Oladipupo Ehindero – Make Sure You Trust the Management of the Banks You Invest In

Oladipupo “Dipo” Ehindero is an independent analyst and was Head of Research of a mid-size asset manager before pursuing his Master’s degree. He has been in the research and investment banking space for over 10 years. He also has a passion for human resource management, having previously worked in that area.   “Never play with your documentation. Make sure you keep personal records of every single transaction.” Oladipupo Ehindero   Worst investment ever Oladipupo was on an internship with an asset manager in Lagos when the federal government of Nigeria made law through the central bank that all the banks in Nigeria should recapitalize. So he was told to also participate in bringing clients and advise them on what to buy and what to sell. Oladipupo went out and began making cold calls, meeting high net worth individuals, and trying to build his network. Landing his first client Oladipupo finally met a lady who was looking to invest her money in a bid to raise college money for her two daughters. The lady didn’t have a lot of money; nonetheless, it was a substantial amount to invest. Oladipupo advised her to split her investment money into two, and they invested one half in bank stocks and the other half in a medical diagnostic company. Ignoring his senior’s advice Oladipupo was feeling quite excited after landing this client as he was now more confident about his career growth. One of the senior managers got to know about Oladipupo’s client and the investments they had settled on. While he was proud of Oladipupo’s effort, he advised him not to invest in the bank he had chosen because the president of that bank didn’t have a good reputation. The manager suggested another bank whose MD was a better person than the president of the bank he had invested in. Oladipupo, however, felt that all the banks were the same, and thus he trusted that his choice was good enough for his client. Time to cash out A few years later, Oladipupo received a call from his client, who informed him that one of her daughters had been accepted into a medical school in Hungary and wanted to know how her investment was doing. At this point, her portfolio had grown from $10,000 to $57,000. This was enough to kickstart her daughter’s education in a year. Tragedy strikes Three months after Oladipupo talked to his client, the president of Nigeria died, and the vice president became the president. A new bank governor also came in, and the first thing he did was to say that some banks had been using the recapitalization money for illegal purposes, such as investing in the oil and gas sector. So he removed the bank MDs from the opposition and nationalized the banks. The bank that Oladipupo had invested in for his client issued a profit warning saying that it wasn’t going to make as much money again because they had a lot of bad debt to figure out. Stocks that were roughly selling for 60 Naira per share were now selling for approximately 10 Naira per share, an 80% drop! The client wants her money now Oladipupo’s client came to his office...