₦airaland Forum

an extra 8500 from where? To do what? Do these our Governors think at all?? Just like that, 10,000 industries. Where is the actual plan of how to atrract them, what sectors are available for investment etc.

This our "building castles in the air" method of planning na wa o!!

Of course that is not to say that the rate increase alone will bring about 24hr electricity, but the point i'm making is that eventually when the sector is deregulated, tarrifs may get to the N20 region as new inverstors invest heavily in the necessary infrastructure to significanlt improve power supply, and that it is still likely to be cheaper that generator power.

I would expect the model for govt to ensure the private sector adopt is a tiered system where the rich subsidise the poor. Eg the first 50units purchase every month might be N10, while the next 250 might be N18. My average is about 300-350 units amonth and i use ac's, microwave, water heater, deep fryer etc. The poor people who don't use all these things should be able to consume less than 100 units amonth so at least buying the first 50 units at a cheaper rate helps. while those who use alot pay more than the actual cost to help pay for the poor who are being charged less than cost price or at least exactly the cost price,

No need to fool ourselves!! Too many products have been underpriced for too long in Nigeria. If you travel abroad for 1 week and witness 24hr power you'll be willing to pay for it at even N20. Funny enough, most of the people here run generators at high cost (petrol, servicing, repairs, noise pollution, inconvenience etc) but keep complaining when the govt talks about increasing the tariff.

If you have a 5Kva gen (5000Va), multiplied by a factor 0f 0.8, then it generates about 4000watts. A 5Kva gen consumes about a full 25litre gallon for about 10hrs. At N65per litre that is N1625.

Generating 4000watts for 10hrs means you are generating 40,000watt hours or 40Kwhrs which is what PHCN calls 1unit and charges N11 for.

It therefore means that your cost per Kwhr from gen is N1625/40 = N40.60 per Kwhr.

Recall also that most of that electricity is actually wasting, as it is very unlikely that anyones uses the full capacity of the gen. At most you'd be using about 60% of the 4000watts, meaning about 40% of that cost is even being wasted.

Let's use our heads and think when we criticise the rate increase.

All this does not even account for the benefits of having 24hr power such as peace of mind, better healthcare, improved sleep, better lifestyle, ability to shop in bulk and stock the freezer etc) which cannot be easily quantified in naira and kobo.

Hmmmm, I wonder is there a BB app that allows you to tether your bb to a laptop. This may be a means for me to reduce my internet bill. Mtn 9am to 9pm at N6k for 3Gb doesnt make as much sense as 24hr "unlimited" for N1.4k

Can anyone help out on how to do that?

Deep Soul:

This is so evidently fraud. Anybody can just come to Nairaland and tell u to text rubbish to one rubbish number, and una go follow.

Smh

Its already on their website dearie!!! Perhaps you should investigate abit better before you open your mouth anyhow.

Yeah, no doubt, I've discoverd that all the networks are fast dependent on where you are. In Rumuibekwe in PH, you can barely connect to Glo's signal for more that 2-5minutes before it breaks or changes itself to Egde and then GPRS. Guess where I am is on the fringes of their signal coverage. MTN on the other hand is full bar and I can stay connected for hours on end and play you tube and yahoo movie trailers for hours on end with little or no buffering.

On the other hand, i was in Thomas estate on two seperate occassions and found that Glo there was blazing fast, even faster than my MTN. I was averaging speeds of 1.2 to 1.8Mpbs, while my MTN in Ph averages about 800kbps (still fast enough for my needs) and bumps up beyong 1Mpbs on occassion.

So it's all dependent on who has agood signal where you are.

Let them reduce the regular monthly internet charges too, at least that will force MTN (the one I use) to reduce theirs too, unfortunately Glo is too inconsistent and slower than Mtn (whenever i can manage to get connected) where i stay.

Nigeria to do, ! Nigeria will, !! Nigeria must, !!1 Nigeria moves to, !!!

Thats all we hear in the news!! Funny enough we always hear when FG and States start or intend to start something, but we never hear when they finish them, cos they are never finished.

Medicine after death!! What we need first of all is a proper National Identity Card scheme, with every citizen having a unique number that is quoted on almost EVERY conceivable document or transaction, be it land/house purchase, import or export, change of job, purchase of airline tickets and cars. This idea of INEC, FRSC, Immigration etc all having their own databases makes no sense.

Electricity has certainly improved in the last 4 months where I stay in PH. I believe the reference to 4000MW was erroneous.

Story!!! Everyone in government is already a sacred cow, not to mention the thousands outside of government that have government protection.

Nigeria isn't the giant of Africa, South Africa is!!!

South Africa hosted a World Cup, Nigeria can't host it in 30 years (except a miracle happens)

South Africa has 24hrs power, a very functional air, land and rail transport network and infrastructure (along with a new fast train connecting Pretoria and Jo'bourg), Nigeria has none of these.

South Africa assembles Toyota's, BMW's and a few other brands, Nigeria is barely able to assemble Peugout

South African universities are superb, ours are in shambles

Need I say more, ??

Internet in Nigeria of 2011 is much, much faster, reliable and cheaper than 2007. I figure that by 2015, it'll get better still.

The main issues are excessive taxation by all tiers of govt, very poor power supply, security and other logistical issues. All these come together to make the cost of operations high.

As more cables come on stream, last mile delivery improves and more competition hots up (whenever Etisalat commences 3G and perhaps maybe 4G services), prices will drop further still and the speed will improve. There are upgrades that can be done on an existing 3G network that can increase average download speeds from say 600kbps to 1.2Mbps, not to talk of even implementing 4G LTE!!

I've always said that if the FIRS and EFCC are serious, an easy way would be to take an inventory of all those who own property in Banana Island, Ikoyi, Lekki Phase 1 and 2, VGC, Asokoro, Maitama etc and find out who they are, what they do, their source of income and how much tax they have paid in the last 10 years.

One reason our properties are so expensive is because they are bought with easy money. When you steal N1bln, it isn't a big deal to buy a house for N100mln. No doubt Lagos does have a few rich business men, but most of these houses are occupied by corrupt people whose only source of income is government patronage.

How come there is no subsidy in Ghana, Benin, Togo et al and their people are not dying like fleas on the road sides?? I have been to Ghana 3 times and the price of petrol there if i remember correctly was about N110 when converted, but are there not thousands of Nigerians living there?? Are many companies not relocating there?? Why are we so paranoid about this fuel subsidy thing? We wont die!! And rather, it will help the industry and Nigeria as a whole to be more efficient.

I am not saying that removing the subsidy will not bring some hardship for a number of people. It will! However, in the LONG run for Nigeria - for the sake of more transparency, less corruption, more efficiency - it is more better to remove the subsidy. Subsidy may work elsewhere, but in Nigeria, because of our warped values of egoism, greed, big manism etc, we will almost always corrupt the process, and when a subsidy process gets corrupted, the outcome is often worse (in the long run) than if the subsidy had not been implemented.

For eg, we have subsidised electricity over the years and that made it impossible for it to be deregulated. The lack of deregulation meant that it stayed with govt. The fact that it remained with govt meant that it became run down. The fact that it was run down meant electricity supply to Nigerian's went down from about 20hrs on average in the early eighties to perhaps about 6hrs today. This meant that the cost of manufacturing went up. That meant that many factories closed down (and moved to Ghana, which incidentally has higher cost of electricity, but more stable). Which meant that hundreds of thousands of breadwinners lost their jobs. Which meant poverty pervaded the land. Which meant that many more social vices (419, prostitution, runs - informal prostitution amongst our university girls, robbery) became the norm. And where are we today??

Now assume PHCN had been deregulated in 1980! Wouldn't the picture above have been very different?

I don't know about you guys, but I'd rather have a good job at Dangote electricity (for example) and be able to afford non subsidised electricity and fuel, than work at PHCN and by praying for govt never to deregulate power and fuel.

For more of my thoughts, please see related articles in my blog:

http://wayforwardnaija..com/2009/04/nigeria-plc.html

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

Whats the benefit to the man on the street!?

WE dont want to host o!! It's just another means for the boys to chop money.

obviously a fake story!! No one could be so dumb!!

@ Divideus

Well, depends on where you are i guess, I have equally seen 911 stacked with tomatoes and yams.

Anyway, I am not saying that removing the subsidy will not be painful. It will! However, in the LONG run for Nigeria - for the sake of more transparency, less corruption, more efficiency - it is more better to remove the subsidy. Subsidy may work elsewhere, but in Nigeria, because of our warped values of egoism, greed, big manism etc, we will almost always corrupt the process, and when a subsidy process gets corrupted, the outcome is often worse (in the long run) than if the subsidy had not been implemented.

For eg, we have subsidised electricity over the years and that made it impossible for it to be deregulated. The lack of deregulation meant that it stayed with govt. The fact that it remained with govt meant that it became run down. The fact that it was run down meant electricity supply to Nigerian's went down from about 20hrs on average in the early eighties to perhaps about 6hrs today. This meant that the cost of manufacturing went up. That meant that many factories closed down (and moved to Ghana, which incidentally has higher cost of electricity, but more stable). Which meant that hundreds of thousands of breadwinners lost their jobs. Which meant poverty pervaded the land. Which meant that many more social vices (419, prostitution, runs - informal prostitution amongst our university girls, robbery) became the norm. And where are we today??

Now assume PHCN had been deregulated in 1980! Wouldn't the picture above have been very different?

DivideUs:
You are obviously missing the point,

1, Its not only for people driving their cars but also for people transporting cement, tomato to lagos etc, now do u get the noise?

2, 74 in first few months 2011 add that to the day to day living in everythin on the nigerian masses, while more that half of it is a ruse.

But hey if you think that's fine, trust me I can afford it but can every body u know?

People transport cement, tomatoes to Lagos with lorries and trailers that use diesel, which is already deregulated. There in NO trailer that uses petrol!!

mikeapollo:
Compaq,

Have you ever studied Social Economics before in your life?
You talk as if the effect of an increase in fuel price would affect only people using vehicles! Talking about people joining their neigbours in the cars to school/work is just childish and lacking in intellect. How many people do u expect to join their nieghbours vehicle in a country of 150million?
Have you considered the effect on manufacturers?

There is no 'real' subsidy on petrol in Nigeria. The excuses by govt is just silly. Mind you, it is a fact that the cost of producing, domestic refining and selling 1 litre of oil at the pump is about N30.00k.
What we are seeing now is a govt that refused to fix the refineries and then gave out licences to their sponsors and cronies to import, and they are now telling us that there is subsidy? Subsidy on what we can produce and sell profitably at N35?

Okonjo Iweala under Obasanjo told us that they would use the monies they get from subsidy removal to fix the power, infrastructiure,education,health, refinery problems in Nigeria. Where are those things she lied about? Nothing will improve even if they sell petrol at 150/litre because the underlining indutrial linkages that would add value to the econmy through local refining is not being addressed.

Must you insult me?

Manufacturers do very little with petrol. They use diesel for power generation and transportation, which is already deregulated.

I very much doubt your claim of local production cost being N30. (short of telling you it is absolutely impossible). After this post, I will google it and come back to you.

The linkages we should be getting from the petroleum industry cannot happen because nobody will invest in our petroleum sector for the same reason that it is a regulated industry!! Don't you get it!! If you were Bill Gates, would you put your $3bln into a country and industry where the price is fixed by government?

Refining locally will reduce the cost yes (as transportation, demmurage, landing costs etc are not involved), but I still very much doubt it'd be lower than N65.

DivideUs:
I wanna ask this,-   say our refineries are working and can meet local demand, how much do think fuel and diesel will sell for?

N6 like someone says it sells in Venezuela? If so why are we not on the streets? Really!

Petrol is artificially low in many countries (including Venezuela) because their leaders use it to keep themselves popular and in power!! Have you seen any documentary on Venezuela? It is just like Naija. Very corrupt leaders and poor citizens. But they stuff their mouths with N6 petrol so they cant complain. Same thing in the middle east!!

mikeapollo:
Is this new to you people? Only lazy thinkers would believe that Okonjo-Iweal would champion/implement any economic programmes that will benefit the poor masses of this country. She is an agent of the World Bank/IMF and she will only do what her masters in New York instruct her to do.

This is not the first time. She clamoured and engineered the removal of fuel subsidy when she was Finance minster under Obasanjo, using some of the most illogical and silly excuses to justify their nonesense.  I remember Simon Kolawole of ThisDay wrote several articles to challenge the foolishness of asking Nigerians to pay more for petrol at a time when the price of the commodity was doing fantastically well in the global market and with the FG having billions of dollars in the illegal Excess Crude Account which was intriduced by Okonjo-Iweala.

At the end of the day, she became a debt collector for the World Bank, instead of bargaining for better debt cancellation for Nigeria just as several countries eg Egypt, Senegal, Ghana etc had very huge percentage of their debts written.

Okonjo-Iweala has nothing to offer the poor masses of Nigeria, she is for the World Bank/ IMF, period!

Na wa for you o!! So does it make sense to give Nigeria the same amount of debt forgiveness as Egypt, Senegal and Ghana?? Which of these has oil? We should be fortunate that we even got as much debt relief as we did. Even you, if two people owe you N100,000 and one is your driver, while the other one works in a bank, will you consider their case the same way??

Like it or not subsidies have to go!! There is way too much corruption involved in whatever FGN subsidies to make it work. PHCN and NITEL are perfect examples. This idea of stopping corruption is only wishful thinking. Who will bell the cat? We are all corrupt to the lowest level. Deregulation is one way to reduce corruption quickly.

If removal of subsidy will kill the masses, how many masses own cars? Not up to 3million Nigerians own cars, out of 150mln!!

Subsidy will astronomically increase food stuffs - but most food transportation is done with trailers and 911 which use diesel (an already deregulated product) so how should it affect the prices astronomically?

Subsidy will seriously increase human transportation costs - ok, I agree it will increase it, but then do we all need to use one car to do school runs for one child? Why not team up with friends in your area? Must we all use one car each to work? Why not ride with others in your area? For those entering public transport, move around less!! Be more efficient with your money. We Nigerian's cannot pay the appropriate price for fuel, but we can travel all over the place for weddings, burial, parties, etc - even the poor masses!!



Even if all our petrol is refined locally, petrol will still likely cost more than N65, especially with a barrel at $120, maybe if a barrel is like $60, then unsubsidized, locally refined petrol might be cheaper than N65.

A generation has to take the heat of this subsidy thing and it will likely be ours.

I have always said that we have way, way too many agencies and parastatals. If they could all be listed, most well informed Nigerian's wouldn't even have heard of half of all the agencies and parastatals. Most of them add no value and just collect salaries. Just go to any federal secretariat building in your state capital and you'll see hundreds of people just milling around doing nothing.

Oya, make GEJ decree again na!! Se na by decree dem dey take run economy instead of sound economic policy,

Another hopeful story. Nigerian newspapers are constantly full of "Nigeria to build this", "Nigeria to do that, but nothing ever gets done. We seem to be cursed in this country, perpetually unable to bring projects to a conclusion.

Do we think at all in this country?? The cinemas we have are underutilised and we are thinking of building more!! Who is interested in bowling and rock climbing?? Our leaders lack the ability to reason or think logically. Because we see these things abroad doesnt mean we necessariliy nees them or can support them! Such things make sense abroad because of the large class of middle class who can afford them. Therefore, they stimulate economic activity. However, in PH, majority of the people are in the lower class other than Shell,Agip and Total staff and the other handful of bankers and oil servicing company staff who earn a good living. Even abroad where the middle class is huge, if you site a project like this in the wrong place, it will go up in smoke, yet we are siting this in Omagwa[/b], how many of the [b]FEW[i][/i] middle class we have in PH will bother to go there!!!

What the government should be interested in is programs/schemes that will help take the majority of the working population into the middle class. Once the middle class becomes more robust, things of this nature will even be done by the private sector. Afterall LASG did not need to build Silverbird or the Palms in Lagos. The market was there and the private sector moved in!!

RSG has not finished it's mall at GRA junction (which I even wonder if it can be a success, now that I cinema and Genesis centre have opened before it - maybe shoprite, KFC or Game can help to make it a success if they take up occupancy here) and yet, it's getting involved in another project in the middle of nowhere?

I tire o!!!

I don't think Rivers state needs it. Most of the projects listed are unnecessary i.e monorail and entertainment centre. The ring road just maybe makes more sense. The guy should get the basics right before going all grandois. The roads in PH (other than the ones he just dualised or is currently dualising) are pretty bad and the traffic issues are mostly caused by ineffective management of junctions and commercial operators. Besides even the roads that were recently dualised (transamadi oginigba and Old Aba road have developed a few small potholes that are not a problem yet, but if they are not quickly adressed will become a problem within the next year. The government has no structure or process to quickly identify such small potholes and quickly repair them before they become gaping pot holes, but we expect to manage a monorail? We have not proactively done all that can possibly be done to surmount the small issues. Instead our solution to our traffic isues is monorail. Besides, someone rised a point somewhere that the monorail was supposed to be a PPP, so why is govt putting so much money in it?

Also trying to build a new university from scratch makes no sense. There is nothing wrong with the current UST. It still has quite a lot of space within it that could be used to build some quality new buildings. All you need to do is to get a very good architect to remodel the existing plan for the university. If Govt spends 10% of what it intends to spend on the new university to upgrade the existing one, the students there will be happy and pray for him and then the remaining 90% could go to other things. Besides, what matters is not so much the buildings et al, but the quality within its walls - lecturers, equipment, structure etc.

Amaechi has good intentions, but I think the mount of money available to him is getting to his head and his good intentions are not properly thought through. The solution to most of our problems is not to throw multi billion naira projects at them, but rather to sit down, analyse the issues, identify the bottlenecks, profer solutions that are most effective, efficient and create the best value for money as well as impact the largest number of the society at once and then implement.

LG's should be scrapped in Nigeria. I don't recall in the last 10years of my existence in this country seeing ANY project done by an LG!!!!

It might just mean the Glo signal is very poor where you are. I had the same experience, my glo connection would break like 2-3 times a minute or sometimes every 2-3minutes. It made browsing very frustrating. Eventually, I unlocked it, put a MTN sim in it and found that MTN in my area hives me full bar 3G/WCDMA/HSDPA. The rest is history. With MTN, I can be connected for hours non stop without any disconnection.

N2.6bln for 1 year!!! Amazing!! How have MTN come by this valuation? Good luck to them!! For 10 years yes, but certainly not for 1year!!!