need to do, let us do it right. We must not subject this institution to that type of incident again."
"The experience was humiliating for her and the entire management of the bank, said it was the first time that the bank would be investigated in its entire history."
"Throughout my period at the bank, I have one slight regret and that’s during the period I was acting governor. It was the time that the CBN was being investigated. It has never happened before that the activity of the CBN is under investigation."
"We went for the IMF meetings and when we met with investors, they asked us: ‘what is happening? We understand that there was some financial mismanagement in the CBN.’ It was humiliating."
"I think for me, that was a low point. The credibility for this institution was eroded. For an institution this important to be subjected to that is bad. At the end of the day, it was not just the CBN that suffered for it, but the economy as a whole did suffer."
"The exercise paralysed activities at the apex bank."
"The independence of the Central Bank is necessary. The Bank needs the freedom and space to take a long view of what is best for the economy and take decisions accordingly. Central Banks have consistently moved towards policy independence to pursue policies free from political interference. Although no central bank can be entirely independent of government’s influence, it must be free to choose the instruments it needs to achieve its mandate. The Bank must also be free from fiscal dominance; that is a situation where fiscal considerations unduly dictate monetary policy."
"In recent years, academics and policymakers have shown increasing interest in the independence of central banks with respect to the formulation of monetary policy. In the European Union, this interest was realized in the Maastricht Treaty, which gave the European Central Bank complete autonomy in conducting the monetary policy without political intrusion. Most empirical studies support central banks’ autonomy in the conduct of day-to-day monetary policy operations devoid of political pressure. This enables them to deliver better inflation outcomes, without compromising economic growth. The CBN Act of 2007 bestows independency on the Bank."
"The monetary policy of the Central Bank of Nigeria in recent times has continued to focus on achieving price and financial stability for economic growth and development. The persistent inflation in the last one year is an issue of concern."
"The inflationary pressure could be traced largely to structural factors, which included poor electricity supply, high cost of energy arising from scarcity of petroleum products, increase in the prices of imported food, raw materials and finished goods, seasonal factors, increase in electricity tariff, insurgency and insecurity in the North East, as well as pipeline vandalism by the Niger Delta militants. However, some monetary factors included exchange rate depreciation, and budget deficits in the face of dwindling oil revenues."
"Monetary policy management has been made difficult by the uncertain global environment, arising from political and economic developments around the world. There has been an intense attack on free trade, multilateralism and globalization and the situation has not been helped by a growing preference for nationalist interest."
"Key global trends such as Brexit, the rising wave of populist and anti-globalization sentiments anchored by emerging bilateralism, divergent monetary policy stance of the advanced central banks and disorderly commodity price movements will also affect monetary policy at home. These global developments coupled with domestic factors will make monetary policy management very difficult this year. Based on these, monetary policy management in Nigeria must be diligent and collaborative to achieve its objectives of price stability in the home front."
"For Nigeria, like most developing countries, policy has often times focused on the flexible exchange rate regime and financial integration, emphasizing monetary policy independence. However, as globalization, capital flows constraints and other adverse phenomena set in, it has become imperative to seek a convergence."
"The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) countries in 2008 recommended the imposition of some form of capital controls that at least restrain inflows of short-term funds, which the CBN has done. The CBN will also do well to stick to its statutory mandate of maintaining price stability for growth. This will go a long way in moderating inflation and stimulating growth in the long run."
"The best way to ensure the desired economic growth and low inflation is economic diversification with a broadening of the revenue base. Reducing the import dependency will also help to curb the demand for dollar; thereby reducing general inflationary pressure."
"In 2016, the Nigerian economy officially entered into recession, recording two consecutive quarters of negative GDP growth rates of 0.36 per cent and 2.06 per cent in the first and second quarters, respectively. For the full year of 2016, the real GDP contracted by 1.51 per cent. Achieving price stability has remained the priority objective of most central banks. However, given the high level of poverty and unemployment in most developing countries, it has become imperative for central banks to work hard at achieving price stability with growth."
"A number of fiscal and monetary policy options have been deployed to end the recession and the efforts are yielding fruits as the recently released inflation figure shows that inflation is trending down after 15 months stretch of rising price level. The CBN is also working to increase supply of foreign exchange and boost liquidity in the interbank market to ease the scarcity of foreign exchange for the manufacture of goods and increase the level of production. On the part of the fiscal authority, efforts at broadening the revenue base and increasing the collection of taxes have been intensified and are yielding fruits."
"Nigeria’s economic recession can be traced to a number of global and domestic factors. They include slump in commodity prices, general slowdown in economic activity in developing countries, over dependency on oil, lack of diversification of the revenue base, consumption-led growth, militancy in the Niger-Delta region, insurgency in the North East and unutilized excess liquidity in the banking system."
"Taking these factors together, the effect on the Nigerian economy has been the significant decline in the country’s foreign reserves, depreciation of the Naira and substantial increase in consumer prices. To reverse the trend and put the economy back on a path to economic recovery, significant effort is needed on the part of the Federal Government, especially harmonization of its fiscal and monetary policies to boost aggregate demand and investor confidence."
"It is also expected that the fiscal authorities would provide direction and leadership while the monetary authorities would facilitate an enabling business environment conducive for growth. Nonetheless, the overriding mandate of the Bank continues to be price stability across the major price rates: inflation; loan interest; and foreign exchange. Stability in prices is essential for investment and consumption. Monetary policy can help through influencing short-term interest rate, but monetary policy alone is not enough to pull the country out of recession. Fiscal policy must come in and do its part to fully pull the economy out of recession."
"The challenges are many. Oil price volatility and the unstable global environment are major challenges for Central Banking in Nigeria as they are causing growth challenges and other spill-over effects for the local economy. Central Banking in Nigeria is faced with other enormous challenges such as the size of Nigeria’s informal sector. Globally, developing/emerging economies are characterized by a big informal sector which causes a lot of limitations to Monetary Policy implantation and coverage because a majority of the participants in the sector are not using formal financial services and so cannot be captured formally."
"Poor financial literacy is another. It is only when the vast majority of the Nigerian population is financially literate that they can participate in the formal financial system; the reverse is the case."
"Financial illiteracy results in poor financial inclusion. Non-financial inclusion becomes a threat to the survival of the Nigerian financial sector as most adults and young Nigerians are financially excluded from the formal financial sector. A high percentage of adult Nigerians don’t have bank accounts, and this in the long run becomes a big headache for central banking."
"Nigeria needs to deepen its financial sector as a whole. Deepening the financial sector entails improving financial structures to ensure efficient delivery of financial services to the private sector."
"Then, there is the issue of monetary and fiscal policy coordination. Non- harmonization of monetary and fiscal policies is an issue of serious concern in the country because they complement each other. Monetary policy has a limit and whenever it reaches that limit, the only way out is for the fiscal authorities to intervene in the economy. So, in the absence of such coordination/harmonization between the two, a serious economic problem may arise."
"The threat to CBN autonomy is also disturbing. Global best practice prescribes central banks’ independence to enhance policy coherence and sturdiness born out of freedom of vision and implementation space."
"The future of the Nigerian economy is very bright. The Economic Growth and Recovery Plan (ERRP) by the Federal Government with other complementary policies are set to propel the Nigerian economy out of the recession and move the economy forward. The broad government strategy of infrastructure development, structural reforms and investment in social safety nets are policies that will position the economy to a more inclusive and diversified growth."
"Maturity has a lot to do with the mind and intelligent."
"It gets better as I get older, just like good wine."
"Good people of Garkida will forever remember the nice Senate. The senate are aware that on the 21st February 2020, an insurgent group attack the good people of Garkida, a peaceful town in Gombi local government area of Adamawa Central Senatorial District. The insurgents in over seven gun trucks and many motorcycles attacked the town at about 7:00pm, setting many buildings ablaze. Also aware that three soldiers are killed in the deadly attack. Properties worth millions of Naira were burnt or destroyed including public hospitals, schools, telecommunication facilities, police stations, buses, cars, food stores, private properties belonging to the good people of Garkida. Worrying that the Garkida crisis which has led to the destruction of lives and properties were planned by the insurgents to have a religious connotation considering that churches and residences of some prominent indigenes are burnt. And at aim of destroying the foundation of peaceful co-existence Garkida community and Adamawa State at large..."
"Timbuktoo is the heartland of Civilization of Commence and Knowledge."
"We are borrowing the Timbuktoo to describe this initiative because we are looking at Africa from the past to the future."
"My confidence is that he’s been somebody who has been tried and tested at some point and found diligent and also found acceptable."
". I believe that everything that happens in one’s life is for a purpose. For those of us who believe in Jesus Christ, I believe it was the way it was destined for me."
"A day begins a story"
"You do not know the price of stability until you have been faced with either breakups or uncontrollable situations that could affect the unity of this country."
"The legislature just like any other thing is evolving, graduating and maturing and in doing that, it is coming up with quality legislations better ways of handling issues and ensuring that there is amicable, understanding between the three tiers of government."
"These laws that we have made, all we need do is to ensure that between we the lawmakers and executive the implementers and of course, the judiciary, the interpreters to ensure that there is a harmonious relationship amongst the tripod."
"I am not a lawyer but if keep quiet to some certain things it means that you are in agreement to all those things."
"I’m excited about what lies ahead, and I hope our paths cross again in the future."
"Ambition is a beautiful thing, but it can quietly rob you of the joy in the present moment"
"If you’re building something, chasing something, remember: it's okay to rest in the moment. You’re living the part of the story you once dreamed about."
"Risks do not kill startups. More often, they are undone by a lack of focus emanating from founders chasing too many ideas, teams pivoting without direction and the obsession with vanity metrics over genuine product-market fit."
"If crypto is coherently integrated into Nigeria’s formal financial system, the benefit would ripple across multiple sectors. The most immediate gains would be seen in fintech, payments, SMEs and the broader digital economy. Crypto infrastructure reduces settlement friction, enables programmable finance and opens alternative funding pathways for businesses."
"Proper licensing protects consumers by enforcing minimum standards for custody, security, transparency and operational conduct, while providing clear legal recourse."
"Nigeria can convert crypto activity into measurable value by formalizing the ecosystem through licensing, reporting standards and financial integration."
"When tax rules are clear, proportional, and applied through licensed entities, compliance becomes simple and natural."
"Nigeria does not need to replicate any model wholesale, instead, we need a locally grounded framework that aligns with global standards while reflecting domestic realities."
"Beyond revenue, crypto offers Nigeria a strategic opportunity to build human capital and exportable digital expertise. It supports high-skill job creation in blockchain engineering, cybersecurity, compliance, data analytics and financial education."
"There is a long term initiative that we are currently working on, which aims to bridge the gap between city and rural area: the fiber fund. It is a $2 billion fund to expand our current backbone from 35,000 kilometers to 125,000 kilometers. In other words, we are investing in 90,000 kilometers of fiber optic network across the country."
"However, that is a long term initiative and it is not going to connect those people in the next year or two. We expect that such a project will probably take about three to five years to be completed."
"What we are doing in the meantime, however, is investing in what we have called the Broadband Alliance. The Broadband alliance is focused on enhancing the existing infrastructure that we have in the country, which is about 35,000 kilometers of optic fiber network. We have a government-owned satellite — the only one in the West African region — which allows us to connect difficult-to-reach locations. One of the projects we started in the first three months of our appointment was the deployment of connectivity to all local government secretariats across Nigeria — all 774 of them"
"We found the case of the Chinese farmers extremely inspiring because when people talk about connectivity, they talk about connecting people but it is somehow abstract or difficult to actually picture cases of how this investment in connectivity leads to important economic opportunities for individuals. In China, the government is ensuring that farmers in rural areas have access to quality connectivity solutions."
"We are still limited to connectivity between people, connecting people to people."
"We tend to forget that connectivity is also about connecting things to things, and people to things, and that is what is responsible for the prosperity that we are beginning to see in a number of sectors globally."
"When you look at the use of connected technologies in mining, it is saving lives: making mines a lot more precise in their daily operations, and helping miners to use resources more sustainably."
"If you look at what connectivity is doing in security, it allows to govern previously ungoverned spaces, it is even useful to manage forestry or farms."
"All these opportunities are limited for developing countries if we only focus on connecting people to people."
"I think we are forgetting opportunities that exist as well and are very important. *The next conversation that we need to be having is about the link between connectivity and prosperity in developing countries."
"Focusing on connecting people to others is not sufficient."
"Africa cannot remain as consumers, we need to grow into producers of solutions, “With the design lab, we are looking to deepen our work, to allow us support the smart application of technology especially for prosperity across multiple countries."
"Beyond just a tour, we want to build strong presence in the Bay Area."
"Our size will become a major part of us being able to invest in startups, and the longer we stay invested the more we will start to see significant returns and exits."
"Technology is becoming a major part of nearly all that we do as humans. We are beginning to see how it is facilitating access to services and increasing productivity: many businesses are now completely relying on it."
"Having an example of farmers being able to livestream their products and thus selling directly to consumers is very inspiring."
"We need to do a good job at investing in our infrastructure, to train more people to have a strong workforce and to have a decent set of policies for the digital economy. Otherwise, there is going to be a limit to how much gains we can get out of all the investments that we have made."
"Within the community, we want people to be able to work together and generate new knowledge — whether on the application of AI in critical sectors or for critical services in Nigeria."
"Most of the time, civil society organizations tend to narrowly focus on policing the government. However, the digital economy is so robust that the people we need to police are beyond the government — as most of the time the government does not have the capability to use technology."
"A lot of the young people are digital natives and of course you still find a lot of vulnerable young people, but the slightly older folks are the ones who are the most vulnerable."
"To sum it up: in the North, people are scared of losing their jobs because of AI. In our case, we are creating more jobs with it."
"When people have a clearer understanding of artificial intelligence, they can better protect themselves instead of relying on laws to do so alone — laws must be there to support it, but individuals must also be well educated about this phenomenon."
"Put people first and the governance follows."
"We’re not here to compete with men but compliment men because women bring a completely different skillset to the board room."
"The real test of modern leadership is whether boards can harness the technological power of AI without surrendering judgment, empathy and accountability."
"In an age of algorithms, the most enduring competitive advantage is not computational speed, but human discernment."
"Sustainable excellence is not built on technology alone. It emerges from the interplay of intellect with integrity, innovation with empathy."
"The best way to handle doubt is to try out those things you are scared of by starting small. When you try and see the result, it fuels your conviction, you learn, and it helps you improve. Adversity is a faith and muscle builder; it makes you stronger and forces you out of your comfort zone. So, I welcome it with an open mind and see it as an opportunity to learn and create value."
"So, I was convinced that Shuttlers would work, even though everyone around me had doubts. They tried convincing me otherwise, but I didn’t listen. I had a clear conviction that Shuttlers was the way to go."