← Konnected Minds Podcast with Derrick Abaitey
Konnected Minds Podcast with Derrick Abaitey
Segment: Rule of 72 - I Doubled My Corporate Salary and Invested $2 Million in Ghana Farming
00:09:17
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Transcript27 lines
- [00:00]
A
I would say I grew up there, I lived with them, so it became part of me. So when I look at my country, yes, yeah, it's risky, but wherein lies the opportunity? Where is the danger?
- [00:11]
B
When did you move to Ghana?
- [00:13]
A
2021.
- [00:14]
B
Okay, so you've worked many years in corporate. I'm sure financially you are doing great, I mean the type of job you had. But my question is that if the thought of risk versus opportunity or danger versus opportunity became part of you, then you really could have come home earlier, right?
- [00:31]
A
I could, but yeah, I was making more money.
- [00:36]
B
Right.
- [00:37]
A
So yeah, I mean I work for capital. Yeah, they paid me very, very well. They paid me very well. Moving to South Africa to join Mazi Asset Management was actually a huge pay cut for me. But I would say that my aim was we wanted to set up a black owned asset management company in South Africa. It's called Mazi Asset Management. Okay. So I went in, I joined them. I was head of research and then I was also senior portfolio manager for, for a mandate in Africa, excluding South Africa.
- [01:04]
B
So during all these times, I mean for me my thinking is that if you've gotten, you really understand how Africans, or may I say Ghanaians approach risk now you understand how the, the, the Asians, or may I say understand risk or danger and opportunity. So I would have been expecting you to really come to Ghana once you got the aha moment.
- [01:27]
A
It doesn't work that way.
- [01:28]
B
Okay, talk to me.
- [01:30]
A
Nobody knows. Said I'm nobody. So you tell somebody working at. Okay, okay. Gcb, adb, whatever that, hey, this is how you should, you should consider risk. They tell me to go away. No, I don't want any conflict. But you, you can let your light shine and people will see what is actually happening to you. No need to, to shake anything up here. No, but we do our own thing and then people will see, we see what we are doing and then you just increase your knowledge. That's all.
- [02:02]
B
While we were speaking earlier, you know, I, I, I was telling you that I saw a video on the Internet.
- [02:07]
A
Yes.
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B
Of I think about five Americans. But these people were quite early, like I think from 75 to about 85.
- [02:16]
A
Yeah.
- [02:17]
B
And they were talking about how they regret not investing while they were working in corporate and not thinking about their finances when they were much younger. Because now they've gotten to the stage where money has become so important and you know, they are struggling. In fact, one of them was even doing Uber and she, she's like in her 70s doing Uber just because she wants to Survive for you. Working in corporate, made a lot of money. You've made such an amazing decision, right? To really do something with the money that you made. But I really want you to talk me through the mistakes you think people do when they are climbing the corporate ladder, especially as Africans.
- [02:56]
A
Well, that's a tough one. Mistakes people do. Investing is Africa graduates. I just went into the investment world so I could see how we grew people's money. Okay. If you are in Japan and the U.S. you have mutual funds, other things to put your money in. And you see it growing because the market is, the stock market is rising. Some of the mutual funds will hold shares in Europe, America, Japan, maybe Korea. So that when there's a shock in Japan, you know that, okay, America will support you, Europe will support you. This will support you. Your money is kind of okay. Okay. But the mistake people make here probably is that they put all their money in the bank. There's a huge, huge savings in the bank. You get peanuts from the interest the bank is paying you because the bank, the deposit you put there is a liability for the bank. It needs to pay you interest. So they use the money to invest in Ghana government bonds, which gives them some time. They will get 25%, 30% return. The spread is so low, is so high, they use it to maybe pay their, their workers and get their fact checks. And you'll be walking around, you think you have 2 million in a bank, but they are living on your, on your, on your savings. And I think people don't, don't have that idea. No, Even in finance there's something called the rule of 72. So if the interest rate, I'm just taking an example, the interest rate is 24%. You divide 72 by, by 24, that's 3. So you divide 72 by the 24% which is 24 day, the absolute number 2024, you get 3. So if you are able to invest in an asset which, which is giving you 24% per annum and you are also able to reinvest the interest, the interest you get at 24%, your money will double in three years. So when Ghana was got the, the treasury bill rates were about 20, 30%. People could have doubled their money if they knew that that was. The Bible says that for lack of knowledge, my people perish. But probably a lot of people don't know. And I'm sure that's the reason why people, the banks will come to you and say, oh yeah, borrow this money to buy your, to, to buy your house. They bring these pretty ladies and then when it's time for collection, they bring the macho men to collect their money. Because they also understand the rule of 72. If you borrow from them after so and so, yes, it's going to double. If you are not able to pay, you take over your house, you are in trouble. So I think financial education should be paramount in our country. People don't know anything about finance. I think everything is confined to Accra. If you go to my village in Bokanchi, they don't understand. So yes, we need to be more practical with the teaching of economics and finance and all those kind of things.
- [05:51]
B
But then people like you have the knowledge, the understanding of financial literacy, how to invest, double your money, grow your money, whatever it is. But a lot of the information is also not being shared by the likes of yourself that have, you know, that understanding, right?
- [06:08]
A
Yes. You see, there are, there are rules and I have to be careful whatever I say here. I see it's not, I'm not recommending for anybody to go and buy this, this or that. So yes, privately I can talk to my friends. Oh yeah, this looks interesting. You can do this, this and that. But maybe in a forum like this you say that, oh, this company is good, somebody will go and buy, they lose money, I'm going to be in trouble.
- [06:34]
B
Right, Right. Yeah, it becomes like a bad prophecy.
- [06:38]
A
Yeah, those prophets. Yes, yes, yes, false prophets, a bad prophecy. But yes, you win some and lose. You don't get it right all the time. I just want to be right maybe 51, 52% of the time and my client will make money 51 to 52% of the time. Yes.
- [06:57]
B
That's just over half.
- [06:58]
A
Yes, if I can do that. I mean, you have so many companies under your. Okay, I have so many companies under my coverage. I'm looking at consumer electronics. Okay. So if I buy two companies there and I mistakenly maybe buy Sony and Panasonic and forget about Samsung, and Samsung go suck. Sony stays there, I lose relatively. Client is going to be upset. Why didn't you buy, why didn't you buy Samsung? Why did you stick with Sony? I have to explain myself to him right now.
- [07:31]
B
Let's talk about the reason why you are in Ghana. The reason why a lot of my viewers and my listeners are listening, which is that they also want to go into agriculture. They want to do some farming. But my first question on the farming project is how much investment did you put in?
- [07:47]
A
My balance sheet now is about 12 million Ghana cities. But if I put If I, if I actually look at the money I have not wasted, invested in this, it's about 2 million plus dollars. I work for very good companies. I was paid very well, I saved a lot of money. So when I was coming back to Ghana, I had my plan was ready, I had my business plan ready. I knew what I was going to do. I knew the returns, projected returns, everything is on my computer. This is what I'm going to do. Before I came in, I came to Ghana, I brought a lot of the equipment from overseas. After Covid, the shipping rates just shot up. So that really pushed up my investments, my cost. So I came to Ghana, I had a lot of issues with customs which I can't go through here. It's very sad, very unfortunate, but that's what you have to go through. And my brother in law gave me four, actually three acres of land. I told him no, what I'm going to do, the yield is going to be very high, but I don't need a lot of land.
- [08:54]
B
Okay.
- [08:56]
A
Because I didn't want people to be working in earthen ponds. I see people. Yeah, ponds are all over the place. And then he has 10 acres and about maybe 50 ponds. No, I didn't want anything like that. So I did a lot of research and realized that, okay, I settled on recirculating aquaculture system connected minds podcast.