lockupman:
Any hope the falling naira would improve after the yuletide season?

temitemi1:
We survived economy meltdown, so we will survive this again. God bless Nigeria!!!

GoldStandard:
All I'm thinking of now is what to start exporting....
I envy our brotheRs in Onitsha & Aba

persius555:
Well seconded.What kind of country with over 170 million people/moth will wait to be fed by importation.If the US, china, India is cutting down on importation, we should be cutting down on importation of goods that have viable alternatives. Top on import lists are rice, sugar, flour, cars.FG should work on local alternatives of these goods.

Seriously.....the hope is very little. As long as the crude oil prices keep tumbling (with some people predicting USD50/barrel), their is no respite for the Naira both in the short and long run.

persius555:
Well seconded.What kind of country with over 170 million people/moth will wait to be fed by importation.If the US, china, India is cutting down on importation, we should be cutting down on importation of goods that have viable alternatives. Top on import lists are rice, sugar, flour, cars.FG should work on local alternatives of these goods.

tit:
a weaker naira means that it will be cheaper to produce goods in nigeria and sell to the world!
this should be an employment opportunity for hardworking people and entrepreneurs.

Maczeelly:
God have mercy on this nation







We really need change in this country!!!!!!!!!!!!

tit:
a weaker naira means that it will be cheaper to produce goods in nigeria and sell to the world!
this should be an employment opportunity for hardworking people and entrepreneurs.

FrankC3:
For me, this is the opportunity for us to allow the naira assume it's actual value in the market. The CBN, Finance Ministry and the National Planning office know exactly what is going on. I dont think naira is being devalued, its value has always been falsely maintained by squandering our foreign reserve. It is time to take off the protectionist glove and let the naira gain value on the merits of improved production, employment generation and real economic activity not on the back of foreign reserve, afterall Nigerians are not happy with debt. We can't eat our cake and have it.

It takes ball to do what is happening now in an election period. Dollars will be injected early next year to firm it a little but we should fold our sleeves to build on a solid foundations of agriculture, manufacturing and services that earn foreign exchange.

FrankC3:
For me, this is the opportunity for us to allow the naira assume it's actual value in the market. The CBN, Finance Ministry and the National Planning office know exactly what is going on. I dont think naira is being devalued, its value has always been falsely maintained by squandering our foreign reserve. It is time to take off the protectionist glove and let the naira gain value on the merits of improved production, employment generation and real economic activity not on the back of foreign reserve, afterall Nigerians are not happy with debt. We can't eat our cake and have it.

It takes ball to do what is happening now in an election period. Dollars will be injected early next year to firm it a little but we should fold our sleeves to build on a solid foundations of agriculture, manufacturing and services that earn foreign exchange.

tit:
a weaker naira means that it will be cheaper to produce goods in nigeria and sell to the world!
this should be an employment opportunity for hardworking people and entrepreneurs.

onatisi:
ok let me give u an example of what I mean. I was in india in 1980 to 1982 during the time of rajiv ghandi the son of indirah ghanadi. Rajiv made a law that totally banned the importation of foreign goods ,and the few ones on sale were very very very costly. indians had no choice but to start looking inward and mind u they didn't even have oil. But they started producing goods for their local market and later perfected the manufacturing of those goods. That was when they started producing scooter (tricycle) and other goods. we cant wait for power supply to stabilize before starting to produce. Secondly I will dispute ur analysis of market unavailability. The nigerian market itself is enough to accommodate any amount or quantity of agricultural product produced. This is the largest market in africa and the largest black nation in the world .we are talking about 170million ppl living and feeding in nigeria. So on the issue of market not been available I may not agree with u on that. The nigerian market will continue to attract investors regardless of whatever challenges they face here. China started in a similar fashion too,start producing for ur local market first before the international market,limit drastically the amount of money sent abroad to bring in this goods. The usa once said about nigeria that nigeria is the only country that exports all that she needs but import all that she has. A total ban on the importation of finished good but tax relief for machinery needed for manufacturing is the way forward for nigeria. Although this will require a political will that cannot be gotten from a democratic nigerian govt.

kjhova:


Your line of thought on th e topic is sound. However the world of today has changed compared to Indhira's 1980's. Nigeria is signatory to the GATT & is a member of the WTO. These alone ensures that we cannot unilaterally emplace restrictions on trade without recourse to our trade partners except Nigeria wants to exist in a pariah status for a period.

The way out of poverty in the modern world requires a certain level of leadership & commitment. Such level that is constantly non-existent in Africa but hopefully should be demonstrable from the new set of leaders at the end of the 2nd decade of the new millenium.

lockupman:
Any hope the falling naira would improve after the yuletide season?

kjhova:


Not likely that the situation will improve much after the yuletide.

The sad part is that the solution to the looming recession is no longer in our hands as we did not build up enough FX reserves to cushion the loss of FX from the on-going oil price fall. Also we have remained a mono-economy as we still haven't diversified from oil dependency.

As it is, until the price of oil begins to appreciate again, it can only get worse for Nigeria in 2015. Unless of course we find our self a sugar daddy in the like of the Paris or London clubs (IMF, WB etc) which will cushion our recession in the short term but cripple us with debt in the long run.

onatisi:
I believe agricultural product is the easiest and fastest.

unmask:
which meltdown did you survive? .... If Nigeria sees meltdown, she won't last one week

GoldStandard:


But you can't export POULtRY products, can you? Cos others are more like long-term plan

onatisi:
we are back to the days of SAP I guess .

kjhova:


Yes, we are right back at 1986 & SAP. But the sad part is that this time we have a democratic government in an election year. It will be difficult to take tough decisions more-so the present govt has not demonstrated overtime the courage to take such decisions.

Worse still, SAP failed in '86 due to mis-governance. Any guarantees that we can make it work this time? We hope so.

onatisi:
In nigeria of today ,our agric products are business goldmines, do people know that there is not enough pineapples to satisfy the local market? What about oranges and mangos. The same applies to them. All these fruit drinks companies always sends out agents to procure these items. I know someone that moved back to nigeria some years back and immediately went into banana plantation he later told me he would never have travelled if he knew there is so much money in agriculture. The major problem nigeria has is agric produce preservation. This is an area universities and research institutes need to come up with ways by which these fruits and crops can be preserved for sometime before selling them.

onatisi:
yes and no. But why do u want to export when we can't even satisfy local demand?