𝗦𝗜𝗫 𝗦𝗨𝗥𝗘 𝗪𝗔𝗬𝗦 𝗢𝗙 𝗥𝗔𝗜𝗦𝗜𝗡𝗚 𝗬𝗢𝗨𝗥 𝗙𝗜𝗡𝗔𝗡𝗖𝗜𝗔𝗟 𝗡𝗘𝗧 𝗪𝗢𝗥𝗧𝗛 𝗜𝗡 𝟮𝟬𝟮𝟭

 
Not knowing one’s actual worth is almost akin to being worthless; and this deficiency has a heavy unpleasant psychological impact on one’s mentality. People are quick to learning new skills, reading new books, trying out new ventures, making new friends, accepting new jobs and the list goes on and on. But many people do not take out the required amount of time to learn about themselves. One of the most rewarding knowledge anyone should acquire, is ‘self-awareness’ or ‘knowledge of oneself.’ Let me ask you a simple question: what is your current financial net worth? Knowing this stack reality may be the game changer for you in the coming year. This is not about some ‘blind’ positive confession and ‘unrealistic’ goal setting moves. You need to do this personal assessment and use it to redirect your targets. Well, that is what I want to help you achieve through this post; because your net worth is one number that greatly determines how successful you are at building assets for your future.

First and foremost, what is net worth. Net worth is the difference between the values of your asset and liabilities. In simple terms, 𝑨𝑺𝑺𝑬𝑻𝑺 – 𝑳𝑰𝑨𝑩𝑰𝑳𝑰𝑻𝑰𝑬𝑺 = 𝑵𝑬𝑻 𝑾𝑶𝑹𝑻𝑯. Now, let’s look at what I call the ‘Organic Factors’ for boosting your financial net worth.

𝟭.           𝗥𝗘𝗗𝗨𝗖𝗘 𝗬𝗢𝗨𝗥 𝗟𝗜𝗔𝗕𝗜𝗟𝗜𝗧𝗜𝗘𝗦 - I define ‘li-ability’ as ‘limitation of ability’. That means, any responsibilities, acquisitions and commitments that ‘limit your ability’ to be financially independent. According to the International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) Framework, “A liability is a present obligation of the enterprise arising from past events, the settlement of which is expected to result in an outflow from the enterprise of resources embodying economic benefits.” Examples of liabilities include but not limited to: loans, Mortgage debt, Money owed to suppliers, Wages owed, Taxes owed, Utilities, cost of maintaining unused properties (i.e. non-economic properties), amongst others.

2.            𝗜𝗡𝗖𝗥𝗘𝗔𝗦𝗘 𝗬𝗢𝗨𝗥 𝗔𝗦𝗦𝗘𝗧𝗦 - While liabilities are ‘negative adjustments’ your assets are ‘positive adjustments.’ Assets are items or properties owned by a person or company, which have values and are available to meet debts, commitments, or legacies. Land, investments &Return on Investments (RoI), stocks, collectibles like jewelry; arts, primary residence, rental properties, incomes, retirement account balance, etc. are examples of assets. Did I mention that skills and knowledge are great assets? Well, they are! Maybe you should find out what your current skills worth financially. You can use dice.com, payscale.com or glassdoor.com for this finding; but be careful not to over rate your skills. At the same time, do not leave any asset out, no matter how small.

3.         𝗥𝗘𝗩𝗜𝗘𝗪 𝗬𝗢𝗨𝗥 𝗘𝗫𝗣𝗘𝗡𝗦𝗘𝗦 - If you do not have a budget, this should be your first task in reviewing your expenses. You should have daily, weekly, biweekly, and/or monthly budget. For the purpose of this review, attempt to trim your expenses, identify and completely eliminate any extra budgetary expenses. Pleasure trips and vacations, extravagant purchases, unguided philanthropy, white elephant projects and quick-riches-investments are some examples of expenses you need to review. I know many of you will come for my head but I need to tell you the truth: also avoid ‘manipulative seed sowing’ exercises. I believe in “seed sowing’ but if it is psychic, please run away, because it is no longer faith-based.

4.            𝗥𝗘𝗟𝗢𝗖𝗔𝗧𝗘 𝗬𝗢𝗨𝗥 𝗠𝗢𝗡𝗘𝗬 - Listen to me, some people are poor and may remain poor because their money are in the wrong locations. You need to be investment minded rather than savings conscious. Invest for recurrent income generation.  In plain terms, keep your money where it will grow. I believe that money is a living thing, because it can grow. If it is not growing in your hands, then it is dead and not useful.

5.            𝗦𝗘𝗘𝗞 𝗣𝗥𝗢𝗙𝗘𝗦𝗦𝗜𝗢𝗡𝗔𝗟 𝗙𝗜𝗡𝗔𝗡𝗖𝗜𝗔𝗟 𝗜𝗡𝗧𝗘𝗟𝗟𝗜𝗚𝗘𝗡𝗖𝗘 – I admit that nobody knows it all. I personally consider it as a great investment when you spend money seeking information, knowledge and professional guidance on selected important issues. People have personal/family doctors, personal/family lawyers, but only very few have personal/family financial counsellors. Think about it, and what can you do differently?

6.            𝗕𝗨𝗜𝗟𝗗 𝗬𝗢𝗨 𝗡𝗘𝗧𝗪𝗢𝗥𝗞– a healthy network is directly proportional to a heavy net worth. Look at your circle of friends, how many of them are where you want to be? Do not undermine your connections, keep them mounting up, as long as the network is healthy and valuable.

For me, planning for 2021 has started and what I have shared with you now are what I have been applying on myself. The journey to a prosperous new year does not begin with the first day in the new year but months before it. I feel some of you will like to come onboard now. Let’s start rocking 2021 now and not wait till January 1st. dare to think ahead, act ahead and you will be ahead. Lest I forget, I have a bonus point for you:

7.            𝗕𝘂𝘆 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗰𝗮𝗿 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗰𝗮𝗻 𝗱𝗿𝗶𝘃𝗲 𝗙𝗢𝗥𝗘𝗩𝗘𝗥.

𝘼𝙎𝙎𝙄𝙂𝙉𝙈𝙀𝙉𝙏: What do I mean by “Buy the car you can drive FOREVER”? Write your answers in the comment section.

I wish you a prosperous 2021.

©Godday Aghedo, December 2020

THE REVIEW AND SCALING UP OF COUNTRY READINESS AND SUPPORT FOR COVID-19 RESPONSE: AN URGENT NECESSITY OF NATIONAL IMPORTANCE

BY: 

Godday O. Aghedo, AMIIM

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INTRODUCTION

Nigeria recorded her first index case of the 2019 novel Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) on February 27th, 2020, in Lagos State. Exactly a month after, on March 28th, 2020 the number of confirmed cases rose to 97 across 12 states: Lagos, Osun, Ogun, Edo, Kaduna, Oyo, Ekiti, Bauchi, Rivers, Benue and Enugu and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT); with 3 discharges and 1 death.  In just about a week later, precisely on April 5th, 2020, the number of confirmed cases in Nigeria has skyrocketed to 232 across 14 states: Lagos, Osun, Ogun, Edo, Kaduna, Oyo, Ekiti, Bauchi, Rivers, Enugu, Akwa Ibom, Benue, Ondo and the FCT, with 33 discharges and 5 deaths. Lagos State remains the epicenter of COVID-19 pandemic in Nigeria, caring for 51.7% of the total confirmed cases, followed by the FCT at 20.3% and Osun state at 8.9%. So far, 14% of total confirmed cases have been discharged and the case fatality rate (CFR) stands at 2%, lower than the global CFR which is 5% as at April 5th, 2020. 

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CURTAILING EXTREMELY INFECTIOUS DISEASES IN RESOURCE CONSTRAINT COUNTRIES_A CASE STUDY OF COVID-19 IN NIGERIA

BY

Godday O. Aghedo (AMIIM)

Public Health Analyst

godday.aghedo@iim-africa.org

info@aghedogodday.com

1.0       Background

The novel coronavirus was originated from Wuhan in China and was first reported to World Health Organization (WHO) officially on December 31th, 2019, hence now known as Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). It is from the family of the SARS-Coronavirus and it is very infectious, being a respiratory disease, it spreads very fast too. It has an incubation period of between 2 – 14 days (that is the time between actual infection and the appearance of clinical symptoms). It is on records that COVID-19 affects all age groups but older people, immune-compromised individuals and those with underlying health conditions like Asthma, Cardiovascular Diseases (CVD), Diabetes Mellitus (DM), cancer, HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis etc., appear to become more vulnerable to being critically ill from the virus. According to China’s National Health Commission (NHC), 80% of those that died were 60 years and above while 71% had pre-existing chronic health conditions. Something similar may be indicated for the overwhelming deaths recorded in Italy too.

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Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) had affected a total of 8,096 people worldwide but on January 30th, 2020, the novel coronavirus (nCOV) recorded a surpassing total case count. Consequently, on same day, the World Health Organization declared the coronavirus outbreak a Global Public Health Emergency.

The Centre for Disease Control confirmed the first US case of human to human transmission on January 30th, 2020 and the number had continued to multiply since then. Human to human transmission, otherwise known as domestic or local transmission is very worrisome, according to WHO.

1.1.0   The Degree of Danger COVID-19 Poses

To understand how dangerous this virus is, there are three factors of considerations:

1.1.1     Transmission Rate (Ro) – that is the number of newly infected people from a single case, and this is determined by its reproductive number (Ro). For COVID-19, on January 23rd, 2020 WHO estimated its Ro to be between 1.4 to 2.5, while other independent studies have pegged it at between 3.6 to 4.0; but obviously, the Ro appears to be far more than these estimates. Note that, when an outbreak has a Ro that is less than 1, it will disappear gradually, but it is not so with COVID-19, which even surpassed the Ro for common flu (1.3) and for SARS (2.0).

1.1.2     Case Fatality Rate (CFR) – that is the percentage of cases that culminate in death of patients. WHO press conference of January 29th, 2020 placed the CFR at 2%, though it was too early to determine that since the total number of people infected worldwide at that time could be correctly determined. Epidemiologists believe that CFR can change with time since viruses can undergo mutation as in the case of COVID-19. So, arguably, the CFR of COVID-19 appears to be greater than the officially projected 2%. For SARS, it was 10% and 34% for MERS. The current Hantavirus still in China has a CFR of 38%.

1.1.3     Possibility of asymptomatic transmission – between the estimated 2 – 14 days incubation period, COVID-19 could be asymptomatic but definitely transmissible. This even makes it more dangerous, as carriers can go on infecting other people without the knowledge of both parties.

1.2.0    Mode of Transmission

COVD-19 is transmitted from person to person through contaminated droplets from coughing or sneezing. These can be inhaled from the air or picked up from common surfaces. In a nutshell, there are two major transmission routes:

1.2.1    Direct Inhalation – this happens when the droplets or aerosols are inhaled by someone in a close range when an infected person coughs or sneezes. This is while social distancing (at least two meters away from people) is a recommended means of prevention.

1.2.2    Indirect Transmission – this happens when contaminated secretions (droplets and/or aerosols) that dropped on common surfaces like the railings, knobs, handles of objects, tables, metallic surfaces, closes etc., are picked up unknowingly by hand and transferred to the mouth, nose, eyes and face. This is why constant hand washing and refrain from touching one’s face is recommended.

1.3.0    Categorization of Transmission

It is noteworthy that not all locations within a given country/territory/area are equally affected. Consequently, the following terms are used in describing the categories of infection burden across various locations:

1.3.1     Interrupted transmission – this indicates locations where interruption of transmission has been demonstrated or recorded. Most times, it may require the determination of details in later dates.

1.3.2     Under investigation – this refers to locations where the type of transmission has not been determined for any cases. An example includes when samples have been taking to the laboratory and results awaited.  

1.3.3     Imported cases only – this refers to locations where all cases have been acquired outside the location of reporting. For instance, as at when Nigeria recorded her first COVID-19 case, the nation’s status was regarded as imported case only; but that should have changed now.

1.3.4     Local transmission – this indicates locations where the source of infection is within the reporting location. I think that Nigeria is now here, because those infected by the imported cases have started infecting others in their contacts too. For instance, Mr A got infected in UK, returned to Nigeria and infected Mr B. Mr A was identified and linked to treatment while NCDC commences index contact tracing. Meanwhile, before Mr B could be traced, he has infected Mr C, who in turn infected Mr D. In a nutshell, local transmission began at the point Mr C was infected by Mr B.

1.3.5     Community transmission - this is evidenced by the inability to relate confirmed cases through chains of transmission for a large number of cases, or by increasing positive tests through sentinel samples (routine systematic testing of respiratory samples from established laboratories). This is a dangerous point of disease transmission, as we see happening in Italy.  Nigeria must do everything possible not to get to this level of transmission, it can be overwhelmingly catastrophic.

2.0         Impact Comparisons of Covid-19 with Similar Viruses

The have been outbreaks of other highly infectious diseases previously, in the same family of Corona Virus.

2.1 The seasonal Influenza (flu) virus is estimated to claim 290,000 to 650,000 lives annually. This brings the figure to 795 to 1,781 deaths per day.

2.2 The Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) reigned from November 2002 to July 2003. It was also a coronavirus but originated from Beijing, China, and spread to 29 countries. It infected 8,096 people with 774 deaths (that is a fatality rate of 9.6%). On January 30th, 2020 the novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) cases surpassed even the 8,096 cases worldwide which were the final SARS count in July 2003.

2.3 The Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) broke out in April 2012, infected 2,494 people worldwide and lead to the death of 858 people (that is a fatality rate of 34.4%). It was first reported in Jordan.

Deductively, the fatality rate of COVID-19 seems to vary from country to country, but on a global scale, it is perhaps higher than 2%. With the sophistications in the medical sciences of the developed countries, the transmission rates and death records for COVID-19 are alarming. Africa and particularly Nigeria must therefore be very proactive in other to effectively curtail this deadly virus. Globally, COVID-19 has infected a total of 711,325 people leading to the death of 33,562 people; with a day’s new infection and death records of 48,243 and 2,706 respectively. However, 150,825 people have fully recovered and subsequently discharged. CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE COMPLETE PDF VERSION.