₦airaland Forum

@Dr Izielen Agbon

I think your argument is flawed because it is premised on the FG "allocating" crude to NNPC at no cost. Why would any govt allocate 450,000 barrels a day worth of crude at $108 per barrel? That amounts to an opportunity cost of 450,000*$108*365= $18bln!!!

Now if NNPC pays Govt full price and then has to come back and sell the fuel at N65, when it is obvious that it has already paid for the crude at $108, isn't that obviously a subsidy? I would appreciate it if you could re- run your calculations based on the refineries purchasing the crude at $108, in addition to your production and transportation costs of $5 and lets see what your calculations would give as the cost of a litre of petrol.

In addition, your production and transport costs scenario is not entirely correct. While I am aware there is a term the IOC's use called unit opex which indeed may hover between $5 and $8, it does not mean the IOC's profit is simply $108- $5. There are other costs to consider. The logic is similar to what obtains in the drug industry. If Glaxo for eg spent $7bln dollars in researching and finally comes up for a drug that cures AIDS, while the actual manufacture of the drug may eventually be $1 a pill, it could be sold as high as $40 a pill. This is because the firm must recover the $7bln spent on R&!! Likewise, the oil industry has a sizeable exploration and capex costs, which must also be recovered alongside the opex!!

However, having said that, it does not mean there are no issues with the removal of subsidy. While it will be painful, I believe it is the right thing to do for the longer term health of the Nigerian nation for the following reasons:
deregulation of the industry will remove the corruption that the same industry is used to perpetuate, all this cabal issue for eg!!
hopefully, increased investment in refineries and the whole petroleum value chain(petrochemicals, refineries etc) will provide more jobs (direct and indirect) for Nigerian educated youth (engineers, technicians, accountants, drivers, cooks etc).
large FDI for these refineries etc could also help stabilise and even appreciate the naira, the way banking consolidation did in 2006-2007.
there will be more technology transfer.
Nigeria and Nigerians will ultimately be forced to be more efficient. We are poorer than many western nations, yet their citizens walk more than we do. When I went to Uk I was mildly surprised how much walking the average European does despite the available infrastructure.
and many more,

Thanks, but if thedownlink max is 7.2Mpbs, it can't be an HSPA+ modem.

Based on some little research online, most of us using Etisalat are not benefitting from the HSPA+ netwrok if we are using older dongles. I understand even using an HSPA+ modem on the existing Glo/MTN/Airtel 3G/ HSDPA netwroks can improve ur speeds by about 50% from say an average of 800kbps to about 1.3Mbps as opposed to using the existing modems, not to talk of when you now use an HSPA+ modem with an HSPA+ network.

A good test might be for those using the samsung galaxy S2 which has HSPA+ on Etisalat, perhaps they can tell us how much faster it is?

Hi guys,

I'm looking forcheap Huawei HSPA+ modems, so that I can really enjoy the benefits of Etisalat's Easyblaze. I am currently using an Etisalat sim on a Glo HSDPA modem with max dowlink capacity of 3.6Mpbs.

There is nothing wrong with it, but keshi is actually a terrible footbal commentator. I was alsways cringing when he spoke during the world cup!! Boy was he poor, i'm wondering wht super sport is bringing him back.

I don't see anything wrong with taxing non church activities of churches. We Nigerians are so double minded!! We want the gains without the pains. Go to UK and see how much tax they pay, which is where the money to make the developed world what it is has come from for centuries.Why should a church run a printing press to publish lots of books for the GO, who then makes lots of profits and not pay taxes?? Since when did operating a printing press and operating a church become synonymous!?

There is no doubting that the taxes we pay in Nigeria are a rip off. I remember when I was in banking, my salary was like N180k a month then, while my tax was like N7k. That is a rate of less than 5%!! Where in the world do you find that? No doubt we were happy that the bank was able to "manage" the tax, but the truth is that it is just a fraud!! Though I hear Fasola has clamped down on the banks now and the tax they pay now a days is more like it should be.

There is too much money being spent on Abuja. The ruling class is just catering to themselves. What about the rest of us who don.t stay in Abuja.

switch off the phone, take out the battery, leave for a few minutes and switch back on. it was advised by their cc and it worked for me. My phone started showing 3.5g after that

We think too short term in this country, rather than LONG term!! Look at the link below:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-15984493

Somewhere in there, it says that with solar and wind power becoming ever cheaper, it could be at par with fossil fuel power between 2020 and 2030. What happens then? Oil prices fall and Nigeria's revenue crashes and then govt cannot even afford to subsidise if it wanted to.

We had better develop a more robust economy before then!! Removal of many subsidies, including petrol, will help us to get there. Though reduced government wastages, corruption, incompetence etc will also help, but we must attack our developmental issues from all fronts. The extra GDP that telecoms provides Nigeria post deregulation is like 50times what pre-deregulation provided us, likewise jobs. Power and petroleum can have the same effect also.

It is the price we unfortunately have to pay for decades of mismanagement. if our railways had been privatised since the early 80's, many of the live's lost to tanker accidents on our raods may not have happened, not to talk of damage to our roads and a more efficient goods haulage system, which would have made for cheaper products and a more efficient economy.

The medicine is bitter, but we always take it to get better don't we??

Seems oyinbo's value our Obudu more than we do ourselves, !!

Who said anything about LASG managing it?? I would expect it to be managed and operated by a private firm!!

What Lagos needs is a monorail system or some sort of elevated system that is not impeded by vehicular traffic. I have seen the plan for the various blue, red,green, yellow lines etc, which are good, but if they are going to intersect roads then their impact may cause more harm than good.

No offense, but what did the guy really do? his actions led to a civil war where hundred of thousands lost their lives. And since his return in the early eighties, what value has he really added to Nigeria?

@nCPAT, which download accelerator are you using? Is it IDM? If it is where can I get a completely free version, not a 30day trial version) just in case you know.

kulutempa:
There will be no progress in Nigeria until the citizens take their destiny in their hands.   Instead of fighting against the removal of the subsidy, why couldn't Nigerians insist that the goverment reduce the subsidy by say 20% every year, with the money saved going into a special infrastructure fund for the repair of the existing refineries, the construction of new ones,  as well as roads, schools and hospitals.  They could also insist that the fund be transparent with specific timelines on when the projects will be completed and quarterly independent audits by multinational accounting firms, on the progress of the infrastructure projects and the fund expenditure.  They could also warn the government that if this agreement is not adhered to there will be nationwide protests and strikes, against any further subsidy reductions.  This is how serious and sensible people hold their government to account and if we cannot do such things in Nigeria, we deserve the government that we have and  worse.   It is really down to us at the end of the day, and expecting evil and corrupt leaders to change their ways voluntarily without being forced to do so is nothing but a pipe dream.    If we can force Babangida to "step down" we can force changes in our country and all it takes is the will to do it.

very well said, another intelligent respondent. He's not intelligent cos he agrees with me, but because the use of logic and sound economics is apparent. One can have an opposing view, but let the arguement for the opposing view be based on logic, fact and economics. That way it can be studied and the negative impact ameliorated.

By the way, one reason why what you suggest is far from happening is that we have an NLC that have people that are not very sound in economic matters and who don't employ high levels of logic and general competence. If they were, they'd see that overall, privatisation is the best thing for this economy and that privatisation would better serve the people they claim to represent more than public ownership.

http://wayforwardnaija..com/2010/07/nlc-and-labour-unions-always-in-our.html

Mr kalokalo

very well though out response. It is obvious that you possess sound logical and intellect and that you are very economically sound. I am in support of deregulation also for the LONG term survival of this country. No doubt withough corruption, we'd be better placed to administer subsidy properly, but those arguing that way are only wishful thinkers. A concise analysis of the Nigeria situation suggests that corruption is not going anywhere anytime soon. Therefore we must take on board the policy that serves us best with public sector corruption in mind and that is to bring about private sector transparency, initiative, proactives, investment, technological know how etc. There are lots of things that the private sector gives an economy like ours that the public sector can't do in 2-30 years, transparency, accountability, proactiveness, efficiency, access to modern technology etc are some of them

That is not to say that the private sector is perfect or is free from corruption, but i can safely say the private sector is 100 times better than govt. NITEL provided us with 500,000 lines in about 40 years, GSM provided 100mln in 10! NITEL consumed govt funds, GSM has contributed massively to govt funds, I only knew old people who worked in NITEl but GSM has employed thousands of young graduates, I have never seen our refineries advertise for vacancies, but Shell, Total, NLNG etc regulalry advertise in the papers! And so many more similar stories exist.

The most pertinent of kalokalos questions is question 4. How are we really sure that Nigerian refined petrol will be cheaper than imported petrol? We simply assume that it would be because in the past govt simply allocated crude to NNPC. but in a dregulated system, refiners would have to pay about the same international price for crude. And with the multiple pipline breakages, hostage taking and bunkering we have here in Nigeria, the costs may indeed be more expensive than imported crude, where there are no logistical nightmares in the transportation of crude to and from refineries.

This fuel subsidy issue need to be debated at the highest level and by the sharpest minds so that all the issues, even the minutest ones, can be identified and analysed and solutions proferred. Nairaland is not really the place for such debate because to be honest most people on the forum are not specialised and logical enough to debate properly.

Like I have always said there will be some short term pain, but Nigeria will benefit in the long run. Some people may loose their jobs and never find new ones, but other younger ones will get jobs and it's better to provide a 28 year old man with a job, than keep a 62 year old on the job. What matters is the macro economics and not necessarily the micro (at every individual level).

I don tire to type, nuff said,

The National Electricity Regulation boss said the removal of the service charge would be removed from the october billing cycle.i.e it would reflect in November bills.

It remains to be seen if it will happen though!! We have a habit of saying things in Abuja and it never getting implemented where it really matters.

Etisalat has also slightly reduced the data plans for their Easyblaze service. it is now more in line with the networks and I must admit (though it's still early days yet) that it appears to be on average 2-4 times faster than MTN, which is the best where I am.

@dozie, if you staill have just EDGE on your device even after you subscribe to a bundle, just take out your battery, leave it for a few minutes and put it back on and you'll see constant 3.5G.

Opt-in for any of our prepaid data plans (etisalat) listed below depending on your need. If you are not sure what your data requirement is, you can find out using our data calculator. Click here for data calculator.

S/N
Plans
Price(=N=)
USSD Code
SMS Keyword to 229

1
200MB
1,000
*229*2*1#
MB2

2
500MB
2,000
*229*2*2#
MB3

3
1.5GB
4,000
*229*2*4#
MB4

4
Night & Weekend
4,000
*229*3*3#
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3GB
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6
6GB
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MB6


Our new pay as you use rate is now 5 kobo/per kb
Check your data balance anytime – just dial *228#

By the way Etisalat Easyblaze have made some slight reductions on their bundle prices. I subscribed to easyblaze for the first time about 2 weeks ago and it is definately faster than all the others, no question about it (in PH anyway). On the average I'd say it was about 2-4 times faster than MTN. You appreciate the speed more when downloading heavy stuff, watching video clips etc or uploading. Uploading 6 pictures of about 4Mb each to Flickr took about 2hours with MTN but about 20mins with Etisalat.

Ordinarily i'd say go for the 3G version. However, if you have a compatible nokia phone, you can turn your phone into a mobile hotspot (mifi) and then use the wifi on the ipad. Check out www.joiku.com

Good riddiance to bad rubbish!! He should go and rot in hell!!

As alooter, why would I be bothered when the likelihood of EFCC catching up with me is relatively small. EFCC is just parading Governors and one or two ministers, but consider how many Presidents, Vice Presidents, members of the NASS, Governors and deputies, Commissioners and LG Chairmen, heads of parastatal, special advisers etc we have had since 1999 and 99% of them were corrupt and how many have been arrested so far? So you'd agree with me that there are still too many people out there who have stolen govt money that are not even close to being on the radar of EFCC, so why would they come out to take the amnesty, which automatically proves them guilty??

unfortunately x2 isn't listed on their website. X5, X6 and X7 are though.

Guys, just discoverd this and thought to share.

If you have a compatible nokia phone (one of the newer smartphones from E71 era) you can download the app from www.joiku.com and it turns your phone into a hotspot. There is the free version and the paid version which enables you to block people and know eho else is connecting to you signal. For the free version, you can't stop others from connecting to your signal. The only disadvantage is that your phone will get hot with continous use and the battery will die pretty fast, so it's a good idea to have it plugged into the mains, otherwise, I haven't had any issues with it. It works as fast as the modem itself would.

The advantage if this is that you can then have only one data plan on your phone and use it on your laptop and tablet wirelessly. Also you don't need to buy a Mifi device, which saves you about N25k if you were thinking of buying one.

I get the impression that most people don't know about this and I thought to share.

Ciao!

FB can be dangerous if ur married or have asteady GF and ur still aplayer. Like someone said, forgetting to log out can put you in a fix, I know lots of guys who have slept with chicks they met on FB though, you just need to know what to look for on some chicks profiles, lol!!

NRC should focus more on haulage. I would imagine that haulage would be more profitable than passenger. Which lunatic would go from lagos to Ilorin on a train that would probably take like 10hours, when you can go by road (however bad) in about 3 hours

I know this property. Its not in a particularly nice area of Anthony. Not much of Anthony is nice anyway cos it's too busy and the roads are too narrow. I think N55mln for this is way too expensive. N40mln is more like it.

This is a ctually a subject for a very good debate. I think it is actually getting out of hand. The poster makes apoint, why should anyone stop you from driving ona government road when you have paid taxes already. No doubt, communal living is good and small fees for things like grass maintenance etc is ok. But how much can grass cutting cost and payment of security man that people must pay so much? Besides Magodo has lots of residents so the money should be spread around pretty thinly.