solelymade:

I love your summation especially the closing remark

Thanks!!!

luwabrooklyn:
what we have can't develop diz country I think what we should focus on is how to make more money and spend less/ borrow less Tho op is right to a point but what we need for this country to grow is to encourage the growth of our local producers have more billionaires I mean more human capital schemes if this country have more than 200 legitimate billionaires who are not into oil Nigeria would be fine

good idea

how much did the "cow" pay u

lereinter:

how much did the "cow" pay u

Meaning?

Both the OP and those in support of the OP actually demonstrate what Bill Gates was getting at about the importance of human capital: none of these people have the necessary human capital to really understand what Gates was getting at in the first place, which is why they are busy knocking down straw men while displaying a total ignorance of the vast amount of research that has been done on the nature of economic growth!

The first point worth making, and which the OP totally fails to grasp in his crude spending calculations, is that Nigeria's expenditure on education isn't just low in absolute terms, but also in relative terms when considered either as a portion of the country's GDP or the government's budget: a far greater share of the federal government's budget goes to paying salaries to a bloated, inefficient and corruption-riddled workforce than the same government devotes to primary, secondary and tertiary education combined, and that's even before considering the billions that are looted outright in scams like Dasukigate, artificially subsidized forex for a lucky few, or the endless "turn around maintenance" on the perpetually non-functional NNPC refineries.

There is not a single instance in modern economic history of a country devoting as low a percentage of its annual expenditure to education - especially at the primary and junior secondary level - as Nigeria does, and yet managing to go from under-developed to developed status: that's not how it happened in Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Singapore or even China. All of these countries first achieved 90% literacy rates before taking off economically, which is no surprise, as it takes at least basic literacy and numeracy for people to make good factory workers and technicians. Don't believe me? Here is an official World Bank report on the subject.

The second important point missed completely by the OP and his/her cheerleaders is that human capital consists of more than just paper certificates, and it has application to more than just getting a nice, easy, white-collar job in an air-conditioned office (which is the only relevance most Nigerians see to getting an education). Human capital also consists in things like understanding basic economics, the norms of representational government (e.g. division of powers, the importance of fundamental rights, etc), a basic understanding of the scientific method (so people easily see through religious scam-artists calling themselves "prophets", and useless, barbaric superstitions involving "rituals" ), and what constitutes valid and invalid arguments (so that, for example, people can immediately slap down nonsense like the "tu quoque" rubbish some are quick to spout in defense of politicians under criminal suspicion). A large percentage of Nigerians may have gone to school, and might even be able to read the words on a piece of paper, but in all the areas I've mentioned, only a minuscule fraction of "educated" Nigerians possess the necessary human capital to make them effective citizens - and this is reflected in the politicians they elect, who also display the same educational deficits, right up to the geriatric currently sitting in Aso Rock. A person who cannot reason clearly, who is in the bonds of the silliest and most patently ridiculous superstitions, who can't differentiate junk science from the real thing, whose default "explanation" for everything is to blame a conspiracy against his tribe, and who lacks a basic grasp of statistics and probability, and knows nothing of history - net even that of his own country - can never be the kind of citizen who demands and gets high-quality government.

At this point I expect one or more lazy, intellectually sub-par and clearly human-capital deficient bottom-feeders to crawl out of the woodwork to dismiss everything I've written as "grammar", even while openly admitting that they haven't read the whole thing, let alone digested it. The irony will be entirely lost on such individuals that they only further substantiate what I've been getting at: without the right kind of human capital, any amount of petrodollars spent on infrastructure will only come to waste in the end, given that said infrastructure will still have to be manned and overseen by these same lazy, tribalistic, superstitious dolts. What good did all the 1970s infrastructural spending do Nigeria in the long run?

rich man dey talk poor man say he get idea .....

life2017:
Your argument is extreme. I didnt say human capital development is not important. I only said you need good economy to fund human capital development. Human capital development is not cheap. You are wrong on South korea. Human capital development in south korea was a product of economy development.

I can see you prefer to remain in your ignorance maybe due to high number of equally ignorant posters hailing your thinking.

You still don't understand we have a poor economy mainly because of a low level of human capacity.

You may never understand until you talk to local and foreign investors who lament lack of skilled manpower as a disincentive to invest in the economy. Do you know the large number of Indians and Chinese employed by Dangote in his sugar, cement and truck factories? DO you know a government trained those people to make them useful enough to work here rather than remain unskilled? Your formula would have been to pursue elusive economic development to then have money to invest in human capacity development
Do you know the number of Filipino qualified expatriate welders working on our oil and gas projects? Don't we have thousands of mediocre welders at our street corners who are unemployable for these roles? Why is that happening and are we investing enough to correct this anomaly
Those job in thousands should belong to Nigerians

Nice writeup OP.

Good facts presented. We are simply too broke to undertake both Infrastructure and People development. We need to grow our economy first and then focus on social issues like human capital next. We have no money.

This companies

GE
Microsoft
Google
Facebook
Apple

If they are analyzed on the same index countries are being graded, they are way bigger than the USA.

kayfra:
Nice writeup OP.

Good facts presented. We are simply too broke to undertake both Infrastructure and People development. We need to grow our economy first and then focus on social issues like human capital next. We have no money.

How do you grow your economy? By investing in human capital and infrastructure. The op's thinking is faulty. Investors are not so eager to invest in a country that lacks human capital and infrastructure. And you need investors to grow an economy...

nwoke37:


How do you grow your economy? By investing in human capital and infrastructure. The op's thinking is faulty. Investors are not so eager to invest in a country that lacks human capital and infrastructure. And you need investors to grow an economy...

I never said is faulting to invest in human capital. I said we have a large population of well developed human capital who lack opportunities in the current weak economy. We need to grow the economy to utilised them to grow human capital further.

@OP, have you ever been to the North of Nigeria? Visit there, study things, then come back, read what you wrote up there, then apologize to Mr. Bill Gates and other more exposed Nigerians.

onavae:
@OP, have you ever been to the North of Nigeria? Visit there, study things, then come back, read what you wrote up there, then apologize to Mr. Bill Gates and other more exposed Nigerians.

I have been to North. I have been to Bauchi, Plateau, Benue and Kano. I have lived. I have been to all part of Nigeria. I have been to the whole south states. the whole south east states except ebonyi. I have been to south west, north west, north east and north central.

Yes, I know , North are backward in basic western education.

However, in the south, there are many well trained and educated people that are job less.

I am a Niger Deltan. Many Niger Deltans who have embrace Amnesty who have been trained in different skills abroad are still jobless. There is no opportunity for them.

My question is how do we create opportunity for the existing well developed Human capital?.

In any society, those who used their creativity to drive the economy are usually less than 1% of the population. The rest 99% only function as workers or support.

We need to create an environment that makes it easy to convert acquired skills to economic boom.

life2017:
I consider Bill Gates opinion as opinion base on nice to have which does not conform to the reality on ground in Nigeria.

Human capital development is a good thing. So also is Infrastructural development a good thing. While Bill gates believe human capital should be the priority, the federal govt Economic Recovery Growth Plan believes the most critical thing Nigeria needs now is radical infrastructural development with some level of human capital development alongside. I strongly believe that to grow human capital, u need good economy. The government believe through infrastructural development (good roads, rail way and power) that people will be able to use their individual ability to grow the economy at least in the short to medium term. Human capital as defined by Bill Gates is Education and Health care.

Let's look at it in Nigeria context. There is currently huge unemployment in Nigeria. There is unemployment even among those who went abroad such as UK, US etc to study before returning back to Nigeria. Which means even among few well developed human capital (Well educated youths with good health) in Nigeria, there is lack of opportunity for them to utilize all the resources that have been spent developing their human capital capacity. Even those who are making attempt to use their talents, skills (human capital capacity) to grow the economy are frustrated and made less productive because of poor infrastructure.

America govt with a population of 326 million people spend about 700billion dollars( 210 trillion Naira) a year for their K-12 education. American K 12 is Nigeria primary and secondary school. Nigeria has a population of 200million people. Which means if we are to follow America full step we should be spending 130 trillion Naira a year for only primary and secondary education. America Fed govt spent 3.2 trillion dollars (1000 trillion Naira) on health care. If we are to follow US full step we will need to spend 600trillion naira on health care every year. So by US standard Nigeria needs about 730 trillion naira annually to develop human capital.

Nigeria full annual budget is less than 9 trillion Naira with the actual expected revenue around 6trillion (The extra that made it about 9 trillion is deficit to be borrowed). That is the budget for defence, agriculture, Salaries, health, education etc. if Nigeria is to stop borrowing, stop looting, stop paying civil servant salaries and pension, stop paying army, etc we cannot even achieve 1% of what is required for Human Capital by America standard.

What does that tell us? It means the country is too poor to develop it's human capacity effectively.

What is the way forward? Nigeria like every other poor country must first develop it's economy before it can better fund human capital development. Human capital development cannot be achieved by wishful thinking. it involves huge investment . U need good economy to fund good human capital development. Yes good human capital will help to further develop the economy.

I have strong respect for Bill gates as the richest man in the world for over 22 years ( though sometimes he do come 2nd). Bill gates is rich because of the opportunities that abound in the United state. Bill gates is not an economist.

This issue or debate is like an arguments of Chicken and Egg which came first. No matter how complex the topic may be, some things are clear. You cannot grow Human Capital when the economy is very poor. You cannot grow the economy under very poor infrastructure. and a poor country cannot grow infrastructure when it focuses on consumption. For Nigeria to grow its economy, it will require a lot of sacrifice from both the leaders and the people.

What we need now, is to focus on how to create opportunities for the few well develop human capital we already have. So that they can use their skills and talent to boost the economy, which will further help to develop more sound human capital. The little human capital we have been able to develop over the years are wasting because of lack of opportunities and development. Infrastructure will help to some extent in solving the challenge.


I will also advise the govt to copy south korea as a template for development. South korea govt refused to accept america advise and they rather chosed thier own path. And today it is very successful. In the case of south korea, it is the growth of thier export businesses that lead to growth of human capital capacity. Bill gates does not understand Nigeria reality. Below is UK guardian report on how South Korea grew its economy. I think Nigeria govt should learn from it in their anti corruption fight. We need to convert all corrupt Nigerians with millions and billions to Dangote like South korea did.


https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/poverty-matters/2011/nov/28/south-korea-development-model

Sorry but you just ended up writing a very stupid article

life2017:


I never said is faulting to invest in human capital. I said we have a large population of well developed human capital who lack opportunities in the current weak economy. We need to grow the economy to utilised them to grow human capital further.

You just refuse to be educated and keep wallowing in this ignorance.
You cannot grow any economy without developing adequately your human resources. Is that too hard to figure?

We thought education is too expensive and chose ignorance see where it landed us.

Human resource development is not an event, it's a process that never ends. You just told us USA spends $700 bn on primary and secondary education, that is 35 times our annual federal budget, , are we going to wait until we can raise that money before massive investment in education? Or do we invest a large part of what we have in education and health and get the multiplier effect of a well trained workforce.

Awolowo devoted about 40% of Western Nigeria budget to education and the result is that more than 60% of industrial establishment and private educational institutions are located in his region.
Foreign and local investors consider this area first to locate than anywhere else.
Will it be a bad idea to replicate this feat nationwide by similar massive investment in education?

Keep quiet, be humble and learn. Human development is first and paramount. Every other thing is secondary.

life2017:


I never said is faulting to invest in human capital. I said we have a large population of well developed human capital who lack opportunities in the current weak economy. We need to grow the economy to utilised them to grow human capital further.

Amberon11:
Keep quiet, be humble and learn. Human development is first and paramount. Every other thing is secondary.

Your argument is faulty. Nobody is arguing with you on importance of human development purely on theoretical bases.

We are discussing reality here. Nigeria has some well trained human capital who are idle, under employed and under utilized.

While we believe in continuous growth of human developedment, optimising and getting high returns from the ones we already have is important and crucial. As we utilize the existing human capital efficiently, the economy will grow. We are aware of many talents who waste in Nigeria but blossom with the same talent when they go abroad.

Your arguments is skewed, lack balance and reality. Your arguments is nothing but pure fatansy.

nwoke37:


How do you grow your economy? By investing in human capital and infrastructure. The op's thinking is faulty. Investors are not so eager to invest in a country that lacks human capital and infrastructure. And you need investors to grow an economy...

I get your point but you don't want to use good but scarce money to go after bad. For example, no matter the amount of money you spend in educating the far north, it will always be wasted resources. They have cultural issues that prevents them from wanting to learn anything. On the same note, building hospitals there won't stop them from polygamy and easy divorce, having kids they can't afford.

That's already half of the country. A better way to use the limited money, at least for now is building infrastructure that supports the production of fertilizers and building irrigation systems. And with better roads, they'll head to their farms and they'll be more productive to the society.

The southern part of the country could use people development and make something of the economy. But we have so much idle capacity of trained people with zero opportunities.

I'll cop to putting serious focus on healthcare capacity while addressing basic infrastructure. I'll give Bill Gates that one.

Our issues are way too complex

@OP, by what indicies do measure human capital development? Education only? Health? Ease of living and business? Security? One of the above? All of the above and much more? Cos it seems you are just hammering on education only of which as a whole? We are under educated in Nigeria. Zamfara state has 24 fed govt hospitals and only 23 doctors only. The story is the same for most core northern states. Down south, there are more doctors than hospitals can take. When the doctors are posted to the North, most resign and travel out of the country. Go to US, Canada, etc, even UN operations around Africa and the middle East are populated by Nigerian doctors. Cos Southerners don't feel safe working in the north. So once again, I ask you, what are your indicies for human capital development measurement?

onavae:
@OP, by what indicies do measure human capital development? Education only? Health? Ease of living and business? Security? One of the above? All of the above and much more? Cos it seems you are just hammering on education only of which as a whole? We are under educated in Nigeria. Zamfara state has 24 fed govt hospitals and only 23 doctors only. The story is the same for most core northern states. Down south, there are more doctors than hospitals can take. When the doctors are posted to the North, most resign and travel out of the country. Go to US, Canada, etc, even UN operations around Africa and the middle East are populated by Nigerian doctors. Cos Southerners don't feel safe working in the north. So once again, I ask you, what are your indicies for human capital development measurement?

I my opinion was base on the area of human capital Bill gates emphasized. Bill gates limited it to Education and health.

Bill Gates is simply advising our F.G to balance Nigerians Mental and Stomach Infrastructures for economic and social Development.

Amberon11:
Keep quiet, be humble and learn. Human development is first and paramount. Every other thing is secondary.

Wrong, both are equally important, human development without a platform to showcase such is worthless.
The two are just like the head and heart, very important and compliment each other,
Nigeria is a poor country, we only feel we are rich because of the bogus salaries of our politicians.
How much do you feel should be the standard salary of a teacher, how many standard teachers do you think we need, what of standard learning aids, schools and feeding. What will be the cost, can we afford it.

Proudlyngwa:

Wrong, both are equally important, human development without a platform to sgowcasesuch is worthless.
The two are just like the head and heart, very important and compliment each other,
Nigeria is a poor country, we only feel we are rich because of the bogus salaries of our politicians.
How much do you feel should be the standard salary of a teacher, how many standard teachers do you think we need, what of standard learning aids, schools and feeding. What will be the cost, can we afford it.

u nailed it. kudos. so on point

life2017:
Your argument is extreme. I didnt say human capital development is not important. I only said you need good economy to fund human capital development. Human capital development is not cheap. You are wrong on South korea. Human capital development in south korea was a product of economy development.

Sir u are very wrong....
U need human capital to fund n sustain a solid economy....
Knowledge is power and that statement will forever be valid....
Silicon valley is home to multi billion dollars enterprises founded by great minds.....
These guys started their business from the backyard of their small houses in same silicon valley....
Most were fresh graduates from the university and had nothing....
Maybe except a laptop.....
Yet those guyz came up with Microsoft, Apple, Google, Facebook, Oracle, amazon, adobe, Dell and other IT companies....
They didn't achieve such monumental success because of any great infrastructure in silicon valley....
In fact silicon valley is more of a orchard farmland regarded as the hinterland of California....
Those guys as well as a university called Stanford university established in the valley transformed that place......
With hard work and brainpower...
The story of the university is for another day....

Nigeria has been building infrastructure as far as I can remember....
We built refineries, airports, 1000s km of roads, ajaokuta steel company, seaports, schools, housing estates, hospitals, cannals, dams, irrigation projects, power stations....
Nigeria has always been building....
Now tell me, what state are these infrastructures presently....
Why did they deteriorate n dilapidate so fast n in such embarrassing manner....
Yet u telling me building more is the solution to nigeria problem....

The truth is nigeria lacks the intellectual human capacity to effectively manage and sustain those infrastructures....
We don't invest in our people and as a return, Nigerians are not endowed with the ability to source for local solutions to solve Nigeria challenges...
We don't know how to exploit the potentials in our environment to meet our needs....
Our education is in shambles and absolutely nothing to write home about....
Therefore we are always looking to China and the West to solve our problems.....
And the above is what Bill Gates was trying to pass across...

The minister of darkness came out and said nigeria needs 100 billion dollars to build it's road to 100% and another 100 billion dollars to achieve 24 hours light....

I'm yet to see any country that doled out 200 billion dollars at a go for just 2 infrastructure, not even China....


Most poor countries in the Asia and europe have good n well maintained road connections, yet they don't break the banks to have it done.....
This is because there's no big deal in building roads, bridges n railways..
Road construction is a simple and cheap technology......
It's only expensive among lazy and ignorant African countries.....

The only way Nigeria can achieve 100% road construction is when Nigerians build Nigerian roads....
Nobody will do it for us.....
Expecting foreigners or importing foreign technology to achieve this target is living in fools Paradise.....
Until we teach and train Nigerians on the need to use local materials and local technology for domestic construction, we can as well accept pot holes n bad roads as a way of life....

Nigeria will forever be in perpetual Darkness until we understand the peculiarities of Nigerian power situation and apply native wisdom in the Generation, transmission and distribution of power in Nigeria.....
If you like, throw 200 billion dollar into darkness hoping to seek for light....
I trust Nigerian politicians and their insatiable bellies, they will swallow it and ask for more.....

life2017:


u nailed it. kudos. so on point

For once lets invest in our people....
Let's stop building structures rather let's build people
The Shining buildings of yesteryear are today's derelict, because no one was trained to maintain them.....
any fool can build, it takes hardwork and Intelligence to maintain....
these two qualities are lacking amongst Nigerians and that is why we suffer....
I'm yet to see a country that invested in its people and got no return return on investments....
Lailai, koseleri......
after Korea Civil War, the first thing the South Korean president did was to embark on massive free education policy for every child.
At that time, south Korea had no viable infrastructure and was neck deep in debt.....
Today we can see the result.....
Those children are now the brains behind Samsung LG Hyundai.
Nigerian politicians don't like investing in people because the personal ROI is poor, we should not encourage bad behaviour by urging them on....
We learn from successful people not failures or mediocre.....
Let's listen to Bill Gates.....
Dangote is building a refinery in nigeria, yet all his top mangers in the project are foreigners....
For how long will this continue....
There's nothing wrong with the black man's brain....
With right training n motivation, we will perform wonders.....

SIRTee15:

Nigerian politicians don't like investing in people because the personal ROI is poor, we should not encourage bad behaviour by urging them on....

Exactly. Not only is there less room to "chop" when money is spent teaching children instead of on expensive infrastructural projects (where one can hand out massively inflated contracts to cronies without worrying about raising difficult questions), but a well-educated citizen also makes for a more critical and demanding citizen, the kind who won't just be content with collecting rice on election day to sell his or her vote, and won't support a crooked, incompetent candidate simply because "na my kinsman". It simply isn't in most Nigerian politicians' financial or political interest to see a substantial rise in the ordinary voter's intellectual capital, not when keeping them in ignorance allows for ridiculous situations in which kleptocrats are treated as all-conquering heroes by their very victims (eg Tafa Balogun, James Ibori, Stella Oduah, Bode George).

The OP probably has never heard of human developmental index HDI and innovative index.....
Countries with the best ranking are also the most prosperous.....
There's a direct correlation btw high human development n prosperity.....
Nigeria's quality of human development is way too low for any meaningful economic prosperity to spring up....
Half of our citizens are plain illiterate, who don't even know what to expect from their govt....
They probably dont even know what to do to better or improve themselves....
They just continue living their life at the barely primitive sustainable level....
They can't even understand it, if govt has genuine intentions for them....

The other so called educated citizens are product of a certificate oriented educational system.....
They believe it's the duty of the govt to get them a job.....
They simply were not trained to connect with their environment n exploit their potentials.....
They were not trained to think outside the box.....

All geologist graduate in nigeria wants to work in an oil company.....
Yet Chinese come to our country, exploit our earth n exports these resources back to their home country.....
Exactly what our geologist should be doing.....
These minerals have been sitting with us for years lying redundant......
It took a foreigner to tell us it's worth.....
Go to nasarawa n see how these chinese are exploring our mineral resources n carting them away in tonnes without paying a single dime in market value....
Of course if the value of something is unknown, abuse is inevitable....
The Chinese who knows the value are taking advantage.....

The nigerian workforce is largely unproductive.....
We don't need any massive infrastructural spending to change this.....
What we need is investment in the right kind of education n capacity building.....
Training n re-training is the key.....

India infrastructure is nothing superb.....
But those guyz dominate the IT industry, medical tourism, n the pharmaceutical industry.....
In those 3 fields u just can't beat them.....
They achieve the above by focusing on area of compative advantage n training a skilled workforce in those fields.....
It's even now that indians are beginning to look at the area of infrastructural spending.....

If nigeria is to be relevant in this century....
Then, it needs to listen to Bill Gates n his likes...

SIRTee15:
The OP probably has never heard of human developmental index HDI and innovative index.....
Countries with the best ranking are also the most prosperous.....
There's a direct correlation btw high human development n prosperity.....
Nigeria's quality of human development is way too low for any meaningful economic prosperity to spring up....
Half of our citizens are plain illiterate, who don't even know what to expect from their govt....
They probably dont even know what to do to better or improve themselves....
They just continue living their life at the barely primitive sustainable level....
They can't even understand it, if govt has genuine intentions for them....

The other so called educated citizens are product of a certificate oriented educational system.....
They believe it's the duty of the govt to get them a job.....
They simply were not trained to connect with their environment n exploit their potentials.....
They were not trained to think outside the box.....

All geologist graduate in nigeria wants to work in an oil company.....
Yet Chinese come to our country, exploit our earth n exports these resources back to their home country.....
Exactly what our geologist should be doing.....
These minerals have been sitting with us for years lying redundant......
It took a foreigner to tell us it's worth.....
Go to nasarawa n see how these chinese are exploring our mineral resources n carting them away in tonnes without paying a single dime in market value....
Of course if the value of something is unknown, abuse is inevitable....
The Chinese who knows the value are taking advantage.....

The nigerian workforce is largely unproductive.....
We don't need any massive infrastructural spending to change this.....
What we need is investment in the right kind of education n capacity building.....
Training n re-training is the key.....

India infrastructure is nothing superb.....
But those guyz dominate the IT industry, medical tourism, n the pharmaceutical industry.....
In those 3 fields u just can't beat them.....
They achieve the above by focusing on area of compative advantage n training a skilled workforce in those fields.....
It's even now that indians are beginning to look at the area of infrastructural spending.....

If nigeria is to be relevant in this century....
Then, it needs to listen to Bill Gates n his likes...

How do u fund human capacity when u don't have money? That is the question?
I did not downplay the importance of human capital.
Before we can effectively do that, we must create opportunities for the few we already have so that they can help to develop the country's human capital further.

life2017:

How do u fund human capacity when u don't have money? That is the question?

Oh please! Isn't this the same Nigeria with 3 space agencies, the same country subsidizing forex for religious pilgrimages, the same country that insists on ever more rounds of "turn around maintenance" on refineries that inevitably breakdown again shortly thereafter, the same country in which white elephant stadiums and hospitals (without properly paid staff) abound at all levels of government, the same country in which hundreds of thousands of "employees" are paid at the state and federal level to either not show up for "work" at all, or to sit around idly gossiping even when they bother?

To go by what you've written, one might be forgiven for thinking Nigeria was some sort of paragon of efficient and thrifty government spending. There is simply no excuse for Nigeria devoting so little to education, and all your chatter about "first" finding jobs is meaningless if people aren't qualified to take any new jobs on offer. You can't seem to get your head around the concept that a paper certificate is worthless to an employer if the certificate holder can't apply the skills in the real world, but how are Nigerian university graduates in computer science and engineering supposed to be able to do so when they've acquired their "education" in institutions without functioning labs or computers?

It's past time you accepted that your entire thesis is nonsense, and that Bill Gates was 100% correct.

I think everyone who has made a comment on this thread or other similar ones should try to watch the actual video of the speech Bill Gates gave.

IMHO, what he said is one hundred percent correct and backed with solid research. First of all, he did not say governments economic plan was a bad plan, he only said that it does not solve Nigeria's problems. let me try to break his message down.

He said Nigeria has a history of reporting bad data so it is hard to measure our progress. he stated that based on our GDP figures, Nigeria should be termed a middle-income country. he stated that the average life expectancy in a middle-income country is 67 years and for a low-income country, 63 years yet Nigeria has an average life expectancy of 53 years and that Nigeria is one of the worst countries to be born in. What he is alluding to here is the perversive income inequality faced by Nigerians. Just recently, a poll showed Nigeria as the country with the second highest income inequality on earth.

Bill Gates then stated that as our economy continues to grow, grants from the world bank and other agencies that help our poor people would be stopped because Nigeria will no longer qualify for such grants. He then mentioned that most people would probably wonder where Nigeria should get money to invest in Human capital from since we are struggling to finance our infrastructural plans. providing a solution, he said Nigeria has the lowest tax to GDP ratio at 6% on earth. that the next worse nation is Bangladesh with a 10% tax to GDP ratio. if Nigeria raised our ratio to 10 percent, Nigeria would have 19 billion dollars extra to spend on its people.


From the little economics I know, there are two ways to increase governments funds: cut cost be eliminating unproductive jobs and raise revenue through taxes. Bill Gates correctly identified raising taxes. In history, when countries have tried to balance their budgets, countries that have raised taxes on the poor usually lead their economies into recessions whereas countries that raise taxes on the rich usually succeed in balancing their budgets. The reason for this phenomenon is quite simple to understand. Most poor people have no savings and spend all their income on food, shelter and clothing. what this implies is that when poor people have money, they exchange that money more often than rich people do, increasing the multiplier effect of each unit of money they have. The richer a person is, the higher the amount of savings the person usually has. Even when a rich person does not have savings, most of his/her spending is on imported goods which simply takes money out of our economy.

Back to Bill Gates. he ends his speech advising our government to put policies in place to increase short-term loans to Nigerians. he states that Kenya has already implemented a similar policy and such a policy will not only reduce poverty by creating mass employment but will also improve our GDP.

In summary, Bill Gates is saying our income inequality is our main issue and not our lack of infrastructure. He is saying that development on both these issues must go hand in hand for Nigeria to develop into a prosperous nation. I One hundred support his views on this issue.





https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v_kNFFyMUqg&t=605s

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mHdbj99DgNk

trillville:
I think everyone who has made a comment on this thread or other similar ones should try to watch the actual video of the speech Bill Gates gave.


.........

Back to Bill Gates. he ends his speech advising our government to put policies in place to increase short-term loans to Nigerians. he states that Kenya has already implemented a similar policy and such a policy will not only reduce poverty by creating mass employment but will also improve our GDP.

In summary, Bill Gates is saying our income inequality is our main issue and not our lack of infrastructure. He is saying that development on both these issues must go hand in hand for Nigeria to develop into a prosperous nation. I One hundred support his views on this issue.





https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v_kNFFyMUqg&t=605s

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mHdbj99DgNk

Bill gates was being misquoted by the media