Chippla has done some simple maths to reveal that Nigeria is actually quite poor despite the so-called oil wealth. According to his calculations, the country only makes about 2100 naira per month ($15) per citizen. So because of our enormous population, oil wealth is not going to be enough to guarantee us a good standard of living, even if there is zero corruption!

Let's now do the math: 108 billion Naira + 36 states x 2 billion Naira + 774 LGAs x 65 million Naira = 230 billion Naira ($ 1.77 billion).

There are about 120 million people living in Nigeria. Lets divide this sum by 120 million.

Amount per head = 230 billion Naira/120 million people = 1920 Naira/person = $15/person.

Thus, the total amount received by all tiers of government in Nigeria for the month of October 2005 comes to a mere $ 15 per person. Sounds like a very poor nation despite its so-called oil wealth!

http://chippla..com/2006/01/poverty-beyond-corruption.html

What do you think about this? I think we have to look for ways to make every man, woman and child in Nigeria productive. Create jobs people, we shouldn't all be jostling for jobs in the oil sector or banking sector!

i always thought nigeria was quiet rich cuz of the OIL RESOURCES!!!!

xxxprincessxxx

i guess i was rong!!
thanx for da info!! (by da way ur CLEVER!!! )

xxxprincessxxx

Not me, but Chippla

OH! OK then, Thanx Chippla!!!

you should have known this since!!!!

thats why they usually say we are one of the poorest nations....seems like theyve stopped using that term now in the news....cos we have potentials i guess

thats how they calculate they the less da $1 dollar per day against the $2 dollar/cow subsidies get get

I showed Chippla's article to someone and he laughed it off as government propaganda...

this is very revealing and also very challenging if it is proved to be true after a rigorous empirical investigation.

From time 'imo -river' this information and 'grimmier' ones have been known by all discerning minds.
It was the basis on which Nigeria went on a borrowing spree in the early eightees... in an attempt to diversify the economy.
It was the basis on which the national rolling plan of the late seventies was made.

Operation feed the nation, Green revolution, etc were targetted at ensuring that dependence on an 'already insufficient amount of oil money' is reduced to the barest minumum.

Invested wealth always multiplies and grows itself. squandered wealth ends up in the 'rest' room. Therefore Oil wealth would have been enough to ensure a decent standard of living if it was invested and nurtured, but alas, it was stolen and still being stolen.

The real wealth of a soceity of country is its people. It then beats the imagination why and how men/women/children are being killed, maimed and incapacitated just because there is oil under their houses/farms and settlements.

Nigeria's undoing is this gross misplacement of focus/attention.

Human beings are the real wealth (or source of wealth) in any system or society. The failure of leadership and followership in Nigeria has been the failure to fully grasp this fact, its import and to fully implement the issues that arise therefrom.

Just another angle to it:

We produce some 2400000 (two million four hundred thousand) barrels of oil per day on the average. Right? OK, lets say 2million barrels.

So, with a barrel of oil costing some $56.00 (on the average), that means:

We make some $56*2000000 = $112,000,000. That's some $1.12billion dollars daily.

Now, we know that it's not only oil that's a revenue earner for the country. If we add all the other sources of revenue for the country, we could say we ain't doing badly, though.


But, na wah o. $1.12 billion dollars per day! Men, surely, there must be a way of spreading the proceeds around. It's huge!

[s]It's huge, but you know the revenue the government gets comes from the taxes paid by the oil companies.[/s] Ignorance.

Bros.... 56 * 2,000,000 is $112m. and not $1.2 bn

that comes to about $40.88bn per annum.

the revenue is therefore 40bn
- less the annual JV funding of about $4bn
- less about 42.5% that goes to the JV partners


the revenue comes to about $19,5 bn for a year or about $53 milliion per day or
or $0.407/day/person
That is pittance because if the oil industry were to crumble today, then about 40% of customs revue would be wiped out in addtion to over 70% of the revenue due to the maritime authorities.

Summary: In monetary terms, Nigeria is an extremely poor country.... indeed one of the poorest in the world. In human terms, one of the richest. As written earlier, it baffles the mind ones best resources are trampled upon, in an attempt to chase the least of resources.
It reminds one of those people that chase beautiful butterflies in a gold mine while others are busy bringing out the precious gold from the same area.

Owo blow! U're right! My mistake. I stand corrected.

I guess we've got to start looking 'inwards' for alternative source of revenue.

Looking inwards is what we should have been doing since 1973... We should have invested the oil boom money properly!

This is all voodoo economics.  It's called per capita income, when total earnings is divided by population.

The fact is, Nigeria is not expected to hand raw cash to its citizens, so $15 per person from the calculation doesn't make any sense.

What makes sense is that with all the guaranteed oil billions coming in, if Nigeria used the money to develop its telecommunications system, brought telephones into every home, modernised NEPA for stable power supply, built good roads for easy commute, funded research in schools, built hospitals for better health, spent money on banishing 419'ers, launched a massive campaign for honesty in Nigeria, etc, we'd still have billions left over.  Yes, after all that spending, we'd still have money left to blow.

Now imagine the changes that the above developments would bring to Nigeria.  First and foremost, doing business in Nigeria would become attractive to the world.  The more businesses that start up, the more jobs that are created for Nigerians. 

Furthermore, because Nigerians can now communicate better with the world, more people can enter into legitimate business ventures via the Internet. 

You see where I'm going with this?

Suddenly, we'd be raking in tourism dollars, because Nigeria would be a place tourists want to visit.  Tourists are big spenders.  Now we can sell them worthless trinkets for good money.  Instead of us going after the money abroad, the money is now coming home to us.

Basically, by merely putting the basics in place (roads, hospitals, R&, electricity, telecom, modern banks, etc), there would be a domino effect that ripples through the system.

So, do not believe those lies about Nigeria being poor because of low per capita income.  We're poor only because most of our money always find its way into foreign banks, doing the average Nigerian no good at all.

Part of the voodoo in the economics is that with the best of intentions Nigeria's revenue base, sources and level is precarious.

Below is a list of the so called fortune 500 companies with their accompanying revenues and profits for year 2005
                                                               Revenue m$             Profit  m$
1 Wal-Mart Stores                288,189.00 10,267.00
2 Exxon Mobil                270,772.00 25,330.00
3 General Motors                193,517.00 2,805.00
4 Ford Motor                172,233.00 3,487.00
5 General Electric                152,363.00 16,593.00
6 ChevronTexaco                147,967.00 13,328.00
7 ConocoPhillips                121,663.00 8,129.00
8 Citigroup                                108,276.00 17,046.00
9 American Intl. Group 98,610.00 11,050.00
10 Intl. Business Machines 96,293.00 8,430.00
11 Hewlett-Packard                79,905.00 3,497.00
12 Berkshire Hathaway                74,382.00 7,308.00
13 Home Depot                73,094.00 5,001.00
14 Verizon Communications 71,563.30 7,830.70
15 McKesson                                69,506.10 646.5
16 Cardinal Health                65,130.60 1,474.50
17 Altria Group                64,440.00 9,416.00
18 Bank of America Corp. 63,324.00 14,143.00
19 State Farm Insurance Cos 58,818.90 5,308.60
20 J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. 56,931.00 4,466.00
21 Kroger                                56,434.40 -128
22 Valero Energy                53,918.60 1,803.80
23 AmerisourceBergen                53,179.00 468.4
24 Pfizer                                52,921.00 11,361.00
25 Boeing                                52,553.00 1,872.00
26 Procter & Gamble                51,407.00 6,481.00
27 Target                                49,934.00 3,198.00
28 Dell                                49,205.00 3,043.00
29 Costco Wholesale                48,107.00 882.4
30 Johnson & Johnson                47,348.00 8,509.00
31 Marathon Oil                45,444.00 1,261.00
32 Time Warner                42,869.00 3,364.00
33 SBC Communications 41,098.00 5,887.00
34 Dow Chemical                40,161.00 2,797.00
35 Albertson's                40,052.00 444
36 Morgan Stanley                39,549.00 4,486.00
37 MetLife                                39,535.00 2,758.00
38 Walgreen                                37,508.20 1,360.20
39 United Technologies                37,445.00 2,788.00
40 UnitedHealth Group                37,218.00 2,587.00
41 Microsoft                                36,835.00 8,168.00
42 United Parcel Service 36,582.00 3,333.00
43 Lowe's                                36,464.00 2,176.00
44 Archer Daniels Midland 36,151.40 494.7
45 Sears Roebuck                36,099.00 -507
46 Safeway                                35,822.90 560.2
47 Lockheed Martin                35,526.00 1,266.00
48 Medco Health Solutions 35,351.90 481.6
49 Motorola                                35,349.00 1,532.00
50 Intel                                34,209.00 7,516.00
51 Allstate                                33,936.00 3,181.00
52 Wells Fargo                33,876.00 7,014.00
53 Merrill Lynch                32,467.00 4,436.00
54 Walt Disney                30,752.00 2,345.00
55 CVS                                30,594.30 918.8
56 AT&T                                30,537.00 -6,469.00
57 Caterpillar                30,251.00 2,035.00
58 Northrop Grumman                29,868.00 1,084.00
59 Goldman Sachs Group 29,839.00 4,553.00
60 Sysco                                29,335.40 907.2
61 PepsiCo                                29,261.00 4,212.00
62 American Express                29,115.00 3,445.00
63 Delphi                                28,700.00 -36
64 Prudential Financial                28,348.00 2,256.00
65 Wachovia Corp.                28,067.00 5,214.00
66 DuPont                                27,995.00 1,780.00
67 Sprint                                27,428.00 -1,012.00
68 New York Life Insurance 27,175.50 1,213.30
69 Viacom                                27,054.80 -17,462.20
70 International Paper                26,722.00 -35
71 Johnson Controls                26,553.40 817.5
72 Tyson Foods                26,441.00 403
73 Caremark Rx                25,801.10 600.3
74 J.C. Penney                25,678.00 524
75 Honeywell Intl.                25,601.00 1,281.00
76 Ingram Micro                25,462.10 219.9
77 Best Buy                                24,901.00 705
78 FedEx                                24,710.00 838
79 Alcoa                                23,960.00 1,310.00
80 HCA                                23,502.00 1,246.00
81 TIAA-CREF                23,411.30 540.5
82 Sunoco                                23,226.00 605
83 Mass. Mutual Life Ins. 23,159.20 677
84 Merck                                22,938.60 5,813.40
85 St. Paul Travelers Cos. 22,934.00 955
86 Duke Energy                22,779.00 1,490.00
87 BellSouth                                22,729.00 4,758.00
88 Hartford Financial Services 22,693.00 2,115.00
89 Weyerhaeuser                22,665.00 1,283.00
90 MCI                                22,615.00 -4,002.00
91 Cisco Systems                22,045.00 4,401.00
92 Coca-Cola                21,962.00 4,847.00
93 Bristol-Myers Squibb 21,886.00 2,388.00
94 Lehman Brothers Hldgs. 21,250.00 2,369.00
95 Electronic Data Systems 21,033.00 158
96 Plains All Amer. Pipeline 20,975.50 130
97 Wellpoint                                20,815.10 960.1
98 News Corp.                20,802.00 1,533.00
99 Nationwide                20,558.00 1,010.00
100 Abbott Laboratories                20,473.10 3,235.90


NIGERIA     (population  - 130m)         22,000.00                          

Taiwan       (population -   23m)          49,000.00      

With a population less than one fifth (1/5) of Nigeria, Taiwan with no oil or abundant 'Natural resources' has a revenue that is more than double that of Nigeria with 'all' the oil, ores and others.
The secret.... It developed its human resources...eg .It makes more computer motherboards than any other country on earth, its research and development efforts are top of the range.

In addition to the voodoo, consider the american military budget.
American military budget estimate(2006)          $441,000.00m

It easy to fall into the temptation of giving historical and  social reasons/excuses as to why there are disparities in the income level..... If so, then consider south korea, taiwan and malaysia that started out with us in the 60's. This place can be the best place in the world.....It can.

Can Nigeria grow and move on from here?.... Yes
Will it grow?.... No.... unless it is restructured, realigned, reorganised or broken into growth based units. Its current constitution/organisation/set-up is aimed at systematically underdeveloping all its contituent units. That explains why it has over a million of its best brains in the US alone and an innumerable multitude scattered accross the globe.

The companies listed above make their money from harnessing the power of the human brain within its fold.....No organisation can grow beyond the intellectual capability of its men/women.same for any soceity.

The point here is ... Without corruption, Nigeria with all the oil money does not have enough money to invest or feed itself. Even the small peanuts is poorly invested dues to crass ignorance and illiteracy
In any case, there will be no domino effect when siting infrastructure depends on where the presidents hails from. Go and check Minna Airport that has near zero traffic and compare it with Port Harcourt Airport that handles the 'oil money' traffic. Consider the economic relevance of the state of both roads. It will tell you the story

As important as tourism is, it must not be a first line source of income. If it was so good, how come the carribeans economies are still in their doldrums. Accurate statistics do not lie. France that receives the highest no. of tourists does not rely on it as a first line source of income. Rather they they ensured that they have some of the best brains in the world. The Eiffel tower for instance has the name of the great scientists (Largrange, Bernouli, marie- Curie, and the like) that worked in paris

Whether it is per-capita or what ever name..... this soceity is desperately poor and in need of an urgent revamp. The young at heart, will keep quiet at their (and children's) own peril.

Starting with your brother, uncle, village-man, town-man etc , present the facts, data, information and ideas on what needs to be done to move us forward. Their hearts will be stirred and prayers will be answered.

There isn't a single plan that is capable of making Nigeria a better country than it currently is.
Instead you need a good mix of everything.  R&, modern infrastructure, tourism, drive for success among the citizens, good health, guaranteed safety for investors, bilateral trade relations with other countries, etc.

The Carribean is no more than an extension of Nigeria.  That is why their tourism income fails to better their economy.

Once again, Nigeria is not a poor country by any stretch of the imagination.  You use money to make money.  If Nigeria puts its oil money to good use, we'd shoot up very quickly as one of the top players in the world. 

Most countries in the world today can't do things that Nigeria can, because they'd have to resort to borrowing to fund things.  Yet, we classify Nigeria as poor?  How so?

Most people are book smart.  And theories are all they know.  However, sometimes you have to look beyond theories to see the facts.  Look at George Bush.  A few years ago he received scathing criticisms for his tax-cut plans.  Everybody said he was giving money to the rich.  But the truth is, only the rich create jobs to keep the economy going.  Of course, his critics are now silent on that matter, now that the US economy is booming. 

So why the criticisms to begin with, if Bush's plan actually works.  Well, because his critics are book-smart, but lack simple common sense.

We need common sense leaders in Nigeria.

The consequence of positive investments were clearly stated as the quote below shows

owo:


Invested wealth always multiplies and grows itself. squandered wealth ends up in the 'rest' room. Therefore Oil wealth would have been enough to ensure a decent standard of living if it was invested and nurtured, but alas, it was stolen and still being stolen.
The real wealth of a soceity of country is its people. It then beats the imagination why and how men/women/children are being killed, maimed and incapacitated just because there is oil under their houses/farms and settlements.

Nigeria's undoing is this gross misplacement of focus/attention.

But that is talking about possibilities that would have been if the monies of yesterday were positively invested. Even today, there is still no positive investment.

In tomorrow's terms... Nigeria may be classified as potentially 'rich' (after all since the early seventies, its potentials have never been in doubt). It would smack of denying today's reality to build hopes and draw conclusions on what Nigeria could possibly become tomomrow.

In any case, all the economic projections/predictions concerning the outcome of our 'investments' over the last 35 years have failed. What then is the basis on which the supposed 'future' wealth of Nigeria is built?

Therefore, if today's wealth (and not future possibilities) is the index to judge/determine wealth then, Nigeria is grossly poor. Indeed, very poor as previously shown. Projections and possiblities have been with humans from ancient times, but it has never been the basis of judging current realities.

Declaring wealth based on tomorrows possibilities would amount to making the same mistake that our forbears made - that of assuming that we can always have an economic miracle when we want it. No nation has ever had an overnight economic miracle. It has always been the result of constant, steadfast positive investment in people (first), social infrastructure, harmony and people politics. Even this is not being done in today's Nigeria

In all of today's terms, Oil 'rich' Nigeria is desperately poor.

Yes, Nigeria today is desperately poor.  But not because we don't have the money to make things better, but because our resources are shamelessly squandered.

So, the message is clear, and all attempts to obfuscate the truth about our wealth and worth would be rebutted.

Oasis and Owo, I've learnt quite a lot from you both. Thanks.

This may be irrelevant but $15 per month may not be real. As i understand it, this is GDP per capita for 1 month. However the Gdp should include all expenditure( assuming all the monies allocated are spent in the month) that is Government expenditure[b]and [/b] expenditure by the private sector. Investments(fdi's) i think should also be added.

Recently i saw an article that  the notion that poor countries have people living on less than $1 may after all be false. The argument being that the most prevalent occupation in such countries is primarily subsistence agriculture,hence most of the populace are self dependent as regards their feeding.

Recently i saw an article that the notion that poor countries have people living on less than $1 may after all be false. The argument being that the most prevalent occupation in such countries is primarily subsistence agriculture,hence most of the populace are self dependent as regards their feeding.

I agree.

Besides, $1 in poor country may be worth $10 in the USA.

According to CIA factbook, Chippla is far from right, the CIA factbook estimates says 1000 per annum, which means about $2.75 per day. you can look it up www.cia.gov



GDP (purchasing power parity):
$132.1 billion (2005 est.)
GDP (official exchange rate):
$78.08 billion (2005 est.)
GDP - real growth rate:
5.2% (2005 est.)
GDP - per capita:
purchasing power parity - $1,000 (2005 est.)
GDP - composition by sector:
agriculture: 26.8%
industry: 48.8%
services: 24.4% (2005 est.)
Labor force:
57.21 million (2005 est.)
Labor force - by occupation:
agriculture 70%, industry 10%, services 20% (1999 est.)
Unemployment rate:
2.9% NA (2005 est.)
Population below poverty line:
60% (2000 est.)
Household income or consumption by percentage share:
lowest 10%: 1.6%
highest 10%: 40.8% (1996-97)
Distribution of family income - Gini index:
50.6 (1996-97)
Inflation rate (consumer prices):
15.6% (2005 est.)
Investment (gross fixed):
23.1% of GDP (2005 est.)
Budget:
revenues: $12.86 billion
expenditures: $13.54 billion, including capital expenditures of NA (2005 est.)
Public debt:
11.2% of GDP (2005 est.)
Agriculture - products:
cocoa, peanuts, palm oil, corn, rice, sorghum, millet, cassava (tapioca), yams, rubber; cattle, sheep, goats, pigs; timber; fish
Industries:
crude oil, coal, tin, columbite, palm oil, peanuts, cotton, rubber, wood, hides and skins, textiles, cement and other construction materials, food products, footwear, chemicals, fertilizer, printing, ceramics, steel, small commercial ship construction and repair
Industrial production growth rate:
2.4% (2005 est.)
Electricity - production:
15.59 billion kWh (2003)
Electricity - consumption:
14.46 billion kWh (2003)
Electricity - exports:
40 million kWh (2003)
Electricity - imports:
0 kWh (2003)
Oil - production:
2.451 million bbl/day (2005 est.)
Oil - consumption:
310,000 bbl/day (2003 est.)
Oil - exports:
NA (2001)
Oil - imports:
NA (2001)
Oil - proved reserves:
36 billion bbl (2005 est.)
Natural gas - production:
15.68 billion cu m (2001 est.)
Natural gas - consumption:
7.85 billion cu m (2001 est.)
Natural gas - exports:
7.83 billion cu m (2001 est.)
Natural gas - imports:
0 cu m (2001 est.)
Natural gas - proved reserves:
4.007 trillion cu m (2005)
Current account balance:
$9.622 billion (2005 est.)
Exports:
$52.16 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)
Exports - partners:
US 47.4%, Brazil 10.7%, Spain 7.1% (2004)
Imports:
$25.95 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)
Imports - partners:
China 9.4%, US 8.4%, UK 7.8%, Netherlands 5.9%, France 5.4%, Germany 4.8%, Italy 4% (2004)
Reserves of foreign exchange and gold:
$30.16 billion (2005 est.)
Debt - external:
$37.49 billion (2005 est.)
Economic aid - recipient:
IMF $250 million (1998)
Currency (code):
naira (NGN)
Exchange rates:
nairas per US dollar - 132.59 (2005), 132.89 (2004), 129.22 (2003), 120.58 (2002), 111.23 (2001)
Fiscal year:
calendar year

Great read.

Oil does not translate to wealth unless a country have a low population.

ivolt:
Oil does not translate to wealth unless a country have a low population.

And people with vision ..not the clowns you have littering everywhere in Nigeria

Ok

EKONGKING:
Ok

BORORO,what are you doing here?

When men where Men

Igbofirstfarmer:
When men where Men

am telling you,not now that zombies are everywhere