One of the saddest discoveries in my life happened as I was going to make a donation our family promised to a Catholic church in North Carolina after the birth of our second child. I discovered the church was supporting a lot of jobless people daily with food and other resources.

Many churches are actual charities supporting the needy. That is why so many people give willingly and many pay it forward later when they finally get their act together. Poverty takes away your foundations and makes you disoriented. I know as I have experienced it in all forms.

I’ve been homeless by choice and by chance. I survived because I had friends and family that cared. We were once holed up at an apartment above the NYSC secretariat in Lagos and housed by my friend Gogo Somba to whom I owe an eternal debt. We survived it but what did we do after?

We went on with our lives and some of us used that desperation to grow larger than life but we forgot the people who come to urban areas and get their dreams shattered. We forgot those who have no friends like Somba with the heart to house over a dozen homeless corpers.

I met a girl in Lagos who lives permanently in a hotel at Lekki. She explained to me that it was not only cheaper, it saved her the headache of discrimination from Lagos landlords. She had to simplify her life greatly as well to be able to move anywhere at a moment’s notice.

She was basically homeless too but with a catch. She found a way to hack homelessness. I realized there probably are many like her. This is why @IBBabalola is doing a fantastic job with @musterngr. Most of the struggling people in urban areas are young and in poorly paid jobs.

Homelessness is much more prevalent than you think. It is also a global phenomenon. I was thinking yesterday of power laws and giving. What if we apply same power laws of venture funding to giving? There are proven power laws already for global scale giving but what of local?

Poverty even at a global level is relative. This article below was quite insightful and explains why edonomic migration and remittance flows back home continue. The problem is that nationalism is putting it at risk and it will result in more crisis.

https://www.jefftk.com/p/the-unintuitive-power-laws-of-giving

This poll I did yesterday gives me a lot of hope. People don't want handouts all the time, they want help to get on their feet and pay back. What if there is a fund for them all and those who pay back make up in gains for those who can't? Why not a portfolio approach to giving?

This portfolio approach is what we must demand from African religious institutions. A private jet is unnecessary if the collections can fund people who need assistance and can pay back.

If churches in Africa want to survive this lockdown era, they must transition to funds.

If they can understand what I am saying in this thread, the best digital bank in Africa will end up being a religious institution or backed by a religious institution. Mark my words.