Last year December, in between Black Friday deals and Christmas deals wanderings, I got to try out a couple of very popular algo trading plarforms for Cryptocurrencies.

 The first I tried was 3commas
3Commas is the most talked about and highly ranked algo trading platform for Cryptocurrencies and it charges a hefty fee which made me feel it must be making its users very good money, at least enough to cover the monthly fees and still pocket some cool gains.

I connected it to my Binance exchange account, used Rave by Flutterwave to fund the Binance account and then attempted to turn on the 3commas to start buying and selling cryptos using algorithm generated signals. I didn't quite get it going before my trial period elapsed.

 I kept coming upon a slick alternative to 3commas. It's called TradeSanta

It has a very compelling pitch, the site looked awesome that I felt the product must be well done if the owners put in as much effort as they did with the website, and it was also cheaper than 3commas.

I started with the basic plan's 5 days trial. And I was hooked. It was very easy to set up. And it was making me a steady $1 - $3 dollars a day on my $100 test fund. Until it lost about $25 in one day. Wiped all the previous 7 days gain and some of my original capital. I then abandoned it.

 I kept getting pulled back to 3commas. Everyone online seemed to have very good things to say about it and it was constantly ranked high on reviews and by independent bloggers.

 Luckily, it started a collaboration with Binance that allows one to use a slightly limited version of the platform for free. It was first as a special plan but later spun off as 3c Exchange

I funded it with about $100 and had some trouble getting familiar with the settings. 

 Unlike TradeSanta it wasn't making me steady $1 - $3 dollars profit a day. Was making much less than that -- in the region of $0.20 to $1.20 a day (and more to the low side of that range). I felt happy and hopeful that I won't wake up to a $25 loss. But I did wake up to a $17 loss. MATIC crashed to half its price and the algo had piled up MATIC for higher sell prices following its earlier sustained price rise trend.

 I turned it off and took out my remaining money after waiting for MATIC to recover some of its price drop.

 I had also joined some Telegram group of Crypto traders and 3commas official groups. 

 Overall, I came to the conclusion I have for Forex trading -- not for me. I went back to my hodl strategy in a cold wallet.
image: golemanei.com
If you search online for the meaning of Peak Performance, these are the answers you will come across:

 "Peak performance is a state that is also known as peak experience, the zone of optimal functioning and flow." - Brain Performance Center

 "Able to do one's best, in one's best physical state." - English Baby

 "Peak performance occurs when you perform to the best of your ability." - Coaching Positive Performance

 "A performance at the best level of a person's physical and cognitive abilities." - Psychology Dictionary

 I love English Baby's definition - Able to do one's best, in one's best physical state.

 So we can rephrase my blog post today to: My practical tips to how to do your strategic best in your best physical state.

 We all have goals, desires, expectations and wishes. Goals are those very specific things we want to achieve at a set time and using a defined set of resources. Desires are those things we love to have and continuously yearn for (they are always on our minds). Expectations are those results we like to see from our actions, from others' actions toward us and from our corporate/non-corporate environment/system. Wishes are those things we want someone else or an angel to give us.

 You know the good side of it all -- what I am going to share with you will help you achieve your goals, get your godly desires, meet your reasonable expectations and reduce your wishes.

 And here they are; my practical tips to reaching your peak performance:

 1. Manage your mind and not your time. 



I know this sounds twisted and, perhaps, gibberish. Let's start with how well have you been able to manage/budget your time by the hour. Tell me, have you ever slept at exactly the hour you planned to sleep and wake the exact hour you planned to wake every single day? Have you ever been able to achieve the quality and quantity of work you hoped to achieve in the exact hours and minutes you allocated for the work/task?

 Except you are not being totally truthful, you would agree that something is not right with planning each day by the hour and minutes. Most of our best work is done not in the hour we planned for it but when our mind is in the zen mode.

 We have all heard that multi-tasking is counter productive. But have you thought about the reason -- that our mind can't actually do two things well at the same time. Why isn't the answer that our planner doesn't have space for two tasks at the same time or that our todo list can only accommodate one task per period?

 Now you get why I said manage your mind and not your time -- productivity is tied more to the state and nature of your mind than your time allocation skills.

 So how do we manage our mind in such a way that we are able to do our best in our best state of mind/being?

 Strictly do one major task at a time. When I want to write, I write. I don't pick calls in the middle of it nor reply chats nor hold a conversation with someone nearby. When I am doing my analysis work, I go to my quiet spot/desk and keep out distractions. I try to have different spots for different major tasks. I have my perfect spot for reading. I have my perfect spot for my analysis work. I have my perfect spot for writing. I have my perfect spot and time for training content creation.

 Managing your mind often requires conditioning your mind to be in a great state for the task at hand and having just one task at hand.

 2. Have a mental trash can. And use it a lot.

 You will not see me stay long at a party. You will not see me willingly watch a football match. You will not see me enjoying and prolonging a small talk. You will not see me discuss other people - talk enthusiastically for long minutes about what someone did or is doing or Trump or Buhari or even a friend. You will not see me chat for long on Whatsapp. You will not see me babysitting my phone -- picking every call as soon as the call enters. You will not see me wish for things -- wish I was born in a different country, wish I was born very rich, wish I was noticed by a generous politician etc. 

 The point is that I try to limit the number of things I give my time to. Remember that we all have just 24 hours a day. The more deliberate you are regarding what you spend your time on, the higher the chance of doing the things you excel at and genuinely want, and reach peak performance. 

 For some of us, it might mean changing your job or office or friends. If you are constantly in an environment that forces you to spend your time on meaningless stuffs, then you'll have a tough time reaching peak performance. Peak performance is not in doing your best at meaningless/valueless tasks.

 In one of my full-time salaried jobs, I used to stay late and pray my colleagues go home early so I can get into my zen state. This ultimately made it easier for me to quit the job. I didn't like that the bulk of my day is spent trying to suppress distractions and avoid conflicts. My best work experience were in work environments where I was allowed to focus on my work, even when the pay wasn't great.

 The quote that, "You can do anything, but not everything" becomes very relevant as we grow older and realize that we must be more strategic in what we do if we don't want to remain in the same spot or be left behind by peers and the world at large.
3. Have very few goals. And allocate a lot of mind space to them.

 My goals this year are:

  1. Write daily
  2. Improve my relationship with my wife
  3. Have our Microsoft Excel Club in all the higher institutions in Nigeria 
  4. Share work more equitably among my staff
  5. Grow the business
  6. Have a dedicated staff to financial and operational record keeping
  7. Better manage my investments
And almost everything I do revolve around those goals. They have almost all of my mind share. If I wake up today and I feel like taking my wife out to somewhere special, then that's what I'll attempt to do. Sadly, she often prefer not going out. But the point is I wouldn't be rigid and say today is not going out day but calling customers day (even though I don't have any particular customers to follow-up on). 

I do the task that my mind is most in the mood for. Except, when I must do something else that's much more important and urgent. And I have ways of putting my mind in the mood for the task I ought to do. If I have to write and I don't feel like writing, I go and have a nap. Usually, that puts me in a good state of mind to write. If that didn't work, I start reading some random online articles. If that doesn't work. I try writing all the same, and sometimes just doing it puts me in the mood.

4. Limit my wishes and exposures.

I avoid checking Facebook because it often generates wishes for me. I see friends who have zoomed past me. Even people that used to look up to me as a big brother or mentor, but are now thousands of miles ahead of me. I often try to rethink it and suppress the jealousy, but it's better to avoid it.


 I don't read lifestyle blogs or watch YouTube channels of people who know how to have a good life and are always showing that good life. The effect on my finances and self-esteem are not a great one.

 I avoid things that make me wish. Wish I go for a vacation. Wish I live in a bigger house. Wish I bought something I never thought important before.

 I even avoid people who create those type of wishes in me. Ignorance is sometimes bliss. Or happy contentment.
Using these four concepts, I am always doing my best at what I genuinely want and in my best state of mind. It doesn't mean I am doing better than every other person or I am making more money or I am close to some earth shattering breakthrough at something legendary.

 I just means that I don't look at any day or period and regret not doing more than I did nor have a feeling that I could have done more/better. I feel mentally full all day and end each day positively exhausted. I start each day energetic and happy, knowing there are meaningful work I am going to pour myself into.

This one of the best business and career building program with a very global network access that is currently available for women in Africa.

Below are the details (culled from: https://www.africanews.com/2020/01/10/les-margaret-award-2020s-call-for-applications-is-launched-a-business-acceleration-program-to-boost-women-entrepreneurship-and-intrapreneurship-in-europe-africa/)

The Digital Women’s Day launches the call for applications for #lesMargaret Award, dedicated to business acceleration for women who change the world. Women entrepreneurs or intrapreneurs from Europe and Africa can apply up to February the 2nd, 2020: https://LaJourneedelaFemmeDigitale.com/lesmargaret/
Created in 2013 by DWD (https://DigitalWomensDay.com/) and supported by Margaret Hamilton1 les Margaret Award (https://bit.ly/2QFtEMp) highlights big ideas and innovations from committed and inspiring digital women who are disrupting challenges that our society is facing today.

4 awards to celebrate women and  innovation.   
The call for applications is open until February the 2nd, 2020 (midnight): https://lajourneedelafemmedigitale.com/lesmargaret/
The 4 winners, Margaret Entrepreneur Europe & Africa et Margaret Intrapreneur Europe & Africa, will be revealed during the 8th edition of DWD Europe, on April 21st 2020, in Paris, France (la Maison de la Radio).
For the first time, les Margaret Award will offer to the 4 winners funding to support and accelerate the growth of their business. As part of the DWD’s business acceleration program, they will receive funding, media exposition, development support, for an overall value of 1 million euros.
“Through les Margaret Award, we reward creativity, innovation and audacity. We offer the winners a growth acceleration and a gigantic media exposure in Europe and Africa. With less than 5% of women founders of startups worldwide and access to funding of 2%, it is important to provide financial support to these women who are changing the world.” Delphine Remy-Boutang, CEO the Bureau & DWD, President of GEN France.
Entrepreneurs must meet several criteria to be eligible, such as: 
  • A mixed team with at least one woman founder.
  • The use of new technologies to serve  a better world.
  • Existing structure in Europe and/or in Africa for less than 5 years.
Intrapreneurs on the other hand must mainly demonstrate that they are developing new growth opportunities within their company based on agile and original methods. This category concerns employees of large and medium-sized companies who have developed a project in agreement with their employer while remaining employed, which may lead to the creation of a startup, but also to other innovative activities and orientations, such as new products, services, technologies, administrative techniques, strategies development.  
Support, invest, assist, the ambitions of forward-looking entrepreneurs and intrapreneurs.
The jury chaired by Delphine Remy-Boutang, composed of digital experts will deliberate on February the 6th, 2020: Vanessa Chocteau, Head of French IoT program of La Poste group, Bernard Giry, digital, innovation and research advisor of Région Ile-de-France, Cathy Mauzaize, Head of key accounts entity of Microsoft, Morgane Miel, deputy editor in chief of Madame Figaro, Karim Sy, Chairman of Digital Africa, etc.
“Being a Margaret  is a real boost. We have gained so much visibility… To be rewarded by such a prestigious event has helped with our daily business with contacts and more doors have opened.” Julie Davico-Pahin, co-founder of Ombrea, winner of les Margaret Award (Europe 2019).
“Our ambition is to create more Margarets. I am not the best, there are plenty! Our job is to be able to draw from the bottom, to create a fresh wind with african young girls who grow up with a new state of mind, and who will be the next leaders.” Arielle Kitio, founder of Caysti, winner of les Margaret Award (Africa 2019).
Right from one portal, you can access all the major stocks, financial markets and macro-economic data on Nigeria: http://vip.urbizedge.com/economy

 And it is very interactive.

 You can set the date you want to compare stock or bond performance over.
It has technical analysis to help you see which stock or bond or exchange traded commodity or exchange traded fund is a good buy or bad buy.
It shows you the current inflation rate, FX reserve level, GDP growth rate, FDI, current bond yield, parallel market exchange rate, money supply, interest rate and many more.

 Again, you can access it at http://vip.urbizedge.com/economy




Enjoy! Remember that it daily updates.
Last month, a close friend called me about an urgent situation he was in and if I was close by (since it was just a street away from my office). The situation? Policemen harassment. He wished he had body camera so he could record all happening without them noticing.

 I thought it was a good idea, an insurance or personal safety type of decision. So I went online to read more about body cameras. Below is a summary of all I gathered:

  1. Body cameras are different from spy cameras. They are not very inconspicuous and not meant to be used to spy on people. Best to think of them as your carry on CCTV. Use them to have video evidence of situations you might need to have evidence for. Heard of a car sales man who was saved because he put on the very brand of body camera I bought while showing a client a car and allowing the client test drive the car. The client eventually bought the car then later complained that there was a tear on one of the seats. As usual, it became a my word against your word situation, and for that type of transaction his superiors were more inclined to appease the client. Luckily, the body camera was filming when he was showing the client the interior of the car, and it actually captured the debated spot. Guess what, there was no tear there. So the tear must have happened after the client bought and took the car out of their premises. Another lady said she uses it when walking in a relatively unsafe neighboorhood. Some use it when walking their dogs. Some when jogging. Some when driving. And my friend would have used it when he was been wrongly detained by policemen (though spy camera would be better).
  2. Most body cameras record in 5 min clips. They do record for as long as the battery lasts (mine lasts about 4 hours), but in chunks/clips of 5 mins long. That way it is easier to identify the clip that is needed/relevant and delete others.
  3. Many body cameras can also be set to do just audio recording. So you be more relaxed to put the device out of sight and get just audio recording.
  4. There are usually two categories you come across online or in stores: one for security folks and police, and another for regular people. The one for police is usually in form of a wearable vest and very very conspicuous. The one for regular folks is designed to be easy to carry and less attention grabbing.
After reading through many reviews on Amazon and other sites, I settled for one that had very great and positive reviews: ehomful Body Camera HD 1080P


I used DHL's eShop to place the order and to get the delivery of the item here in Lagos.


 I also bought another drone.

The first one I bought about 4 years ago is not very easy to learn to fly with. So this time, I bought a beginner and even children targeted drone. It is very small and marketed as very easy to fly (and use to kickstart one's journey to flying bigger and more sophisticated drones).

Again, after going through heaps of online reviews and YouTube videos, I settled for HolyStone drones. Originally wanted to buy Holy Stone HS720 Foldable GPS Drone with 2K FHD. It has the best reviews and ratings (both on Amazon and the expert YouTube reviews I checked) as per value for money and sophistication. It is foldable and compact enough to easily carry to beach and events you'll like to film or fly it at. It has anti-loss features -- will return to you/home once battery is low, has a return home button to make it fly back to you/home from where it is. It has "follow me" which makes it automatically follow you at a set altitude and get you awesome filming without you carrying the remote or always pressing it. It has good (enough) cameras for hobbyist recording. And it's regarded as a generally good quality and feature rich drone.




However, it is not an absolute beginner drone. So I decided to go for a very cheap and highly recommended absolute beginner drone: Holy Stone Mini Drone for Kids and Beginners It is small and great to fly indoors, so perfect for learning.


Due to its low price, I decided to buy it on Aliexpress (so I don't pay shipping fee that is more than the cost of the item).

On Tuesday we had our year start meeting and one of the decisions we concluded on is to have one intern spot always. Preferably for undergraduates.

 We felt it would be a very good way to help students get exposure to the data analytics field and some corporate world valuable skills while we also get their fresh ideas and an extra hand to help with non-core tasks.

 One of the ideas we have been implementing is giving back to the society and skilling university/polytechnic/college-of-education students with data analysis skills before they graduate. We have spent money on the platform and are almost done with it. We call it Microsoft Excel Club, www.msexcelclub.com 


We are working on have a presence in all the universities, polytechnics and colleges of education in the country. And value proposition to the students are:

  1. Free certificate training on Data Analysis and Business Intelligence (certificate is by our USA educational platform partner)
  2. Exposure to global competitions in the data analysis space
  3. Exposure to internship opportunities (which is why reserving an intern slot in our company is one way of committing to this even as we try to get other companies too to give internship opportunities to the students on the platform)
  4. Local chapters with leaders who are supported with financial and educational resources to drive offline training and educational activities
  5. Gamified system of encouraging participation by allocating points to schools and students, and giving prize awards to the top schools and students each year/quarter.
You can check out the platform: www.msexcelclub.com  We are combining learning from AIESEC and other global educational platforms to create this model of covering all the higher institutions in Nigeria without a large permanent administrative team.

And this month, we are looking to kickstart the intern opportunity in our company. For this cycle we are looking for the following:
  1. An undergraduate doing his/her compulsory industrial training placement (internship)
  2. Studying a course that can align with our business space to make it easy for him/her to do his/her IT report
  3. We have identified courses like Business Admin, Accounting, Mathematics, Computer Science and similar courses as an easy fit
  4. The student will do a mix of admin, data analysis, data entry, financial data analysis and sponsored training activities. For one doing Computer Science or Mathematics we will expose him/her to big data analysis, programming and machine learning.
  5. The role is a temporary 3 to 6 months one
  6. It is on a rolling basis so we can give this opportunity to 2 or 3 people each year
  7. We pay a monthly stipend and give some of our office perks (health insurance etc)
  8. The person must be able to work out of our Lagos office
If you know someone eligible and who may be interested, do notify him/her to send his/her CV to hr@urbizedge.com 

Again, we can only take one person per cycle. There will be 2 or 3 or 4 cycles a year. And it is not open to graduates. Strictly for undergraduates (be it a student in university or polytechnic or college of education).

Thanks.
image: escrime.org

 2019 was a real estate year for me. I went from not having any single real estate investment to buying 3 (and my wife bought 1). I did a lot of research and visitation to the different places I saw potential (good returns) in. I even started keeping multi-year records of price trends by location and type of property across Nigeria. It opened my eyes to some reality you wouldn't come across if you get most of your information from real estate marketing folks or online adverts.

 This post is to share where I consider are the good locations to own real estate properties in Lagos.

 1. Already developed densely populated areas in Lagos (if you have the money).
Land and property prices (even rent) are always steadily increasing in Ikoyi, Ikeja, Victoria Island, Lekki, Yaba, Gbagada, Ilupeju, Ogudu and other developed well populated areas in Lagos. 

 So if you have the money, owning real estate there is a good choice. You don't have to wait many years to realise the profit or steady income you want. You get the most creative options on how to squeeze returns out of your property: flipping, residential rent, commercial rent, partnering with a developer, event centre, car park, etc. 

 The only barrier for many of us is the capital requirement.

 2. Ibeju Lekki
It's easy to think that the hype is overhyped about Ibeju Lekki. Yes, there are places there that are not currently worth the prices they are sold for. There is a lot of misinformation that I recommend that anyone buying land or property there should go see it for himself before buying or he could be sold a chicken for the price of an eagle (and marketed to him as an eagle). Seeing is vital.

 I went round the major places in Ibeju Lekki and also from my price trend analysis, of all the developing places in Lagos, it comes on top as the place with the most potential growth/return. While other towns are marketed mostly based on promises of government infrastructure and proximity to a university, Ibeju Lekki is not all promises but reality. There already are multi-billion naira investments going on there. And companies are already setting up there. Also, many big real estate companies have projects there which involve some intensive infrastructural spend and increases the overall value of the area. 

 I went from being very skeptical of the potentials there and worried by the over-marketing I saw going there, to seeing the reality of what it is and where the good options are. I eventually bought a land inside Beechwood Estate. And its price has already gone up since I bought it less than a year ago.

 3. Ikorodu
You can't hear the Lagos state government talk about the road constructions and infrastructural developments without mentioning Ikorodu way more than any other part of Lagos. 

 I went round Ikorodu and there's no mistaking that Ikorodu is rising fast. It's a very large town and some areas show more promise and less traffic than others. 

 I also bought (though still paying and not yet given physical allocation) a plot there.

 4. Agbara
The land prices are depressed due to the bad Lagos Badagry road. And I strongly believe when the roads are fixed (which is a certain to happen thing), real estate prices will rise there and rent will go up too. There are a lot of companies there and the staff like to live close to the company. You will be amazed by how many manufacturing companies are there if you do not work in a field that puts you in constant contact with manufacturing companies.

 I am yet to buy any land or property there but have it on my watchlist. 

 5. Festac
The Apapa issue, road problem, security issue and traffic issue in Festac have depressed prices of real estate in the entire area, especially of the Festac Extension that is priced affordably. I believe that when these issues are resolved (and they would be), the price of land, property and even rent will shoot up.

 I don't yet have immediate plans to buy there. Mainly due to my budget allocation to real estate investment. I only just have it on my watchlist.

 6. Badagry
Badagry is a cultural site. On paper, you won't get what this connotes. But when you visit Badagry you will see what amazing influence being a cultural site can have on commercial and developmental interests. Badagry is a bubbling town. I couldn't believe my eyes when I went there. It was like the town is a secret. Like going through forests to Wakanda. That feeling of something this awesome is in somewhere like this.

 It makes for a great country home location. A place to have a house for family get together/unwinding once a year. And you can also rent out to tourists or put up on Airbnb. You can be more creative with how you squeeze returns from your real estate property there than you would in a regular non-popular low cost town.

 I also got a plot there (though still paying and no physical allocation yet).
Those are the places I have my minds on as good choices of where to acquire real estate.

 Every month, I set aside some money to put in real estate. For my first land, I bought it outright but felt it would have been easier or better if I had been saving monthly towards it. Now I just seek out offers that allow monthly installment mode of paying. I also try to identify places of interest way ahead. Lastly, I have to make a compromise between buying land and developing the one I have bought. I try to switch between using my monthly real estate allocation for land purchase and house building. Just that house building is a massive money gobbler that I am still looking for a reasonable way to doing within my allocation constraint.
UNION is an interesting DAX formula. Simple yet powerful in what it makes possible for you to achieve. 

 I will be demonstrating with a simplified version of one of my real world use cases for UNION.

 Say you have created a Waterfall chart showing cashflow (or inventory quantity or staff addition/reduction, sales quantity) movement month on month through out the year and with the final position as at year end.

The (simplified) source table looks like this

But you want to see the opening cash (or opening stock or staff count at start of the year etc).

 There are many ways to get it in if you are given that data but the way we will explore today is using UNION formula.

 UNION is a DAX formula that allows you to append/join two or more tables. And in this demonstration I will show you a cool way to create a literal table in Power BI DAX (a table with rows of data that you type in yourself in the DAX).

 Say you were given the opening cash position as N2m and you just want to plug that in and move on with your analysis and chart. If it were Microsoft Excel, that will be as simple as adding a new row in your table. How do we achieve the closest to that in Power BI?

Union Table = UNION('Cashflow Table',{(2019,"Opening Cash",2000000,0)})


{(2019,"Opening Cash",2000000,0)}

is the literal table part. And if I wanted multirow table it's just to put each row in the () separated by comma. For example:

{(2018,"Closing Cash",2000000,0),(2019,"Opening Cash",2000000,0)}

With this new table I can create the type of waterfall chart desired. Note though that if you have a very large table, you might want to create a UNION with a SUMMARIZE 'd copy of the table rather than duplicating the entire table.

You can watch the much more engaging video demonstration of this: https://youtu.be/zNCYmSLM2cg 

I have been switching between DSTV Now, Showmax and Netflix these last 6 months. And in today's post I'll give you my own review of the different offerings.

 DSTV Now
If you already have DSTV then you should try the DSTV Now. It allows you to access your DSTV subscription on your computer, tablets and phone. And if you are part of a family with an active high cost DSTV bouquet, then this is a good choice. 

Mutltichoice included a value add. You can watch on demand movies in addition to the live TV. I loved this extra. And they put very good movies on a weekly basis that you can browse through and watch the ones you like. 

 Just know that you'll have to link the DSTV Now to your smartcard and DSTV subscription.

 Showmax
Showmax is Multichoice competition to Netflix. For less than what Netflix charges you'll get access to lots of movies (maybe thousands). 

They've got a large collection of high quality TV series. Lots of HBO series. Including Game of Thrones and popular (newer) HBO series. That's one thing they have that Netflix doesn't have. Another plus over Netflix is that all their movie collections are available for Nigeria. Unlike Netflix where many of the good and new movies are not available for Nigeria (but available for US) even though it's same monthly charge. A third plus for Showmax is the much richer collection of African movies and series. Even the Big Brother Show was available on Showmax.

 One negative. though slight, is that not all the movies on Showmax have subtitles. I love subtitles. It's part of the reason I stopped going to the cinemas. Another issue to grapple with is that locating the good movies can be a lot of digging on Showmax. What I do is I search using the name of popular actors/actresses. With that I was able to locate very excellent movies I never got to see by just scrolling or browsing the genres.

 Netflix
Netflix has the largest collection of movies compared to the other two.

They've got excellent series. But not always true for the movies for those of us in Nigeria. For every one very good movie you find there are 3 you won't find but someone else in US will find on Netflix. So I have just resolved to running a concurrent ExpressVPN subscription so I can always change my location to US or Canada and be able to see more great (and new) movies.

 Another negative I have with Netflix is that their self-produced movies (not series) are crappy. I have tried many times to locate an exception and I failed each time. They are great at intriguing movie themes and even story line, but still the entire outcome is poor. I just avoid them even when there is an A-list actor in it. 

 Netflix is more expensive than Showmax. But compared to DSTV Now, it will depend on the DSTV bouquet you are on, though I can say at a value for money parity, Netflix is cheaper.
image: dataquest.io
Nowadays, I see bankers, ICT engineers, project managers, sales managers, finance managers, HR managers, lawyers, accountants and many people already deep into a different career path all wanting to switch completely to data science.

 I don't know where the pressure is coming from but some of them don't know that doing that switch can be retrogressive -- taking a lower grade/paying job and limiting your career growth. 

 In the corporate world, a data scientist is HR managed as a data analyst using new set of tools. To a large extent, the same career paths await both. As a data scientist you will always work under a manager and it could the someone who is a project manager like you were before you made the switch. So that's the lower grade possibility I mentioned.

 Also, your hiring is focused more on you doing a technical task more than on you doing a manager-level task, and it can be a very career limiting positioning. You are seen as data analyst with more powerful tools and new age skills. You will almost always have to answer more to other people and have (usually) no one to answer to you. You work back-end, the IT type of back office role.

 If you do this (actual data science work) for too long (say 5 years), then there is a problem. Stagnancy. And that's because any significant career progression in a non-consulting company would mean you doing less of the actual data science work but managing other people to do them.

 Let's call all what I have said - side 1 (of my opinion coin). I said it with the assumption that you do indeed learn at this your old age and limited free time to become a data scientist.

 Side 2 is the expectation of how long short it would take them to be a proficient data analyst.

 Taking a couple of courses will definitely help you stand out better than another candidate with same situation and ambition. But if I am looking to hire a data scientist, the skills I would be looking for is way beyond courses and training you have attended. I would be looking for real world project portfolios. I would be looking for your knowledge contribution in that space (deployed projects online, tutorials you post online, communities you are part of and active problem solving skills that demonstrate your mastery of the methods + tools). But then again, most companies in Nigeria are not really seeking Data Scientists. They are just looking for regular data analysts that can use more than Excel. Maybe Power BI, SQL and familiar with Python or R. And on the job you'll just end up using Excel and a BI tool. But as usual, they'll rather exaggerate the competence requirement. 

 I see many people get that type of jobs and I see many of the bankers, ICT engineers, project managers, sales managers, finance managers, HR managers, lawyers and accountants actually think that is Data Science. 

 Data Science. A Data Scientist is someone who would use more of python and R, build predictive models and deploy as products or integrated tools powering major processes within the company. Not someone doing daily and weekly reports with presentation and BI for management. 

 In an insurance company, a data scientist would be building programmatic models that analyse risk and create on the fly customized insurance product for the insurance company's potential clients. So John can be on the insurance company's website and fill a well tuned form, and instead of being presented with static buckets of insurance covers he gets a cover fine-tuned for him with a premium cost that is unique to him (computed by a data powered dynamic algorithm). While the folks tasked with creating the day-to-day operations and finance report - regardless of the fancy tool they now use - are just data analysts.

 In a lending or financial service company, a data scientist builds the model that predict default risk, do customer segmentation and do product offering simulation to determine perfect pricing on an ongoing basis.

 In a telecoms company, a data scientist would model product offerings, do customer segmentation, do churn prediction model, build algorithms that power marketing activities and sentiment analysis.

 The type of education and preparation to become a data scientist is nothing less than 9 months full-time (not spare-time) learning, online project contributions and real world projects building. And with a good (diploma level) grasp of statistics, algorithms, data structure and predictive modeling (machine learning). Anything less and you are not a data scientist.