₦airaland Forum

ElevationD:
Sorry elderly man. What led to massive importation of fabrics by business people?

Stop disgracing yourself please abeg.

Are you blaming importers for open borders? Where were the cotton seeds in Nigeria to purchase by local industries? Are you not aware that even cotton seeds too were imported by textile industries, contributing to their high cost of production, as cotton seeds were insufficient. Whose business was that please? Just like crude oil is government business, are you not aware that cotton is government business? Just like government needs investors in the petroleum industry, are you not aware that investors are needed in the cotton industry to grow and revive the textile mills?

Do you not know that high costs of locally made fabrics hugely contributed to importation of new and used fabrics? Locally made fabrics at the time were more expensive and an opening was created for importers. Under IBB’s government, foreign exchange became a huge matter with the introduction of SFEM and the devaluation of the naira. That government kickstarted the collapse of local industries and Nigerian textile factories could not compete. ARCEE and ASWANI textiles, in Lagos, which were major players in the 70s and 80s, faced unfavorable business conditions and packed up just like the others.

Are you not aware that power was an issue with the industries? Are you not aware of the cost of truck loads of diesel that powered the factories, using massive generators and power plants? Are you not aware that these added to their costs and affected their competitiveness?

What about high taxes? What about insecurity with frequent robbery attacks?

Government has responsibility of protecting local industries. With high tariffs on certain imported goods, local industries can compete, we know. With such low income, how do you expect citizens not to take advantage of lower prices offered to them from competing sellers? If I choose to purchase bad fuel at a low rate, that’s my business and my risk. Whichever way you go is your choice. That’s the beauty of competition.

Sadly people like you think that others want to continue living with such high prices for goods.

Incidentally you are making my argument that rather than throwing our boders open, government should rather fix those problems that you listed above so local manufacturers can produce cheaper products. Period.
Rather importing fuel, government should fix the barriers to local Refining, fix her broken Refineries and compete. Simple.
Thanks for making my case.

IbeOkehie:
I think the naira is OVERVALUED. I've been very consistent in that view. The naira has ALWAYS been overvalued and that is what has made Nigeria poor. Unfortunately economic issue require some deep thinking above instinct.

Let's say the naira is completely floated. I don't know what will happen, but let's assume you're right and the demand for dollars increases and naira goes to ₦5,000/$.

One very likely result will be a rise in prices of IMPORTED goods and services, including petrol.

What happens when PRICES are increased? Demand for those imported goods and services.... including petrol, will surely decrease. Nobody will buy imported petrol that is more expensive than locally produced equivalent.

And thus the demand for dollars will drop.

That is how markets work. Allow people to do what is good for them and they will make rational choices that benefit EVERYONE in the long run.

Right now Nigerians pay the HIGHEST CEMENT PRICES in the world. Government is FORCING its citizens to pay more for cement because they want to defend naira. It's so stupid and unjust too.

Think about it a bit. Which import ban has ever helped ordinary Nigerians live a better life? Rice ban? Wheat ban? Tell me just ONE single instance. All it does is raise consumer prices.

There's nothing wrong with importation. It's about FREEDOM. It's not the duty of the Nigerian people to make Dangote richer. 🙄



All those problems in rice and textile sectors are caused by an overvalued naira.

A strong currency makes importation cheaper. A strong currency promotes consumption over production.

These are classical economic principles that van easily be found on reputable internet sources.

Good Luck to Nigeria.

A very intelligent contribution to this discussion. The point here is can Nigeria economy that is import dependent cope with the associated pressures that your recommendations will come with?
N1700/$ and we already weeping on the street.

djon78:
In whatever you said

Price is still the determinant also adding product quality

I was involved in the textile industry during Jonathan regime

I discovered then that textiles produced in Nigeria by nichem and other local textile manufacturers where
1. Very expensive
2. Low/inferior quality

While the ones imported from china where
1. Cheaper/very cheap
2. Higher/better quality

The main issue is that Nigerian producers have a lot of work to do

They should improve there quality and reduce price
Then the market is there's


I remember a case study I did in college:
Singaporean producers vs multinational corporations producers in Singapore

The multinational corporations in Singapore where collecting the major market share

But Singapore government didn't stop them

Rather they encouraged Singaporean SMEs to compete with the multinational corporations by giving there SMEs
Support both in funding and technical know how

Guess what?

After some couple of years Singaporean SMEs products where at par with the multinational corporations products in quality

Then Singaporean SMEs dropped there price and took over the market share from the multinational corporations

Many of the multinational corporations began to withdraw

This helped Singaporean producers to now go massively into the global market making much earrings for there country and making Singapore one of the best countries to live in the world

Japan, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, Malaysia, China even Vietnam all follow same strategy for there countries


The problem we have in Nigeria is that those in authority don't have even basic clew on how to move this nation forward


If the right thing is done
Nigeria will benefit
It's not rocket science

They are just there to make small chicken change money instead of opening the country up to improve and be a global financial power

They don't want improvement
So that they and there cronies will make chicken change
While Nigerians suffer

Open up Nigeria
The citizens are hardworking

Let everyone compete
Competition will bring improvement

Nigeria have the potential to be a $2 trillion dollar economy

But our leaders want us to still be pursuing rats
When we have the potential to be a flying eagle!

I'm happy your illustration benchmarked competition between actors within Singapore economy. Rather opening Nigeria up for desperate European Refiners who do not wish us well, the responsibility of government is to encourage the Modular Refineries to come on stream and perform.
Even the almighty USA still protect her farmers from serious external competition.
Yes, while I agree that local producers should become more efficient and productive, that does not mean we should not know what's our priority sector.

IbeOkehie:
Wonderful news. Allowing importation of petrol is a good sign that maybe Nigeria is finally on the path to full deregulation of the retail and downstream petroleum sector.

Next is the Exploration & Producing segment. NNPC should broken up and privatized. The PH and Warri Refineries need to be sold to separate companies.

This is good news. Finally. Best of all, the commentary and opinion is mostly in favor of free market competition.

Extra note...it's time to open up the cement market to imports. In fact it's time for Nigeria to allow the import and export of all legal goods and services. Combined with a COMPLETE FLOAT of the naira, import & exports will surely thrive and create many more opportunities.

Good Luck to Nigeria.

Free market competition with foreign and imported PMS. I don't get you guys.
Listen to you asking for importation of cement too.
Yet you are here complaining about the value of Naira.

ElevationD:
Sorry young man, textile mills were not killed by importers, but rather government did it. Have you ever wondered what happened to cotton production? Have you asked what happened with the horrible government policies?

Look at rice today. Borders were shut because of favorable business conditions for locals producers. Today a bag of Nigerian produced rice stands at 100K. Imported rice at 120 and people have their choices. Local producers make it harder when we all know that Nigerian rice should not exceed 20K per bag.

Who is your young man? So who will buy your cotton if all manufacturers have closed down. Nichemtex, Nigeria Textile Mills, Kaduna Textile Mills, Kwara Textile Mills, too long to list all died because of this useless open borders with over five hundred thousand direct jobs along the textile value chain gone. You know nothing Bro.
Price of Rice went up, it is the responsibility of the private sector like you and me to take that advantage, produce, create jobs and make money, if we can't create job, this country is doomed. I have repeatedly said this before now, now the outcomes of poor decisions of yesterday have produced Banditry and violent crimes.

Wickedfact:
I asked a simple question which you couldn't answer.

Do we starve millions of Nigerians because of one company and the few thousands be employs?

How much was fuel before he started refining?
How much is it now?

The Dangote you are defending? How much is he selling his petrol?

The problem you have is that years of hunger and deprivation has made you unable to reason properly.

You can make your points without being rude.
It's obvious that you missed the dynamics of what transpired.
Before now, NNPC was the sole importer of PMS because they provided under recovery of cost (subsidy) and all the marketers buy from them. Landing cost is average of about N1,100/liters. NNPCL sells at about N550/liters meaning they are providing N500/ liters in subsidy. Now with Dangote fuel coming on stream at N766/liters, NNPC has now completely removed his hands from subsidy and passed on 💯 cost plus profit to Nigerians.
I had expected that rather than completely remove subsidy they should have allowed maybe a N300/liter to reduced their cost and support Nigerian.
Whatever savings Dangote brought has been hijacked by NNPC.

Themandator:
Let him export the products as pay his taxes ..why is he now a whistle blower ....It is built in an export processing zone



Must the marketers buy from him.


The chairman of his refinery , otedola says marketers should sell their depots as scraps ...why Is he looking for their patronage again

He's asking for a level playing ground. I'm sure you have siblings looking for jobs, the job is already gone with textile factory closures.
Face the fact, let all these marketers come together and build Refineries and compete.
This is how you guys heckled that led to the reversal of the PH Refinery because of your hates. What did you achieved, you played into the scripts of the cabal. Not this time again

Wickedfact:
I guess you were a teenager when Dangote used this same ploy to launch his 3X cement. Go and ask your elders at home if I'm lying. They will educate you better.

First, he said they didn't sell him crude.
Then, he accused them of owning the refinery in Malta.
Now, he's saying the fuel they sell is bad.

He can cry himself to death but he won't be the sole supplier of Nigeria's petrol.

Petrol is a security product and we can't keep it in the hands of one man.

Did Dangote stopped BUA, Leferage and others from producing Cement, why haven't those start selling cement at N600/bag as you want, since Dangote price is the problems.
You claimed there's no job in Nigeria and here's someone who has stakes his resources to create the job.
I was at the Dangote Refinery complex and was shocked at the numbers of jobs both directly and indirectly. Why will Nigerian sides with the evil cartel to frustrate DRL

Wickedfact:
You are comparing Dangote Refinery to Dunlop and Michelin.

First of, there are substitutes to products of both companies. Dangote wants to be the only one. Now, if he's the only one, he can raise prices at his whim and caprice a and nothing anyone can do about it.

Petrol is a security product and Dangote can't be the sole provider.

If you give Dangote monopoly of oil production, he can change the government. All he needs to do is to raise fuel prices 2 weeks to the Presidential election, blame the increase on the increased cost of doing business and the government is in soup.

Thirdly, a single bomb thrown in that refinery can destroy Nigeria's petroleum supply for at least a month. That's the security angle you haven't considered.

Next time, you look at other factors instead of taking a narrow stance on the subject.

And your solution to all these is importation. We continue to export crude and import fuel. Who stopped others from building Refineries and compete? Where are government owned Refineries? Did Dangote stopped others from going into Refinery?
Imported tyres killed Dunlop and Michelin with thousands of jobs lost along the value chain.
You are very shortsighted or in hate of Dangote as most Nigerians ignorantly are.
Where will the jobs come from when we give them away.

Wickedfact:
The imported fuel is what Dangote used to build his business empire. That's what powered all his trucks and machines.

It is foolishness to come and say the fuel is this and that. That's the nonsense they were using to market his 3X cement some years ago. No one is buying that rubbish now.

And you conveniently left out how your importations killed Dunlop and Michelin.

Giovannialonso:
If Dangote don't want an importation of pms he should bring his price down and chase the pms importer.

Since your product is expensive Nigerians will go for a cheaper product regardless where the product is coming from.

The imported PMS is of lowest quality allowed. I hope we know what we are doing as a country. This is how we killed the tyre industry in Nigeria that lead to the closures and exit of Michelin and Dunlop factories leading to losses of hundreds of thousands of jobs. How do we import what we can produce locally.

ElevationD:
Greedy people.

The choice belongs to the citizens on who to purchase from and that it what competition is all about. We have been using the so called dirty fuel for uncountable years with no stories. Even Dangote himself was using the same dirty petrol until he started his own refiniery.

It is our choice who and where to buy from. It is also the business of the marketers where they source their foreign currency from.

Monopoly is always the name of the game for Dangote. Up till now he has been having this back and forth with NNPCL, deceiving themselves. Their fear is that petrol price might be cheaper and therefore eliminate their greedy profit.

Yeye people.

This is how we allowed imported textiles to kill the textile industry in Nigeria. Today Millions of jobs have been lost, aside it has also contributed to the collapse of Naira.

Cruise no dey for abroad. Na Naija cruise dey

1stDoggystyle:
Every conversion on a pager or mobile devices can be listened to. Isn't that the same way the "yes dady conversation of Obi" was gotten?

If you are a person of interest, the government can have access to your past calls and texts

I means who planted the explosive into the Pagers
NB
Just read somewhere that the jamming caused battery explosion. How possible?

Nwaikpe:
I have one question:

Did he deal with Jihadist?

He fought wars

OP hasn't explained how the explosive got into the Pagers of Hezbollah and how Israel identified the Pagers being used by the terrorists

nedu666:
Economic slow down in Nigeria case is due to high exchange rate which led to inflation and low purchasing power. The only end result is mass unemployment, mass poverty and rising crime. To be on the streets after 10 p.m is dangerous

To slow down is whole idea of fiscal and monetary policies currently being pursued by the Tinubu's government But so long the price of fuel is high the impact of the various policies to control inflation won't be optimal.
I think with sustained floating of Naira, Nigeria's export will become cheaper while imports will continue to become expensive. The impact of this will mean incentives to produce locally (export substitution) while discouraging imports. This we lead to exchange rate stability and not necessarily appreciation (checkout the exchange rate of Indonesia and Vietnam).
We need courageous leaders who can see the though policies through and not play to the gallery.

They are out of Nigeria but Nigeria still has a duplex in their head.

Kobojunkie:
Yes it is! But a good read for anyone planning on investing in Nigeria anytime soon. Given the state of the Nation, it might be a good idea to investigate and ensure one understands the direction in which the country may potentially be headed. Of course, even if Nigeria were to in fact collapse today, it won't be the first or last failed State in Africa that we have today. There are several others out there in Africa we can take examples from.

You guys keep digging up bad reviews on Nigeria. I thought since you've Japa, you should leave those of us here in peace, yet the only oxygen that you guys have is bad wishes for this country in the desperation to justify why you Japa. Now you open a thread purposely to discourage investment in Nigeria, loading haters of Nigeria ammunition to continue to denigrate us and cast aspersions and venoms that you supplied towards us.
Since you have left, stay where you have gone and leave Nigeria alone.
I have found out, most of the people that speak ills about Nigeria and wish the country bad are wicked Nigerians in diaspora and I think you are among otherwise you won't gleefully open this evil thread on Nigeria.

A classic narcissist imperial monologue. No be today. After all, CIA claimed Nigeria would have disintegrated by 2015, but God has shamed them, Nigeria is still standing despite all our challenges.
There is no Country in the world today that is not challenged.

Anither563:
IPMAN is right. It makes no sense.

It will safe us from the dollar demand by over 35%

bdon123:
Bt he is one sided na....lets be honest.The man suddenly lost his voice

But you for at the least remember the time past/yesterday

Bobloco:
Tinubu sponsored, funded and organised protests and civil disobedience against the Goodluck Jonathan government, and he was not arrested or prosecuted.

But today, under his regime, engaging in protests is regarded as treason.

Tinubu is the modern day Adolf Hitler and Idi Amin Dada

Then I was wondering why Tinubu was never arrested. I can't as a. President tolerate what Tinubu did back then, to me it's a sign of weak leadership then. It seems PBAT knows how to use power better

Softmirror:
Nothing new.

The same Soyinka, that the Igbos is now abusing

Mynd44:
You mean the government who provided Fertilizer, tractors and other equipment?

Do you know what "government assisted" means?

Why will government not give credit to the farmers as stakeholder until the farmers called them out?

overall90:
Mr Bello Zabamawa's explanations were very clear.
You people should leave lies and propaganda alone.
It doesn't cost anything to present issues the way they are.

These guys think we are foolish like them. How could the Governor blank out the real heroes of that farm? The point is not whether government supports or not, but that the governor pass off the farm as World bank sponsored blanking out farmers who have also spent their money, time and resources.

Gadafii:
See format.

Na who Dem catch be thief Sha, many pastors are like this conman here in Nigeria

Why drag Nigeria into this. It's got not a single thing to do with this Nation, and yet in your negative obsession with Nigeria, you still figured out bringing us into it.
Yet you are a Nigerian

Lithiumite:
You are on point on this......the subsidy removal and the naira devaluation were 2 very hard pills to swallow at once.....you could have removed subsidy and use that differential to defend the naira till the economy is able to overcome the shock of the subsidy removal.

If the naira was still as it was pre devaluation....fuel prices wouldn't still exceed 550 to 600 max.

True talk Bro