₦airaland Forum

Not surprised. Anyone who can rape a whole country can rape just anything!

It reminds me of the man who bought TOKUNBO range rover and covered the seats with nylon to try to prove to his uncle that the car was new. On getting to his uncle, he was shocked to realize it was his uncle's car that was stolen that the foolish young guy went to purchase in Cotonou! The car was only repainted and re-sold as Tokunbo!

Mr O, please help Nigerians to identify any NEW road that your bosses started and completed. And please dont mention again that you went to XYZ College if you cannot distinguish between OLD and NEW!

Some thing tells me this story is made up!

Anyway, a man that is having premarital sex is as guilty as the one having extra marital sex. You may call me preacher, but the truth is that you also need to repent! Why call someone your wife when you are not marraied? Why live together?

How exactly does he want to curb 'excess liquidity'? FG is the biggest spender in Nigeria and anytime it witholds funds the whole econmy bleeds! Where is the excess? Nigeria just simply needs to earn more by producing to scale, by taking risks to enhance its earnings within and without, through promotion of private enterprise.

There is nothing wrong with having A Nigeria Airways where FG has minority shares. Wait till he gives details before you crucify him!

THERE IS HARDLY ELECTRICITY IN ANY PART OF NIGERIA AND WE HAVE OUR DEAR PRESIDENT TELLING THE MIDDLE EAST HOW TO SOLVE THEIR PROBLEM.

I HOPE PMB DOES NOT MAKE THE MISTAKE HIS PREDECESSORS MADE. YOU GET VERY POPULAR AT FIRST AND THAT TURNS AROUND QUICKLY THE MOMENT PEOPLE DO NOT SEE PERFORMANCE!

YOU SHOULD ASK JONATHAN!

He said the FG has not built a single 'NEW ROAD'. New road means that the road is new from design to completion. Is that not true? GEJ did his bit revamping old roads. Lagos-Ibadan expressway, benin-Sagamu, Ore....all those are old roads. It is worth commending when those old roads are revamped and FASOLA did commend GEJ's government.

It is still a matter of fact that Nigeria has hardly built new roads, except in some states.

No comment!

TERRIBLE!

The sheer number of funny and shady characters who make it to the parliament shows there is something wrong with all or most of us! These guys ooze out arrogance, impunity and incompetence morning to night!

REMITA is one of Nigeria's great success stories in IT, yet they want to frustrate them because they are totally ignorant of what REMITA is.

TANoidEconomics.......

sam90s:
If you remember what happened with Local manufacturing of cement during OBJ administration, laws were made and enforced to make it profitable to manufacture cement locally,
It's a standard measure in economic policies everywhere, let in the tide and every boat will sail, you dont scream murder just because you don't have a boat or yours is powered, on the other hand, when a government signal its intentions to let in the tide and everyone build/buy a boat if it then change its mind, that will leave a bad reputation and discourage future boat building,
Dangote said years ago in an interview, that his investment in cement factories then could have bankrupted him if government reversed its policies then.
Now is the time for us to support this government with its policies, it will take months or years for some of the dividends to materialize, it's better than being a dumping ground.

SPOT ON.

Nigerians are smart. You let the environment encourage production and see how many new factories will spring up. Just let in the tide, and the boat will sail!

kindredspirit:
Insightful.

Question for you though : Help me, exactly what " manufactured goods " would Nigeria be exporting to " other countries "?

I'm scratching my head as I try to think of something we manufacture that we could put on those ships and export. Or did you mean Raw materials like Agric, Solid minerals ? What " other countries" ? China and India? Those countries simply add value to the our "products" and sell to us.

Manufacturing goods in Nigeria, with the challenge of power, infrastructure, high cost of doing business.... at some point, it became even cheaper for businesses to set up factories in neighboring countries to produce goods for our market. Also, it became somewhat cheaper for businessmen to import from China rather than produce in Nigeria.

For the life of me, I don't know how the government can fix the issue of Power in Nigeria. Obviously, our quest ( maybe dream) of becoming a country that manufactures for export is tied this. Do you honestly see the government taking care of this in the next five years or so?

I totally agree. My comment was not in defence of government but a statement of fact that low freight rates are not in themselves bad. The hike in electricity tarriff and the fact that supply remains epileptic do not help us at all. Hiking the tarriff goes to show that our economic team really dont seem to get it.

Nigeria can export bye products of petroleum, like RESIN. There is the Eleme Petrochemical factory. If that has been given enough focus, we ought to be exporting resins now. Apart from Eleme, we ought to have more resin factories. We have the raw materials in abundance.

Nigeria can export wood products. A lot of our wood particles are BURNT. Asia uses its own particles to produce MDF and HDF which are now largely consumed in Nigeria!

There is a lot we can export and get the balances right. I read that we are producing industrial starch as well for export. Let us just admit that cheap oil has encouraged us to be LAZY at thinking. There are lazy billionaires in Nigeria who just got rich because they got allocations.

But I totally agree with you. Government must consciously sit down and find ways to encourage low cost production, such include:

1. Reducing the levies imposed by regulatory bodies like NAFDAC, SON etc. NAFDAC charges 1 million naira for pure water licence. That is ridiculous. SON charges you like they are imposing duties. It does not help.

2. Give access to low cost funds. CBN is actually doing a bit of this.

3. Make it possible to acquire land - Our land use law is anti-progess, anti-productivity. It encourages IDLE LANDS all over the place.

4. Nigeria has a RESOURCE map. Use it. Encourage production based on proven economies of scale. Following our resource map will boost exports.

5. Make electricity, rail transport and truck transport easy and affordable.

6. Remove HUMAN bottlenecks on our roads. On a trip from Lagos to Benin you may find 20 checkpoints of police, Customs, SON. This is highly counter-productive. The real thieves sit in offices, so harrassment of business people has to stop.

It can be done. Rome was not built in a day. India started somewhere and China too. It took them a number of years to turnaround. We have to start.

Shedding tears that some mushroom shipping companies have packed up because of 'low rates' does not make sense, at least when you know that the so called 'low rates' are still some of the highest in the world!

Nigeria has for long been seen a dumping ground for all kinds of goods, from toothpicks, to all kinds of rice and fish and tomato paste. The foreign shiping companies were the unintended beneficiaries of that. They brought in MEGA vessels full of all sorts and sailed back EMPTY because Nigeria did not have any exports to offer the world, apart from oil.

Shanghai to Apapa for a 20' container cost USD2800 at one time. At that same time Shanghai to Hamburg cost only about USD150. Because of petro dollars we went on buying just everything and paying huge freght rates. All of the shipping companies wanted to be here to partake of the windfall.

Now the tonnage deployed has far exceeded the demand and naturally the freight rates will fall. This is why the fringe players are packing their loads.

Low freight rates are good for our economy, because it means landed cost of raw materials will be lower, duties will be lower, and NIgeria can produce at lower costs.

We have an opportunity to turn around the economy like India and China did many years ago, by targeting low cost production that will enable Nigeria to export manufactured goods at scale to other countries.

Nigeria must trade and must seek good trade balances. It is senseless to make your economy a dumping ground that we have been in the last 2 decades.

Today, freight rates from major Asian ports to Nigeria is still about USD1500/20' and it is still significantly higher that Asia to Europe which would not noramlly exceed USD700. The information can be googled. It is available to everyone to see. If a shipping company will check out of Nigeria at the current rates, then it did not really have any reason to be here in the first place.

CBN is rght on one thng. Nigeria cannot be treated as a dumping ground anymore. Low freight rates are good for the economy. At the current rate, any sincere shipping company will still be making a fortune. The main cost of shipping is bunker (oil) which are selling very low right now, meaning that the cost of sailing ships to Nigeria has dropped significantly.

And some Nigerians are crying wolf! I dont understand that.

I,........, wishes to......

should read:

I,........., wish to......

Sometimes it looks like Nigerian political elite, the parliament, SAN lawyers, have all colluded to wage war against the people in order to enrich themselves in perpetuity. Just a thought.

How come Senate will spend so much energy vetting the budget of the executive and no one knows the budget of the Senate and the House?

How come elected officials collect hundreds of billions in the name of 'security votes' and there is so much insecurity in the land?

SAN almost means you can no longer be questioned and not even the Police dare stop you!

Na wa o.

Scrap S.A.N.

You will never see Americans discuss the price of naira or cefas. Nigeria's currency is NAIRA and our focus must be to strengthen the NAIRA. Devaluation does not strengthen the NAIRA, development does. Rather than trade on substance we are focussing on how we will help currency dealers make more profits.

Our currency (the NAIRA) will be strong if we create enabling environment where manufacturing, agriculture, IT, innovation thrive and where we are able to make good capital gain exports. This should be our focus. No one spends NAIRA in Oyingbo market. Why the fuss?

The sad part is that we donot have this enabling environment. Government hardly helps the people. All we see are VIO, FRC, etc harrassing and harrasing. A country that charges one million naira (NAFDAC as alleged) for licence for pure water is still not serious about industrialization and obviously not serious about getting good value for its currency.

Ama80:
it sounds positive but why is d president hesitant?

Well, cocoa beans does not grow in 3 days! We have a bad situation now because we have not been planning. I say we. No blame games here! Instead of looking for the easy way out (devaluation) let us get to work and produce so that our currency can gain value. We have devalued 3 times in the last 1 year and we have not seen any improvement in export. I think we must look at our consumption side as part of efforts to revalue the naira. Our leaders from time immemorial have worked against us. The vital industries are not working. No steel. No easy acess to land for Agriculture. No functional refineries. No stable power. Without these, we will be foling ourselves to think devaluation will help us out.

India built the world's largest refinery in 2 years and today they can buy crude at USDx and export the refined oil back to Nigeria at USD5x. The task before PMB and his team is to make Nigeria work. Till now, we cannot see them taking this move. Yes, I agree we should not 'devalue'. At the same time, there must be a 2 year plan to massively boost exports.

Nigerian banks pay the highest.

A manager in GTB earns 5 times what his counterpart earns in some of these places listed here.

NIGERIA IS A COUNTRY WHERE YOU ARE DEEMED TO BE AN ECONOMIST BECAUSE, LIKE TRUMP, YOU HAVE ACCESS TO THE MEDIA AND YOU CAN MAKE THE LOUDEST NOISE.

ALL THE PEOPLE SCREAMING DEVALUATION HAVE NOT MADE ANY SENSIBLE ARGUMENT. THEY ONLY CLAIM THAT IT IS ENCOURAGING ROUND-TRIPPING. YET THEY CANNOT PROVE THAT WITH FACTS.

NATIONS DEVALUE THEIR CURRENCY TO ENCOURAGE FOREX INFLOW THROUGH EXPORTS. AND THEN THEY RE-VALUE AGAIN IN THE COURSE OF TIME. IN NIGERIA, NAIRA HAS NEVER (AND I MEAN NEVER) REGAINED VALUE. IT HAS ALWAYS BEEN ONE WAY. FROM 3 NAIRA TO THE DOLLAR, TO 11, TO 18, TO 32, TO 60, TO 98, TO 120. TO 158, TO 199!

IT IS SO, BECAUSE OUR DEVALUATION HAS ALWAYS BEEN TO ENCOURAGE SPECULATORS AND NOT TO ENCOURAGE EXPORTS. OUR OUTPUT OF COCOA, CASHEW, RUBBER ETC HAS NOT INCREASED IN THE LAST 20 YEARS. IN FACT, COMMODITIES LIKE RUBBER AND CASHEW ARE ALMOST EXTINCT. NIGERIA NO LONGER EXPORTS LEATHER. ALL THE PAST DEVALUATION HAVE FAILED TO ENCOURAGE ANY MEANINGFUL LONG TERM INVESTMENT IN PRODUCTION.

NIGERIANS WHO HAVE STORED MONEY ABROAD (SOME FROM DOUBTFUL MEANS) REALLY WANT DEVALUATION - THEY WANT THEIR 1000 DOLLARS TO FETCH THEM 300,000 NAIRA.

CONTNUED DEVALUATION WITHOUT SOLID LOCAL PRODUCTION THAT IS GEARED TOWARDS EXPORTS WILL ONE DAY MAKE YOUR CURRENCY WORTHLESS. COMMON SENSE.

DEVALUATION TODAY WILL MAKE PETROL SELL FOR A MUCH HIGHER PRICE. IS NIGERIA READY FOR THAT? WILL THAT NOT SPARK ANOTHER CRISIS? COMMON SENSE!

STOP SPENDING YOUR DOLLAR EARNINGS ON 'ANYTHING MADE IN CHINA' LIKE HUMAN HAIR, TOOTHPICKS, CHAMPAGNE AND WATCH YOUR CURRENCY GAIN VALUE. COMMON SENSE!

NIGERIA IS THE WORLD'S LARGEST IMPORTERS OF CHAMPAGNE AND BEAUTY PRODUCTS. WE ARE SURROUNDED BY WATER BUT WE IMPORT FISH ALL THE WAY FROM CHINA AND SOUTH AMERICA. YOU CANNOT CONTINUE WITH THAT AND EXPECT YOUR CURRENCY TO GAIN VALUE. COMMON SENSE!

SINCE THE CBN PLACED RESTRICTIONS ON 42 ITEMS, FACTORIES HAVE SPRUNG UP TO MAKE TILES LOCALLY. THERE ARE OTHER EXAMPLES. THAT WOULD NOT HAVE HAPENNED WITHOUT A POLICY TO CURB SENSELESS IMPORTS. HOW CAN WE BE SURROUNDED BY ROCKS AND YET BE IMPORTING STONES? MAKES NO SENSE!

WHILE THE PROFESSORS ARE TALKING, CHINESE AND INDIAN BUSINESS PEOPLE ARE LOOKING TO ESTABLISH FACTORIES. WE NIGERIANS ARE STILL SLEEPING AND MAKING THE BLAME GAME! TALK IS CHEAP. LET US GET NIGERIANS TO PRODUCE! COMMON SENSE!

CHECK WHAT YOU ARE PUTTING ON NOW - YOUR SHOE MADE IN ITALY, YOUR SHIRT IN UK, YOUT SUIT IN INDIA, YOUR TIE IN BANGLADESH, YOUR WRIST WATCH IN TAIWAN, YOUR HUMAN HAIR IN BRAZIL, YOUR UNDERWEAR IN THAILAND. YOU HAVE JUST RELAXED WITH NICE FRUIT JUICE MADE IN SPAIN AND YOU ARE WATCHING DSTV COURTESY OF SOUTH AFRICA. FINALLY, THE DIVIDENDS ON YOUR GSM ENDS UP IN INDIA. NO NATION DOES THIS AND EXPECT HER CURRENCY TO GAIN VALUE. COMMON SENSE.

THE BEST ECONOMICS IS THE ONE THAT MAKES COMMON SENSE. THAT IS WHAT NOBEL PRIZE WINNERS ALLUDE TO. AND I AGREE.

Only in Africa.

Only in Africa will you celebrate yourself for conceeding in an election you woefully lost.

Well, thanks for doing that. We pray that Africa will rise above these shades. About time.

Events of the recent have also shown that our former president was probably not in charge of anything. He practiced management by abdication.

In that sense, we appreciate him for at least taking charge after the election and not allowing the hawks to speak before him and to turn the land into chaos.

Nigeria must learn from this. vote only credible and proven people. We are not there yet, obviously.

I cannot imagine how Nigerian parents teach their children the wicked craft of stealing!

BDCs should be free to operate but CBN had no business of selling to them at official rates.

The agencies acted with absolute impunity.

It is good they now have a chance to prove their innocence. '

Never again should a bunch of people just sit and embezzle billions and trillions of our money and then be parading themselves around as RICH men.

I have thought that the best way to recoup money is to give a 30 day window in which all stolen funds should be returned and then go on massive prosecution of those who fail to use the window. That will cost the FG very little and give it maximum gains.

There is no proof now that results will be achieved the way it is being fought now. Our resident should listen to counsel if he does not want to go into the black pages as some of his predecessors.

If force can work wonders, Nigeria should have changed 30 years ago when PMB and Idiagbon ruled with iron fist. If PMB succeeds in convicting people and seizing their funds, another government may come tomorrow and grant pardons and return the funds. Let us think deep and far. A truth commission can serve us better. Restructuring, reforming should take primary attention and not incarcerations.

Olisa metuh is being turned into a star now as he will surely garner public sympathy, and if care is not taken the hunter can become the hunted.

Wisdom is paramount.

Financial Times may have their arguments but they also just exhibited the HEIGHT OF INTELLECTUAL ARROGANCE. In the matters of Economics no one knows it all. China made their own plan, and India too, in spite of the FT, and they have been able to bail themselves out.

FT knows nothing about the environment here and cannot have answers to Nigeria's problems.

Britian and AMerica are so advanced that you may leave its market to market forces. Not Nigeria! Have they ever seen an economy where the governor of a state can pocket the income of that state? Or where a security adviser can pocket/share budgetteary allocations that should have been used to equip the Army?

What market forces? FT should just admit its ignorance and come down from their lofty heights and high horses.

Devaluation is risky at the moment because it will translate immediately into rise in Petrol prices. Remember we still import Petrol, and you need dollars to fund its import. Imagine that a devalued Naira will mean that Petrol will sell for N150 pump price. Will that not lead to crisis?

CBN has only just said that excessive importation for just anything from toothpicks to human hair is the reason for the pressure on the naira. So, they have curtailed the quest for just anything.

Dangote is smarter than all of FT put together and he once said that restricting import with the list of 41 items is the best economic drive he has seen in Nigeria. Now, we have to make our own ceramic tiles, put on our own Ankara, eat local eggs instead of cheese! Why cant we consume what we can produce?

Nigerians have to change our unbridled taste and appetite for products simply because they are made in 'Other Countries'! When whites come to Africa/Nigeria, they come to make cheap money to take back home. When Nigerians go to their lands, we take boroowed dollars to go and shop for just anything.

Devaluation has only a short term benefit to any economy that is largely consumptive and not productive. If Naira sells for 300 at the official market today, the so called 'smart investors' will rush in funds, scoop the market and walk away to pile pressure for further devaluation!

The average Indian puts on clothes made in India. Why cant we wear Ankara, even to work? Imagine the millions of jobs that will create, and imagine the savings on forex!

True, we cannot isolate our market, but the fact remains also that we cannot contine with unbridled appetite for anything made by 'Uncle Sam'!

OUTRAGEOUS.

NIGERIA WANTS TO RUN A DANGEROUS ONE-SIDED SOCIALIST AGENDA WHERE YOU PREACH AUSTERITY TO THE MASSES WHEREAS THE RULERS CONTINUE THEIR SPENDING SPREE.

THIS IS ANOTHER DIMENSION TO CLUELESSNESS. WHEN THEY OUGHT TO LOWER TAXES, CUT THE INCIDENCE OF DOUBLE TAXATION ETC, THEY WANT TO NOW DO THE OPPOSITE.

CBN HAS JUST SCRAPPED COT BUT HAS IMMEDIATELY INTRODUCED SOMETHING WORSE!

Viktor1983:
I think buying seats and desks is priority here.
Fix the classrooms and environment , buy books, get better teachers.
Teach their parents family planning and stop child marriages.
These should be the best way to go bout this.
Improvement in education in anambra wasn't by feeding kids, it was by infrastructure for better learning.

All of these are important.
Free food will help government bring MORE people to school and that is good in the long run.
What will be the benefit of better buildings and furniture if people wont go to school? People not going is still a problem in some parts of Nigeria, you know!

dekins:
Economic diversification through what can be termed Nigeria Beyond Oil is what we need through Agriculture, Petrochemical, Mining / Mineral, Gemstone, Metal, Alloy and Energy until Oil and Gas prices hopefully becomes favourable. A diversified economy ensures economic sustainability.

The cost of diversification in Nigeria is too high and that is why it is hardly hapenning. Nigerians dont need preaching. They will invest wherever it is worthwhile doing so. Our economy and GDP are fueled by oil and gas, banking and telcos. Bank shares make up more than 50pct of our stock market. That makes us a land of speculators. The cost of everything is too high. The cost of acquiring farmland is too high. If you get a cheap land the cost of securing it is then too high. Who wants to go far in the bush and risk being taken by the nomads? Go to south east and the north and see how cattle rearers, crop farmers are making losses due to robbery and kidnapping.

Nigerians do not need preaching. Nigerians are smart and will work where they know there are profits. Secure the land. Find how to bring down the cost of everything. Create an enabling environment. 99% of this lay squarely with the FG to do.

I may not be a fan of OBJ but his famous letter gave all the warnings. Rather than take pre-cautions the politicians went on thiefing spree, sharing all sharables.....! When the madam said 'all this blood you are sharing' she possibly knew what she was saying. The people we trusted with power shared blood money!

They ignored ploughing money back into developing oilfields and watched as Angola and Ghana stole the show!
LNG development was sidelined.
SWF savings of USD20 billion was 'shared'

We simply did not save for today. We must pray. Nigerians dont realize the implication of oil price falling to $20. It is like carrying your wares to the market, and suddenly realize you have to sell below your cost... or that nobody is buying at your price. In both scenarios, it means returning home with empty pocket. How would you cater for the nation then?

Some have suggested that government should increase taxes and levies. Nothing can be as stupid. It is like your citizens used to earn average 20k and paid you 2k out of it. Now they are making 6k and you want to take 4k out of it. You will be asking for trouble if you do so. Common sense.

In other climes, what government at all levels should be doing is to encourage invetsments and exports from the little we have. Take of the fat bellied 'black and white officers' off the roads and send them to farm instead of harrasing motorists. Well, let me not pretend that I have asnswers to our complex problems. But then we should not continue with business as usual....It is time to encourage SMEs a lot, not by mouth but by deed. Dont ask someone to bring 1 million to obtain licence for pure water. It makes no sense.

Cost of everyhting in Nigeria is too high to promote non-oil exports. High time we woke up!

If we buy the IMF pills of increasing VAT and removing subsidies, we would be asking for real big problems in my opinion.