₦airaland Forum

djseanjohn77:
Personnel and Financial Power
Nigeria maintains overwhelming dominance in manpower and funding. It commands a force of approximately 230,000 active personnel, backed by 50,000 paramilitary members, totaling over 280,000 personnel. Burkina Faso, in stark contrast, has only about 16,500 active personnel and 4,500 paramilitary members, making Nigeria’s force nearly 14 times larger. Financially, Nigeria’s defense budget is approximately $3.16 billion USD, which is roughly 38 times larger than Burkina Faso’s budget of $81.28 million USD.

Yet, a general was captured, alive, in your own territory. Keep deceiving yourself.

mii4u:
Regina is on drugs buy some of the drugs wre introduced to her by her husband for his pleasure.

Ned Nwoko is far older than Regina and he more clever than she is. He kips talking about the smoking thing before pple so that at a time like this, he can have a witness in the house.

Regina is a junkie, but Ned played a part.

They say someone is mad, you are saying she bought it from the market. Will that cure her madness?

pretydiva:
This is the handwriting of pa Ned. Why drag this woman into your mess with Regina? The dragging she has been facing since ehn, e pele oo

Someone is mad, you people are saying she is acting. If she an addict and doesn’t seek the help she needs, it will destroy her completely. Drug is dangerous, it’s not something you play with.

JuanDeDios:
I'd take this sort of risk with beer, not PMS. By removing susbidies, Nigerians have suffered enough. To then add a 15% increase (that's what is, since it allows Dangote to increase prices by 15% without any fear of competition) is unconscionable.

A poor country like Nigeria cannot afford to subside consumption of petroleum products. It was foolish and lazy policy to begin with and that should be out of the question.

The 15% tariff is meant to discourage importation of petroleum products and to encourage local investment in downstream sector of the country. It is to allow Dangote and any local refinery to recover their cost and make profit while still selling below the imported price. The argument that he will increase his price by 15% makes no sense. If they do that, they will be selling at the same price as imported products and how will that help them?

fatosky1:
The government is just trying to make Dangote the sole supplier of petrol and diesel. A monopoly market where producer dictate and manipulate pricing for maximum profit.

Whereas his production or output is yet to meet local demand according to the statistics. The gap of 60% is being met through importation. With introduction of 15% import duty. Importers will be discouraged because they can't compete on price otherwise their selling price will be higher. Why is this government hell bent on making live miserable for the citizens.
The 4 government refineries is producing nothing despite millions of dollars sunk into turn around maintenance annually for the past years.

If Dangote is unable to meet local demand, why is he exporting products abroad?

Equating a local refinery with another from India, Russia or Malta will be the height of policy recklessness and stupidity. They don’t have the same value on the Nigerian economy and shouldn’t be put on the same footing.

Most beweries exist in Nigeria because of 20% tariff on imported products.

kaymart:
I think the reverse is he case. He reduced it because of reduction in landing cost. Who are those importing? His competitor I guess. Meaning his competitor are the ones making his do the reduction.

It is only a useless country that will allow the price of an important commodity like PMS be determine by those importing. There will be no industry left in Nigeria if commodity prices are left to external forces. Countries like China will dump products below market price in our country to wipe off all your industries. You can do that to get cheaper products but your graduates will be do hookup, riding okada and uber for living. Even your breweries and breverage industries are only surviving because there are duties on imported products and 20% for that matter.

Dogalmighty17:
You talk as if majority of your brain has leaked out of your ears. The CBN under Emiefele sold dollars at a very cheap rate to Dangote. The NNPC too reportedly provided funds though less than 5% of the total cost of the project.

Will government be willing to sell dollars cheaply across board to anyone willing to build a refinery? Or is this a package only Dangote enjoyed?

A government that cannot account for the billions of dollars it borrowed to fix Kaduna and Port Harcourt refineries has no business demanding Nigerians pay 15% on imported fuel. That is wickedness.

A bag of cement costs 3500 in China but yet that same bag costs 9500 here in Nigeria. What possibly justifies this? And the government wants to put us at the mercy of this company?

The government is supposed to support companies that want to establish industries in Nigeria. That is what most countries do. You provide tax breaks, financial support, and make procurement and foreign exchange processes easier. This is a government’s responsibility because these companies will create jobs, build a skilled workforce, and pay taxes for decades. For example, the Canadian federal and provincial governments have committed billions in funding and incentives to attract companies to set up electric vehicle manufacturing and supply chains.
Here are a few examples:
* Stellantis: The federal and Ontario governments agreed to provide up to $15 billion in production subsidies over 10 years.
* Volkswagen: The federal and Ontario governments pledged up to $13.2 billion in production subsidies and a $700 million upfront capital grant.
* Honda: Receiving $2.5 billion in federal tax credits and another $2.5 billion from the Ontario government.
* Northvolt: Supported with up to $4.4 billion in federal funding and $2.9 billion in financing from Quebec.
* General Motors/POSCO: Funded by $147 million from the federal government and $152 million from Quebec.

Nigeria should take a similar approach and give maximum support to any company that wants to establish industries here

Dogalmighty17:
No one forced him to go and build refinery. If his production cost cannot fall below imported fuels then why should we have to pay for that? Where is the free market economy this government claims to pursue when it is putting in place policies to stifle competition?
It is madness that a refinery accesses crude locally, refines locally but its products are more expensive than imported varieties. The lies that imported fuel is of lesser quality is just that, cheap lies.

I understand anyway. He is a business man and will always want to do what is for the best of his business. But I'll leave you with something to ponder.

Compare the cost of a bag of cement in China to a bag of cement in Nigeria.

Your argument is flawed and reads like beer parlour talking points. How can you fairly compare a company refining locally in Nigeria with those importing finished products from abroad? What if the suppliers from abroad are deliberately selling imported goods at lower prices just to destroy your local industries?

Take China as an example: its steel producers often sell below market value to drive out competition. Many of these companies are state-owned and focus more on creating jobs for their people than on generating profits, with the government subsidizing production. That’s why most countries have implemented tariffs to protect their local industries.

If we continue with this mindset, no one will invest in manufacturing in Nigeria. This is why we don't have textile or steel industry in Nigeria. Building a steel plant or textile factory requires a level playing field, and that’s impossible without some trade protection. Even the beverage sector in Nigeria benefits from import duties designed to help it survive.

If marketers want a share of the market, they should establish refineries locally, develop the workforce, pay taxes, and create jobs.

Also, comparing cement prices in China and Nigeria doesn’t make sense—the scale is vastly different. China produced about 1.83 billion tonnes last year, while Nigeria produced only 0.065 billion tonnes, less than 4% of China’s output. Compare PMS and cement prices in Nigeria with other African countries.

Wallade:
My position can be understood by positive and progressive minds, not your mind.

A mind that advocates for an outdated system built on rent-seeking rather than job creation cannot be regarded as progressive. Likewise, belittling the benefits of the most significant investment in Nigeria’s history out of fear of a non-existent or unsubstantiated monopoly cannot reasonably be considered positive.

Wallade:
My position doesn't have to make sense to you

I understand, it doesn’t have to make sense to anyone, as long as it serves your interest.

Wallade:
You can't understand until you become a victim of your employer.

Besides, unions are legal entities, established by law and binding on all organizations as long as the staff push to join applicable and preferred unions.

So how many private universities in Nigeria are part of ASUU?

I understand you have a vested interest with all the long write up trying to justify things that don’t make sense. You should understand that you are swimming against the tides.

iammolise:
My point is more focused on the 'free delivery' part, it's more of a temporary fix, Dangote will increase his fuel price soon to cover up for loses after this excercise and so will fuel price go up again.

If Coca-Cola delivers their products to your shop or if the local sachet water company deliver to your store, do you pay them for delivery? No, because that is part of their delivery network. If they don’t do that, they won’t sell. We have operated a dysfunctional energy system for so long that we think it is normal for refinery to use third party to deliver their products and buyers pay for delivery fee. Delivery of products to the filling station should be free.

iammolise:
Well let's see how this pans out in the long run... But let's not forget that Aliko Dangote is a capitalist and didn't start this business to lose... Before y'all get happy

Do Coca-Cola, Nigerian Breweries and Unilever start their business to lose? They all distribute their products themselves across Nigeria. It will be suicidal for any company to depend on another for distributing their product.

Kennitrust:
This have nothing to do with tinubu reform


Dangote has his own plans.



If he can monopolize the market, Nigerians will understand that this man doesn't sent anyone.

See how we suffering to buy one bag of cement.

If they want to compete, let them build their refinery here in Nigeria just as BUA, Lafrage and Mangal have built cement factories to compete with Dangote cement.

Emeskhalifa:
The only way left to compete with Dangote is by Building a world class refinery to rival his refinery.
His long term game plan is hoping no one will be able to own a functional refinery as his, so he can bring in his monopoly agenda. Anything short of this won't make him to bat his eyelid.

No one built a refinery in the last 30 years to fill the gap. He doesn’t have to hope.

Psalmistproject:
This guy wants to monopolize fuel distribution.

It won't work o.

Fuel no be cement. Any fim e don burn to ashes.

I'm giving him 5 years, he'll sell off all the trucks to independent distributors.

Bad belle. It won’t happen.

NothingDoMe:
"They will produce low-value fuel oil, which is not needed today, so it will be a loss"

It's there in digital ink!

Comprehension should be made a national priority in Nigerian schools. When you read any article, try to understand the context and decode the terms being used. If some of the jargon is new to you, look it up in a dictionary or use Google/AI chatbots.

I’ll help break this one down.

When you refine a barrel of crude oil, you get a lot of outputs: LPG, petrol, kerosene, aviation fuel, heating fuel oils, marine fuel oil, etc. A refinery can be optimized to produce more of one product than another, depending on the target market. For example, petrol is the main product that sells the most in Nigeria today. So what Dangote is saying is that his refinery is optimized to produce more petrol than other products. (From one barrel, about 54% of the output is petrol, while the remaining 46% is made up of other products combined.)

Some refineries may be optimized to produce more aviation fuel if that’s the market they want to serve. For instance, if you have a refinery in Ethiopia, you might want to focus on aviation fuel since Addis Ababa is a major aviation hub in Africa. However, in the case of NNPC, only 18% of its refinery output is petrol, while the other 82% is made up of different products. A high percentage of these are “low-value fuel oils.”

So, what are these low-value fuel oils, and why is NNPC producing so much of them? Low-value fuel oils are the heavier fractions of crude that are less valuable. Examples include heavy fuel oil and marine fuel oil. These are used to power ships, boilers in industries, and older power generation plants. I’m not sure why the NNPC refineries were optimized to produce so much of these products, but my guess is that when they were built in the 1970s, heavy fuel oils and marine oils were in higher demand for shipping and industrial power generation. Times have changed, and newer, cleaner fuels and gases are now more economical and sustainable. Heavy oils are still in use, but demand has dropped.

With this context, what Dangote is saying is that NNPC cannot compete with his refinery because NNPC’s refineries are not optimized to produce petrol, which is the product most in demand in Nigeria, but instead produce “low-value fuel oils” that have limited demand.

lwisee:
This man has been talking too much lately.
Or is he now a content creator.
This is totally different from the very reserved Mr Aliko we know in the past.

I didn't see anywhere in the article where Dangote said that NNPC produces low-value petrol.

gidgiddy:
Let's not forget that his Grandfather was one of the richest men in the North. Dangote may have worked hard to get to where he is, but he was born into money.

Where are the other children and grandchildren of the grandfather? Always finding ways to put others down won’t help your situation.

Commentor:
If that's the case, why has the war dragged on for so long?

Abeg getat.

That is what is called Attrition warfare. If it continues like this, it will come to an end one day, and usually very quickly.

lordm:
Drones over missiles, drones are the future of warfare

And China controls more than 70%-80% of the world’s drones. No one even comes close.

Fiscus105:
Tell people who understands economic to tell you meaning of oligopolists, I already know the terminology would confused you

Meanwhile, Tell Ur Dangote to compete in the same conditions with importers and win a more dignified way, I think they say he is richest, he shouldn't fear competition nah.

Tank farm owners, tanker operators, and middlemen in the oil industry still want to continue with business as usual, not realizing that the landscape has changed and the old model is no longer sustainable. I understand it can be difficult to let go of such a lucrative business, even when it is ultimately bad for the country.

I don't think Dangote is worrying. He is doing exactly what he should be doing, which is investing in his own distribution network. He plans to supply retailers directly, free of charge. If any retailer refuses to source from him, he is prepared to enter the retail business himself and potentially push them out of the market. They are joking; they think it is easy to invest $20 billion. He will be ruteless

Fiscus105:
You should also know, nations shouldn't protect economy to the advantages of few oligopolists.

The fuel importers are the oligopolists. They contribute nothing to the country and have been holding the country hostage for years. If they want to compete as they claim, they should build their refineries here in Nigeria, employ Nigerians to refine it.

Fiscus105:
Let Dangote reduces margins of his profit by bringing price down, importers would be forced to patronise him, and let the regulators make sure the importers not allowed to bring substandard to the country, because of differences in prices.


Our concern as masses is to buy cheaper and quality petrol and less concerned about who produce the product.

This thought process is faulty. You can’t allow others to dump products in your country to undermine your local industries just so you can get cheaper price. What if they are selling the products below market value just to make sure the local industries are not viable. That is the reason countries place tariffs on imported product to give equal playing field to local industries because it is the local industries that creates wealth and jobs for the country not the imported products.

Konquest:
If they want to rush to Russia like lemmings, that's their problem or prerogative.

I CLEARLY stated my own reasons based on advanced intel available to me since the Russian-Ukraine War started. You're having a convo with a man who is well-traveled too diverse places in the world. There's NO propaganda there. This article by the OP even corroborates some of what I've known.

Some people will offer women jobs in Italy under the guise of employment agencies ONLY to end up working as prostitutes with their passports seized. A couple of years back, BBC Eye did a documentary on Kenyan women who were offered jobs in the Arabian Gulf States, ONLY to find themselves in the hands of Al-Shabab in Somalia (which shares common land boundaries with Kenya) a few got to escape years later but the damage had already been done to their psyche.

You don't know anything. If the Russian embassy tells Nigerians exactly what they will be doing in Russia, which is to build drones for them at the lowest factory worker's rate (~$350/month), the Russian embassy will be full of applicants. Thousands of Nigerians will camp there for days. Nigerians are working in significantly worse conditions in rolling mills in Lagos, earning less than N3,000 per day. And let me tell you, Russia is no more dangerous than Nigeria. Nigeria is far worse. Like I said earlier, propaganda doesn't work on poor people.

Yes, trafficking is everywhere. Even in Nigeria, people are being trafficked as house helps and prostitutes. You need to shine your eyes before you leap.

Konquest:
Anybody from Africa who's considered a Russian trip for work and studies will have himself or herself to blame at this point in the War effort. Period.

What are you saying. If Russia open their border and start to give Nigerians work visa, hundred of thousands if not millions of Nigerians will camp at their embassy for days. Forget all these propaganda here, e no dey work for Nigerians.

atobs4real:
So by age 18 years they will graduate from secondary school abi?
Nigeria is a joke
Limiting people's life to early discovery and success

In the U.S. and Canada, children typically start Grade 1 at age 6 and finish Grade 12 at age 18. Acceleration is generally discouraged; instead, advanced placement (AP) programs or other forms of academic support are encouraged.

miketayo:
Calm down with the 1 millions kms, do you know how many years it will take a vehicle to record 1m km and those trucks are mostly new.
And we talking about suv and sedans not trailers.
As your mechanic flooded cars are not the same, there is always an electric issue. Accidented cars varies if it's a write off they wont fix and send it. Most imported cars are driven out of the containers so they aren't severely damaged.

Let’s assume an average Dangote truck covers 80,000–100,000 km per year. The company imported 12,000 SinoTrucks into Nigeria back in 2014—that’s about 11 years ago. Many of those trucks have likely accumulated over a million kilometres by now..

You’re saying things without proper knowledge. I can’t speak for flooded cars, but I’m certain that most imported used cars in Nigeria are accidented vehicles. Some sources put the figure at around 70%, while others say it’s closer to 95%.

1. 95% Of Second-hand Vehicles Imported Into Nigeria Are Accidented Vehicles – Report: https://autojosh.com/95-of-second-hand-vehicles-imported-into-nigeria-are-accidented-vehicles-report/?utm_source=chatgpt.com

2. Over 70% imported cars to Nigeria are accidented – Clearing Agent: https://naturenews.africa/over-70-imported-cars-to-nigeria-are-accidented-clearing-agent/?utm_source=chatgpt.com

miketayo:
My point is most of the cars cant be accidented or flooded cars, they wont last long on Nigerian roads

Most used cars imported to Nigeria are obtained from auctions, which are mainly cars defined as severely damaged and deemed unrepairable by insurance companies.

And what is so special about Nigerian roads? All those Dangote trucks are Chinese, and they go over 1 million km.

ishayaauta:
the challenge is not getting it, what happens to spear parts availability, I fancy a lot of American brands, but omo! kazeem go use you see weyting no good at all

That's how you fail exams.

miketayo:
I don't believe most.. a flooded or accidented car can't last 10 years on Nigerian road.
There are cars of more than 3 Nigerian users being sold and they came in as tokunbo

If not stolen cars, most of these Toks cars are accident cars. The cost of fixing cars is very high in Canada and the US. Sometimes, it is cheaper for the insurance company to pay out the market value of the car to the owner and recover some of it from the auction than to repair it.

Taiwan and Gaza comes to my mind. They are not recognised as countries and millions of people live there.