Good morning Jaid,
What you do and the advise you give us is inestimable and we are very much appreciative and thanking you.
Please what is the difference between compromise duty and full duty. What about if an agent charges you money and they end up paying compromised duty even though you paid and tell them you want them to pay full duty. It is confusing to people like me. I took my 2014 Acura MDX to the port early December and they tried to ship on 02/29 but it will not start. This is something that I was driving daily and never had an issue with it. It was driven to Delaware port as the nearest port to me in New Jersey was closed due to fire incident. The next ship in March also did not take it as they said the wheel was locked, they were going to charge me $350 to tow it to the ship but end up charging me $730 to forklift and an additional $530 for storage fee. It ended up costing me almost $3000 for the shipment and if agent paid compromise duty, won’t that be another problem when I start using it in Lagos?

Thank you Jaid. Much appreciated.

Good morning again. What about 2011 Ford Edge. Grimaldi
Thank you for all the assistance.

Good morning Jaid, my 2014 Acura mdx has been in the port since December and just shipped. How much to clear it now. Grimaldi roro.
Thank you

Thank you for all the answers to my questions .

How much to clear 2014 Acura MDX. Does it make sense to even ship a car to Nigeria now or just buy in Nigeria

http://the-africanway.com/tony-elumelu-foundation-will-give-1000-africans-5000-start-business/

AGOS, NIGERIA – Africa’s largest business incubator, The Tony Elumelu Foundation (TEF), is now accepting applications from African entrepreneurs, with business ideas that can transform Africa.

The application portal is open and accepting submissions until Midnight WAT on March 1, 2017. To apply, complete the online application click here


“Our Programme is a deliberate effort to institutionalise luck and provide the essentials for business growth to Africa’s next generation of business leaders.” Tony Elumelu

Successful applicants will join the third cycle of the TEF Entrepreneurship Programme, TEF’s 10-year, $100 million commitment to train, mentor and fund 10,000 African entrepreneurs in every African country. Since inception in 2015, the Programme has assisted nearly 2,000 entrepreneurs and created hundreds of jobs across the continent.

The Programme provides critical tools for entrepreneurial success, including:
•Training:12 weeks of intensive training on setting-up and managing businesses
•Mentoring:A mentor will guide successful applicants in creating a robust business plan
•Seed Capital:$5,000 in non-returnable seed capital and access to a $5,000 convertible loan

TEF Founder, serial entrepreneur and philanthropist Tony O. Elumelu, CON said:

“Our Programme is a deliberate effort to institutionalise luck and provide the essentials for business growth to Africa’s next generation of business leaders. It is a demonstration of my faith in this generation’s ability to transform the African narrative, from the single story of disease and poverty, to one of enterprise and opportunity. Spread the word; we need Africa’s best and brightest entrepreneurs. Their ideas will transform Africa.”

1,000 entrepreneurs will be selected based on the viability of their idea, including: market opportunity; financial understanding; scalability; and leadership and entrepreneurial skills demonstrated in the application.

To be eligible:
1.Business must be based in Africa
2.Business must be for profit
3.Business must be 0-3 years’ old
4.Applicants must be at least 18 and a legal resident or citizen of an African country

CEO of the Foundation, Parminder Vir OBE said:

“We encourage women, French, Arabic and Portuguese speakers and business ideas from every region across Africa, to apply. Our 2,000 alumni are already growing their businesses and improving lives. If you have a transformational business or an idea, we have an opportunity for you.”

She is one of the girls who escaped from Boko Haram captivity when they were first abducted and all the escapees were granted visa and placed in peoples homes in the United States. She has been in the US for over 3 years including some of her other colleagues who were lucky to run away from captivity.

MIT-Portugal and me
Olaide Olambiwonnu poses with her Performetric teammates.
Hands-on internships are helping students broadens academic, professional, and personal horizons.

Caroline Knox | MISTI
October 12, 2016

Olaide Olambiwonnu is one of seven MIT students who interned and performed research in Portugal this past summer through the MIT-Portugal Program housed within the MIT International Science and Technology Initiatives (MISTI). A pioneer in international education, MISTI helps MIT students develop practical intercultural skills through hands-on opportunities in over 30 countries. This past summer, Olambiwonnu traveled to Braga, Portugal, to intern at Performetric — a business-to-business startup specializing in mental fatigue management — where her work focused on business and product.

"I accepted an offer from Performetric and will be staying on as COO," Olambiwonnu says. “I am proud to say I was instrumental in helping the company move from a beta product to an official version," she adds, explaining that her projects covered everything from customer research to product management to website design. At the conclusion of her all-encompassing internship, Olambiwonnu was pleased to accept a position of leadership in the budding startup. "I will be helping the company's entry and expansion into the United States," she says.

Bolstering MISTI's mission, the MIT-Portugal Program ensures that students have a rich experience that broadens their academic, professional, and personal horizons and prepares them to be global leaders in their field of study. Since its was first launched as a pilot program in 2011, MIT-Portugal has matched over 25 MIT undergrads and graduate students with projects at leading Portuguese companies, universities, and labs.

While MIT-Portugal follows the framework of a traditional MISTI program, it was developed in collaboration with another similarly-named venture — the MIT Portugal Program (MPP). The MPP is a strategic partnership between Portuguese universities and research centers, MIT, and partners from industry, and government. Its goal is to strengthen the country’s knowledge base and international competitiveness through a strategic investment in people, knowledge, and ideas in innovative technology sectors. Seeing the value in connecting more MIT students to Portuguese companies and in connecting Portugal with MIT’s "mens-et-manus" or "hand-and-mind" approach to learning, MPP approached MISTI in 2011. The MIT-Portugal Program officially launched in 2014 and is led by Managing Director Alicia Goldstein Raun. MIT students have been matched with projects at such companies and schools as CEIIA, Portugal Ventures, doDOC, Imaginando, University of Coimbra, INL, IPATIMUP, Nova University of Lisbon, and several others.

Before going abroad, MIT-Portugal participants are required to complete Portugal-related coursework and attend a series of preparation and training modules covering topics such as cross-cultural communication, navigating the workplace and safety. By exploring their host country’s culture, MIT-Portugal prepares its students to experience their host culture as an informed, engaged participants and not just visitors.

"For me, working and living in Portugal was a great opportunity," Olambiwonnu says. "The MIT-Portugal Program gave me the chance to be in a different country for a long period of time and experience it in a way that I wouldn’t have if I were just visiting on my own.” Originally anxious to live in a new city for three months, Olambiwonnu found comfort in her relationships with her Performetric colleagues (and future coworkers): “The team was friendly and warm. They were the best hosts anyone could have wished for.”

At graduation, participants in MISTI student programs report a higher level of self-confidence and an improved ability to adapt to new situations and to communicate effectively with international peers. Olambiwonnu, embarking on her new international career at Performetric, is no exception. "My goal while I was at MIT was to either start my own company or help shape someone else's company,” she says. “Without MIT-Portugal, I would not have realized this goal. I will always be an advocate for the program.”

MIT-Portugal is currently accepting applications for the 2017 internship placements. A program within the Center for the International Studies, MISTI is an initiative within the MIT School of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences.

If you are Portuguese company, research institute, or university laboratory interested in hosting a student, please contact the MIT-Portugal Managing Director Alicia Goldstein Raun.

http://news.mit.edu/2016/mit-portugal-and-me-1012

In a bid to mop up alarming rate of youth unemployment in Africa, Google Inc. has announced plans to empower one million Africans with digital skills by the end of 2017.

The search engine juggernaut plans to give free digital training to 400,000 Nigerians and 200,000 Kenyans and 300,000 people in South Africa. The remaining 100,000 beneficiaries will be picked from across other sub-Saharan Africa countries.

“Google is in Africa for the long haul and we are making an investment in talent,” Google South Africa country head Luke Mckend said Tuesday.

“We hope that the people trained will become pioneers in the field and do great things in digital for companies and for Google,” he furthered.

Though the move seems unbelievable and hugely ambitious given the short time frame, according to Bloomberg Google has kickstarted collaborations with Livity Africa to develop training modules and is launching new online education portal for learners on the continent.

“We’re also talking to a number of other potential partners across Africa with a view to scaling the digital skills training program and helping to reach even more young people in more countries,” Google said in a statement.

Should Google succeed at this, it would make significant impact in the fight against unemployment and poverty. It’s safe to assume Google would be collaborating with Omidyar Network-funded PIN Nigeria, the digital advocacy and development organization that has been leading championing digital literacy and training in Nigeria.

http://enterprise54.com/google-to-train-400000-nigerians-200000-kenyans-by-2017/

The difference between Femi Otedola and those that I am talking about is they earned their money honestly and nobody have to suffer or live in an unjust society. To average Nigeria $450,000 is a lot of money but if you live in USA and work very hard, plan your life, it is nothing. I know Nigerians here who work for Investment Bank and their bonus alone is over $10m. May be you guys only hang out with the wrong crowd.

By the way, the guy who bought the $450,000 investment property is not only selling laptops alone, he does a lot more, he owns the Mr Biggs in Challenge in Ibadan, owns supermarket and he has a business he runs in the US too. I am not saying everybody can achieve this but it is much easier here if you work very hard, you don't need to kiss anybody's ass and the law will work for unlike in Nigeria where you can open a business and the authority can shut you down if you mess with the wrong person.

I just came back from Nigeria and I have been living in the US for almost 20 something years after graduating from Unilag with an engineering degree so I know USA very well and I have done quite a lot of business in Nigeria and I know Nigeria very well.

Please do not and I repeat NEVER equalize a USA green card with 50 million in Nigeria. They are not the same. If you work very hard in the USA and plan your life very well and not extravagant. You can easily become a millionaire in USA dollars within a short period of time.

Some of my colleagues children who own businesses and a dozen of houses in high brow area in Lagos can not even secure a job.

Please take a green card over any amount of money given to you in Nigeria any day and any time.

Do you know, you can even start a business from USA to Nigeria and vice versa and make #20m in a month.

I have friends here in the USA who are not lazy and not extravagant and plan their life very well. Some are working, investing their money and some are doing businesses between Nigeria and USA. All of them I know at least a minimum of 10 own a minimum of 1 million US dollars in assets. One of my friend lost his job about 5 years ago and he is only buying used laptops and sell in bulk in Nigeria. He just bought another investment property in New York for $450,000 and paid cash. All of us came to USA with nothing more than $100 in our pocket.

http://www.premiumtimesng.com/business/171875-breaking-dwindling-oil-price-cbn-devalues-naira-raises-lending-rate.html

The Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, has announced a new official naira-to-dollar exchange rate, forcing down the Nigerian currency by 13 naira, as the country struggles to reshape its fiscal policies in response to dwindling oil price.

The bank devalued the naira at its monetary policy committee, MPC, meeting on Tuesday in Abuja, where it also reviewed Nigeria’s monetary policy rate from 12 per cent to 13 per cent.

The monetary policy rate highlights lending rate for the country’s economy.

The naira will now exchange officially at N168 to a dollar, and no longer N155, the bank said.

The bank also moved the private cash reserve ratio from 15 per cent to 20 per cent, while retaining public sector cash reserve ratio at 75 percent.

The CBN said the decision to lower the value of naira against the dollar is to strengthen the currency.

Mr. Emefiele noted the continued drop in global crude oil prices and reiterated the call on the government and the National Assembly to speed up the process towards the immediate passage of the Petroleum Industry Bill, PIB, which has been pending passage for the past two years.

The committee urged the government to take advantage of the declining oil prices to cut down on subsidies on supply of petroleum products in the 2015 budget, while states and Local Government should step up efforts to boost their internally generated revenue and reduce reliance on revenues from the federation account.

The CBN governor assured that the bank remained committed to maintain financial system stability, while warning against speculative activities that drive inflation.

Reps probe Finance Ministry’s import duty waiver grants
Our Reporter December 27, 2013 1 Comment »

By UCHE USIM

The House of Representatives has directed the Finance Minister, Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala to furnish it with the amount of money lost to import duty waivers granted by her office between 2011 and 2013.
Aside the revenue loss, she is also to provide the full names of the beneficiaries; what the waivers were tied to and the justification for granting such duty exemptions.

The directive contained in a 50-question letter on ‘state of the economy’, sprang from the undulating rhythm in the revenue of various commands of the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) and the nation’s dwindling non-oil revenues, which have robbed her of huge income.

Before now, Chairman, House of Representatives Committee on House Services, Mr. Yakubu Dogara, had lamented that aside the airlines and other critical service providers, some individuals got as much as N150 billion waivers to import certain goods.

In the current complaint, the House Committee on Finance, was worried over the drop in revenue generation as a result of poor policies implementation by the Finance Minister. The question on waivers was number 15 on the list, where the committee asked, “How much exactly did the government lose in revenue as a result of import duty waivers in 2011, 2012 and 2013? “In your opinion as the Minister of Finance, who oversees the economy, what are the implications of this to the country’s economy? What efforts have you made to stop this waiver policy, which is distorting the economy? “Our non-oil income has dropped in 2013, a case where increased tariffs on various items effectively reduced importation to zero in some sectors.

“However, those items now find their way into Nigeria through our borders. Does it make any sense to increase these tariffs when we have such porous borders? As an example, officially, Togo imported more rice this year than Nigeria”, the committee queried.

Question 16 of the 50-question letter directs the Minister to explain why the Federal Inland Revenue Service is planning to engage foreign consultants to collect tax for the agency, beginning from 2014.

Meanwhile fears are rife that the N1.4 trillion revenue target set for the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) in 2013 may not be realized as more and more individuals, companies and corporations continued to swell the list of beneficiaries enjoying Federal Government’s waivers and concessions on the goods imported into the country.
Stakeholders also insist that the waiver policy was discriminatory and not well-defined for the citizenry to understand the objective of the government.

http://sunnewsonline.com/new/cover/reps-probe-finance-ministrys-import-duty-waiver-grants/

I love Jonathan and I think he is a really Good President but when I read the Government release on Tarriff Increase, I was expecting what I am reading today which for a place like Nigeria where the leaders have no powers or the will to impose check and balances, it will come down to

Company's coming to Nigeria, setup a mini assembly plant which is fake. They will import a complete car, with no tire and a couple miscellaneous accessories in colarobation with their Nigerian representatives and pay no duty or very little. The cars will then be put together with less than 20 to 50 employees doing just manual labours and this will be called an assembly plant. Nigerians will end up not only loosing revenue but not adding any value to the product.

Please go back and read the tarriff memorandum released by the government earlier this year. I was thinking of doing same but do not have the capital to do so. This is an opportunity to make a killing but you need large sum of money to get this accomplised. That is why the Lebanese who have the money and their counterparts will be the ones to benefit from this laws.

yemiyemi,
Do you know anything about Igbogbo Millenium residential estate phase 2. I have been given the plot and block number. I have paid all the money, just waiting for the C of O but they keep telling me they are working on the site. Please let me know if you have any idea of what is going on or maybe I should start looking for another land to build. I have been on this for almost 4 years.

http://www.aerotrader.com/

http://www.aircraftdealer.com/

http://www.aircraft.com/

Give me the spec of the aircraft you need and I can get it for you. My friend just bought one for $35,000

I saw one for $12,000

Really sorry not to have replied to this forum but have been really busy. I was thinking of starting a company to produce fruit drinks or something similar but in consideration of PHCN, we have to abandon this as this is power intensive and using diesel powered generator will not be adequate. We are currently building a warehouse in Ikorodu to run a farmers market and this should go into production early next year.

We have partnered with a solar provider to install solar panels for food conservation and sundry.


Thanks again for all the replies. Funding can be up to $10m as long as it is viable and approved by international lender.

The proposal as to details all equipments, building, materials, assets and liabilities. Profit potentials and all these has to be verifiable. This involves a foreign consortium and will be on ground to verify all information.

Provide us a list of what he has done for his community since becoming an honourable or whatnot.

I really enjoyed this conversation between all of you. I am highly interested in this bulldozers. I have tried my hands on so many businesses in Nigeria and been burnt so many times. Auto, Boat, Computers and Eletronics equipments. You can not trust even your own blood and I am getting tired of staying overseas. Been in the US for over 22 years.

My question to you forumites is "Can this be done without your presence in Nigeria?. I have found out 99% of businesses other than real estate requires presence in the country. I am looking to build something first before leaving for Nigeria permanently.

FYI,
I stll have a very good job paying extremely well and this is not something to leave for uncertainties. I just dont have a life here.

Thanks for your responses.

Willing to pay #300,000 to any Nigerian that comes up with a good business ideas and will employ him/her, fund project and allow profit sharing.

What is the best way to go about this. Do I go to a university or place an ad in a newspaper?.

Please advice.

Thanks father ab.
I have done a lot of business with family and friends and it is just difficult when you are not on the ground, everybody is looking for ways to swindle you. What I am looking for is some businesses where you deposit say #5mil to 10 and will get supply in bulk and can supply to retailers.

What is the best business to invest in if you have $300.000.00 that has been saved for the past 20 years, tired of living overseas.
Thinking of buying laptops in bulk and selling low in volume. Already have some investment in stock, no longer interested in more stocks.

I need prices on 1998 Infinty QX4
1999 Honda Accord
1997 Nissan Quest
1994 Isuzu Pickup
1990 Nissan pickup 4X4
1992 Acura Legend


The above are cars, very clean that I have with a dealer in Lagos, not asking for much but seems like their are sitting too long.
I can work out deals with you by sending cars to you but will need to meet you when I am in Nigeria next week

I have a lot of HP, Canon, Lexmark printers, laptops, pentium 2, 3 and 4. Also have a lot of DVD players, recorders, portables dvd players and MP4 players.

This can fit into a container, I have been buying this items from liquidators and so price is very good.

Are there people that can buy in bulk if I give them a very good price.

Please let me know how to go about this.

Call the below company

AES Inc
aesshipping.com
1 Slater Dr
Elizabeth, NJ 07206
USA
+1 908-436-2150

I shipped cars all the time to Nigeria, cost $1225 to Lagos, $1130 to Coutonou.

They will fax you a form, fill and fax back with a copy of car titile. They will fax back to you a loading dock receipt and direction to port.

Take the car to the port and you will be given a dock receipt. When your car sail, you will be notified and will have to pick up your bill of laden and pay the shipping cost.

I have a 1990 V-boot that works flawless in US for 5 years, after shipping to Nigeria about 4 years ago, I have changed fuel filter like 7 times, I even bought a new one from the US and same issue. Is this something you can fix. I am ready to dump it.

You have two ways of buying cars from dealers auction.
1. You can go with a dealer and pay them some fees
2. You will need to register with your state as a used car dealer. In most cases, you are required to have a lot, if you intend to buy your cars for shipment to foreign destinations, then, you do not need a lot, but all cars you bought cannot be registered in the US.
If you need more info, I will let you know.

BTW, I am telling everybody, becareful in shipping cars to Nigeria, you have to know what you are doing. I have bought a lot of pickup trucks per marketing info and I end up loosing money on them. I have also made money on some cars that I did not think I will make money on. The best way to make money is to buy cheap and mostly Japanese cars. I have bought 2000 Honda accord, fully loaded for $4500, 1997 Toyota Camry for $1500 etc. If I know where you live in the US, I can tell you where and how to get good deals ob cars.