By Kayode Tokede
Three respected Nigerians and leading experts in the health and financial sectors; Professor Folashade Ogunsola, Bisi Lamikanra and Johnson Chukwu have advised Nigerians on the need to pay more attention to their health while still building their investments for future.
These experts provided the advice at a webinar organised by Consumer Awareness and Financial Enlightenment Initiative (CAFEI) last Friday in Lagos as part of its webinar series,encouraging Nigerians to be health conscious to guarantee a secure future without any health challenges. This webinar was themed, Invest in your health: Secure Financial Freedom.
CAFEi is a non-profit organization focused on research, enlightenment and advocacy for consumer protection. The organisation’s primary objective is to aid consumers in making safe, accurate and informed decisions on goods and services in all facets.
During her presentation at the event, the Deputy Vice Chancellor, University of Lagos, Professor Folashade Ogunsola said that “people’s most valuable resource is the care for the physical, mental and Social well-being,” advising further that “creating work-life balance guarantees good and healthy living whilst elongating the life span by another 30 years.”
In addition, Professor Ogunsola also used the occasion to advise everyone to go and take the COVID -19 vaccine, assuring on the efficacy of the AztraZeneca vaccine that provided by the Federal Government.
According to Mrs. Bisi Lamikanra, former Head, Advisory Services, KPMG in her presentation, “When health is absent, wealth is useless, you can only increase the disposable income if you are healthy, therefore take a long term interest and investment in the market.”
She further reinforced her position, by emphasizing that sound healthcare increases financial success by improving productivity, increasing disposable income, reducing financial debts and increasing proportions for savings and investments.
While using his personal experience as an example to drive home his position on the theme of the webinar, the Managing Director, Cowrie Asset Management Limited, Johnson Chukwu posited that a “a good mind should reside in a healthy body” he added further that “exercising, eating right and living right are good recipes for a healthy living,” to him, in order to achieve financial freedom, investment in our health is incontestable, he believed that “We must produce more than we consume,” and should we consume more than we earn, this certainly will lead to crisis. In such situation, Chukwu explained further “When what is earned is exhausted the person becomes a burden to the society.”
Earlier on in her welcome address Otunba Mrs. Debola Osibogun, the founder of CAFEi while drawing from her over 30 years experience in the financial sector offered the reason for organizing the webinar by elaborating on the importance of the theme, according to her.
“Investing in our health is a guarantee for long and exciting life, we cannot but give our health its due attention in order to enjoy our lives even at the later stage.”
In her view, the moderator of the webinar, Mrs. Folake Ani-Mumuney, FirstBank’s Group Head, Marketing and Corporate Communications believed that the event achieved its objective of providing a veritable platform that highlighted the importance of investing in personal health as this ensures that the path to a secure financial future is achieved.