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Ex-Anambra State Governor, Peter Obi, has revealed how he lost out on an opportunity to invest in the popular teleconferencing and online chat services app, Zoom.
Speaking at a recent webinar, Obi said the investment was less than 30 cents, an opportunity he should have seized with both hands.
He said, “I was telling someone a few days ago how in 2015 I met people where I have gone to do a program in the US and they came out and told me about the Zoom business that just started. As of that time, it would cost you less than 30 cents to invest in Zoom if I wanted to do so.
This is because they were telling me about a business proposal and I said this will never happen where we would be in our houses and be doing meetings- it would take some time. Here I am now, being in the house for four months only to do meetings through the same thing.”
The vice presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party in the 2019 election said lack of support of business in Nigeria was killing several dreams and was part of reasons the idea wasn’t worth considering at the time.
He said, “Eventually one of them came to me and said they have been able to get funding from the government and from the bank. I said they were lucky, in my country, nobody would give you any funding for such an idea. You have to bring properties from your mother and father in order to be able to get funding for such. This story you are telling me, I cannot put money behind it talkless of me lending you money as a banker.
Obi said Nigeria was still stuck in the past and it needs to wake up to the realities of time or else, it would be left behind.
He said, “When we talk of the new normal, we have to look at the environments. Look at what is happening all over the world, Countries are having closed-door meetings on rejigging the economies but what are we doing here? We are doing the opposite. We are talking about all the ways of the past. All these new opportunities must be taken differently with new thinking.
“Today’s jobs are global. You can be in Nigeria and work for a firm in London, Doctors do examinations on zoom, making them global workers who must do things differently. Politicians have to do things differently to have a better country,” he added.
He, however, noted that if the country doesn’t move with the times, it may become difficult for it to compete with its contemporaries in the years to come.
Meanwhile, Zoom has blossomed during the course of the pandemic. According to reports, Zoom’s market capitalization skyrocketed to $50 billion as at May 30, 2020, despite recording a revenue of $623m in 2019. It has become the go-to app for most teleconference calls in recent times.
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