Depends on the perspective of the person speaking.

Employers tend not to like them, but Business owners love them.

I'll speak based on my experience with them, as a business owner.

Several years ago, I had serious difficulties managing various businesses I had set up. The staff dealt with me. Forging of invoices, theft of inventory, inflation of contracts, there's nothing they didn't do.

The Nigerian workers were out to finish me.
Like they say, "where person dey work, na there e dey chop, hence the name, workchop (workshop)".

You sack and replace them, the new ones continue from where the old ones stopped. They will even improve their techniques of stealing so as not be caught like their predecessors.

After trying so many methods to reduce all this, from utilizing tech and automating several processes, to involving relatives, it came to my realization that the only way to stop all this was to run the businesses myself, to be "on ground" always, but that wasn't possible. So I planned to start shutting them down and to focus only on one. I told a friend who was also a businessman about my challenges and plans, hoping he would be able to purchase some of the assets I was hoping to sell from the shutdown businesses. He recommended I hire indian management. I wasn't keen at first, but finally decided to try it.

To put it shortly, I eventually got an Indian manager for one of the businesses and it worked like magic. Business began to be good. Profit began to come in. For the first time, I could be away and still be confident and relaxed that my business is in good hands. Apparently, the business troubles we had been having weren't because of "bad economy", it was because of "bad workers" who were out to build houses on my head.

Today, the businesses are growing from strength to strength. All key positions are occupied by indians. If I'm starting a new business today, all key positions go to indians by default.

I have recommended the "indian solution" to so many business people, at least 5 of which have adopted it this year alone, and it has been good stories since then. Not a single one of them has regretted the decision.

The simple truth is that the average Nigerian is corrupt and is a thief. Those who have not stolen have not done so simply because of lack of opportunity.

And that's why our country is like this, after all, the leadership is a representation of the citizenry. Nigerians are a bad people and have rightly given rise to bad leaders.

Below is a post I made few years ago about this same issue.

ultron12345:


I can relate very well with your second paragraph.

I run a manufacturing business and a trading business.
The biggest challenge in my manufacturing business is not power, or infrastructure, the biggest challenge is getting honest staff. Everyone we hire is appears to be on a mission to steal as much as possible. Inflated invoices, recording less than the actual number of units produced. The worst part of it all is that all the fraud we've uncovered is not done by a single person, it's usually many staff who collude with each other, from production, to sales, to finance, even top management. There was a year I overhauled management 3 times in a year. But I've found a solution sha, I now use Indian management. So competent, so honest and so straightforward. I thought they were expensive at first with all the visa fees, accommodation, house staff, but now that losses due to staff theft have been reduced to a minimum, and efficiency increased, the Indian management has turned out to be cheaper than the previous Nigerian management. Now, all sensitive positions involving money go to Indians. Nigerians are only allowed in non-sensitive positions. I used to criticize companies like Dangote Group that hire so many Indians when there are many unemployed Nigerians, but now, I understand their decision.

My biggest challenge in the trading business is the same, getting honest staff. The form of trading occurs in the open market, and involves staff having access to huge sums of money running into a few millions. I know how much I pay to security companies to provide escorts for the staff, not to prevent robbery, but to ensure that the staff go straight to the bank to deposit the money after the day's sales and not disappear with my money. This money spent on security companies is even enough to be declared as profit. We have to spend on CCTV, biometric scanners and other things that wouldn't not be needed if staff weren't looking for the slightest opportunity to steal.

It got so bad at a point that my main criteria for employing staff was no longer conpaetency but honesty. At least, competency and skills can be learnt, but once you're dishonest, you're dishonest.

We always complain of the economy and how they are no jobs. I know people abroad who would have loved to set up job creating businesses in Nigeria but they can't because they can't get any trustworthy person to run it.

I know people in Nigeria with so much money, they want to start factories and other job-creating businesses but they can't because they are occupied elsewhere and can't get any trustworthy person to run the business. So instead of investing in the real sector and creating jobs, they'll just buy treasury bills, while the thieves are shouting no jobs.

Many big businesses would have been born in Nigeria if we could engage in partnerships, but we cant because you can't trust anyone. This is one advantage the Indians and Lebanese have over us in Nigeria. They can pull resources together and do mega-business, unlike Nigerians that because only one person must do everything since we can't partner, end up with small, tiny businesses.

Start a poultry and they will be stealing your eggs. Some will even go
ahead to be killing the chickens so that they'll be allowed to take them home.

Start an entertainment/viewing/game center and they'll be pocketing
your money. On the days you're around at the business, the money
realized will be x10 of the money realized when you're not around.
Because they're eating your money.

Lease out a vehicle to a driver to use and watch as he'll finish you.

Start a restaurant, the same thing will happen. More than half of the
total food ingredients will end up in their personal kitchens.

Even ordinary provisions shop, they will find a way to steal.

You'll see them with that their evil, wicked saying "na where person dey work, na there e dey chop, na e make dem dey callam workchop/workshop"...... Just imagine, justifying theft at work.

And you'll see these people point their crooked fingers at politicians when they're not any different. I usually say the reason most Nigerians haven't stolen billions of government money, is simply lack of opportunity.

Nigerians are the problem of Nigeria.

Crystalom5:
Anyone have an idea of the salaries of doctors in Nigeria?

Or if you are a doctor in the house you can give us an answer

Depends on experience and the facility at which they work.

Housemanship - 180K (150-220K, depending on facility). Heard Hazard Allowance has been increased, so if implemented, that should increase these figures.

NYSC - 33K plus salary from the facility to which they are posted. Federal facilities pay about 60-70K, while state facilities range from 10K to 90K (average should be about 40K). Those posted to less busy facilities in capital cities may also be able to get extra income by taking locum private practice jobs.

Fresh doctor in a private hospital (GP) - 200K (Few facilities pay less, minimum 180K, while some pay more, 220-300K).
This pay increases with experience (with 2 years experience getting about 250K) but peaks at about 350/400K. At this stage, most doctors will have started their own private practices or moved on to residency.

Some GPs start their own private hospitals.
Small "blue curtain" clinics in small towns outside major cities like Lagos, Abuja with auxiliary "nurses" where the owner GP is the only doctor there, would earn the doctor about 400K monthly.
Bigger practices would earn more.

For residency, junior registrars earn 270-300K, while senior registrars take home 380-420K.

Consultants at federal hospitals start at 700K. Those at state hospitals and those employed as honorary consultants by universities may earn slightly less.

Consultants employed at private hospitals usually earn more. Here, the pay also depends on the speciality. A neurosurgeon will earn more than a family physician. Low end specialities can earn about 700-800K, while high end specialities like neurosurgery can earn up to 2M.

Consultants at government hospitals usually supplement their income with locum private practice where they take on part time jobs at private facilities (on paper, the government job is full time, but in reality, it's more of a part time job (Nigerian civil servant attitude) so they tend to have ample time for private practice even while practising at government hospitals). Extra earnings here also depend on specialty. Surgeons tend to earn more than physicians, since they can charge per procedure. These extra earnings can range from 300K-2M monthly.

Consultant owned private practices earn depending on the specialty. Orthopaedic surgeons and neurosurgeons would very very easily net well over 2M monthly, out-earning a rheumatology focused practice for example. These figures are for single specialty private practices which are quite rare. In reality, most practices offer several other specialities in addition to that of the owner, by hiring other specialists on locum basis when the need arises.

shariff84:

Thank u too,here is the answer to ur question:- trufully our farmers/villagers they don't believe in any form of payment apart from cash. There is only one option for you now i.e P.O.S but they will charge you 1k per 100k

OK. Thanks.
About the POS, is it withdrawing to pay them cash or doing POS transfer to them?

shariff84:
1700 to iddo or agege

Goodday Shariff84. May God continue to bless you for the good work you're doing here.

Please, if one is to visit all these grain markets in the north to purchase large amounts of product, considering the fact that banks are usually far away, does one need to carry cash along (which is risky) or can one negotiate with the traders/farmers to accept cheques or bank transfers.

What forms of payment are possible aside cash payment because it's quite risky.

.

skydiver01:
In principle, I am not in favour of capital punishment... The main issue is corruption has been successfully addressed by other countries by its introduction and strict implementation which transformed theirs to developed nations. The world is well aware of this. Even the US was once the wild wild west. capital punishment was the order of the day and overtime it was phased out in some US states after civility became more prevalent. I am very happy to live in a country whose citizens respect law and order even with capital punishment for crimes committed.

Nigeria's corruption problem is so bad it has made fines and penalties for minor crimes, which has been the law here for decades, useless and has certainly not deterred their occurrences (minor crimes - infractions & misdemeanors) to date. By way of referred minor crime examples with large consequences... we have penalties for running red traffic lights. It has not deterred motorists from doing it frequently. consequences - avoidable accidents. we have penalties for having vehicles that have not been tested for road worthiness littering and driven on our roads. Have you seen the number of these on Nigerian roads? Shockingly high. Have you seen the alarming number of deaths caused by vehicles, trailers and tankers that should not be on our roads in the first place? corruption allows this to happen. Are you aware of the number of motorist that did not take a driving test but simply bought a driving licence in Nigeria? You should then not be surprised at the way motorists drive and the alarmingly high number of fatalities caused by this 'simple' acts of corruption (bribery).

Therefore, it is better to start by making capital punishment for all crimes and over time, after we begin to see improved public and private services, improved citizenry behaviour, reduced scams/theft, improved justice systems etc etc, then one can choose to phase out capital punishment or only apply it to the most serious of crimes (felonies) going forward. I frankly cannot see any other way to change Nigeria for the better because of how bad the situation has become. Nevertheless, I respect everyone opinion on this issue.

I am all in favour of any way Nigeria can change for the better. I only make the capital punishment suggestion because it has worked for other countries that had the same corruption problem and more importantly, all our existing rules and laws have been and continue to be flouted and all our policies for development have been disregarded and not implemented for many decades.

Finally, besides being for or against capital punishment (lets leave that to one side for the moment) can you suggest what will "certainly" change the behaviour of Nigerians and Nigeria for the better that has not be tried in the past? remembering of course that all those that have been tried in the past have failed.

I support you on the neccesity of capital punishment in Nigeria that is enforced. However, it is not so appropriate for less heinious crimes like jumping queues and littering.

For such crimes,i would recommend corporal punishment. "Judicial Flogging".

All those miscreants who jump queues, litter, request for bribes to do their jobs, bypass meters, disobey traffic rules, vandalize public property (just minor ones oo, major vandalization such as pipelines, transformers and those people that steal manhole covers in Lagos should warrant capital punishment) should be apprehended, charged to a specialized mobile court on the same day, that would sentence them immediately. That evening or the next morning, they should be brought to the town center and in the full glare of the public, be given between 40 and 150 HOT lashes.

Singapore has a form of this corporal punishment and it is working wonders.

For Nigerians, it will be more effective as a deterrent than say, fines, and cheaper for the government to enforce than prison terms where they have to spend scare resources that should go into things like education and healthcare of good law-abiding citizens, on providing free food and shelter for criminals.

It also reduces economic losses. Instead of Mr A been sent to prison for 6 months, where the government will pay so much to feed, shelter and take care of him, while 6 months of Mr A's economic output and productivity is lost to the nation, he should instead undergo judicial flogging where he is given like 120 lashes. It is cheaper on the government's part, it serves as a better deterrent against crime for the population, and instead of loosing Mr. A's 6 months of economic productivity if sent to prison, the nation looses just like 2wks to one month, been the period of recovery from the brutal flogging.

And putting such laws and punishments in place is one thing. They should also be enforced. One of the reasons for crime and corruption in Nigeria today is because there are no consequences, and on the rare cases where there are consequences, they are just a tap on the wrist. Take for example, Evans the kidnapper, apprehended so many years ago, yet till today, has not been convicted. With all the media coverage his case got back then, imagine the strong message it would have sent to potential criminals if he was executed on national TV few weeks after.

This lack of consequences is also telling in our prison numbers. With all the numerous crimes and killings everyday in Nigeria, we still have one of the lowest incarceration rates in the world. It means criminals are not getting punished. At 65K prisoners (with more than half yet to be tried, so the actual figure should be around 30K), it means Nigeria has a paltry 32 prisoners per 100,000 population. Our relatively peaceful African neighbors like Cameroon, Ivory Coast, Benin have 125, 83 and 70 prisoners per 100,000. Rwanda despite having a population over 23 times less than Nigeria's, has a prison population equal to Nigeria. It has 511 prisoners per 100K. The US is at 640. Even super safe and peaceful countries like Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, Switzerland are at 160, 188, 185 and 80 respectively.

Is it that Nigerians don't commit crime, no. It's that those that commit crimes are not been punished, which in turn, encourages further crime, hence our situation today.

All this must change.

jedisco:
When I look at folks/companies CBN says its trying to protect by giving them cheaper forex, it's even more annoying...

Take 2 examples...
Take nestle and the rest... These companies have operated for decades in Nigeria... But then, they'd rather go to their parent nations to import milk and sell here when it'd be cheaper to produce that here.. What does CBN do? Give them access to forex so they can maintain profitability of farmers in Netherlands....
A sensible approach would be to let them dource forex at market rates, double tax whatever milk import they make and in turn, give tax holidays and grants to whatever company that decides to build local infrastructure...


Same can be said of petrol subsidy
The beneficiaries are surrounding West African nations and European refineries and nations.... Without a nation of 250million importing petrol, a number of European refineries and jobs will have to shut dow.
A sensible approach will still be to end whatever subsidy there is.... Subsequently tax imported petrol while granting tax holidays e.t.c to whatever local refinery we have..... Do that for 5 yrs and lets see if local refineries don't pop up

Similar approach can be made towards virtually every item on the CBNs forex list... Citizens shouldn't remain poor at the expense of a few rich

Yes. I agree. This is the reason behind the policy of limiting fuel imports to only those who operate local refineries. But was it not condemned, I think even on this thread as a covert method to give the "Fulani" dangote monopoly over Nigeria's petroleum industry just like the imaginary monopoly they say he has over cement. "Dey want to give Fulani monopoly over southern oyel"

It was recently done with sugar, limiting cane sugar imports to only those with refineries, but they said its to give Dangote monopoly.

The CBN was planning to do it with milk sef. That was around a time Dangote announced he'll be going into dairy business. They said it was a ploy to help Dangote monopolize milk.

jedisco:


The large population we have can be an advantage if utilised properly....

IMO, certain macroeconomic moves can be put in place that'd reduce problems by a long way...

From an economic POV, first we need to end the triad of subsidies... (I.e petrol, dollar and electricity)... Hx has enough proof that it doesn't work.. They only serve to further impoverish a poor nation at the expense of a chosen few.. Ideally, things like petrol should be taxed... There is a reason why Western nations do not subsidize petrol or forex despite their large budgets for social care...

Also CBN needs to support cheaper borrowing rates to SMEs... Their policy mandating banks to borrow out more had some good effect... But they could build on that... Of course, they'd need to make more robust the current ID system we have and possibly a credit rating system so lenders can give deserving folks cheap credit... That's a major difference between thirsd and first world nations

OBJ did well with the pension reforms, CBN could build on that and fastrack a proper mortgage industry.... When I look at Western nations, I believe the mortgage industry (along with the stock market) are the miracles of modern economics. It's impressive how people took the age long process of buying land and building and transform it to a vast industry that now supports the greatest economies. The benefits of such a system are endless... It's just like distilling raw crude into it's components.... It's an industry so big that the collapse of the industry brought a worldwide recession...

Of course, things like universal and mandatory free basic education, cutting the cost of government, community or state policing and some semblance of fighting corruption should be a given

I agree that subsidies have to be removed. I also believe those in the CBN and Ministry of Finance know too, but it's the politics involved that is the problem.

Subsidies removed, and electricity bills go up, fuel price doubles. Prices of transport, food items and everything in the market skyrocket with the excuse of "fuel has gone up" and "dollar has gone up". Imagine what the inflation figures would be saying. Imagine the insults and attacks Buhari would receive. Then NLC will go on strike and bring the entire nation to a halt, and the federal government would finally be forced to backtrack.

I think what the CBN is doing, is just to manage to naira for now with short term solutions and keep kicking the can down the road, till the Dangote Refinery begins production, as that will take a lot of pressure of the naira and even become a huge source of forex via it's exports.

About the universal education you spoke about, yet it has to be free but more importantly, it must be of quality and such free, universal, quality education you're taking about cannot be embarked on by a country with tax to GDP of 5% and a revenue per capita that is just a quarter of that of Ghana.

Nigeria's 200 million people have a budget of $25B ($125 per person). Ghana with the same GDP per capita is Nigeria, with 30 million people has a budget of $14B ($470 per person). (By the way, this explains why Nigeria with a nice debt-to-GDP ratio of just about 20% is spending almost it's entire revenue servicing that debt, while Ghana with debt-to-GDP of almost 80% is servicing it's debt without any problem).

Kenya with a population of 50 million with GDP per capita less than Nigeria has a budget higher than Nigeria at $28B ($560 per person).

When we are ready for things like quality universal education, universal health, Nigerians will need to start paying their taxes as and at when due, and possibly, the tax rates themselves might need to go up.

Cutting cost of governance also has its own challenges. How do you get lawmakers to slash their salaries? (They're the one who decides their salaries). And come to think of it, the bulk of Nigeria's "cost of governance" is actually the overbloared civil service (I call it Nigeria's largest welfare scheme). If we want to reduce cost, there would have to be mass retrenchment there, both of redundant staff and incompetent ones. Go and try it and see what NLC would do to you. Shey El-Rufai tried it in Kaduna.

.

SeaTrade:
Lol you are still very naive.
I run my business like a cartel,I am very careful of any of my rent-a-nigga-a-day employees knowing the Ins and outs of my business.
I scatter it so much so that even a supercomputer will be confused.
The one thing I don't do is trust,and I was built with this inborn paranoia that makes me to think people are always after me,or in this case my business, So I am always running and is always ahead of any possible threat's thought even though no one is chasing.
Rule number one;
have no steady team,everyone is replaceable and subject to movement.Even If you can afford to,but just don't do so to keep trade secrets a secret.
And avoid working with people who think they are smart and ambitious.If you are so smart,create your own business,no come dey form Einstein on a person's trade that took sweat and blood to build so you can become his/her competition .Bleep that!
Pay people well,'not so smart' people will always get comfortable with what they presume is huge as what you give them,they get comfortable ,relent and literally turn off their brains and become something worse than a slave,this is good
Better to have a controllable dummy working for you than a genius,geniuses are very smart and they pick things fast and sooner than later,they start seeing reasons why they can be the next you.
Discuss and interact very well with your people,when you smell so much knowledge from a person,let him/her go ASAP.That is a very huge threat you are harbouring in the name of employee,run very fast.
2)Nobody that works with you should meet your customer's directly from the source,
There should be one guy that delivers to another guy that is also very lost who in turn delivers to the client,and different people keep meeting the guys that deliver to clients daily,so there is no one to tell you where the product is coming from,because yes,you are all confused.If you don't confuse them and use same people always,it is very easy for them to connive and steal or maybe redirect your client(s) to other sources,so yes,leave them confused.That's one thing you should be very good at,confusing people and leaving them lost!!
3) Don't relax!!All big clients(fear people with money,they have a lot of options.All they need is to know what you know and then Bleep you over) should be served by you and you only,small clients can be served by others because they wouldn't fight through all that confusion just to win those small people whose survival is at your mercy because they don't have money,
So if at all they succeed to bypass your firewall,where them want see money to use run deal with your conniving ass employee huh?
When you are chasing them like a hawk to make sure they pay old debt very fast and collect more credit so as to remove purchasing power they will use to patronise your competition from their hands.

It is stressful,but it was worth it.
You are lazy,and not very smart.You are part of the people dependent on an imaginary figure to succeed.Wake up,it is not real.
Taking your girl that you must have foolishly let her know everything about your business to meet your client was a very daft move.Why was she tgere ffs?
Next time,you go see the client ALONE,make the deal ALONE,bring the workload and share with your girl in a place far from your marketshare,then take the product to the client alone,get paid alone and move!!That way even if you are expensive,there is no hungrier person to cut a lesser deal with the client on your fee.
What we're you thinking?gosh!!
The only time you can relax in business and rely on employees is when you own /control supply or have solid trade pacts with supply,no be any small thing employee this,employee that,unto big madam weh you be na,now them don dey show big madam shege banza mana ,madam is pained.
You dey open market dey form boss,hahahaahahahahahahahajajajaahahahaha
Novice

Wow. So much wisdom in one post. Such wisdom can only be gotten from experience.

Thanks for sharing.
More applicable to Nigerian SMEs than stuff like McKinsey Insights

I run a business too, with a lot of trade secrets. One way I avoid staff learning such secrets is division of labour. Instead of having one person doing an entire business task, I break it up into like 3 smaller tasks for 3 different people, with each person concentrating on theirs, not knowing fully what the others are doing. Yes, costs may go up, but it's worth it, as I cannot sow for others to reap.

The worst part is that after learning these secrets, they will still use your own cash, raw materials, equipment, tools and resources to do their "runs" while running your own to the ground.

Nigerians

I was just listening to a Forbes interview of Cosmos Maduka, the founder of Coscharis Group. He was asked what his worst day in business was. He said he had two worst days in business, as follows.

The first, he was in Lagos and received a phone call that there was commotion at his branch office in the eastern part of the country. He rushed there and found out that all his staff there had disappeared with money they had collected in advance from customers for supplies. He was sued by 53 traders and had to repay all the stolen money.

The second, a friend needed financial assistance to bring a shipment to Nigeria. He then stood as guarantor for the bank loan collected by this friend. Till today, the shipment never arrived. The friend sold off the shipment on the sea and disappeared with the money, leaving Mr Maduka with N21 billion in debt, producing interest of N300 million monthly. He had to sell of his entire majority shareholding in one the major banks in order to pay it off.

Nigerians. Why are we so wicked and corrupt?



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O-73HOOlMNc

So many Nigerians live on such amounts. The reason many here see it as impossible is because they see everything through the lenses of Lagos, Abuja and PH. People live in so many cheap states (not in the capital cities, but in other secondary towns outside the capital (not villages oh)). Imagine someone saying "50K? How? Only transport will finish that". You think everywhere is Lagos? There are so many places in Nigeria where for the average person, transport is one of his/her least worries.

A prudent family of 3 (husband, wife and a child), where the man is a worker earning 50K

Rent for a 2 bedroom flat (not all pay rent, some live rent free in family houses)- 100K per annum - approximately 8k per month

Feeding- 20k per month (bulk buying, bargaining, using a pot of soup or stew for a few days)

School fees - average catholic school in cheap town - 12K per term (term = 3 months school plus 1 month holiday) = 3K per month. There are still good federal government owned schools around.

Transport (everywhere is not Lagos. There are so many places in Nigeria where N40 will take you a long distance. Most times, they can walk to work as distances are not far, or they can follow neighbors and friends that have cars) - N200 daily (N50 to go and come), 5 days a week - 4k per month

Entertainment/airtime/miscellanous- 5K

That's 40k. 10K goes into savings. Madam will ask have something she's doing. She could have a shop, a restaurant, or even a government worker too. Let's assume she makes 40k per month.

That's about 50K monthly going into savings. 600K per annum. That's almost 2M in 3 yrs, 3M in 5yrs. With this, plus little assistance from cooperatives which such people usually join, they can buy a car and build a house. Focused and determined parents can even send a child to covenant university (I have seen several like that, they don't have a car, live in a rented apartment, but have a child in covenant university, while someone with duplex and several cars will be struggling to pay 40k school fees in federal universities)

2M can build an average 2/3 bedroom structure in so many Nigerian towns that are not expensive. They may not even buy land. It may not be fenced. Cheap wooden doors, tiles only in palour, pvc strips for ceiling or any other cheap materials, zinc roofing sheets. It may not even be painted at first. It mustn't be Lekki standard duplex, with imported fittings, stone coated roof etc. Let's also not forget that such houses are usually built over several years, they could get land now, do foundation next year, then build to roofing level next year, roof the next year and finish it the next year. That's 4/5 years.

After building such houses, many decide to rent them out and continue in their rented apartment. Before you know it, with income from rent, plus increased salaries from ogas promotion at work, plus more income from madam since her business has expanded, they will build another house and then another one. Those that spend half their salary at beer palour will then gather and start gossiping about how they are doing illegal stuff or even rituals.

Let's also not forget that such houses are built on the outside of town, in not-yet-well developed areas. So after they built they house, in 10-15 yrs, the place will be more developed and property in that area will be more expensive. You then will be saying how can they afford such expensive property not knowing that it was much cheaper a decade ago when they built theirs.

I know someone will come and ask me now "What about DSTv". Such people watch Strong free to air. Highest, they can combine it with local antenna and cheap subscriptions on GOtv/startimes.

Once again, not everywhere is Lagos or Abuja.

I know someone is coming to ask "what if they have 6 children? " Lol

Tobex4realTobex234:

Congratulations to Ghana. Both companies already have assembly plants in Nigeria sha. Hyundai is already making electric vehicles in Nigeria.

Hopefully, the next Nigerian administration puts in place better policies and infrastructure so that such foreign investments are targeted at establishing new plants in Nigeria and expanding the already existing ones, then exporting to the region, instead of starting afresh in other countries.

spyder880:
Edited.

There will be 63 shops in this plaza
There will be 21 shops on each floor
There will be 3 floors, two storey building
There will be 2 different staircases in this plaza
There will be 12 toilets for use of the traders and their customers alike in the plaza
There will be a fence and gate
There will be a borehole
There will be an overhead tank

Very good work you're doing here Sir.
Please, what is the estimate budget for this project?

As success stories from Africa’s startup scene spread across the
world, more diverse sources of funding are opening up to the
continent. While investors from Western economies lead the flock
of international interest parties, money bags in Asia are building
momentum to invest in high-impact businesses in Africa.

Japanese firms have been notably active in recent years. One of
those firms is Samurai Incubate Inc, a venture capital firm based
in Tokyo. The company has announced the close of its dedicated
Africa fund after raising 2.06 billion yen (~ $18 million).

This is not Samurai’s first fund for African investments. The firm
created an Africa fund in 2018 and already has 26 African
startups on its portfolio including Eden, Evolve Credit, Wallets,
mPost and Swipe2Pay.

In January 2020, Samurai announced a second fund called the
“Samurai Africa 2nd General Partnership”. The now-closed fund
will focus on startups in Nigeria, Kenya, South Africa – and Egypt,
where they hope to make their first investments.

In these countries, Samurai will target investments in fintech,
insurtech, healthcare, commerce, energy, agritech, mobility and
entertainment. Ticket sizes will range between $50,000 and
$800,000 and will be for startups between pre-seed and Series A
stages.

A notable development from Samurai’s new fund is the nature of
limited partners who invested in the fund. One big name – Toyota
Tsusho Corporation – stands out.

A member of the Toyota Group, Toyota Tsusho has been investing
in Africa startups since 2019 through Mobility54, its corporate
venture capital arm. In March this year, the venture invested in
Ivorian transportation startup Moja Ride. Kenyan logistics
company, Sendy, has also been backed by Toyota Tsusho.

By highlighting Toyota Tsusho’s investment in this $18 million
fund and the presence of “professional investors with expertise in
overseas investment,” Samurai hopes to present itself as an
experienced and internationally valuable source of funding for
African startups.

That is because Samurai is one of a growing number of Japanese
VCs with an eye for Africa. In February, two-year-old Uncovered
Fund announced its $15 million Africa fund to invest $50,000 to
$500,000 in seed and Series A stage African startups. Uncovered
Fund’s CEO, Takuma Terakubo, helped co-launch Samurai
Incubate.

Samurai and Uncovered hope to catch up to Kepple Africa
Ventures, perhaps the most experienced Japanese VC in Africa;
since 2018, Kepple has invested in 50 startups, with 21 deals
done between January and May 2020 alone. Kepple and Samurai
have some common ground though; they are investors in Bamboo,
the Nigerian stock investment app.

https://techcabal.com/2021/04/15/samurai-incubate-18-million-africa-fund-japanese-venture-capital/

What do you people think about this "data" from McKinsey? Particularly the part about the top 20 cities by purchasing power?

More huge domestic investments. Foreign investors can keep looking at paper figures.

https://www.nairaland.com/6327201/bua-construct-3-cement-plants

Besides, where are all those who said government banned anyone from entering the cement industry in order to give Dangote monopoly? Later, we'll hear the mission wasn't Dangote monopoly but Fulani/Hausa/Kano-indigine monopoly.... 1di0ts

Acidosis:


Gbo gbo eleyi, ko necessitry.

Even banks with an annual revenue of over 200 billion don't have these number of people as non-executive directors.

Traditional rulers ke? Military officials? Like 10 or 20 of them? Ah!

Lol... It was a microfinance institution. We didn't actually need a board but it was one of the requirements set by the regulator.

BLOOMBERG: Nigeria’s Biggest Bank in Talks to Buy Atlas Mara Assets

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-12-02/nigeria-s-biggest-bank-is-said-in-talks-to-buy-atlas-mara-assets

Access Bank has been doing a lot of acquisitions lately. Just few months after they acquired this company's Mozambique operations. Good luck to them, hope it's successful. Nigeria is gradually building up multinationals that can face their South African and international counterparts. If this is kept up, in a few decades, Lagos will be able to compete against Johannesburg to become the continent's top financial center.

Nigerian human resources have done it again
How Gtbank Staff, CBN Official Burnt Bullion Van, ‘stole N70m’ In Kano
https://www.nairaland.com/6307466/how-gtbank-staff-cbn-official

Lazyyouth4u:


Cheapest for that citizenship thingy is around USD300k and it is for Caribbean countries. Note that the western world is waking up to these schemes and will begin rejecting automatic entry for holders of those Caribbean passports very soon. Yahoo boys, drug boys, corrupt politicians and other criminals are the guys rushing these passports.

The real deal is when you do the US, UK or other European country schemes and these cost millions of dollars.

In my opinion, anyone that is not super wealthy has no business with these schemes. Even using the cheapest at 300k, if you do not have a net worth of USD2m, you have no business ‘purchasing’ passports for USD300k by making ‘useless’ investments in those countries. And with that net worth, getting a visa will never be an issue. You don’t even need to queue at embassies with that net worth. Your visa is fast tracked.

For the average Nigerian, whats the big deal in the extra scrutiny and interrogation at the airport if your hands are clean? It’s a cross that we have to carry as Nigerians and must accept. Some of us don’t mind. And it’s not every Nigerian that is interrogated at airports.

Ps: I understand the rationale behind getting these passports to relocate sha. Makes a lot more sense...

$300K is quite high. Some Caribbean islands go for $100K. I agree with you that it might not make much sense now because of the high exchange rate, but back then when the exchange rate was much less, it would make sense to much more people. Afterall, some people spent similar amounts on cars

Myhelper1:
https://www.aljazeera.com/features/2020/12/10/wealthy-nigerians-buying-citizenship-overseas

I discussed this in this group sometime back. I think it was with dexterous abi someone like that. I was planning to get citizenship from one of the Caribbean islands until the plans got delayed by the increasing exchange rate. Like me, most of the people going for this are not doing it to relocate but for ease of travel, not having to queue here and there for visas. With such passport, one can just wake up one morning and decide to go the UK, Singapore or anywhere, all you need is to get a plane ticket. Plus, you avoid all that extra interrogation and suspicion you get at foreign airports when you hold a Nigerian passport.

ahiboilandgas:
In flour milling companies in Nigeria there are failed production called damage this normally gather and evacuated as waste .. (but can be sold ) at around 800k per truck ....Managers found out in connivance with production manager trigger production line issue baam we have tonnes of damages ( na senior management weekend money )...failed production keep increasing untill Turkish engineer where brought in and only the Turkish m.d can approve allocation of damage spaghetti.....damage production done dissapper.....

My brother, Nigerians are the most fraudulent and wicked set of people. It's puzzles me how a people can be so religious yet so wicked.

I remember when a friend started poultry business. He was a busy person with a job so he hired a manager to run the farm. The egg production was always so low, which led to low revenue and he was unable to recover costs. He was busy complaining about how the economy is bad and how it's government fault that he's not making profits, not knowing his staff were the ones behind it.

He however noticed that on the few days he's around at the farm, the egg production will be x3 of the production when he's not around. After investigations we're carried out, it was found out that the staff were stealing the eggs and smuggling them out to go and sell for themselves. They'll come with cooler of their lunch in the morning, as their leaving in the evening, the cooler will be filled with eggs.

After finding this out, sacked some people and made new policies, all containers and items brought by staff should be kept at the entrance and not allowed into the farm area. The staff then started a new strategy. They would break the eggs and pour them into plastic bottles, throw those bottles over the fence, gather the bottles when they leave that evening and sell to bakers. The security men were even still allowing then to take in their coolers and other containers as long as they get their share of the looted.

He also had a policy that when any chicken dies, he will give it away to the staff. Before he knew it, mortality rates started increasing. On investigation, it was revealed that the staff were intentionally killing the birds so they can be allowed to take them home.

Nigerians are the problem of Nigeria.
The only reason many Nigerians haven't stolen government money is lack of opportunity. The thief who hasn't gotten an opportunity to steal thinks he is an honest man. These thieving staff will still be among those shouting government is corrupt when they're not any different. Every people deserve their leaders. Nigerians have bad leaders because Nigerians are bad people. A bad people cannot give rise to good leaders.

He eventually shut down the business as it was becoming too difficult to deal with these staff. That was how they fraudulent attitude of Nigerians kill businesses that are supposed to create jobs. And after, the thrives will be blaming government for lack of jobs.

9jatriot:
My limited crude knowledge of GDP is that it is sort of related to goods or items you produce locally? If Crude oil is exempted from the GDP calculation in the south, will the disparity still be that large?

Why will crude oil be exempted? Is it not an economic activity? Why not also exempt Lagos' financial and transport industries? Why not exempt China's manufacturing sector too. When Dangote's refinery starts, shey you'll exempt that too. Are there not natural resources and minerals in the north? Why are they not mining them if it's natural resources you want to use to argue.

The role of crude oil sef is only significant in Rivers, Delta, Bayelsa and Akwa Ibom. Maybe Cross River. But upon that, other southern states are still doing relatively well compared to their northern counterparts.

9jatriot:
One can argue that even though the majority of those in the North are mostly uneducated with our formal form of education taken for granted in the south, majority of the Northerners are into farming, at least before the destruction by Boko Haram.
It is actually the southerners who when they finish their university education feel entitled and whine about not getting white collar jobs.

Whether they're farming or not, their indices are the worst in Nigeria. Upon their farming, the region still has some of the lowest GDP per capita figures in the country, and even in the West African region. Take Southern Nigeria's indices alone and you'll see that it'll be among the top in Africa, but when you add the North's negative indices, it drags everything down.

Imagine, in a country with 36 states, 9 states have literacy rates above 90%. They are all southern states. 17 states have literacy rates above 80%. They are all southern states. 5 states have less than 20%. They are all northern states. In fact, all the states with less then 50% are all northern states.

And the education I'm talking about isn't university education. It is basic education up to secondary school level that's needed for them.

jajeri3216:


True, but i struggle with seeing the south as productive.


The south doesn't have a single engineering company that can compete with Julius Berger.

I only said the south is more productive then the north. At least, that's what the GDP per capita figures for the states show.

About the population growth rate many are taking about, I don't really see that as the problem. The problem is the economic growth rate. If population is growing at 2.4%, and the economy is doing 10% growth per annum, I don't see a problem there.

The only problem I see about Nigeria's population growth rate is the type of population that is growing. The knowledgeable, educated and relatively well-to-do people down in Southern Nigeria who have the resources to raise future productive citizens are not the ones driving the population growth, rather, the population growth is been driven by the largely illiterate and poverty stricken Northern Nigeria (that is responsible for almost all our negative indices) which doesnt have the needed resources to raise future productive citizens. Instead of becoming future assets through increased productivity in the future, they might become future liabilities by becoming criminals, terrorists, religious extremists etc

When well educated and rich Lagos has a birth rate of 3.4 while illiterate and poverty stricken Katsina has 7.3, now that is the problem. If the figures were vice versa, then that wouldn't be a problem, it'll be good news actually.

https://www.nairaland.com/5514567/lagos-records-lowest-birth-rate

Just imagine the NBS figures in the link below. Lagos has literacy rate of 96%, while Katsina is at 10%.

www.databod.com/nigerian-states-ranked-literacy-level/

Instead of getting more literate future citizens from Lagos and the South, we are getting more illiterates from Katsina and the North.

The Lebanese in Africa: A look at 30 family dynasties


https://www.theafricareport.com/53337/lebanese-in-africa-a-look-at-30-family-dynasties/amp/#click=https:///aWKaBcPP0y

Aquilapriscilla:
I feel this country is gonna divide.... Why would we be importing fuel from Niger??
Sincerely I don't want it to divide but the odds keep increasing

God forbid. The highest that will and should happen is restructuring.

The importation is only a temporary measure. Dangote's 650K refinery is coming online soon. BUA has already given out contracts for a 250K refinery in akwa ibom, plus several other modular refineries. All this capacities put together, plus if the government can get it's 450K working (even if by privatizing them), will give Nigeria are total refining capacity of 1.4MBPD. Assuming the modular refineries can add 100K to that, that will be 1.5MBPD capacity putting us in the top 11 globally in terms of oil refining capacity, even ahead of the UK and France. It is amazing how we're about to go from drought to glut, from zero production to over-supply and over-capacity. Truly, the end of the tunnel is usually darkest

Even if we divide, it should be into north (NW and NE) and south (SE, SW, SS, NC and maybe Kano and kaduna. The southern half of Anglophone Cameroon will also be welcome.). Not to break up into numerous Liberias, Gambias and Sierra Leones like some are recommending. We don't need anymore caricature countries in West Africa.

Lol... Some people are really comparing Nigerians to Indians.

In terms of business prowess (I usually say that Nigeria is just India on a scale reduced by 6, but with a less effective private sector. In Nigeria, the people blame the government for everything, while in India, the people take the bull by the horn, and you wonder why they are so successful in Nigeria) and achievements as a people, they are far far better off than Nigeria.

759,000 Indians are millionaires, while just 30,000 Nigerians are millionaires. This shows how business/investment saavy the people are.

Over 110 Indians have become billionaires while just 4 Nigerians have achieved that feat.

Even if you correct all these figures to cover up the population difference, Indians still gap Nigerians by far. Correct for population, for Nigeria to match India in the above indices, we should have 126,000 millionaires and 18 billionaires.

Go and look at their companies. You think Dangote is big, wait till you compare it with Tata Group or Reliance Industries and many others.

On Forbes 2000 companies, Indians have put 75 of their companies there, while only 4 Nigerian companies made the list.

Even in diaspora, you can't compare what Indians have achieved to Nigerians. Many have already mentioned the number of fortune 500 companies that Indians run, how many do Nigerians run?

The richest family in the UK is an Indian family.

In the UK, Indians families have the highest household incomes. Blacks have the least (even less than the UK average)
https://www.ethnicity-facts-figures.service.gov.uk/work-pay-and-benefits/pay-and-income/household-income/latest

In the US, Indians have the highest household income at $135,000. Nigerians are at number 65 on the list ($61,000), which is even less than the national average of $63,000. Even Ghanaians rank higher than Nigerians on that list. Na only noise Nigerians sabi make, and then to blame everything on their government.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_ethnic_groups_in_the_United_States_by_household_income

The stock exchange Nigerians have been able to build is worth about $50B. Indians have built 2 stock exchanges, the NSE worth $2.2T and the BSE worth $2.1T. This should show you how vibrant each country is in terms of business.

You may call them poor, but they are still able to go into space. What have Nigerians and their NSRDA achieved concerning space?

Let's not even start talking about technological development.

Someone was saying its their large population, yet (I still dispute this statistic, it doesn't make any sense, but since most of those praising Nigerians now usually sing with it everytime, let me put it here) there are more Nigerians living in poverty (80M out of 200M), than there are in India's 1.3B (yes oo, na so dey talk, meaning less than 80M out of India's 1.3B are living in poverty, meaning India has a poverty rate of less than 6%.... Anyone who has been to India or even just studied general economic data of developing countries will know this is bullshit)

For honesty, I can only speak about my own experience with them and what I have heard from others who have had first hand experience with them. From my experience oo, Indians are a million times more honest than Nigerians. It was on this thread sometime ago that I shared my experience with Nigerian managers in my company, how everyone is working to steal from you, how I one changed management 3 times in a year, how Nigerian managers almost gave me hypertension. Until someone suggested I hire Indian managers. I was reluctant at first, considering how expensive it will be to be paying visa and flight tickets and all that for expatriate managers, but since I was already about to close down the factory due to Nigerian's wahala, I took the advice and from then on, it was like magic, for the first time ever, I had peace of mind on that factory. The surprising part was that they eventually turned out to be cheaper than the Nigerian management when you consider the increases in productivity and the leakages that Nigerians were using to steal money that they blocked.

Till today, when anyone complains about Nigerian staff and how their corruption/dishonesty is about to destroy their business, I tell them to hire Indians. In the past 2 years, 4 people have taken the advice and done it, and it has always ended in peace of mind, progress and happiness. Not a single one has regretted the decision. After the hell I have experienced in the hands of Nigerians, I have personally sworn never to put a Nigerian incharge of any of my businesses. If I can't be there to manage it myself, then it must be an Indian.

There is a popular company in Nigeria to which we supply products. When the Nigerians are incharge, you will spend over an hour, they will waste your time, talk to you anyhow and be using to style to demand bribe and "anything for the boys". But anytime the Indians are there, it's always very quick and straight-forward.

You think it's coincidence that many Nigerian companies are run by Indians, from Dangote to Globacom. You think its coincidence that Indian (and their Lebanese counterparts) businesses seem to do so well in Nigeria and are transferred generation to generation. You think its coincidence that they run all those fortune 500 companies.

But last last sha, Nigerians will do what they know how to do best, blame the government.

DexterousOne:
I have a very unpopular suggestion

Maybe we should just damn the consequences and bite the bullet
Maybe that is the only way things will change for good in this country
If not for anything
The very high NGN to USD rates will seriously trim our acquirer taste for a lot of non essentials in this country

Though it has a drawback of impoverishment
I'm just thinking out loud

The CBN monopoly on the USD should be broken
Let the BDC and the banks and the street determine the price
I'd wager that remittances inflows into the country will explode
And foreign investments will pour in as well...
Though our neighbours will also be in trouble because of how cheap things will become in Nigeria
In comparison to their own country

There are so many trade offs in the air
And none will give us a favourable short term outcome
So why dont we just bite the bullet

If we refuse to be productive afterwards
Let us suffer for it
Afterall
As we say
He that does not work should not eat

No politician will willingly do this.
It might make sense economically, but not politically.
You that is talking now will be the first to insult buhari and emefiele if such is done, shouting about how things are expensive, inflation close to Zimbabwe, Nigerians are poorer, salary ten years ago bigger than today's salary, we are retrogressing, Buhari oo etc

I believe they're just trying to manage the situation until the Dangote refinery is ready. At least, that will take off a lot of pressure from the naira.

Come to think of it, why are Nigerians yet to embrace export-driven economic growth? Why do we love this Maoist concept of self-sufficiency?

The "Nigeria of our dreams" for most Nigerians is one with absolutely zero imports. It should instead be one with trillions of dollars of imports (shows our people are rich and have very high consumption) and trillions of dollars more of exports (high productivity to follow up our massive consumption). Our imports are already very low compared to the size of our economy ($40B for 200M Nigerians while 50M South Africans import $70B, 30M Canadians import $450B). Our problems increasing exports not so so imports, imports.

I remember back then when there was talk about ecowas planning to strike a free trade agreement with the EU. Nigerian manufacturers were at the forefront against such. I recall one saying "there is absolutely nothing we can produce that Europe can't produce cheaper". Is that not a disgrace? With all their expensive labour, expensive land, tight regulation etc, we still can't beat then in price? Even in labour intensive goods.

Nigerians are always so satisfied with their market of 200M people, but we tend to forget there's a market of 1 billion more in Africa and 6.8B across the world. This mentality explains why Nigerian businesses except Dangote and the banks, are always very reluctant to expand beyond Nigeria into even our neighbors, whereas any small thing, lebanese/indian businessmen in Nigeria have opened new office in Ghana or Benin.

If I were president, one of the most important things I'll look at is improving trade. Signing free trade deals with Canada, Hong Kong, Taiwan, South Korea, Singapore, Japan, Switzerland, Scandinavia and other wealthy countries. If we can get a free trade deal with the US, EU, UK and Australia that protects our agricultural sector from theire agricultural subsidies, then we can sign that too (subsidizing industries to help them compete isn't free trade). All this coupled with aggressive ease of business reforms, power, new and more efficient ports, better inland waterway systems, interest subsidies for manufacturing equipment imports and a weak currency, all to make our goods cheaper and more competitive globally.

Take cars for example. All these automobile industry development won't work. Nigerians just like the rest of sub-saharan Africa (except South Africa) are too poor to afford new cars. Instead of putting tariffs on tokunbo cars, we should allow them come in freely. Nigerians will buy such cars cheaper, cost of transportation will reduce and more money can be spending on other areas of the economy, they'll be more business for filling stations, car wash, mechanics, electrician etc. Our local car industry will now be directed at exports. Use our cheap labour to produce cars to export to richer countries like US, Canada, Europe etc. This is where our free trade agreements will come in as our exports there will be Tariff free and thetefore more competitive than those paying tariffs. As we are producing more and more cars for export, our GDP per capita rises and incomes also rise till they get to a level at which Nigerians can easily afford new cars. Not to be forcing us to buy what we can't afford. This principle works for everyother industry.

Some will say America, Europe and the other countries we sign free trade agreements with will flood our country with their goods and kill our industries. And I ask, what goods exactly? Those countries focus on high value and highly technical goods that are way above our reach for now. Taiwan will flood your market with semiconductors, computer processors and complex manufacturing equipment etc. Switzerland will flood your market with luxury watches and high end chocolate. Italy and France will flood you with luxury fashion. US, UK and EU will flood your market with aeroplanes and jet engines. Singapore will flood your market with the most sophisticated biopharmaceutical products. All this are not bad because we can't produce those things ourselves at this level we currently are (even China still struggles to produce those things I listed. Yes, they are still in the learning phase of these advanced types of manufacturing). The are very complex stuff that we currently do not have the knowledge to make yet. Let's get their cheap semiconductors and chips and assemble then into cheaper electronics to sell back to them. Let's get they're cheap complex manufacturing equipment to help our manufacturing industry become more competitive. Let's get their aeroplanes and her engines for cheap and use it to develop our local aviation industry. Or can are there local jet engine manufacturers (even china hasn't started manufacturing that one). All these while we flood them with cheap garments and clothes, toys, electronics, furniture, shoes, vehicles, household items etc.

Let's export what we're good at doing and import what others are better at.