My incentive to Study
First of all, I would say that knowledge is key. This may sound cliché to some people but it holds a lot of meaning to me and I believe everyone else who has a goal of being successful and living an accomplished life in this world of today where everything is in chaos, would not agree less to my proposition. We live in a world where the rich keeps getting rich and the poor, poorer. This may be true to some degree because the uninformed rich man can lose his riches because of lack of knowledge. The only bridge between these two set of social levels, is education. Depending on where you stand, if you acquire more knowledge about how things are made or run, then you can cross over for a better stand in the social levels.
I am not proud to say this, but coming from a poverty-stricken background has always gotten me angry (in a positive way). However, knowing that I have the possibility of catapulting myself to a higher level of independence and a more self-sustaining condition -by the grace of God, has been my incentive to study.
I always tell myself that my yesterday cannot determine my tomorrow. My tomorrow is how I make today. Working hard today through studies either by theories or hands-on practice can help me to cease the opportunities of tomorrow.
Professional Goals
I have a lot of dreams- some I shall be mentioning in this essay. My immediate dream now is to successfully complete this prestigious program which I am currently enrolled- Master in International Finance.
I want to after completion of this program, work with the African Development Bank (ADB). This bank unlike most traditional banks, is concerned with the economic growth of the African continent. With a 53 regional member country from Africa and about 23 non regional countries, the African development bank is mainly concerned with the improvement of the following sectors: * Agriculture and Agro- Industries * Climate Change * Economic and Financial Governance * Education * Energy and Power * Environment * Gender * Health * Human capital development * Information and communication * Infrastructure * Private sector * Transportation * Water supply and sanitation.
I am very much concerned about these issues since a deficiency in any of these sectors can affect me in the long run. I as an individual cannot have any significant impact on the African continent as a whole but I believe that joining this bank, I can contribute my quota to the development of my roots (Africa). There is an adage in my mother language that says you can break a single broom stick but you cannot break and bunch of broomsticks joined together. With this at the back of my mind, I am determined to make this goal of working with this bank a reality.
I plan to work with this bank for a maximum of 15 years. I am certain that by this time, I must have attained a practical mastery in skills, ideas and accumulated enough capital to materialize a long term project with my husband. This partnership will be geared towards running an outsourcing human resource company. We shall be recruiting and feeding diverse sectors of the African economies with qualified personnel. As matter of fact, we shall be targeting international investors who will be needing a home based human resource company ready to manage their human resources.
The ‘beauty’ industry in Cote d’Ivoire is very lucrative. I shall like to run a chain of beauty parlors where I shall employ trained cosmetologist and beauticians to provide beauty goods and services to the ever-growing needs of the people.
I also want to build a school facility where I shall employ highly trained professionals to teach using internationally recognized educational tools and syllabi to impact knowledge. There, I shall be concentrating on the Anglophones dwelling in Cote d’Ivoire (a French speaking country). I cannot overstress the importance of education and owning a school that will equip the generations to come for a better future will be a dream come-true.
I shall venture into the importation of automobiles and other household equipment but rather on a small scale.
Personal interest in finance:
Well, I personally believe that is an indispensable element in my career goals and for a healthy economy as a whole. The role of finance is very crucial to every economy. A failure in the financial system is felt by all stakeholders of an economy. Finance as a field of study, is my key to getting a well-paid job in the immediate future which will definitely have a positive effect on my long-run future goals.
Apart from creating job opportunities to a thousands of households all over the world, it offer a wide variety growth oriented functions to an economy. These are other roles of finance that are of interest to me * Credit Provision: Credit fuels economic activity by allowing a potential entrepreneur like me to invest beyond my savings. Finance will allow me and of course many generations to come, the opportunity to own houses and other properties without having to save the entire cost in advance. Furthermore, governments are able to smooth out their spending by mitigating the cyclical pattern of tax revenues and to invest in infrastructure projects like the constructions of roads and other social utilities. Having in place such utilities in Africa more especially in Cote d’Ivoire where I intend to base will only facilitate the economy to function at full capacity thereby, reducing poverty to an insignificant level.
Planning: “If you fail to plan, you plan to fail”- one interest quote of my teacher back home. Finance allows me the opportunity to plan the movements of my scarce resources. A financial plan like a budget not only helps to set up long-term financial goals, it also can make me avoid unpleasant situations like running into a state of lack. Finance will equip me to make right decisions on how to materialize a project and even before that, to know which projects are worth investing.