Business Lounge

14/06/2021

Responsible for finding and retaining clients which are mostly public orgnaisations and encouraging clients to patronize service.

Applicants must have a flair for marketing, business development, networking and strategy development.

29/04/2021

responsible for finding and retaining clients, encouraging extant clients to patronize service.
This role requires co-creating and implementation strategies as well as designing and delivering compelling presentations.

Applicants must have a flair for business development, networking and strategy development.

Support the development of project proposals; employ data gathering techniques and analysis in order to present proposed solutions to clients

23/08/2017

REAL ESTATE: 8 MOST EXPENSIVE HOUSES IN NIGERIA.

It has always been a status symbol for many billionaire and millionaire to construct magnificent castles or mansions for their dwellings. With the demand for luxury real estate growing in Nigeria, it reflects why prices for owning homes in some of the best luxury real estate locations in the country keeps getting higher. Our compilation of the most expensive houses in Nigeria reflect an exquisite show of luxury, beauty and are sure some of the most expensive houses in Nigeria.

23/08/2017

I actually have a sign on my desk that says, “Nothing is impossible.”-Aliko Dangote

Aliko Dangote is building a portfolio like no other.

11/08/2017

NIGERIA'S GOT TALENTS:CHECK TOP TEN INVENTIONS BY NIGERIANS.

Inventiveness has never been in short supply in Nigeria ,harnessing these innovations to drive sustainable development has always been the challenge. After ample evaluation , Business Lounge presents the leading inventions by Nigerians.

Do you know of any invention that should be on our list?.Kindly contribute and share.

05/08/2017

NIGERIA BECOMES HUB FOR ARMOURED VEHICLES PRODUCTION IN AFRICA:CHECK OUT TOP TEN (10) PROFORCE MADE -IN-NIGERIA ARMOURED PRODUCTS.

Proforce defence Ltd is a personal protection and armoured vehicles manufacturing company in Nigeria , with factories in Ode Remo,Ogun State and Porthacourt,Rivers State

The company was incorporated in 2008 and had exported armoured vehicles to Rwanda, South Sudan , Central African Republic (CAR) amongst others for the United Nations peacekeeping missions. The company recently acquired a steel company in Ogun State for the production of its steel ,just as arrangement had been concluded to start producing its own glass through a joint venture arrangement with a glass-producing factory, aimed at achieving about 80 per cent local Content.

Business lounge presents some of their Internationally certified ballistic products.

04/08/2017

https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=10155867294122952&id=8062627951

The Big Bang brought the universe into existence 13.7 billion years ago. Life first appeared on our planet 3.8 billion years ago. Earth witnessed a hominid..

01/08/2017

18 EASY -TO -GET FUNDS AVAILABLE IN THE COUNTRY FOR ENTREPRENEURS.

1.Development Bank of Nigeria.
The bank plans to start lending August this year. The banks focus is lending to Medium and Small scale Enterprises (MSMEs).The bank would provide loans indirectly to SMEs through local microfinance and commercial banks.A total of 20,000 new loan facilities is expected to be made available to small businesses within the bank’s first year of operation. Focused on financing new projects, the bank would grant loans of up to 12 years maturity.

BOI FUNDS
The BoI has a number of funds that entrepreneurs of all levels can access

2. Graduate Entrepreneurship Fund (GEF), which is meant for serving members of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC). Candidates are allowed to submit their business ideas, which are then reviewed by a team of experts. The NYSC members whose ideas are marketable and bankable are then selected, trained for four weeks and then given between N500,000 and N2 million.

3.Cottage Agro Processing (CAP) Fund for small and medium agro processors;

4.Nolly Fund for players in the Nollywood industry.

5. Fashion Fund for designers and other players in the value chain.

6. Bottom of the Pyramid (BOP) scheme, an on-lending package in partnership with Microfinance Banks (MFBs) and other acceptable financial services institutions, BOI recently disbursed N3.1 billion to 14 micro-finance banks for on-lending to MSMEs. Beneficiaries of the BOI gesture include LAPO Microfinance Bank which got N1 billion, while Fortis Microfinance Bank and Lotus Capital Limited were presented with cheques of N500 million each.

7. Bank of Indusry (BoI), RUFIN FUND
The Bank of Industry, executor of MarketMoni, will provide access to soft loans to 100,000 small businesses.The partnership also signals the commencement of events by BOI to reach 100,000 new beneficiaries of MarketMoni through RUFIN across Nigeria’s six geopolitical zones within the second quarter of 2017, as accredited individuals will have direct access to quick, easy and interest-free loans of between N10,000 to N100,000 for up to six months at no other costs except a one-time five per cent administrative .Already, the first phase of the loan disbursements is ongoing across Katsina, Nassarawa, Zamfara, Edo, Oyo and Lagos States, driven by RUFIN-mentored microfinance banks (MFBs) and microfinance institutions (MFIs).

8 The Tony Elumelu Foundation
Tony Elumelu Foundation has $100 million for 10,000 African entrepreneurs. This will continue to be available for another seven to eight years. If you are in agriculture, fashion and design, light manufacturing, ICT, and solid minerals, among others, then apply for the on-going Tony Elumemu fund. You can be lucky to be one of 1,000 entrepreneurs to be shortlisted.

Through the Elumelu fund, Momarr Mass Taal, the CEO of Tropingo Foods in The Gambia, who got $5,000 seed capital in 2015, turned his enterprise into a $1.2 million revenue business

9.GroFin Fund.
GroFin, a development financier, has committed over $500 million to funding Nigerian micro, small and medium business (MSMEs) across the country.The firm has five different types of fund: the Aspire Nigeria Fund, the Growth Africa Fund, the Small Growing Business Fund, the Aspire Small Business Fund and the Aspire.
The Aspire Nigeria Fund, the Growth Africa Fund and the Small Growing Business Fund cater for all parts of Nigeria except the Niger Delta.

The Aspire Small Business Fund provides a minimum of $100,000 and a maximum of $1.5 million to SMEs in Nigeria.

The Aspire Small Business Fund and the Aspire Growth Fund cater for the Niger Delta.

The Aspire Small Business Fund provides between $10,000 and $100,000 to small business owners in the oil-rich region, while the Aspire Growth Fund frees between $100,000 and $3 million to businesses to stimulate growth in the area. GroFin provides its funds mostly for a maximum of six years.

10. Shell Live Wire
The Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria Limited has a number of funds for young entrepreneurs, including women.
Through the programme , Shell provides support, access to training, guidance, and business mentorship to young entrepreneurs and potential entrepreneurs between the ages of 18 and 35.The programme operates mainly in the Niger Delta region and aims to inspire, encourage and support young people to start up their own businesses through the provision of finance and training for young entrepreneurs, according to Shell.

11.Lagos State Employment Trust Fund
Lagos State has N25 billion to support SMEs. The fund is divided into two categories; micro and small businesses. Under the micro, businesses can access up to N500, 000 loans with an interest rate of five percent and a tenor of one year. For the small business category, businesses can get up to N5 million for a tenor of three years. The criteria for accessing the funds include: membership of a business organisation, which will recommend the business for the loan; Lagos State tax receipt for at least six months, and Lagos state residency card. This takes three weeks for processing.

12.Oxfam
Oxfam has a number of funds for Nigerian entrepreneurs.Oxfam, an international confederation of charitable organisations focused on the alleviation the alleviation of global poverty, recently disbursed €100 million to high-impact SMEs in Nigeria through Nezton.

13.Bank of Agriculture
Individuals who do not have money to go into agro-allied businesses may borrow from bank of Agriculture. They provide credit to segment of the Nigerian society who has little access to the services of the conventional banks.It’s owned by Federal Government of Nigeria. Bank of Agriculture operates as conventional banks and they give loans to farmers who meet certain conditions.

14. African Women’s Development Fund (AWDF)
African Women’s Development Fund is entrusted with the vision to ‘ensure that women live in a world where there is social justice equality and respect for women’s rights. AWDF supports African women by mobilizing financial, human and material resources for them. Special funding is given to facilitate learning, network opportunities also amplify the woman voice and celebrate African women achievements.

15. I had rather be Self-made‘
I had rather be Self-made‘ founded by one of the most influential female bloggers in Nigeria, Linda Ikeji. It is a platform for the blogger to give back to her society by helping young ladies. This platform according to Linda is not an organisation or foundation, but it offers a platform to mentor and help young ladies financially. For ladies to be financially dependent. I had rather be self-made started out in 2015 helping selected ladies from 18-26 years of age. It is for young ladies starting out, who has great business ideas and needs capital.

There are also some organizations that make their funds available in form of a competition such as the following.

16. The Made in Nigeria Business Challenge (MINC) – this is an initiative of the Senate President, Abubakar Bukola Saraki's office. The challenge was created to promote nation building and to celebrate everything uniquely Nigerian. The ‘Made-In-Nigeria’ challenge provides entrepreneurs with locally sourced products a platform to connect with government officials, agencies and an opportunities.

17. LoftyInc Capital Management (LCM) – is an initiative of Idris Bello and partners. The firm recently announced the launch of a new $25 million fund for African entrepreneurs, which will focus on early stage Africa-facing enterprises that leverage technologies to create social impact and tackle big problems.

18 Omojuwa Small Business Support Fund (SBS) – is the initiative of Japheth Omojuwa, chief strategist at Alpha Reach, the small business support fund provides grants ranging from 50,000 to 120, 000 naira to business owners in need of funding support. The purpose of the fund is to help young Nigerian entrepreneurs starting a business, it also provides existing businesses with the additional cash flow to move forward. The fund recently disbursed over 2 million naira to over 30 businesses. In addition, will help awarded entrepreneurs with website development services, media and professional support as well as business development training from volunteers.

Do you know more funds or organizations that we should know about ,that is not on our list? Kindly contribute and share

31/07/2017

THIS IS NEITHER HOUSTON TEXAS NOR SHANGHAI,THIS IS PORTHACOURT ,HOME OF THE LARGEST FERTILIZER PLANT IN THE WORLD.

This new world-class fertilizer plant built by Indorama Eleme Fertilizer and Chemicals Limited in Port Harcourt is considered the world’s largest single-train Urea plant,with a production capacity of 1.5 million metric tons

The plant, with production capacity of 4,000 metric tons of nitrogenous fertilizer per day, was built with .5 billion dollars.

The construction of the plant will make fertilizer available to farmers nationwide at affordable cost and will make the country a net ex­porter of fertiliser.The fertilizer production capacity is enough to go round Nigeria and leave much for export, The company has set aside 400,000MT of its Urea fertilizer to serve the Nigerian domestic market, and 1 million MT for export.Already , foreign consumers from West Africa market – Mali and Cameroon – have since visited Indorama Eleme Petrochemical Limited plant for export opportunities.

27/07/2017

WHO CARES ABOUT CRUDE OIL?: CASHEW THE NEW GOLDMINE(A MUST READ FOR WOULD BE ENTREPRENEURS)

The disquieting effect of the dwindling crude oil revenue of our largely oil-based economy has been hard hit by falling global oil prices, as revenues from the commodity accounts for about 95 percent of government spending. Also, with ultimatum by automobiles maker to phase out petrol powered cars in the nearest future, there is need to source for alternative source of foreign exchange. Cashew presently remains one of the agro-commodities that offer a lot of money making opportunities for MSMEs . Last year about 300M dollars was made from the exportation of the product. The annual global demand for the commodity far exceeds the supply .Recently Walmart , the biggest supermarket chain in the US came to Nigeria to request for 130,000 tonnes of roasted cashew nuts per annum, with a total value of $7 billion.
Imagine what 2.5 Trillion Naira annually will do to our economy from that single order.

The entire value chain of cashew processing is yet to be fully explored, Which means there is enough room for new player in the cashew nut. Inview of this,BUSINESS LOUNGE presents the major areas of investment opportunities in the “cashew economy”.

CASHEW FARMING :Cashew is cultivated in all geo-political zones of Nigeria at different proportions, Nigeria’s potentials are centered on being “blessed with eighty-four million hectares of arable land, of which only 40% is cultivated Similarly, there is availability of cheap labour and huge market population ,with innovations we now have improved varieties of the crop that can give at least 1,000 to 1500kg per hectare ,with nuts maturing within one year, in contrast to the local wild varieties which mature after five years. Therefore this is a sure money making ventures for entrepreneur ,as It is believed that we are far from meeting the global demand in terms of volume of cashew on a national basis.

SUPPLIER: A good number of people presently working as cashew suppliers in Nigeria are millionaires. Being a supplier will involve your individual efforts to pe*****te villages in producing areas, in a bid to source for supplies. Exporters are always readily available to buy.

PROCESSOR: Presently a tonne of processed cashew nuts, when exported, is sold for $10,000 while the raw cashew nuts are sold at $1,200 at the international market. Nigerian farmers and exporters could have earned more assuming there are processing factories to process cashew nuts for export. Most of Nigeria’s production are exported in raw form to india and vietnam for processing and export with added value and benefits to those economies. There are about 1000 cashew nut processing workshops in vietnam, making 40 percent of worlds total capacity. However, being a processor is quiet capital intensive, but its money spinning.

MARKETER: Cashews nuts are widely distributed in major hotels in Nigeria .They are sold through hotel mini-bars and gift shops and are used in cooking. 33 per cent of luxury hotels are interested in packaging cashews under their own label but no one is doing this yet. There are evidence of some imported cashew kernels in big supermarket outlets and wholesale markets in Nigeria. A would be marketer just need to identify this channels and tapped into the unfulfilled potentials.

CASHEW BY PRODUCT MANUFACTURER: There are lots of investment opportunities in small or large scale cashew by product manufacturing .Cashew fruits can be crushed into pulp and used for making fruit juice.It can also be converted into snacks with different flavours. When you crush the seeds, you can use it to produce a lot of things such as fertilizer if you mix it with other things. It can also be used to produce cashew cheese, cashew milk shake, cashew jam etc.

EXPORTER: A recent data from the National Cashew Association of Nigeria (NCAN) showed that Nigeria exported a total of 160,000 metric tonnes of raw cashew valued at $300 million in 2016.Nigeria was the second largest supplier to Vietnam . Like most African producers, most of Nigeria’s production are exported in raw form to India and Vietnam for processing and export to US. The United States is the largest importer of cashew kernels, accounting for over 50 percent of world imports. Other importers include the Netherlands, Germany , Japan and the United Kingdom . Other emerging markets include the Middle East, South East Asia and Australia. Currently, no taxes are charged on export rather export incentives are available to exporters of cashew nuts. So if you have been looking to start an export business related to agriculture ,this might be your best option .

Finally , Money making opportunities abound for willing entrepreneurs in cashew industry….It’s the new Goldmine….,all you need to do is to research extensively to understand how things work.

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24/07/2017

TOYOTA EYES MASS ELECTRIC VEHICLE PRODUCTION IN CHINA AS EARLY AS 2019.

Toyota Motor Corp is likely to begin mass production of electric vehicles (EVs) in China as early as 2019, the Asahi daily reported on Saturday.

The model will be based on the C-HR sport utility vehicle and manufactured for Chinese market only, the report said without citing sources.

The pace of production is to be decided after taking into account the regulations and the subsidies, the report said, adding that annual output could start with more than several thousand units.

Toyota spokesman Ryo Sakai said: "We are going to introduce EVs in China with a few years. However, we don't talk about any future product plans."

Keen to combat air pollution, China is planning to set goals for electric and plug-in hybrid cars to make up at least a fifth of Chinese auto sales by 2025, with a staggered system of quotas beginning in 2018.