The African Network of Professional Counsellors (ANEPCO) has urged Nigerians to be hopeful in the midst of the country’s challenging economy.

The counsellors made the appeal in Lagos at a webinar to mark the 6th ANEPCO Summit with theme as “Finding Hope in a Declining Economy”.

Speaking at the summit, Mrs Ronke Adeyemi, a Psychotherapist, said that having hope in life was good for one’s mental health.

Adeyemi said that hope was necessary in coping with the challenges and adversities of life.

According to her,  hope is having a desire or anticipation of things to come.

She noted that sustaining hope was necessary to maintain ones mental health irrespective of the challenges in life’s journey.

” Hope helps us to plan and motivate. It gives us inner happiness that we don’t know where it is coming from.

“We need to challenge our cultural beliefs,” Adeyemi said.

Also contributing, Mr Lanre Oyegbola. a Marketing Communications Expert, said that an economy could be appreciated in terms of its size and movement.

Oyegbola said that whatever is seen in any market would determine what one would get out of the market.

” Whatever you see will either inspire or stifle hope in the country.

” You cannot find a market as big as Nigeria in Africa,” Oyegbola said.

The expert said that in spite of the challenges with the Nigerian economy, the land is full of opportunities, great population, diverse people’s and the biggest single black market in the world.

” Population is power for commerce.

” Moving rightly is the game.

“The perspective you take with regards to what is presented to us in an economy will determine significantly how much of value one can take out of that economy,” Oyegbola said.

He noted that the Indians, on setting foot on the Nigerian soil, immediately discovered the opportunities in the economy.

The Africa Network of Professional Counsellors (ANEPCO) was registered in 2018.

It is to promote, nurture and support professional counselling practices amongst counsellors and psychotherapists (in all stages of their careers) based in Africa and/or working with African clients.

The network was established to foster an enabling environment amongst therapists to share experiences, learn on the job, connect with other counsellors and promote counselling in Africa.