₦airaland Forum

I think having a large fraction of your population in the diaspora breeds certain habits, some of them very good.

Anyway, long story short, I'm not sure that the Lebanese and Nigerian diasporas are comparable, in part due to their relatives ages (if that is indeed what you are comparing.)

I was flipping through Newsweek. . supposedly the per capita GDP of England immediately before the black plague was ~$1300ish.

That is comparable to the per capita GDP of Nigeria today

We've got a long way to go, folks. . .

^-- Lebanese have been immigrating since the 19th century, though. Having a 100+ year head start is a nice advantage.

So spend 1k to go to church, or use that 1k at the club?

The Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) is to commence marketing of refined oil to U.S., Brazil and other parts of the world to boost the revenue base of the corporation.

The Group Managing Director of NNPC, Austen Oniwon, made this known to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Brasilia on Wednesday.

Mr Oniwon said already the Corporation, which hitherto had been exporting crude oil to the U.S., had concluded arrangements with Brazil's Oil company, Petrobras, toward the realisation of this objective.

He said the NNPC had since indicated its interest to invest in Petrobras's plan to expand its refinery in Texas, U.S., from 100,000 barrels to 200,000 barrels per day.

``We indicated to them our interest to partner with the company to have an outlet into American market instead of exporting just crude to the American market.

``We can take Nigerian crude, which is also going into American market anyway, into this refinery, process and sell as value added product into the American market.

``This is something that is going to be beneficial to NNPC and Nigeria as a country," he said.

Mr Oniwon further told NAN that the NNPC and Petrobras had concluded discussion to enter into a relationship in the areas of oil exploration and production, refining and petro-chemical, oil marketing and trading, gas and power development as well as research and development.

He said officials of Petrobras would be coming to Nigeria in February to sign a Memoranda of Understanding (MOU) with the NNPC for the take off of the partnership.

``They (Petrobras) hope that we will be able to jointly explore the vast hydro carbon deposit in Nigeria especially in the deep offshore since the MOU is going to embrace worldwide operations.

``As partners we will be able to join Petrobas to operate in their businesses and share their assets outside Nigeria," he added.

The GMD said he hoped that the MOU would also enable Nigeria to develop its gas sector for the smooth operation of the various power plants being constructed in the country.

According to him, President Goodluck Jonathan has focused on the development of power plants in Nigeria and most of these would be driven by gas.

He, therefore, stressed the need for Nigeria to develop its gas sub-sector, primarily for domestic consumption to power the power sector.

Mr Oniwon also said he was optimistic that the MOU would address the challenges of infrastructural deficiencies in the nation's oil and gas sector.

``We need partners because the infrastructure that is going to deliver this gas to the various power plants is inadequate at the moment and their provision is going to cost a lot of money.

``But with the new government policy whereby the cost of power has been reviewed upward, it has made business and investments in gas project very lucrative

``We believe that Petrobras will be eager to join with NNPC to develop the gas resources primarily for domestic use and for export because they are also short of gas in Brazil,'' he said

http://234next.com/csp/cms/sites/Next/Money/5661409-147/nnpc_to_market_refined_products_to.csp

Interest rate on this loan is 9%.

What a sweet deal. . .

Wish it were available to people with smaller amounts of capital 

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) disbursed N8.281 billion during the fourth quarter of 2010 under the Commercial Agriculture Credit Scheme (CACS).

According to data on the Bank’s website, a total of N96.811 billion has so far been disbursed to 86 projects/promoters and 18 state governments in the second tranche since the scheme began in 2009. This brings the number of beneficiaries to 104, out of 347 projects that applied to benefit from the scheme.

The CBN in 2009 set aside N200 billion for onward lending to farmers under the scheme towards boosting agricultural production in the country. The balance of CACS funds as at December, 2010 stood at N103.189 billion.

In a memorandum to the National Economic Council, the Central Bank said that under the second tranche, 18 state governments: Adamawa, Anambra, Bauchi, Enugu, Gombe, Kebbi, Kogi, Imo, Kwara, Nasarawa, Niger, Ondo, Sokoto, Taraba Zamfara, FCT, Akwa Ibom and Rivers accessed N1billion each for on-lending to farmers’ co-operatives and other areas of agricultural interventions in their various states.

[size=20pt]Food security[/size]

The initiative is expected to enhance food security, reduce cost of credit in agricultural production, and increase output and employment in the sector. Target commodities under the scheme include the cultivation of target crops (rice, cassava, cotton, oil palm, wheat, rubber, sugar cane, fruits, and vegetable); livestock (dairy, poultry, piggery); and fisheries.

As at December, 2010, 11 banks: Access, Fidelity, First, Guaranty Trust, Oceanic, Skye, Stanbic IBTC, Union Bank, UBA, Unity and Zenith are participating under the scheme. UBA has the highest disbursement of N35.162 billion followed by Zenith with N13.835 billion, Union, N10.903 billion, First Bank, N9.135 billion and Skye Bank with N6 billion. Also, N13.934 billion, comprising N11.353 billion from UBA, N2.00 billion from Skye Bank and N0.581 billion from GTB has been withdrawn in respect of undisbursed funds.

[size=20pt]Eligibility[/size]
Under the eligibility guidelines released by the Central Bank, borrowers under the scheme shall be a limited liability company, with asset base of not less than N350 million, and with prospect to grow the net asset to N500 million in the next three years and comply with the provision of the Company and Allied Matters Act (1990). This, however, is not applicable to loans taken by state government for on-lending.

Such companies must also have a clear business plan, provide up-to-date record on the business operation, if any, and satisfy the entire requirement specified by its lending bank. According to the CBN, “interest on loan shall not exceed nine per cent, inclusive of all charges.

To ensure safety of the funds, the banks bear the credit risk of the loans, while state government have to sign an irrevocable standing payment order (ISPO) in favour of the CBN to deduct at source the total amount in default from the states on monthly basis of State revenue allocation.


http://234next.com/csp/cms/sites/Next/Home/5660673-146/central_bank_disburses_n8.3_billion_agric.csp

violent:
dang!! man, you ve been loosing opportunities to make some mad capital gains, stocks flattened out at low levels in December 2010, only to rise to the highest peak since June 2008. . .

It wouldn't fade off easily because most portfolio managers would sell their stocks to take advantage of tax benefits towards the end of the year, and then buy it back at the beginning of the year. . .it's best to look into stocks with very low price/earning ratio as it is always considered very risky

Thanks, I see. Looks like I was mistaken.

seanet02:
Thank God, we all known he is the best candidate in Lagos state. Action congress, Democracy for justice.

+1

violent:
With that kind of money, i would cleverly hand pick stocks in the UK that are selling for bargain and have strong long term earnings potential, the best time of the year to have done that would be in November/December in order to reap the full benefit that comes with January effect.

Does the January effect still exist? I havent followed stocks that closely recently, but I thought the advantage is gone, since people noticed it many years ago.

Wtf?

This is enormously evil if true.

bashr4:
i studied medicine in the states , even dummies can study medicine but i have been trying to perfect my skills on IT its very difficult but am closing in , and i noticed the more i build up my IT skills the easier my medical profession becomes ,even a dummy can study medicine after all nigerian student then we hardly read yet we top the class.

Which medical school is this?

And which IT skills are you saying are hard?

I think you are telling stories, dude. Even the worst medical schools in the US are not easy to get into.

I still wonder why Indians never have this sort of issue. They import their wives from home or wherever and don't have any problems (at least, to my knowledge.)

Bleh. Why can an Indian dude import a wife successfully and a Nigerian guy cannot?

Not trying to point fingers at anyone, just trying to understand the situation.

Some women just wanna take dudes for a ride 

dayokanu:
One day one of my friend they were coming from the club and just came to my house with this girl. From her accent I knew she is just from Naija and she too confirmed it. She was dangerously drunk. I swear . They came in, I went to get them drinks from the fridge and before I came to the living room, she has already popped the guys cork out and blowing it in my presence. She was brought here by one 40 something Naija man with "ori-olori" as his wife and she was doing everyone.

GenBuhari:
He almost ended corruption entirely in 1.5 years of leadership (corruption is our biggest problem today)

Lack of access to capital is just as big a problem, imo.

There is a lot of money to be made in Nigeria too. The profitability of certain business in Nigeria is mindboggling. But you need to have certain skills and especially capital to take advantage of it.

With that said, there are some very interesting opportunities in the US as well. You cannot go wrong with either country. Personally, I want to have a foot in both countries over the course of my career.

Wonderful news.

[quote author=Mrs, Eve link=topic=35178.msg7467819#msg7467819 date=1294244998]There are white and AA women would move to Nigeria with their husband.  I won't do it.[/quote]Yep, there are. Sorta talked about this issue with the chick I'm dating now. She is AA and says she can live anywhere in the world. Things aren't serious now, but I figured it makes sense to clear it up before moving further.

Funny thing is though, there are lots of Nigerian-American girls who have zero interest in moving back to Nigeria permanently    I understand their perspective, but it sorta sucks.

In theory there is nothing wrong with it.

But let's say you marry an African-American or white girl, they might not necessarily be interested in having your kids learn to speak your native language (in my case, Yoruba), or have names in your native language (I have zero interest in giving my kids English first names, for example.)

And what if you decide to move back to Nigeria some day? Again, most AA and white women aren't really interested in that type of stuff.

Of course, if these two issues aren't important for you, then no big deal.

Na wa for these dudes then.

As a wise philosopher once said, "Can't turn a ho into a housewife"  

@queensmith: There is a difference though between meeting (1) a "good girl" at a club, later on marrying her and (2) a ho at a club. Most people can and should be able to tell the difference, and understand that (2) is not wifey material.

adolfe bad:
^
sure. . .
Ho's too get married everyday, and they bear the title 'MRS'

Lol, you are right I guess  

If my 'uncle' was running for president, I'd probably do the same things that Beaf is doing.

I cannot blame him too much 

[quote author=cou-gar link=topic=579438.msg7467580#msg7467580 date=1294243149]so what should a man do? marry abroad or marry a girl based in nigeria? the women here have their issues. they have been "westernized". they have lost touch with the african tradition and they want to be whiter than the white women.[/quote]This is my real beef with some Nigerian-American girls. If I want a westernized woman, I'll just stick with the african-american or white chicks 

With that said, not all of them are like this. Just a lot of 'em

Which naija dudes do you know who marry hos from clubs?

Sleep with, yes. But marry? No way.

15.5% ROI per month, effectively? My guess would be something import related. Some sort of basic commodity you can buy from abroad and move quickly. Imported rice, beans, the like.

7.5 mil isn't enough to make big impact in construction; that business is fairly capital intensive.
.
Overall though, I think your expectations as far as ROI go are a bit too high.

homerac7:
@ eku_bear, u dey kolo o! Na my alma Mata u mess like dat? B careful o, or else na your backyard d next bomb blast go sound. Anyway sha, I concur wt u to large extent on d subject matter.

Lol, I reread what I wrote and now see how it could be interpreted as a diss

My bad, I didn't mean it that way at all. I was trying to convey familiarity/ownership/understanding, not contempt. I wouldn't intentionally diss my own state's university

Damn

paulo882:
You don't need to study for a degree to go into IT because by the time you finish a 4 or 5 year degree in IT, your degree would have become obsolete ! ( thats how fast things move in IT ), so you might as well take the bull by the horn and start with the latest tech and move with the flow.

I do agree that you don't need some sort of 4 year CS degree to be an expert. However, the fundamental training you obtain from such a course of study never becomes obsolete, imo.

Many of these new technologies are similar to old ones, often direct repackagings of old ones. So old knowledge is never really quite useless.

If you get your fundamentals down, you can get up to speed with most new developments pretty quickly.

That story posted by Blazay is frikkin insane, lol. More sitcom stuff, but happening in real life and posted on the internet. Wow.

The words of the OP made me tear up a bit. Very touching.

I really, really hope that this guy is not a scammer.

Please don't fail, my Edo brother.

Katsumoto:
Ability to speak English is not the only requirement. Some of these call centre workers are required to have some knowledge of Western countries. Also, Nigeria's association with fraud means that no one will establish call centres in Nigeria. I alluded to these in one of the points I raised.

If it is just tech support (e.g., what are the tradeoffs for these 5 different computers I'm considering, how do I turn on my laptop, how do I install software X), things like that one can be trained to do pretty quickly. Honestly, a halfway competent Nigerian college grad can do phone tech support pretty easily. They hire high-schoolers at Best Buy; the education levels in Nigeria are not so bad that a UNAD grad cannot handle this.

I do agree that getting financial business will be difficult. My CC example was probably poor (though they seem to have no problems outsourcing the tech support for my CC to India  )

You can Google around a bit for a similar thing that was done in Ghana. I think I first heard about it 5 or 6 years ago. Not sure of the current status of the centers in Ghana though.