By Abubakar Widi-Jalo

1.You don't earn forex by consuming locally,you earn forex by manufacturing and exporting.
Buying made on nigeria by Nigerians is a good step in our quest for economic recovery,but it is definitely not the ultimate solution.
2.In the agricultural sector we keep talking about,we don't even produce enough for local consumption talkless of exporting.

YOU CANT EARN FOREX FROM AGRICULTURE BY JUST CONSUMING LOCALLY,YOU HAVE TO EXPORT THESE AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTS TO EARN FOREX,FROM SEEDS TO CASH CROPS.

3.We never make mention of the the real potential forex earners,TOURISM and AVIATION.

AVIATION;
Ethiopian Airlines rakes in about $2.3 billion Dollars yearly,
Ethiopian airline is ranked number in Africa and number 37 in the world.

So why have we abandoned Nigeria airways?
Why are we not taking the aviation sector seriously?
Why don't we have a national carrier which is potentially a forex earner?

Nigerians are one of the most travelled people in the world and the Nigerian route is one of the most lucrative in Africa.
Emirates airlines alone flies 3 scheduled flights out of Nigeria everyday,with other airlines like British airways,Air France,KLM,Lufthansa,Qatar air etc raking millions of dollars out of the Nigerian aviation industry,an industry we've abandoned for no good reason.
Bringing back Nigeria airways is a task that must be done.

TOURISM

This is another industry that has all the potentials for forex earning.
We have the longest beach stretch in Africa and one of the biggest in the world albeit undeveloped,in Lagos,our beach's starts from Épé all the way to Badagry.
The famous 'defunct' Bar Beach used to be one of the most strategic beach,situated in the heart of beautiful Victoria island,for decades bar beach was left undeveloped,in fact we were so clueless on what to do with it we gave the beach out to real estate foreign investors who have since sand filled the whole of bar beach and are building a new city called Eko Atlantic,a project only the investors and a few elites will make money from.
Tiny Zanzibar makes in billions of dollars from tourism,tourism accounts for 45% of the semi autonomous countries GDP.

We are not even talking about major tourist money spinning cities like Paris,London,Istanbul and Saudi Arabia,Dubai,Malaysia,Hong kong etc.
I've been to more than 7 beautiful tourist destinations in Nigeria,
Yankaree games reserve,Kainji games reserve,Gurara falls,Erin Ijesha water fall(which is the only water fall in the world that has 7 different layers)
Ikogosi hot and cold spring resort,
Jos wildlife park.Ryom rock formation.
Not to talk of Obudu cattle ranch, and beautiful Gembu in Taraba state.

Victoria Island in Lagos is 10 times more beautiful than Zanzibar in terms of modernity and infrastructure,but what they did in Zanzibar is deliberately conserving all the unique artifacts,buildings and historical monuments.

They also have one of the most beautiful and the cleanest beaches in the world. The beautiful clear blueish white sand beaches is the main attraction to Zanzibar

Stone Town an area i also stayed has mainly houses like that of the old city of kano and the old houses inside Lagos(isaleko,Ebute Metta and the old colonial houses inside the railways quarters,Iddo)

But what they did in Zanzibar is just packaging,
1.They gave the place a unique and attractive name STONE TOWN
2.They converted most of these buildings to hotels and restaurants and some as museums.
We have Gidan Makama in kano which is more unique than all the buildings I have visited here,but how many foreign visitors visit Gidan Makama?
It cost a tourist 30 dollars to do a local tour of stone town.
It cost Americans,Europeans,and Asians $100 at the airport to get a visa,it cost other African Nationals $50.


In Lagos,we left our beautiful beach's which is a 'gold mine' in tourism in the hands of agberos and area boys,how can you leave the operation of beach's in the hands of area boys?
Which tourist will want to visit an unsafe beach?
I have been severally harassed at various beaches in Lagos by area boys who forcefully make you pay gate fees and parking fees and then keep stalking you throughout your stay at the beach.
Our beach water is dirty and brownish due to all sorts of environmental pollution.

NIMASA is the government agency saddled with the responsibility of checking the activities of ships and shippers who bring in goods to our sea ports. Naturally,after a long journey from America,Asia and Europe,these vessels generate waste and garbage,most of them dump the harzadous waste on our high sea.

To check their activities and excesses,NIMSA contracted the supervision and garbage collection from these vessels,
On arrival,every ship is expected to declare their garbage and then pay for it's collection.
Failure to declare garbage attracts a penalty.

But because corruption has eaten deep into the vibre of our hearts and souls,these contracted to do this job collect bribes in hard currency from the shippers and allow them to dump toxic waste on our high sea,

And the result?
Our natural clear blue sea turns black,brown and ugly,which means no tourist will want to travel all the way from Asia and Europe to swim in dirty water.
Some disgruntled elements in our society add to this by doing their "business" in our open waters,they just open their dirty Yansh and do it right in the water.

So because of the negligence the government agencies that are saddled with the responsibility of ensuring waste and garbage are not disposed on our high sea,and the lackadaisical attitude of allowing agberos and area boys take charge of our beach's and recreation facilities,we are potentially loosing millions of dollars in from our beach front alone.

Patronizing and buying made in Nigeria goods can and will improve the economic condition of the people but it won't add any value against the Dollar in the international market.

Pls note that even if every body in Nigeria stops buying anything abroad,that will still not change the situation of our local currency against the dollar.

How's does buying made in Nigeria goods translate making forex?
How does driving an Innoson made in Nigeria car translate to forex earning?
The truth is Innoson motors will have to export his cars first to the international market before we earn forex from that industry.

In a free world market,what every country needs is Balance of trade Americans drive more made in Japanese cars than the Cadillac,Ford,Chevrolet,Jeep WranglerChrsler, etc.

But they balance this trend in other areas like machinery production,computer soft ware, airplanes,weapons,Agro allied products etc.

So buying made in Nigeria goods is not enough to safe the naira againts the dollar,we have to start manufacturing for exports,we have to produce enough rice for local consumption and for international export to earn forex
(just as we used to do with groundnuts and cocoa)
Bearing in mind we have countries like Thailand,Vietnam,Turkey etc
to contend with in the international food market.

NO ONE CAN PERFORM MAGIC ABOUT THE FREE FALL OF THE NAIRA IN THE PARALLEL MARKET

IT IS SIMPLY THE LAW OF DEMAND AND SUPPLY AT WORK.

We are no more earning enough forex due to the fall of the price of crude,and the demand for forex is still very high mainly from importers.

WE DO NOT PRINT DOLLARS JUST AS AMERICA DONT PRINT THE NAIRA. So the situation will remain the same unless we diversify our economy in other areas such as agriculture,tourism and aviation.

The truth is,buying and consuming made in Nigeria goods in Nigeria by Nigerians will not solve the problem of the naira, But manufacturing and exporting made in Nigeria goods and rendering services will earn us forex and help strengthen the naira againts other major foreign currencies.

#fact