In this interview we meet a young man who works full time nd generates income from other sources
Please, can we meet you?
My name is Obinna Akintola, the first child in a family of six. My parents are peasant farmers and it was really tough growing up. But I was determined to succeed in life. I didn’t want my children to go through the kind of hardship I went through while growing up.
What was your childhood experience like?
Without mincing words, my childhood was full of pain, suffering, and deprivation. I did not enjoy the good things of life that most of my childhood friends enjoyed. I had to do petty trading to assist my parent to pay my school fees and it was not a palatable experience at all. In fact, each time I remember my childhood experience, I feel like shedding tears.
But am happy that all of that are now history. When I look back to where I came from and where I have gotten to in life, I sometimes find it difficult to believe that things could turn around for me this way. One thing I have come to realize is that things may be tough for you today, but when you are focused, steadfast, hardworking and prayerful, you will make it. Like they say, no condition is permanent.
Can you tell us about your educational qualification?
Okay. I attended a missionary primary and secondary school in the Western part of Nigeria. My primary school was free but when I entered secondary school, it was difficult for my parent to pay my tuition fees. I almost dropped out of secondary school at some point, but for the timely intervention of my uncle.
I sat for my SSCE in 1993 and finished with distinctions. Because of my outstanding O-level result, my uncle was persuaded to enroll me for JAMB the following year. When JAMB was out, I was offered admission on merit to study accounting at the University of Nigeria Nsukka (UNN). That was in 1994. And by 1998, I graduated with a first class honors degree in accounting.
How was your university education funded?
My uncle paid my school fees in my 1st year on campus. But I applied for the Shell annual scholarship program the same year and was successful. So my university education was majorly financed through the scholarship.
Can we go over to your career life?
After my NYSC in Kano, I moved to Lagos in the year 2000 and was lucky to immediately secure a job with one of the big audit firms here in Lagos. So I didn’t have much problem getting a job like most graduates.
Was the pay okay?
It depends on what you mean by that. In any case, I feel it was relatively okay compared to what my colleagues in other companies were earning. But because I was the first child in a family of six, the burden of taking care of five of my younger siblings fell squarely on me. I equally had my parent to look after and my ICAN program to complete.
So, basically, my monthly salary was always stretched to the limit. Once I get paid, I spend everything before the next pay cheque…It was like living from hand to mouth.
So how did you scale through this hurdle?
Well, I carried on like this for about 3 years. So one day, after I had finished my ICAN program, I decided to apply as a part-time lecturer in the ICAN tuition center where I was trained. And that was how I began teaching some courses in the center every weekend. And from there, I was able to create more stream of income for myself…
Sorry to cut you short. Can you share with us, in some details, the various streams of income that helped you achieve financial stability?
Okay. Let me itemize them for you like this:
1) Monthly salary from my job:
This remains my major source of income. With time, I have grown significantly in my career and the pay is now very okay. In fact, earning a good salary is one of the best things that can happen to any graduate. When you have a job and you are well paid, it gives you a sense of self-worth and dignity.
But you need to keep developing yourself. That was what helped me to grow faster in my career, especially when I bagged my MBA.
I always advise my younger colleagues never to relegate their personal development to the background. If you want to grow in your career, you just have to take the initiative to equip yourself with the requisite soft and professional skills that you need to remain relevant on the job.
2) Income from ICAN part-time lecturing
This was my next source of income. I was able to undertake this because it was not interfering with my regular day job. I work Mondays to Fridays in my day job and spend just about 2 hours on Saturdays & Sundays in the tuition
center. So, there was basically no interference between my regular day job and my part-time lecturing engagement.
My motivation for going into part-time lecturing was just not for the money alone. Rather, it was the desire to stay up-to-date with development in the accountancy profession that inspired me to take up the offer.
So while I was lecturing other people, I was also sharpening my own skills as well. Unlike most of my colleagues that were strictly into practice, lecturing made me become a more rounded professional with a versatile skill set and knowledge base.
3) Earnings from money market investment
As a chartered accountant, I understand how the money market works. I love investing in T-bills so much because there are basically risk-free.
When you invest in T-bills, it is like lending money to the government and you are sure there can be no stories. The government would rather print money to redeem its maturing T-bills obligations than to default. That is how serious it is!
Another reason why I invest yearly in T-bills is because the interest is paid upfront. In fact, I have a lump sum that I invest in 364-days T-bills in the month of March yearly. I do this because my annual rent is always due in that month of every year. And so the interest I receive from such investment is what I basically use to pay my rent.
4) Income from my spare car dedicated to Uber services
I currently have three (3) cars and one of them is my official car. My wife uses one for her personal runs and the third is registered with Uber. This is another source of a money spinner for me.
Sincerely, I feel some people are not making the best use of their surplus cars. Instead of leaving such cars in your garage lying idle, think of something more useful to do with them to generate additional income for yourself. Times are hard and desperate times requires a desperate measure to survive!
5) Earnings from seasonal storage of commodities
I learned about this source of income when I was still growing up. My uncle made his fortune from it. To make money in this area, you just need to look for a seasonal commodity (like maize, palm oil, yam etc) and stockpile them in their peak season. So that when its off season, you can sell them at a margin.
For me, I take particular interest in investing in palm oil and yam yearly. Take palm oil, for instance, it is always abundant in the market during the months of February – April each year (that is their peak season). But by November – January, it is always very scarce in the market. So I stockpile a lot of it around March and offload them around December each year.
Not so many people are aware of this stream of income, but it is one that fetches me a lot of money each year. The kind of money you make in this kind of business is like ‘blood money’. You can make as much as 200% return on your investment in a good year.
But there are still times when you may not realize any profit, especially in a year where there is a glut in the commodities market.
Wow, you are indeed a genius…What key challenges do you often encounter in sustaining these numerous sources of income?
Everything has its own challenge, so it all depends on how you react to it. I have always grown up to contend with one form of life challenge or the other. So I naturally did not have problems managing these streams of income. The truth is that when you start making money, you will always find a way to sought things out, one way or the other.
But being organized as a person has been a winning formula for me. I am too organized to a fault. All the sources of income I mention earlier on are mutually exclusive (i.e., no one depends on, or interfere with the other).
For instance, my part-time lecturing engagement does not interfere with my day job. Likewise, the fact that I invest in T-bills annually does not in any way affect my regular earnings from Uber. So I was careful to choose these sources of income to enable me to retain absolute control of all of them.
What advice do you have for working class graduates?
My advice to them are:
1) Never depend on your salary alone. In this period that most companies are retrenching, relying on your salary alone can be suicidal, especially when you are unfortunate to lose your job.
2) As an employee, do everything within your reach to empower yourself. Don’t wait for your employer to send you on a training program. Just identify a program relevant to your career and enroll for it. And keep topping-up once in a while because that is the only way you can become a better employee and get promoted. Remember, the higher you climb, the more money you make.
3) Look for a way to monetize your certification. For me, I took up part-time lecturing to monetize what I knew.
4) Never embrace a source of income that interferes with your regular day job. It often creates a conflict of interest and no employer likes that. Remember that your salary is still a source of income that should be preserved. And most importantly, try not to go into a business that is in direct competition with that of your employer, except you have made up your mind to resign and pursue it full time.
5) As much as possible, try not to consume all that you earn. Set aside a portion of your monthly earnings (no matter how small) for investment purposes. And be careful not to invest in anything that you don’t understand. To play safe, you can invest in money market instruments (like T-bills, Fixed Deposits etc) because there are relatively risk-free.
6) If you have several cars, think of something to do with some of them to make extra income for yourself. When you leave your cars idle just like that, they would become liabilities for you.
That would be okay for now. Thank you
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