₦airaland Forum

Discouraging importation is a bad idea. Value chains are global. Top exporting countries import their raw materials from countries that can sell them at the lowest price. If you discourage imports, your cost of materials will be high, and your export products will be too expensive to sell internationally and will contribute to inflation by being more expensive locally.

Dangote is importing crude oil from the US because it's the most cost-effective source for him right now. This will ensure that the petrol he refines will be cheap enough to sell/export and make a decent profit. If we hypothetically discouraged him from importing crude oil by charging high tariffs, his petrol would be more expensive.

We have to import raw materials from the cheapest sources internationally, process them cost-effectively, and then export our finished products at competitive prices. There is nothing you want to produce that doesn't require importation. Even farming needs imported fertilizer, pesticides, herbicides, heavy equipment, spare parts, seeds, etc.

If we want to be an exporting nation, we should have low import tariffs and no export tariffs, like Singapore

You might say that we should have low tariffs for raw materials and high tariffs for finished products. That's not as bad as the current reality of high tariffs for raw materials in an attempt to encourage exportation of raw materials, but it is also a mirage. One man's "raw material" or input is another man's finished product.

Apple laptops and iPhones looks like finished luxury products, but to a programmer developing iOS apps, they're compulsory "raw materials" for production. The more expensive they are, the more difficult it will be for our youths to make clean money by becoming iOS developers.

Import tariffs or restrictions on grains would on the surface seem to help farmers, but they hurt feed mills, poultry farmers, bakeries, breweries, food processors, consumers who have to pay more for their products, and food exportation.

The top 3 exporting nations in the world are China, USA, and Germany. They are also the top 3 importing nations. The thinking of "imports bad, exports good" that leads to import substitution policies is primitive and outdated in the global village. India, which does import substitution, can't compete with China, which imports & exports.

Yes. But it should be done for areas we can cover with local alternatives in short or medium term.

No

China imported goods worth 3 trillion dollars in 2022, their export value was 3 trillion dollars same year.


Nigeria actually had a trade surplus in 2022.

China did not float its forex.

In other words,any hike in import rates from cbn or custom will also affect the citizens negatively!
FG is asking for patience from the citizen but you are directly and indirectly squeezing them from their hard earned funds due to your insensitive and mindless policies!

Seun:
The top 3 exporting nations in the world are China, USA, and Germany. They are also the top 3 importing nations. The thinking of "imports bad, exports good" that leads to import substitution policies is primitive and outdated in the global village. India, which does import substitution can't compete which China, which imports & exports.

The examples here are hardworking nations who add value to raw materials imported and export as finished goods, and with China having the unique advantage of low labour cost and industrial clusters.
Our own case is that of a lazy nation with almost no capacity to add value to raw materials. If not for Dangote and BUA, we will be half as industrialized as we are today. What we call industry is predominantly import repackaging outlets.

Buhari tried to discourage importation, it didn't end well. It's one of the reason we are where we are now

Yes, to fight some people

Buharri tried it and failed woefully.

There's almost nothing you can imagine today that China is not producing. In fact, you can go to China, meet a manufacturer and give him idea of a product that is currently not existing and ask them to manufacture them for you and it'd be done. We can be the China of Africa, but ordinary agriculture, we have not been able to get right. Let's start with rice and wheat cultivation first, where we can supply the whole of Africa, instead of African countries importing from Russia, Ukraine and India.

Nigerians can't do without foreign goods.

Even on this site in the match yesterday b/w South Africa vs Cape Verde,
some nairalanders were Lusting after some beautiful Cape Verde Female Fans

They said the Babes were Lanky and looked like Arab or fulani babes.

Paraman:
Buhari tried to discourage importation, it didn't end well. It's one of the reason we are where we are now

Discouraging importation without an enabling environment for new and existing businesses to thrive is not only terrible but an insensitive decision!

You want to plant rice and wheat on hectares of land when bandits and herdsmen will destroy the crops.

The government can't provide security for farmers in Nigeria. Herdsmen no dey for Russia.

RenaissanceGuy:
There's almost nothing you can imagine today that China is not producing. In fact, you can go to China, meet a manufacturer and give him idea of a product that is currently not existing and ask them to manufacture them for you and it'd be done. We can be the China of Africa, but ordinary agriculture, we have not been able to get right. Let's start with rice and wheat cultivation first, where we can supply the whole of Africa, instead of African countries importing from Russia, Ukraine and India.

The rice and wheat produced here will still be more expensive compared to other African countries because Nigeria lacks an enabling environment for business to thrive!
If there was an open market today within African countries,would Nigerian businesses be able to compete with countries that have constant power supply,security,unified tax system,low transport cost?

Discourage importation when we can barely produce. Apart from perishable goods, what else can we produce? Even advanced countries import some of their goods

" Dangote is importing crude oil from the US because it's the most cost-effective source for him right now. This will ensure that the petrol he refines will be cheap enough to sell/export and make a decent profit. If we discourage him from importing crude oil by charging high tariffs, his petrol will be more expensive ".

Seun, kindly shed more light on the bolded including empirical facts, please.

We need to get to the root of why Dangote is resorting to importing from the U.S. rather than lifting from his "father's farm" right here at home. Do not also factor in the cost implications of the logistics to do this.

I am getting sick and tired of this propaganda spread over and over again, and beginning to take the form of a truth.

If the above was indeed true, why wasn't all of this factored in until now when the refinery is said to have begun refining some products?

Why had they been giving Nigerians false hopes that the emergence of a local refinery would help alleviate some of our gasoline needs and take some pressure off our FX demands?

There is so much they are hiding from the citizens.

As it is right now, even the touted Port Harcourt refinery when brought on board will also be importing crude from the U.S. for the same reason you have alluded to about the Dangote refinery.

Seun:
Discouraging importation is a bad idea. Value chains are global. Top exporting countries import their raw materials from countries that can sell them at the lowest price. If you discourage imports, your cost of materials will be high, and your export products will be too expensive to sell internationally and will contribute to inflation by being more expensive locally.

Dangote is importing crude oil from the US because it's the most cost-effective source for him right now. This will ensure that the petrol he refines will be cheap enough to sell/export and make a decent profit. If we discourage him from importing crude oil by charging high tariffs, his petrol will be more expensive.

We have to import raw materials from the cheapest sources internationally, process them cost-effectively, and then export our finished products at competitive prices. There is nothing you want to produce that doesn't require importation. Even farming needs imported fertilizer, pesticides, herbicides, heavy equipment, spare parts, seeds, etc.

If we want to be an exporting nation, we should have low import tariffs and no export tariffs, like Singapore

You might say that we should have low tariffs for raw materials and high tariffs for finished products. That's not as bad as the current reality of high tariffs for raw materials in an attempt to encourage exportation of raw materials, but it is also a mirage. One man's "raw material" or input is another man's finished product.

Apple laptops and iPhones looks like finished luxury products, but to a programmer developing iOS apps, they're compulsory "raw materials" for production. The more expensive they are, the more difficult it will be for our youths to make clean money by becoming iOS developers.

Import tariffs or restrictions on grains would on the surface seem to help farmers, but they hurt feed mills, poultry farmers, bakeries, breweries, food processors, consumers who have to pay more for their products, and food exportation.

The top 3 exporting nations in the world are China, USA, and Germany. They are also the top 3 importing nations. The thinking of "imports bad, exports good" that leads to import substitution policies is primitive and outdated in the global village. India, which does import substitution, can't compete with China, which imports & exports.

haaa wetin Oga Seun dey talk here now 🐨🐨🐨

Let Me move This To Front Page first

Oga seun thread no enter fp.
Infact all borders should be opened. Grains should be allowed to enter this country through seme border.

I use to think we have sensible leaders in Nigeria, never knew they're all rubbish!
Rice was cheap until Buhari closed border for us to buy Nigeria rice, since then Nigeria rice has continue to grow in cost.

Zero security, how can farmers grow crop with confidence, treating fulani herders case like its some not too serious joke.

After alot of rubbish policies, without banning herders from farm land nothing seem to work well, you come back to overtax the citizens.

What should be regulated are substandard goods imported into this country, but No. Substandard organization of Nigeria keep doing nothing about scrab being imported with our scarce dollar.

Restriction on some gadget importation is necessary
Security should be taking seriously and grain importation should be allowed. We should not be forced to patronize more expensive local grains.

Every borders should be forking open and anyone and everyone should be free to go in and out

Customs should be scraped and replaced with minimal border security


Priorities local industry manufacturing and agriculture production



Minimize imports





Make agriculture boom very well in the country by giving access to road , water , electricity and loans




Fund local manufacturing industries

RepoMan007:
Yes. But it should be done for areas we can cover with local alternatives in short or medium term.

I agree with you.
It sure doesn't make sense to import toothpick, ponmo, Brazilian/Peruvian hair, okporoko (stock fish) e.t.c

Vinnie2000:
Nigerians can't do without foreign goods.

Even on this site in the match yesterday b/w South Africa vs Cape Verde,
some nairalanders were Lusting after some beautiful Cape Verde Female Fans

They said the Babes were Lanky and looked like Arab or fulani babes.

Thirsty guys 🤣

Tinubu's Government is the most confused government in history before Dangote's refinery come on board we were hearing things like with the commencement on of Dangote's refinery dollar will drop drastically now they are telling us P.H refinery will start working 2nd quarter of 2024 dollar is still flying up fuel price price is still high and some idiots are still promoting this confused government na Thunder go Kee all of una

We will stop importation because incompetent people is in power?
Nigeria was not into importation during OBJ when dollar was N118?
Nigeria problem today is incompetent and corruption

Tinubu and his quark government are the most confused i have ever seen

Paraman:
Buhari tried to discourage importation, it didn't end well. It's one of the reason we are where we are now

it failed because he was trying to make his region benefit alone.
If not so, he would have prioritized making refineries work instead of building rails that will take rice from Niger through katsina to Cotonou.
How many aging cocoa trees did they replenish, but look at how serious he was with northern farmers. Even pro actively averting locust plague from north eastern Africa that threatened harvest in the north.

Imports of raw materials for production is not the same as import of junks for consumption. Know the difference. Nigeria has been turned to a dumping ground for junks.

PressMyButton:
Imports of raw materials for production is not the same as import of junks for consumption. Know the difference. Nigeria has been turned to a dumping ground for junks.

half of sweets and candy in Nigerian market are imported. Imagine that. We have cocoa, milk, sugar, coffee, coconut, and ginger. These are some of the best candy flavours yet we are importing artificially flavoured junks from around the globe. You wonder why people are malnourished in the midst of fertile ground.

Seun:
Discouraging importation is a bad idea. Value chains are global. Top exporting countries import their raw materials from countries that can sell them at the lowest price. If you discourage imports, your cost of materials will be high, and your export products will be too expensive to sell internationally and will contribute to inflation by being more expensive locally.

Dangote is importing crude oil from the US because it's the most cost-effective source for him right now. This will ensure that the petrol he refines will be cheap enough to sell/export and make a decent profit. If we discourage him from importing crude oil by charging high tariffs, his petrol will be more expensive.

We have to import raw materials from the cheapest sources internationally, process them cost-effectively, and then export our finished products at competitive prices. There is nothing you want to produce that doesn't require importation. Even farming needs imported fertilizer, pesticides, herbicides, heavy equipment, spare parts, seeds, etc.

If we want to be an exporting nation, we should have low import tariffs and no export tariffs, like Singapore

You might say that we should have low tariffs for raw materials and high tariffs for finished products. That's not as bad as the current reality of high tariffs for raw materials in an attempt to encourage exportation of raw materials, but it is also a mirage. One man's "raw material" or input is another man's finished product.

Apple laptops and iPhones looks like finished luxury products, but to a programmer developing iOS apps, they're compulsory "raw materials" for production. The more expensive they are, the more difficult it will be for our youths to make clean money by becoming iOS developers.

Import tariffs or restrictions on grains would on the surface seem to help farmers, but they hurt feed mills, poultry farmers, bakeries, breweries, food processors, consumers who have to pay more for their products, and food exportation.

The top 3 exporting nations in the world are China, USA, and Germany. They are also the top 3 importing nations. The thinking of "imports bad, exports good" that leads to import substitution policies is primitive and outdated in the global village. India, which does import substitution, can't compete with China, which imports & exports.

The problem with Nigeria is we have people who have primitive mindset... Chill let me give you example

Nigeria has been protecting the cotton farming and fabric industry for years... Seems good at the surface right? ... But this two industry we don't have comparative advantage meaning we cant ever export them because we produce above international market rate

Second this two industry at best has a capacity of $5 billion

But protecting this industry has killed our garment industry... Which we actually have comparative advantage

Remove protection , allow cheap importation of fabrics we produce garment for Europe and America

We are closer to Europe than Pakistan, Bangladesh, south Korea and the rest

We already have the manpower

This garment Industry alone can give us $300 billion dollars worth of GDP



We are protecting a $5 billion business while killing a $300 billion business

Importation is not the issue. The challenge is that we are not exporting enough.

The high exchange rate will discourage importation

Nigeria will become a drug wasteland

Youth will be in the street like in Philly dazed and bent over . And to make it worse, there won’t even be a modicum of resources to even begin to help like we have in some drug ridden states in America

CHRISTFUCKER:
Every borders should be forking open and anyone and everyone should be free to go in and out

Customs should be scraped and replaced with minimal border security

Dangote is in Lekki free trade zone so no tariffs can be imposed on him Oga Seun