₦airaland Forum

otokx: Ngozi Okonji Iweala should have kept quiet, now she has just exposed herself for nothing.
Amaechi just gave her a TKO.

Is ALUU still in darkness

obuksjr: As regards to Ogboru being finished,are you speaking as an opposition or just personal prejudice against his political aspiration?,what if PDP chose to pitch a tent with Delta north,will you still be skeptical about his landslide victory if the calculation above stands without manipulation ?.Just wait,the last has not been heard about 2015.

Ogboru is politically finished in delta. As an urhoboman, the victory of PDP at the last senatorial election brought so much joy to my soul. Because the urhobos have finally defeated the enemy within, which was the DPP.The Next Gov. of the State will only emerge with the blessings of the delta central zone, as long, as we remain united in the PDP. We cannot enter 2015 with a house divided again. Urhobos must learn from the disaster of 2007 and 2011

obuksjr: Has he decamped from DPP?.The last time I checked he was still Ogboru's deputy.

Nobody from APC will ever be elected to anything in delta. APC and DPP are dead in delta.

There is no doubt in my mind our fathers mismanaged the Nigerian civil war. Nobody liberated the Nigerdelta, than the Nigerdeltans themselves.. Hundreds of young men like my father were in the army already and thousands more joined the army on the Federal sides to defend their homelands in the 1967-70 war. The roles of David Ejoor, Paul Omu and Ogbemudia will be totally reversed today, if that war was fought again. Jonah's three years in power was God sent, because,the average man walking the streets of Southsouth know the people seeking their downfall on a per second basis. Lo and behold, they are not Igbos. Just imagine what life will be for us in the southsouth today without the political support from the East. The Oppositions, were prepared to kill and bury Goodluck, 90 days after he took office in 2011. Only God knows why. We became the inferior minority to them. All, they did was awaken the spirit of the southsouth people. From all indications, most of them are surprised at the aggressive nature of our push back. Nigeria is our country, just as it is their country. Unfortunately for them, we pay 90% of her bills and they cannot wish this fact away. They don't have to like us, but they must put up with us as THE FIRST AMONG EQUALS.

@OP, Calling anybody in the Southsouth of 1967-70 a traitor is wrong. You were not in their shoes back then. Today, some people are calling the southsouth minorities traitors, because they have decided to carry their own political cross.

Some of us just throw facts away, all in the attempt to insult NOI. Amaechi is talking about $1B dollars, which, $1 billion the one from march 2013 or Nov 2013 that, they shared from the ECA to supplement the shortfalls in the federation account. How many billions did ECA transfer to SWF, abi he does not know about this too. Did his commissioner of finance support government in their FAAC meetings to pay some outstanding Oil subsides payment from the same ECA funds You have to truly feel sorry for this nation, when a character like Amaechi is called a governor of a state. One, cannot wonder why this Nation takes one step forward and 20 backwards.

lamido, your wahala has not even started yet

When Gbemiga Omotoso bought a Samsung tablet computer last year, he handed over his cash to a man in a van. There was nothing shady, though, about the transaction. It’s part of online retailer Jumia’s attempt to adapt to the unique challenges of selling in Nigeria.
With many of the country’s 160 million residents suspicious of paying online -- yes, they get those dodgy e-mails, too -- the Lagos-based retailer wins over skeptical shoppers by accepting payment on delivery and offering free returns.
Enlarge image Trying to Build the Next Amazon in Nigeria


“It’s very important that people know it’s not a scam,” said co-founder Tunde Kehinde, 29. “Even though they want to buy, trust is still a very, very big issue.”
Jumia and local rival Konga.com have taken a page from the playbook of Amazon.com (AMZN): delivering electronics, clothes, and even refrigerators to the front doors of Nigerians. Shopping locally has usually meant higher prices, less selection, and often sitting in traffic for hours to get to stores, which rely on generators to cope with power outages almost daily.
“There’s a lot of appetite for consumption, but supply is terrible,” said Jeremy Hodara, founder and managing director of Africa Internet Holding, an investor in online businesses across the continent and a shareholder in Jumia. “It’s expensive and cumbersome to buy abroad, but if there’s no choice, that is what people do.”

Berry Wreaths
In the lead-up to Christmas, Jumia aims to boost revenue by 40 percent each month through December. Items featured in the site’s holiday section range from berry wreaths to MAC lipstick to kids’ bikes for 11,995 naira ($75).
On a recent November day at Jumia’s warehouse -- a stadium-size building down a muddy, potholed road in a Lagos commercial district -- employees pulled items from the shelves, then stuffed them into delivery vans or piled them onto motorbikes.
Jumia has received $75 million in funding since its inception, including seed capital from Berlin-based Rocket Internet. The company has 600 employees and also sells in Kenya, Morocco, Ivory Coast, Egypt, and South Africa. Although not yet profitable, Jumia is bringing in “a couple of million” dollars a month in revenue and expanding at almost 20 percent monthly, according to Kehinde and Ghanaian co-founder Raphael Afaedor, both Harvard Business School graduates.

Shopping Securely
To combat fears of online fraud and to educate Nigerians about shopping online securely, the company has a direct sales team of about 200 in cities such as Lagos and Port Harcourt.
They wear outfits bearing Jumia’s logo and hold impromptu shopping sessions in businesses, churches, and homes, answering questions and using tablet computers to demonstrate how to order.
“There are people who are open to online shopping -- people who have traveled or have lived abroad,” Afaedor said. With others who are skeptical, “it takes a bit more effort to get people to change their behavior.”
One person they will be delivering to again is Omotoso. The 31-year-old technician in Lagos was won over by the service after buying the tablet and plans to use it next for Christmas shopping -- and now he’ll pay by card.
“They are making life very easy for us Nigerians,” he said, adding that he doesn’t have time to tackle daily gridlocked traffic to shop for Christmas treats. “They also have quality, they don’t just sell anything.”
Eager to win more sales from Nigeria’s oil-fueled economy, which is expected to grow more than 6 percent this year and 7 percent in 2014, according to a Bloomberg News survey of economists, Jumia has a fleet of about 200 vehicles.
Almost two-thirds are motorbikes, which are easier to guide through traffic jams. To thwart robberies, the last deliveries are at 7 p.m.

Building Amazon
At some point, cash-on­delivery -- especially for big-ticket items like fridges -- may not be needed. The number of payments in the country made by mobile phone more than doubled to 2.4 million in the first half of 2012 from the same period a year earlier, while Internet payments rose 9.3 percent, according to the central bank of Nigeria.
For now, it’s just another quirk of doing business in an emerging market. “Here you are collecting cash and reconciling payments almost like a bank desk, here you are building a logistics company,” said Afaedor. His co-founder Kehinde is quick to ask, “How many times can you say in your life you get to build an Amazon?”


To contact the reporters on this story: Chris Kay in Lagos at ckay5@bloomberg.net; Christopher Spillane in Johannesburg at cspillane3@bloomberg.net; Janice Kew in Johannesburg at jkew4@bloomberg.net

After reading through some comments here, the abysmal morals in this country makes more sense to me. Good luck to Unijos. There are hundreds of billions available around the world from different groups seeking solutions to problems. I hope Unijos makes a habit of this. Stop waiting for government.

payless: You made assertion that he hated southerners/christians but we all have hatred for certain people of different ethnics or religions. That doesn't mean we hate everyone who are of different ethnicity or religion other than ours. His actions during war should not be used as yardstick to label him as a butcher. War is war! War is not a place where you play with perceived enemy. Your people hate other tribes too just as Hausa or Yorubas have hatred for other tribes. You cannot come here to tell the whole world that Muritala hated southerners without fact to back it up. He couldn't have hated southerners and christians so much that he married one himself.

I am free to state my opinion as I like. You don't have to agree with what I say. If you think otherwise, that is your God given right.

PhenomenonVFX: OP ur source is suspicious o. Why is it not complete?

I only decided to headline, how the 6 zones were created and resource control became a political issue like never before. All becuase of Alex Ekwueme

payless: Hatred for others make some people shoot themselves in the foot sometimes. You cannot have hatred for certain people and expect them to support your political aspiration. There is always time to move on from the past but Ekwueme and others like him have refused to move on. If you cannot forget about yesterday animosity, you cannot have friends. When a particular major etnich group hates other two major ethnic groups the way most Igbos do, then I have to say there won't be an Igbo president in my life time. There are great Igbos that I know but the actions of certain Igbos will affect other great Igbos who wish Nigeria well. There is a particular governor in the east whose sole aim is to sow seeds of discord with other etnic groups. All he says is Yoruba party, Hausa party and blah blah blah....... . Meanwhile, this particular governor and others like him have all of their businesses and investments in Yoruba land and Hausa land. As a matter of facts, his children don't attend school in Igbo land. This particular governor could not find a single Igbo man in Anambra to succeed him, he went to bring an Igbo man who has no single house of his in the entire Anambra State. A man who hardly set his feet in Anambra in the last 25 years.

What you call hate I call equalizing the political field. As a southsouth person, I will forever be graceful to him.

payless: You can spin whichever way you want till you fall and hit your heard on a concrete. I keep punching hole in your assertions each time you brought any. Did Muritala kill your father and marry your sister?

You can act naive all you want. I don't spin, Muritala was a butcher and a hater of southerners and he died like the dog he was. I will always like Dimka for killing him, the way he did. If you think his marriage to ajoke makes him a friend of the south good for you yorubas.

payless: Lie! Muritala also hated southern christians so much he married one. Right?

So, that's the way they operated. They killed your father and married your sister.

payless: Muritala "hated southern/christian" so much he made Obasanjo who is a christian as his second in command and Theophilous Danjuma who is also a christian as chief of army staff. SMH! Some of you don't think before you talk or post information.

TY and Joe brought his a$$ to power. OBJ was for balancing period. Go and review their reputation in the barracks.

Orlando Owoh: This is a big lie. Where have you heard that a senior officer in the army leads a coup? Coups are mostly led by middle-rank officers, captains, majors, and rarely, lt.-colonels. According to General David Jemibewon in his book, "A Combatant In Government", middle-rank officers relate easily with junior and seniors officers. They are the intermidiaries.
Muamah Gadaffi was a captain when he at his fellow young officers overthrew the government in Libya in 1969. He was only promoted to the rank of a colonel, which he maintained till his death, by his friends for his outstanding qualities. Chukwuma Nzeogwu and his friends were majors and captains. Murtala Muhammed, Adamu Martins and T. Y. Danjuma were majors and captains.

The LT, Cpt and majors of 1966/67 became Lt Col and Cols of 1975/76 and Brig and Major gens of 1983. You think a major or Lt col can plan a coup in Nigeria today Stop dreaming.

He had the belief that every northerner, whether Muslim or Christian, was part of the coup.
During the constitutional conference of Obasanjo’s government, he went there as leader of the South East with a bias that Shagari was toppled just to stop him from becoming president in 1987.
I swear that was an error on his part, he just picked up hatred for every northerner, including the Tiv, Birom and the rest. But he hated the Hausa, Fulani Muslims the more.
His mistake was that he went to the conference in which every part of this country will be represented, with a pathological hatred for the north. We spent one year in the conference, with Alex as the leader of the Igbo coalition, he meets with them each Monday, meets with all Igbo and other minority tribes’ delegates on Tuesday, meets with Yoruba on Wednesday, and then meets with everyone on Thursdays. He never met with anyone from the north separately.
Chris Abashiya, the Hausa man from Zaria who equally hates us was the one very close to Ekwueme during the constitutional conference; and in spite of being a Christian, but because he was a Hausa Christian, he was never invited. All the schemes to hate the north were formulated in that conference, which was the reason why the north was divided into three in that conference, to divide the country into six regions.
The issue of state control of resources also emanated from that conference. Before then, they were asking for derivation, that is some part of the proceeds from sale of resources.
Because Alex saw that the north was bigger and has higher population, that was why he wanted the country fragmented into six regions. In the entire census carried out in this country in the past, if you check, you will notice that the north has higher population with about 54%.
In 1921, we had 55% and the South had 45%. The same thing happened in 1931, we had 57%. So his suggestion was simply based on hatred and nothing more.
That was the reason why the north refused to support him at the primary election in Jos in 1999. Because he did not isolate any tribe, he combined the entire north, so both Muslim and Christian delegates from the north refused to support him.
That was even the reason why even those NPN leaders from the north did not support him. His actions surprised everyone at the constitutional conference. That was why he was complaining of people like Jerry Gana and Solomon Lar, and the rest. It appears he doesn’t know this.
His statement that he did it because he wanted each region to integrate is not true, because that policy already exists; it was even NPN that put it in place. I was part of the people who put it in place, and Alex did not even join the NPN then.

http://premiumtimesng.com/

Only wished senior officers of the Nigeria army will come out and speak about Buhari they knew in the barracks. Not the fake image created by Islamist. IBB will be a saint in comparison. A man made in the image of Muritala Mohammed. A true hater of any southern/Christian. There will be a special place in hell for him

Where are the APC e-rats.Election riggers party, their job was to ridicule the election. They almost made it.

obuksjr: @Op,from your untainted and unbiased opinion and analysis,it shows you are a grassroot follower of the political events and drama in Delta state.But if you want to delve further into the political arithmetics in Delta state,it will interest you to know that ethnicity play a major factor in chosing the governor.And for the time being,the ruling party,PDP has been favored because their candidates have always come from the region/regions that has/have the political wherewithal,will and war chest to decide who becomes the governor of the state.The Delta north,the Aniomas are agitating that it is their turn but feelers from the governor's camp shows that their 'anointed son' and favorite,Senator Ifeanyi okowa might be denied the ticket in the eleventh hour because PDP,wouldn't want to start political experiment by staking their victory.The Urhobos,the acclaimed most populated part of the state wouldn't hesitate or blink an eye to throw their weight behind any of their own especially Chief Great Ogboru from the opposition if PDP fails to present a candidate from that region ,and considering their cultural and political affiliations to the Delta south they can easily reach an agreement to vote their son.So a PDP ticket to Delta north would be a true test to determine how popular the party is by leveraging ethnic back ups it has been enjoying,that is 'election magic' apart.Constructive and critical analyses are welcome from Big hearts as events towards 2015 election unfold,cheers.

Okowa will lose the ticket because of his Ibori baggage. Also the Urhobos will take their pound flesh from him. PDP will not make that mistake. Ogboru is finished in delta, that is pretty much clear to all. DPP is dead and buried.

Where is Monye The political unity in the central zone will change a lot of calculation in the race. Okowa will not gain any support in the central zone. Ochei is too much of a unknown in the state, how is the N27B IPP going. Uduaghan and Clark's will have a lot to say who becomes the next gov. My money is on Monye at this time. No more gangster or money bags.

[quote author=St_Black]Oh yes. !

Yorubas DO NOT EVEN WISH for any Fukin' minority to be with them EXCEPT their Itsekiri cousins in the SS, and definitely the urge for a union is mutual at the same time. !

Asides Itsekiris who we speak for & WILL CONTINUE TO SPEAK FOR, others are Bullshits to Us. !

We dont value any SS union EXCEPT with the Itsekiris. No More, No less. !




GET THIS RIGHT & CLEAR FROM NOW , Mr Biafran Minority. ![/quote]Itsekiri cousins come to delta and collect anything you left here. We sent your parasitic people away in 1963. You have no connection to anybody in the Midwest

icebeatz: we are planning to buy the house and the "rent fee" we paid is like a trial buy.
We plan living there for 2 years first and if its cool, we make full payment... To be honest, i don't know who the landlord is.. i have never used my korokoro eyes to see him...

what you said is a great idea.
I will mention that to my folks this morning.

You are renting, move your stuff out of that house and allow the landlord deal with Lagos State. There's nothing you cannot do about this without coming up with some of the money or all of the money owned. Look for the landlord and let him deal with his problem.

I never understand, why Yorubas in this country refuse to mind their own business.

The people of the Southsouth will go where they want, when the time comes. One fact is clear and settled, they will never head west.

By Emmanuel Aziken, Political Editor and Gbenga Oke
A group of men and women who carry the memory of the brightness and bubble that was characteristic of the Warri of old are determined to rekindle that memory in the life of the younger generation
They are all men in the midpoint of life but they preferred to style themselves as Warri boys and girls, on the day that they came visiting. Stuck in the memory of the five men that visited Vanguard’s corporate office penultimate week was the fond memory of a once bubbling and effervescent city. Warri, Wafi, or lately, oil city has over time spawn its own language, culture and unusual unity that was terribly fractured by the ethnic wars at the turn of the century.
Despite being home to Itsekiri, Urhobo and Ijaw ethnic groups and many, many more Nigerians from within and outside Delta State, Warri had prior to the ethnic wars, uniquely inspired a unique culture and lifestyle that stood the Wafi man out in any gathering.
*From right: Mr Paul Onomi, Orgainsing Secretery; Mr Kes Agbosa, Chairman, Warri Rebith Initiative, Mr Francis Obeh, member; Mr Bayo Okorodudu, member; Mr Emiko Okome, member, Warri Rebith Initiative, and Mr Eze Anaba, Deputy Editor Vanguard Newspaper, during a courtesy visit by The Warri Rebith Initiative to Vanguard newspapers, Lagos. PHOTO: Kehinde Gbadamosi.
*From right: Mr Paul Onomi, Orgainsing Secretery; Mr Kes Agbosa, Chairman, Warri Rebith Initiative, Mr Francis Obeh, member; Mr Bayo Okorodudu, member; Mr Emiko Okome, member, Warri Rebith Initiative, and Mr Eze Anaba, Deputy Editor Vanguard Newspaper, during a courtesy visit by The Warri Rebith Initiative to Vanguard newspapers, Lagos. PHOTO: Kehinde Gbadamosi.
The fresh initiative to reinvent that unique Wafi culture is being spearheaded by the Warri Rebirth Initiative which has Mr. Kes Agbosa as chairman.
Speaking on the motif of the group, he said:
“We are a group of Warri and boys and girls, (in Warri, we have no men and women no matter the age), who have come together to reestablish the unity and oneness in Warri that we used to know which cut across tribes whether Urhobo, Itsekiri or Ijaw at that time when we were growing up.”
Among the Wafi boys that followed Agbosa to Vanguard were Paul Onomi, Orgainsing Secretery, Mr. Francis Obeh, Mr. Bayo Okorodudu, Mr Emiko Okome,
“Warri is a unique place. Unique in the sense of one unity, this is why Warri has its own language, besides the ethnic languages we have, our pidgin English which is unique,” Agbosa said.
“By now, Warri should have been ahead of others in this country in terms of unity but for this unfortunate incident that happened. That oneness is unique to us and that is why we want to re-establish it.”
“There was nothing like tribal differences and unfortunately, an ethnic war came up.
“We still believe that the war was not originated by ordinary Warri boys and girls, strangers came from outside to impose it on us. We thank God it is over and we saw that one of the first victims of that war was the unity of the people.”
One of the fruits of the new initiative of the WRI is regular meetings in several locations across the country of Wafi boys and girls who meet in Lagos, Port-Harcourt and Warri among others with attendees even coming from abroad.
“We are happy to say that as at today, the branch in Lagos is picking up, they come to Warri to attend meetings and we believe with peace, Warri will regain its status in this country as a centre of civilization,” Agbosa said.
To rekindle the idea of unity that the people once shared, WRI is promoting a fiesta with the theme, Wafi 2013 this December.
“It’s one way of bringing people together again, we will have cultural display, we will eat together, dance together as we used to do. So that we can leave a legacy for our children to enjoy.”
Remarkably it will be a time of fun with the abundance of comedy given the city’s national reputation as a grooming centre for comedians.
“That is the spirit in us. Any Warri boy or girl is a comedian, you don’t stay in a place where there is Warri boy or girl and be sad, it is part of us. Majority of them professionalized it, otherwise, we are all comedians,” he said.
Given Agbaso’s assertion that the wars that destroyed the peace of Warri fifteen years were inspired by people outside Warri, he was asked what would have been the purpose of the anarchists?
“The economic activities in Warri then were such that non stakeholders needed to destroy the unity of the people to be able to get in or penetrate and then enjoy themselves.”
Pressed that it was really the elites within Warri and not outsiders or strangers that instigated the war, Agbosa kicked back:
“If you know the antecedents of the war, you will know that there was nothing between the Itsekiri, Urhobo, Ijaw and Isoko who stay in Warri even till today. When I use the word strangers, I meant people actually came from outside, they could be from these tribes but they never lived in Warri, they are not Wafferians.”
On a last note, he was asked where the warmongers came from and his retort was that of the peace maker: “I don’t know where they are from but I do no know that they are not Wafferians.”

www.vanguardngr.com/2013/11/wafi-boys-come-age/

payless: And some id1ots accusing Buhari of brutality for similar thing that happened during Buhari's military regime. Should we now blame Jonathan for the atrocities of these soldiers?

Did you live through the Buhari days or did you just read about it

icebeatz: U know, what they did to those guys isnt somrthing you'd get away with if this wasnt nigeria.

Which state and town is this??

The State Security Service on Wednesday in Abuja paraded an assistant lecturer in Arabic and Islamic studies at the Kogi State University, Muhammad Yunus, for recruiting and coordinating a Boko Haram terror cell in Kogi State.

The service said Yunus runs a terror group, which comprised Umar Musa, head of operations/ instructor; Mustapha Yusuf (aka Habib), armourer/Chief courier; Ismaila Abdulazeez, a foot soldier; and Ibrahim Isah (aka one in town), who is also a foot soldier.

SSS Deputy Director, Media and Public Relations, Marilyn Ogar, who briefed newsmen, explained the terror cell planned to launch attacks in Kogi State.

www.punchng.com/

For this tipster and saharareporters to be believed, others, including ASUU members were co conspirators. I DON'T HAVE SUCH A LOW VALUE OF MANKIND. ANOTHER TRASH FROM THE NEWS MANUFACTURER'S WEBSITE.

By Joe Brock and Tim Cocks

ABUJA/LAGOS (Reuters) - Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan will not present the 2014 budget to the national assembly as planned on Tuesday because of a disagreement between his team and lawmakers over plans to curb spending.

A letter from Jonathan read out in the assembly by Senate president David Mark said: "It is infeasible for me to present the budget in the absence of a harmonized position," with executive, upper and lower house all disagreeing on spending.

He gave no new date, saying only that when lawmakers had agreed a position, then he would deliver the budget.

Lawmakers have indicated they wish to raise spending in the budget for next year, ahead of presidential and parliamentary polls in 2015, but the houses disagree on by how much.

Finance Minister Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala proposed curbing spending in a 2014 budget framework paper after the government spent almost $6 billion of oil savings this year to cover budget revenue shortfalls. Oil makes up 80 percent of revenues.

Economists however had said she would struggle to get the budget passed in parliament.

A separate source in the national assembly said on Tuesday that lawmakers were unhappy with low capital expenditure, which they wanted to see increased to boost Africa's second-largest economy. He added that lawmakers were tired of hearing about the need for fiscal prudence when the government was so behind in implementing the 2013 budget.

The House of Representatives and the Senate have both said they want a higher benchmark oil price assumption in the budget to free up more money for spending.

An internal Senate Committee report on the preliminary budget plan obtained by Reuters on Tuesday is scathing about what it says is a lack of progress on infrastructure projects.

"The nation has not moved from the old practice of heavy recurrent and light capital (spending)," it said, complaining about the "the alarming rate of uncompleted projects."

"If these issues are not effectively looked into or controlled, the economic and infrastructural development aspirations of the nation will remain a mirage."

RED CARPET ROLLED UP

There were no state house security officials at the national assembly on Tuesday morning and a red carpet laid out for the president outside the house of representatives had been removed, a Reuters witness said.

In the budget framework, Ngozi allocated outgoings of 4.5 trillion naira ($28.27 billion) for 2014, against 5 trillion in 2013, but lawmakers usually raise spending and ask the executive to cover costs with improved revenue collection.

Budget disagreements often centre around the oil benchmark price, over which Africa's biggest crude exporter saves revenues from oil sales into the excess crude account (ECA).

In the 2014 budget plan document, the finance ministry set the oil benchmark price $74 a barrel.

The House of Representatives and the Senate last week each proposed amendments that would inflate the benchmark to $79 and $76.5 a barrel, respectively. Both moves, by increasing the price, would boost budget spending but reduce savings meant to shield the economy from oil price and production shocks.

The Senate report criticizes the "the continuous building up of the nation's external reserve above the internationally recognized standard of 3 months ... imports, at the expense of the provision of critical infrastructure."

The ECA only holds around $3.3 billion, compared with $9 billion in December last year.

Yet the report, somewhat inconsistently, also complains that spending down of 700 billion Nigerian naira ($4.4 billion) from the ECA is built into the budget, which effectively, it says, raises the benchmark price to $80 anyway.

It goes on to bemoan Nigeria's rising debts.

Bismark Rewane, economist and CEO of Lagos-based consultancy Financial Derivatives, said with oil prices likely to fall next year and oil theft to continue hurting production, a benchmark of $70 a barrel would be more prudent. ($1 = 159.03 naira)

(Additional reporting by Felix Onuah and Camillus Eboh in Abuja; editing by Ron Askew)

BY DAUD OLATUNJI
ABEOKUTA — The Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, has said high level corruption, inadequate infrastructure and rising unemployment, among others, in the country have been the bane of development.
The CBN also stated that in spite of the impressive macro-economic performance, it has failed to translate to development.

The Deputy‑ Governor (Operation), Mr. Tunde Lemo stated this in his speech presented, weekend, at Egba Economic Summit in Abeokuta, the OgunState capital.
According to Lemo, the CBN had intervened in the challenges by providing N300 billion power and airline intervention fund and another N200 billion commercial agriculture credit scheme with a view to boosting the economy.
He, however, lamented that despite the efforts to improve the economy the statistics of unemployment was alarming, saying, “four million Nigerians enter labour market annually.
“In spite of the impressive macro economic performance, it did not translate into development as unemployment is still huge.
“The challenges are that Nigeria’s development is over-dependent on oil, with high inflation, huge import bills, and high level corruption.
“National unemployment statistics shows that the population size is 164 million and people between 15 and 35 years are 60 per cent while youth unemployment of Nigeria workforce is 30 per cent.
“Unemployment in rural areas is 23 per cent and unemployment in urban areas is 17 per cent, unemployment growth rate per annum is 16 per cent.”
Meantime, the CBN has said the Ogun State revenue profile stood at N200 billion, saying the state got 67 per cent as statutory allocation from the Federal Government while the Internally Generated Revenue contributes 33 per cent.
It stated that Ogun State is the 16th most populous state and ran 100 per cent non‑oil economy.
According to the Deputy Governor of the CBN, OgunState ranked 9th in terms of Gross Domestic Product in the country and 5th in South West in terms of the number of states with macro small medium enterprises.
“In spite of the rich endowments, the state has, however, not attained the desired level of economic development,” he said.

www.vanguardngr.com