cap28: Oh portage did I mention that wen they set up businesse abroad they get massive tax rebates and they r allowed to repartriate all their wealth back to america wth no obligation to investc in the cntry they r ra.png? Cn u now see they r interested in nigeria?

Ok now so Cap28,
Please tell me the way forward in other to improve competition among businesses in Nigeria
Nigeria is not helping anyone and yet someone is trying to reach out and the only thing you see is negative I bow o!
Do you expect them not to make money while they invest in Nigeria? I think it all depends on the deal between them and FG.

cap28: Oh portage did I mention that wen they set up businesse abroad they get massive tax rebates and they r allowed to repartriate all their wealth back to america wth no obligation to investc in the cntry they r ra.png? Cn u now see they r interested in nigeria?

Well, if they pulled the aforementioned off in China and other countries where they operate why not Naija? Even the UK now offers something similar if you are ready to come in with massive investments.

I guess you all want only the Chevrons of this world in Naija? Even with zero amenities?

Walmart in Naija? You guys should applaud the move. In fact, their entry deserves a national knees-up.

I tell ya.

Well,I guess I need to stop at this point arguing with you on this issue I see that am not making any sense to you just because you are here in the state and am also here but am one of the Nigerians who still believe that the growth of Nigeria depend on both of us living abroad and going back home to make Nigeria a better place to live. But most Nigeria that live have forgotten their root base on the comfort America has provide but you forget that nothing is free in the u.s you work ur ass to live here. Tell me what is free.

Ladybfashion, you really don't know how much Nigerians living outside love Nigeria.
I really don't know for how long you have been in the states...but if you think i don't like Nigeria, then i really don't know why i am on the thread
After all, some people made their point and left right?
I just want you to look at things from a positive perspective thats all. I'm not saying it is entirely right or good for walmart to come to naija....just look the good side at least.
just as Ola one mentioned earlier on..... i think what he was trying to say is half bread is better than none especially for the undergraduates and even the graduates roaming the streets without any hope!
I'm sure people must have called you up at one point to send them some money right? Think about it, if these people have a job atleast, do you think they will bother you at all

Ola one:
Isn't this counter-intuitive? Starvation wages or no wages? Which do you prefer?

LOL at Nigerians saying no to a company that is good enough to operate in the US and China where labour laws are potent enough. I mean a country that can not even guarantee its populace 5 hours/day uninterrupted power supply? Is that how loving of your country you are? Is this how to be protective of your country from exploitation? By being unable to run anything on your own?

A country with abundant crude oil deposit but blessed with incompetent and deficient people to the extent that they import crude oil products? A country where everybody lives and reasons like deficient men on Zimmer frame?

They have nothing yet they are saying no to something.

Most of the guys saying NO here live abroad. They are ready to say no here but they will walk into Walmart/Tesco later in the evening for their weekly hunt for Walmart/Tesco grocery bargains. Funny people

I stated in an earlier post tht walmart is facing one of americas biggst class action lawsuits and ur still singing their praises, china uses child labourers to make walmart products and ur still singing their praises wen will it dawn on u tht the same fate awaits afrcn workrs? R u sayng its bettr to work for a foreign corporation on starvation wages rathr thn get rid of the root of the prblm ?

Cap28,
walmart is facing lawsuit the same way Mobil, Chevron, Royal Dutch SHELL, Halliburton, ENI etc etc are all facing lawsuit even in Nigeria and all over the world!
Should we now say that because of all these walmart should not come to Nigeria
All the oil companies highlighted above are still doing business in Nigeria regardless of oil spill in the Delta and they will continue to do so.

Ola one:

Well, if they pulled the aforementioned off in China and other countries where they operate why not Naija? Even the UK now offers something similar if you are ready to come in with massive investments.

I guess you all want only the Chevrons of this world in Naija? Even with zero amenities?

Walmart in Naija? You guys should applaud the move. In fact, their entry deserves a national knees-up.

I tell ya.

There is no way in hell the chinese wld tolerate such brazen xploitation- the deal btwn the chinese and the americns is much more equal -the americns use chinese slave labour and the chinese get technological know how in xchange unlike nigeria china manufactures the walmart products-nigeria is just a dumping grd where the goods r sold and where cheap labour is used to run the shops.

cap28:

I stated in an earlier post tht walmart is facing one of americas biggst class action lawsuits and ur still singing their praises, china uses child labourers to make walmart products and ur still singing their praises wen will it dawn on I tht the same fate awaits afrcn workrs? R u sayng its bettr to work for a foreign corporation on starvation wages rathr thn get rid of the root of the prblm ?

So, what is the root of this hydra-headed problem? Walmart or Western imperialism? Your main beef about Walmart is that the company pays 'starvation wages.' In a country where graduates are roaming the streets with no work let alone a gainful one?

So, they use child labourers in China? And, what are we using at present in Naija? Surely, it is worse than child labour. So, what exactly do you proffer as the way out? Let me in on it, please. I simply can't fathom this.

In a country where ordinary India men behave like kings yet you guys are saying no to an American company? In a country where teachers and other civil servants are being owed salaries? At least Walmart would pay wages promptly.

If what Walmart offers is 'starvation wages', then nothing less than 85 per cent of Nigerian workers are already in that bracket

cap28:

nigeria is just a dumping grd where the goods r sold and where cheap labour is used to run the shops.

Will it stop being a dumping ground without Walmart? What do you expect in a country that cannot generate electricity in the 21st century.


Even established companies that thought they could brazen it out are relocating.

It seems you just don't get the whole picture of things

@ola one,
You have said it all and i hope people understand at least.
The last i checked i think minimum wage in Nigeria is about 25000 naira right? $200 at the most per month o and it is not even regular.
So tell me, if walmart is paying even $5 in Nigeria.....college graduates/okada riders/mama Uche, mama Risi, Abdulahi, Ekaete, boyloaf will all line up to work there because they will make $5 multiply by 40hrs in a week!
People should do the math please

Ola one:

So, what is the root of this hydra-headed problem? Walmart or Western imperialism? Your main beef about Walmart is that the company pays 'starvation wages.' In a country where graduates are roaming the streets with no work let alone a gainful one?

So, they use child labourers in China? And, what are we using at present in Naija? Surely, it is worse than child labour. So, what exactly do you proffer as the way out? Let me in on it, please. I simply can't fathom this.

In a country where ordinary India men behave like kings yet you guys are saying no to an American company? In a country where teachers and other civil servants are being owed salaries? At least Walmart would pay wages promptly.

If what Walmart offers is 'starvation wages', then nothing less than 85 per cent of Nigerian workers are already in that bracket

The only way out is to get rid of the ppl who r creating an envirnmt whch is alowng foreignrs to come in and turn us into slaves in our own land - okonjo iweala will make sure tht evry valuable asset or piece of land will be owmed by eithr her and her cronies or foreignrs, she is merely continuing wth the disastrous privatisation projects tht obasanjo started I can not begin to stress the urgency of the situation the longr we leave things the more enslaved we bcome

Cap28,
what do you really want
You are here and you are saying all these.....why don't you go to Nigeria and help make the changes you desire to see
From your posts, all i see is issues with Obasanjo, Ngozi etc etc.
I am assuming you live outside Nigeria
If you live outside Nigeria you are a second class citizen ok.

cap28:

The only way out is to get rid of the ppl who r creating an envirnmt whch is alowng foreignrs to come in and turn us into slaves in our own land

How do you go about this? Let me in on this please.

Now, let me say this: nothing we change the way things are in Naija in the next 50 years. As individuals, we will get richer and more informed.

Collectively though, expect nothing. We will continue to dig our boreholes and soak-away.

Fact!

This is similar to saying NO to GSM because MTN an Etisalat are exploitative? You can imagine things without MTN and their trail-blazing effort in telecom.

Good ideal!

Those saying why can't we support ours? Should know that we have been supporting our own only that they are bent on ripping us off or folding up due to poor management! The other thing is that we want to do business outside of our own country yet see foreign investments as threat. We are so myopic to the point that we loose focus of the world we are living in. In this globalization a developing country that does not embrace other large foreign business is ready for the future.

If Nigerians see this Walmart as threat then they aren't ready for strong competition - that is a fact!

portage: @ola one,

The last i checked i think minimum wage in Nigeria is about 25000 naira right?
(

It is 18,000 Naira. And, most states can't pay it. Civil servants are being owed by their governments

portage: Cap28,
what do you really want
You are here and you are saying all these.....why don't you go to Nigeria and help make the changes you desire to see
From your posts, all i see is issues with Obasanjo, Ngozi etc etc.
I am assuming you live outside Nigeria
If you live outside Nigeria you are a second class citizen ok.

Fine if all u see r issues wth obj and oknjo iweala thts ur prerogative but pls dnt complain wen u cnt afford water and electricity aftr she privatises both utilities as tht is her nxt plam. If I am a second class citizn in a foreign land isn't tht bettr than being a slave in ur own land? Do u knw tht whites lebanese and indians lvg in nigeria live bettr thn most nigerians lvng in nigeria?

cap28:

Fine if all u see r issues wth obj and oknjo iweala thts ur prerogative but pls dnt complain wen u cnt afford water and electricity aftr she privatises both utilities as tht is her nxt plam.

Naaah. That's not possible. She has no water nor electricity to give Nigerians. That would be an aberration.

Those are for you as individuals to provide. In Nigeria, everybody is a municipal.

Walmart or no walmart, markets like Onitsha main market, Balogun, Ariaria, Isale Eko, Tejuosho and the likes will never close, Fact!!!
Shoperite still sells their items rediculously cheap, people still flock to their malls and all that, but our regular markets retail stores still stand gidi gbam. Most of the people arguing against Walmart are actually not in touch with what actually goes on in Nigerian working environment.
If you want to talk about slave labour, guy, it already exists here in Nigeria. Go to most of the factories you find in isolo, illasamaja, matori, ladipo industrial estates, apapa and the likes, factory workers there get a minimum of 500-700 per day to work in those factories for a minimum of 8hrs per day. I am talking from experience, my cousin also has worked in one of those factories as a graduate trainee in their maintenance department, this boy was being paid 23k per month and he goes to work every 4ckin day, 7am and closes 7pm.
They work even on sundays. They have two shifts that runs for 2wks, their only break comes when they change shifts and they are being paid 23k. The workers in the factory which is a plastic packaging company- they are responsible for the new bournvita plastic containers, they do numerous other packaging like that for pz and cussons, emos best, beauty fair and many more-earn ridiculous amout and endure very bad working conditions. The ladies who mostly work in the factory are paid 500 for new intakes and 700 for old workers per day.
And somebody here is making a fuss about walmart paying $7 and some cents per hour. With all the attendant under-payments, just go to the gates of these factories and see youngstars every day there waiting to be employed.
Walmart has a way better remuneration package and working condition set up than these factories, FACT!!
And there is no way walmart will penetrate the streets and corners like our small retail shops and local markets will do. Walmart will only be a headache to small retail stalls in urban centres but a good business person will find a way to leverage on it and instead partner with walmart. Ordinary people seldom go to places like shoprite not because they don't know about their price regime but cos they just can't see any reason to walk in there just to buy one item alone.
The very organized set-up in shoperite supermarkets and malls does not allow the atmosphere for somebody to just walk in there and say i want to buy only say a soap of N100 or a packet of lipton alone and leave, you will look stoopid and outta place unlike in our regular retail stores.
So ordinary folks will rather save themselves the embarassment of looking odd there and just patronize our regular retail stores. Me i stay in surulere for instance, I can't just walk into surulere shoperite all because i want to buy a packet of lipton when i can easily get it at a slightly higher price from an aboki without all those fake buyers in shoprite looking down on you like you are the poorest person there. I only worry about shoprite when i want to do some foodstuff shopping and stocking.
And about 60% of their food items and goods are your regular local stuff.
I no sabi wetin cap24 and ileke dey yarn say na only chinese stuff go dey there, shebi na if d chinese product move market no ni? They wont sell what an average Naija don't have use for na, neither will they skip milo, bournivita and ovaltin made in naija and bring in made in china.... Seriously, you guys condemning this nice opportunity should calm the 4ck down, Nigeria so badly needs walmart, yes na true!!

This could be good or bad for Nigeria, its up to us actually.

It is unrealistic for us to expect any international brand or company who wants to enter the African market not to make a deliberate beeline for Nigeria.

At the end of the day.....we may also benefit from a changing attitudes by westerners that Nigeria is not a country they can invest in for whatever reason..........we do need actual points of reference for others to base their investment on.

Well, do we want foreign investment or not?

I do know that there will be some local and smaller businesses that may suffer.......but you can bet money that it will also be a CATALYST for emerging indigenous competition. There are many examples of foreign competition stimulating Nigerians who have the capacity to compete.

It is high time Nigerian businesses and business owners were challenged in the way they conduct business......

The Nigerian government also needs to negotiate entry into the market, that favor Nigerian employees and graduates.

I have been reading and reading,and we have all concluded that it is going to wipe away our micro economy and make us poorer.The question is how do we stop it? Why don't they start the revolution now.If they don't listen bomb the so called walmart as soon as it arrives,if the rebuilt them,we rebomb them.am tired of us always moving from frying pan to fire.

KaimaTee: I have been reading and reading,and we have all concluded that it is going to wipe away our micro economy and make us poorer.The question is how do we stop it? Why don't they start the revolution now.If they don't listen bomb the so called walmart as soon as it arrives,if the rebuilt them,we rebomb them.am tired of us always moving from frying pan to fire.

You and who concluded? Please speak for only you.

Nigerians !! Everything is not a conspiracy to kill you...

soloqy:

You and who concluded? Please speak for only you.

Nigerians !! Everything is not a conspiracy to kill you...

somebody tell this Lameduck that she is being watched.

ladybfashion: @portage I see where u are coming from but the whole thing is that WalMart will put all this small business around them out out of business no matter what because no one can compete with them and will end up paying peanut to the same set of people after running them out of business.let take for instances your dad or uncle owns some electronic and furniture store down the street where WalMart is locate whereby WalMart will sell the same stuff your dad or uncle sell for far lower than their price and put them out just because they are richer and can buy millions of stuff for cheap and your dad or uncle now started working for WalMart for 200 naira per day.think.

Shopright is cheap cheaper than most supermarkets around yet they have not run anyone out of business. You people underestimate the huge market that is called Nigeria. The same market that the few mama iyabo and nna-uche supermarkets have been exploiting with huge profit margins on goods(yes I said it).

Secondly, its you and others that have said that Walmart pays people 5-9 dollars an hour. If you use 7 dollars as the mark, thats about 1100 per hour at the going exchange rate multiplied by the typical 9-4 shift which is 7hours. And we are talking of about N7,500 for a day, no? Calculate what that yields in a month. Graduates are working at Shopright because they know what the gains are and the flexible working time.

Do you know what the minimum wage in Nigera is? Its 18,000 for a full month and most states are struggling with it. I see that the people opposed to this move are mostly people living abroad and some who dont quite get it. Thats to show how removed from the reality of issues on ground most people are. You are talking about court actions and stuff against Walmart abroad but who doesnt have them? As long as you are a huge institution that affects people in some way, you are going to have that.

All the major Telcos in Naija are curently paying a fine by NCC due to the complaints by Nigerians. The oil companies all over the world and including Naija, face court actions and probes everyday.
Why would someone just come and say Okonjo Iweala wants to just kill you? Do you know how preposterous that sounds?

There is no single gain from Walmart store coming to Nigeria... For example Shoprite and MTN in Nigeria ( South Africa Companies ) Even though they are generating High Revenue from our country that doesn't stop them of being Xenophobia to Nigerians Living in their country.....Now the stupid Americans want to stamp Boko haram as a Terrorist Group Yet they want to come to a terrorist country to Generate income for their Gold Digging Country....#Gbam Nigerians should not allow that Instead we want Made in Nigeria Stuffs..Our leaders r just so dumb..they only know how to pack money full of shit...........

soloqy:

Shopright is cheap cheaper than most supermarkets around yet they have not run anyone out of business. You people underestimate the huge market that is called Nigeria. The same market that the few mama iyabo and nna-uche supermarkets have been exploiting with huge profit margins on goods(yes I said it).

Secondly, its you and others that have said that Walmart pays people 5-9 dollars an hour. If you use 7 dollars as the mark, thats about 1100 per hour at the going exchange rate multiplied by the typical 9-4 shift which is 7hours. And we are talking of about N7,500 for a day, no? Calculate what that yields in a month. Graduates are working at Shopright because they know what the gains are and the flexible working time.

Do you know what the minimum wage in Nigera is? Its 18,000 for a full month and most states are struggling with it. I see that the people opposed to this move are mostly people living abroad and some who dont quite get it. Thats to show how removed from the reality of issues on ground most people are. You are talking about court actions and stuff against Walmart abroad but who doesnt have them? As long as you are a huge institution that affects people in some way, you are going to have that.

All the major Telcos in Naija are curently paying a fine by NCC due to the complaints by Nigerians. The oil companies all over the world and including Naija, face court actions and probes everyday.
Why would someone just come and say Okonjo Iweala wants to just kill you? Do you know how preposterous that sounds?

So u actiually think walmart will pay nigerian workrs the same hourly rate tht they pay their workrs in america? What wld be the point of settng up their business in nigeria if they hve to pay the same wages to nigerian staff, the whole idea behind them cmg to nigeria is to make ten times the profit they make in america

some guys are here running their mouth without facts,so what if walmart comes in an export goods from china,atleast the will create employment in thousands and the are better than naija stores that only employ their relatives and acquaintances.

cap28:

So u actiually think walmart will pay nigerian workrs the same hourly rate tht they pay their workrs in america? What wld be the point of settng up their business in nigeria if they hve to pay the same wages to nigerian staff, the whole idea behind them cmg to nigeria is to make ten times the profit they make in nigeria

Every business is setup primarily to make huge profits, unless its an NGO.
Walmart is not alone in this. In fact our own businesses are the most culpable in this, as our business men exploit us even more than foreign companies.
Since Shopright food section(prepared food section), started operating in Surulere, other fast food places around them have had to reorganise due to the competition. In Tastee and Tantalisers, they now advertise what they call food value pack which is just about 600 naira (includes a drink). They are not doing it at a loss. They are only reacting to competition and to give people other cheaper options.
On the issue of the hourly payments, by the calculations I made earlier, its prety certain that if the same payment structure would be maintained here, even our bankers and medical doctors would resign and join wamlart, but I made that to counter an arguement.
Having said that, payment structures and prices of goods are determined by what is obtainable in the market place. Our minimum wage is 18,000 per month. Even if they pay 1 dollar an hour or even 10 dollars a day, its still better than the minimum wage by 4 times. The issue we need to look at is the job creation. People are saying that the local producers or market sellers will be out of business but thats not true. Once again , use the shopright model as an example. Farmers in Nigeria have a ready market in Shopright. Most of our locally produced goods are stocked at shopright. There are numerous indigenous suppliers to Shopright and even one person here has confirmed he is one of them. Besides, The GAME(I understand they are Walmart), Park and Shop, Mega Plaza have all been operating in Nigeria for a while now and Alaba International and Idumota traders have not closed shop.
We always let sentiments take precedence over seriously analysing pros and cons of an issue before discarding it as bad.

amosy007:

I want u to read this post by one Nigerian in diaspora

www.usafricaonline.com/2011/06/28/ken-okorienigerians-may-be-last-to-notice-new-viable-nigeria/

Thanks I see your point very clearly. I agree with you

NOOO! Africa needs to be self reliant no big companies in Africa. African countries should trade more with each other, African countries should grow their own food, adopt African values, languages (no European languages ), culture, build African looking architecture, and more. you got the resources USE THEM! do not fall for globalization and Westernization. the day Africans stand up for themselves is the day Africa is truly free. that is if Africa stands up for its self

Bad Idea.

Why does Nigeria want any relationship with the West after all the colonization and exploitation in Africa? Learn from the past. Africans really got to wise the up.