₦airaland Forum

Now that is a modern Airport.Ghana is pretty impressive - you can see the infrastructure is clearly getting there. Tanzania KaziKazi have cattle house for their international airports.

vaxx:
kazikazi ..


kotoka aiport continue

Nairobi - Africa biggest ferry wheel in one of largest mall - Two Rivers. And recently completed One Africa tower.

They had really good education in 60s-80s - and when the military took over - that naturally altered the equation - the bright folks bolted out - a few attempted to return - and they found the situation even worse - and many now leave never to comeback. That brain drain, the militarization of politics and tribal-religious divide makes their politics dysfunctional.

But I still think that is MAIN bottleneck is oil. The Nigerian government in all levels is assured and comfortable with oil money - it doesn't bother to do anything serious.

When oil prices collapse - they get a little serious like now - and start thinking diversification - but if oil rises again to 140 dollars a barrel - all that is forgotten - and binge spending starts.

Nigeria need to diversify it's economy. Gov need to rebuild the collapse infrastructure(water,electricity, roads, railways and ports), they need to invest in education esp in Northern Nigeria and need to improve the ease of doing business - both at micro and macro- level.

Kenya is very corrupt but our corruption is not debilitating. Kenya ease of doing business is now 3rd best in Africa - and we rank with Nigeria in corruption - gov knows its get it's money (taxes) from the private sector - so they make sure the private sector is happy - it's their oil well.

Nigeria political class doesn't care about anything except the oil price or anybody standing btw Nigeria crude oil and Shells of this world who need to ship and sell it.

vaxx:
NIGERIA problem is simple. failed educational system and massive chunks of illiterate must be eradicated

There are many literate and brilliant Nigerians . . . which do not live in Nigeria. They’re in Britain, US, china, Ukraine, Australia, infact some are even in Ghana There are Also many literate and brilliant Nigerians in Nigeria, but no one listens to them. they’re actually seen as crazy people. The large percentage of the population is either die-hard rural, or half-baked. they drool over musicians and entertainers day and night while their country falls apart. they steal ballot boxes, act as thugs for these corrupt politicians. they fall for bags of rice, beans, and dried fish distributed to them during electron periods. and then vote for the wrong person.

By informal I mean as compared to bus companies that own several fleets - the matatus are just free for all - you import 14 seater van from Japan - have it modified (add extra seats, colour, music, etc) and be on the road. We have now attempted to formalize them - so now they must belong to cooperative union - who are given the route - they also have to stick to one route - have some yellow colour indicating how many passengers, routes - drivers and conductors also need to have their uniform and badges (their pictures) hanged, have dustbin and the whole shebang - seat belts.They also must have all the insurances needed.

But enforcement is a challenge. Certainly help now that a sacco get penalized...so they try to reign on the rogoue drivers and matatus.

https://i2.wp.com/www.nextinsurance.co.ke/blog/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/NTSA-APP.png

XhosaNostra:
Wow, I just checked it online. Some are really creative & eye-catching. Beautiful.

I understand you say it's an informal transportation system, how are the drivers with commuters in general? Here we also have a similar thing, but we have an option between formal & informal as far public transport goes. The thing with "informal" drivers is, they're very rude. No communication skills whatsoever. Some aren't even afraid to curse you out or beat you up. I think they need formal training in how to deal with people. Because they're almost always angry for no reason.

Btw, matatu means the same thing here, 3. We just spell it different "mathathu".

Nigeria need to wean itself off oil - that is what I have gathered from these nearly 4,000 pages - everything else seem to have collapse in 1960s - and completely during the oil boom (oil crisis for everyone else) in 1970s - what seem to have happened is everyone left for urban centers - they had the world fastest urbanization in 70s and 80s - now more than half the population are stuck in urban slumpolis - with no jobs, no electricity, no water. You can imagine even China now despite 50yrs of sustained growth is not near that level of urbanization - and they still have farmers out there doing the hard work.

Nigeria find itself with so much land and very few farmers. Unless they mechanize (quite expensive) their farming - North Nigeria will remain fallow desolate and yet fertile - and Nigeria will continue to spend 1/3 of oil money importing food.

vaxx:
Northern Nigeria is a region that contradicts its natural endowments. Despite the existence of many economic resources such as tin, kaolin, a variety of agricultural products and a huge fertile land, the people remain in abject poverty leading the whole other regions. the land is fertlile but not all crops can sustain from the North.

Moha - short for Mohammed Ali- is arguably the biggest artist that churn out those matatu graffitis.
https://i.ytimg.com/vi/ygrOWk6tN5o/maxresdefault.jpg
https://kenyacarbazaar.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/mfwor36ybuxkvsre56fe3ea00ba75.jpg

It sounded like it was not as dry and sandy as kenya north. In kenya north - the soil is so poor - in fact there is no soil - just sand and stones - so that make farming it impossible.Nigeria need to tame it's north. They need to allow southern farmers to move there and cultivate it. It obvious the fulani and their cows have completely degraded it.

vaxx:
That is how most of Nigeria north look like.

That is why i keep calling Abuja a cosmetic city. nothing of nature can interests you there . No beach, no natural endowned trees apart from tthe zuma rock that cover the center of the city.

Yeap - it's called the matatu/matwana culture. It's signature thing you'll find in Kenya - although even in Dar they are trying to copy it. There has been attempts to ban it severally - for somehow it's survives.

Matatu - in kiswahili mean 3 - and was name given to those informal mini-buses when they started operation in 70s and use to charge 3 cents.

Over the years the formal transport companies couldn't keep up - and out transport went informal, chaotic and really coloured.

Now gov is trying to formalize that - but nobody want to lose that matatu culture - will make our cities really dour.

XhosaNostra:
Is it a Kenyan thing to have colourful taxis/minibuses? Because it's not the 1st time I'm seeing bright-coloured taxis. I think Tayser posted some a while back.

I feel pity for Nigeria and Nigeria. I know your pain.

Here is my work colleague description of minna.

I will be based in Minna, Nigeria! I've attached a '"Where the heck is Minna?" Map' in case that was your first thought. One google post I found really sums Minna up, though:

"Brown, caked, dry, uncultivated, vast expanse of land; I was amazed. I've never seen land so extensive without trees all my life."

I'm sure you understand the appeal!

jaycent:
E pain am

The gay boy from minna - when are you going to farm all that empty land.

jaycent:
Hahahaha this one is just waking up from sleep

Mombasa receives nearly all the 2M international tourist who visit kenya every year; and million more domestic tourist flock that city - the city also home to now possibly 2nd busiest port in Sub-Sahara Africa - after overtaking Lagos port complex (of Apapa & Tin can) - and is the logistic capital of East Africa. Mombasa also post many industries - and has second highest concentration of export processing zones in Kenya - that export nearly half a trillion worth of apparel to the US alone.

And we are talking a very small island - kenya smallest county!

forgiveness:
Ibadan is better than Mombasa the empty and unprofitable city.

Mombasa better than Abuja.

Mombasa..better than Abuja.

They are busy copy-pasting cooked labour figures from Yemi Kale yet they are now the poster child of poverty. Just imagine 100M plus extremely poor people. So poor they couldn't vote. Unless they got induced.

tylann:
Comeback to reality
120 million Nigerians are unemployed out of 200million
100 million in extreme poverty they depend on the next person for survival
We saw it in your just concluded elections
Your politicians distributing
Rice , flour , bread with pictures of your politicians that means most Nigerians can't even afford food because of extreme poverty
In 2023 90% of Nigerians will be in extreme poverty
Nigeria is embrassing Africa

I think this year deficit is down (difference btw revenues & budget - which is bridged by borrowing). Personally I think gov should reduce borrowing but NOT REDUCE budget. They need to privatize and get money by selling shares in companies like Safaricom, National Oil, Kenya Pipeline, Kenya Ports Authority, Kenya Railway, Kengen (more shares). This will not only get treasury money - but will further inject private sector efficiency in there - and reduce corruption

tylann:
Uhuru should go slow on borrowing now

They are charging - something like 200dollars though - but yes AI is going to be around forever.

mtisTheQubit:
Awesome..i might add sophia is creepy

AI is here to stay an we should as well accept it ...its the future

I think if it appreciate for like 2-3% - so I don't know if you will fee such impact. For petroleum dealers - the regular will factor that in new prices at pump - so they consumers benefits. If we sustain the dollar at 99 or below 100 - then economy will get 2-3% boost in nominal GDP - so say instead of economy ending up 98B dollars this year - we might cross 100B!

Yes so it's good news - stable strong currency and really low inflation (now at 4% in driest month!!) - and so kenya seem to be doing great macro-economic wise.

Jonraid:
Let's say this 99 averages for like a week,the economy is going to feel it.I mean, the 99-102 range is big,any range of plus one shilling is felt by importers as millions are saved. Even ranges of some tens of cents are felt because the amounts being talked about here are in billions ksh.Our petroleum import bill accounts for like 15-20% of our total import values.If it hangs at 99 for some weeks or days, all eyes will be on ERC as Kenyans would be expecting cheaper thermal power ! The inflation might actually fall a bit if the trend persists.Let the truth be said,we've missed it being at 99 as opposed to 101 and 102!

Pretty amazing. Can you elaborate more on the 8B and 2B investment on water and electricity.

Just30:


we solved our water problems and solved our light issues
we used 8 billion dollars to solved our light issues in 3 years
2 billion dollars to solved our water issues in a year.

what abot you?

Sound proofed Railway at Nairobi National Park

That doesn't true.

During the 2017/18 year, the total public debt service payments amounted to $4.4 billion, an increase of $1.4 billion from $2.9 billion in June 2017.In the 2018/19 financial year, Kenya is staring at a public debt redemption bill to the tune of[b] $4.5 billion.[/b]

tylann:
Unajua Kenya ilispend 1.1 trillion kulipa madeni
Hyo ni nyingi sana
Ikabaki na 750 billion pekee Ku operate govt functions

I assume about 1/3 of that 4.5B is foreign -denominated debt - I think Kshs stability makes this non-issues. The Kshs is expected to be stable around 100. And that is one of kenya greatest strength - stable marco-economic policy - so really nobody is concerned about this - it's probably going to hang around there 100-102 for this year - like it did last year.

The likes of TZ & Nigeria & many africa countries are getting an hidding from USD.

Jonraid:
Debt obligations this year should be about 4.5 billion US dollars.With a strong shilling,this should be good news to Mr Rotich!

Let's hope they won't be thinking of more Eurobonds because of this.This is the best time to import more and more crude,machinery and cars among others! I expect a temporary hit on our export and import balance as importers seek to gain on this strong shilling by importing more! rvp2018

World AI Shows come to Nairobi

This doesn't apply for all countries. What applies to all countries is to :-
1) Accelerate broad-based diversified equitable economic growth through private & public investment.
2) Reduce population growth by having less,well spaced & healthy kids.
3) Do both 1 & 2 - consistently for a long period - 20-30yrs - and poverty start becoming history.

To achieve #3) - you need stable and predictable environment that includes avoiding wars, political crisis and then pray for - global/exogenous risks - that are beyond the country control.

#2 - is the "simplest" to achieve and countries really SHOULD invest in that seriously. Otherwise it's zero-sum game to add more wealth and add more mouths to feed.

#1 - Now that gets complicated - but ultimately the public sector (Gov) should invest in infrastructure (roads,rail,water,sewage,power,ports) and social programs(education,health,housing,security) - to enable the private sector to engage in whatever activities will be profitable - I think gov fails when it tries to say drive the country to one sector i.e manufacturing or whatever - it should just free the economy and let the private sector decide where it make sense to invest in - and most of the time they will invest in all sectors - agriculture, industries and services - leading to economic growth. Freeing/Liberalizing the economy allows market to do it's magic. That include freeing Forex & having stable macro-economy policy (inflation, interest rates) - and gov really becoming the regulator and umpire (through legal & justice systems that is credible & predictable).

The situation in Africa is hopefully - there are less and less wars - less & less insurgencies - and more democracy. There is also some remarkable progress being made in controlling population - at least in some countries. Unfortunately for most African countries it appears the push for capitalism died in 1990s - and there has been very little done to further push for liberalization of all sectors of the economies. There are still many gov monopolies in critical sectors that are so inefficient and are slowing down the economy. The infrastructure deficit is still staggering but the Chinese have really salvaged the situation across Africa. Nearly all countries are also making huge strides in investing in social program - nearly every country has universal free primary - etc.

In conclusion what Africa need is really embrace and entrench capitalism like INDIA HAS DONE - free liberalized economies - that mean gov loosen it's tight control on the economy and letting private sector in. It mean loosing power and control over huge parastals and monopolies that need to be privatized. It mean loosing opportunity for rent-seeking and corruption. And that is the hard part.

Capitalism got a bad rap in Africa because it came with World Bank Structural Adjustment Program(SAP) that meant cutting social programs. We need free market based economies that gov can tax and fund social programs in addition to building infrastructure.

Goel:
This is easier than you guys think.
1. Stabilize the country (kill Boko haram like we crushed insurgencies).
2. Try to pull people out of agriculture to industrial & service sector.
3. Keep your wages initially lower than other countries. It will automatically go up when your products being cheap will start selling and their demand increases.
4. Remove most duties from exports & imports. Let your currency fall & reach its real value.
5. Define the level of poverty in your country's standards (not international standards) like $0.25 to $0.5 /day /person and first try to guarantee this income at least to poor population. Because our incomes are low, definition of Rich & Poor people are different totally in Europe, Asia & Africa.

& sorry for replying late.

I guess they don't have small luxuries like fridges, freezers and you wonder how hospitals operate - with all the drugs that need to be frozen and all that.

kikuyu1:
Omfg?! 24 hr power is such a shock Maiduguri would rather have only 12 hrs! Ohh,Naij!

There is need for intervention in the neglected/marginalized parts of kenya - family planning education through ads - improving literacy levels there - women rights - have contraceptive freely and cheaply available - having abortion and productive health care easily available - dealing with teenage marriage and pregnancy. I know it's no longer a priority because kenya is well on the mark to attaining South African countries level of 2 kids per woman - and but they need to remember that some folks were left out.

Jonraid:
They've been growing off late,I won't call them a minority group.They are quite significant now.They make up good numbers in our political set up! I'll post them soon!

It's hard developing with a high dependency ratio.This is where the population working in an economy supports a much bigger non-working population.Fertility rate has a bigger say on the dependency ratio.Less children mostly means more savings,more savings means a high purchasing power and more investments thus prosperity! Children can really pull your finances if you are a working class! The HNWI (high net worth individuals) and the upper middle class can gamble on the number of children they have! In developing countries,it is the low income earners who make this dangerous gamble!

I am not sure there is any other country in the world that has it's citizen hounded like Nigeria - from Asia to Africa to Europe to US - Nigerians are watched, marked and profiled for the next flight home or to prison.

XhosaNostra:
"Rejects of the world". Chai! This one e pain pass 1st degree burns sef

Nairobi incredibly beautiful City - Nature blends with modernity - Nairobi sits at confluence of contrasting climatic condition.
https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7882/46295492245_380b0c4515_h.jpg
https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7817/46194968354_c415f186e6_h.jpg
https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7809/46280026374_0f27f821a3_h.jpg
https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7826/46280165884_f5994d7fd0_h.jpg
https://cdni.rt.com/actualidad/public_images/2018.12/original/5c06919fe9180fd6408b4577.JPG
https://i0.wp.com/thepointsguy.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/1_ALB_1012.jpg?fit=2048%2C2048px&ssl=1

Exactly!

Jonraid:
We're reclaiming land from the sea to build ports and not to accommodate few real estate projects than most Nigerians won't afford to purchase!

Interesting. But how did the elites acquire wealth if not thro corruption. Rawling was like your french revolution. Kenya eventually will need it unless the elites manages the widening gap by investing aggressively on social programs. But Nigeria is over-ripe for a revolution - it just need 3yrs of Oil prices dropping to 40 dollars a barrel - and the bloodbath will start -

vaxx:
what you called a revolution was indeed an armed robbery to many elites Ghanaian.

Some prominent Ghanaian elites says, it set Ghana to fifity years backward. it was indeed terrible.

Still flocking shitty Fraym.

forgiveness:
Where's Mombasa?

That is true - Kibaki fruits in education will be seen this decade - and Uhuru in another 10-20yrs. Moi set kenya on a strong educational front by his almost singular focus on it.

kikuyu1:
Our educational system is world class thanks to Moi. In Africa we're top rated, on par with Algeria according to the WB HCI. The result of Moi's 8-4-4 ,challenges of finance,organisation and implementation notwithstanding.
If there's one thing and one thing only we SHOULD remember him kindly for its this.

One Africa Place now complete.