They even managed to make it look like it had always been their plan -- 9 the time of birth, 9 the years they've been in Nigeria, 0809ja. But we all know better. We all have one thing to learn from the current sad situation of Etisalat Nigeria. And it is how dangerous taking on debt can be.
It is not only companies that can be crippled by debt. Individuals, you and I, are not immune to its charm and harm. Remember my recent talk about getting a credit card so I can access interest free loans to put in treasury bills (money market actually). If not that all the banks I went to -- Diamond bank, FCMB, Stanbic IBTC, Standard Chartered and First Bank -- all gave me stupid conditions like I must have a cash collateral of more than the limit on the credit card in a separate account, savings extra or fixed deposit account, before they would give me a credit card and I must service the card with new money aside the cash collateral or I risk being labelled and reported as a loan defaulter. It made absolutely zero sense so I gave up on the credit card mission. It seems it is only easy for salary earners whose company already worked out a scheme with the bank to allow credit facilities to their staff. I have one such friend, he got the card from Standard Chartered and they were the ones begging him to have it. He is able to access N2 million interest free for 55 days. He was the source of my envy/desire.
See how easily I rant about the credit card. I still belief it would make a lot of sense for me to have that loan facility.
I have another friend who borrowed N400,000 from me in March and promised to pay back in two months. He originally wanted N800,000. It's not yet two months. And I understand. He is a business man like me. None of us could have predicted how tough business has been this year. Even I who was singing seven years of plenty just last year had to remix the song this year. Imagine if it was a bank loan. Then you are already imagining Etisalat. How what made perfect sense when you were about doing it suddenly didn't turn out as expected. And what I want to bring out is that it can happen to anyone of us.
To some people, it is doing an expensive Masters. They use up their life savings and even borrow believing they would be able to quickly make lots of money back from the increased earning power the degree should give them.
To another some, it is buying a land. Mortgage or the high interest rate unregulated version of it that's now popular.
And we still have people who take loans to buy car.
Whatever it is you intend to borrow money to have upfront and pay back gradually later, remember Etisalat Nigeria and ask yourself, "Am I not chasing a 9mobile moment?"
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