₦airaland Forum

bigdammyj:
Congratulations to it’s Citizens.

IfnobeGod20:
If truly you voted in 1983 and you have forgotten the happenings just less than 20 years, then, there is a problem somewhere.
Well, you're of age if truly you voted in 1983 because as at then I was in primary 5 and I can still recall vividly what happened in that year down the line.
You need to stop this line of me been frustrated emotionally. Frustrated for what? My only concern is the frustration Tinubu heaped on the good people of the country. My salary that I earn in 6 digits is enough for me to feed and fend for my family and still save for the rainy day.

IfnobeGod20:
This is the problem of some of you, always thinking anybody that puts you in your right place politically is attacking you and his attack is emotionally laced. Just to let you know, I don't even vote by the nature of my job and I can't vote for now, except I resign from my job tomorrow and I am not contemplating that for now.

Please where did you see any emotional words in my comment? Correcting your errors have become emotional language in your own world. Just know I am not in the class of people you can lie to on political terrain of this nation. I voted in 1992 and that should let you know I am not a baby not to know bit by bit of some issues in Nigeria.
You comment and lie in it and you expect me to lie low and take it hook line and sinker. You missed road. You can only lie to your class of political novice and not me.

Meanwhile, whoever you support or not support is your right as far as it is well known that human being is a political animal. There's no way your heart will not flow with one person out of many of them. So, save me the rhetoric of whom you support or not.

Now, in an attempt to dodge bullet, you're hiding under grammatical error in my comment. Sorry you came late.

God1000:
I'm not happy with your performance sir, so Nigeria won't be going for 2026 world cup, we didn't qualify for the 2022 world cup tournament as well.

it won't be fair to lay all the blame on him though, some of our players have become very lackluster and should be discarded, they've outlived their usefulness, the mediocre ones among them, we need players that are ready to play and win matches for Nigeria, Nigeria is blessed with a lot of talented footballers but corruption has messed everything up

IfnobeGod20:
That was a costly mistake that should not have been. Meaning you don't have handy all your fact and figure. This just shows you don't know anything about the APGA as a party.
Let me give you some gist about APGA, as to let you know that APGA will remain a regional party till they fuse with other parties or else they will go into extinction one day.
APGA have been having internal wrangling since the founder of the party died. They seasonally have division in the party because one section want to control the party and another set also want to control the soul of the party. That has been the bane of the party since Ojukwu died, the founder.
So don't expect such party will have headway in the national polity. Looking at it, they have been having it difficult to spread through the SE and they have not been able till date.
Saying Obi and Okorocha weakened APGA is just sweat words and you don't know anything about APGA. The infighting in APGA is more than the infighting in APC and PDP since their inception. If you know the number of court cases on headship, you would know that Obi or Okorocha can't be the problem of APGA.

You even know that Buhari failed for 8 years but your Tinubu never for once question his government, just because of his selfish ambition of becoming the president. Why those complaining and critical of Buhari's government are been silence that time. Truly, to enter heaven for some of you APC, it would take serious sanctification and laying of hands and legs.
You guys prefer to ruin the country so far your political capital is protected. E le rorun wo lase edumare.
Now, people are complaining again but you guys are shutting them down just to protect Tinubu political capital again. Nothing concern you guys about the economy and the poor Nigerians facing the brunt of the government policies, all that concern you guys is the protection of Tinubu and his government.
May God shame the enemies of this nation that call himself the lover of the country.

Which of the Peter Obi that is jumping from one party to the other? Please can you tell me any known figure that doesn't jump from one party to the other in this country. Is it Tinubu or Buhari that doesn't jump from one party to the other in this country before merging to form APC? You guy should stop this frivolity and face the reality.

Blitzking:
Fool...

IfnobeGod20:
In your first paragraph you misyarn and that has rendered all your comment null and void. Okorocha left APGA for APC and not PDP. Get your fact right. Okorocha started his political journey from PDP as he contested to be PDP presidential candidate but he lost. It was after then he ported to APGA where he contested the governorship election of Imo and he won Ohakim. That was what made Ohakim of PDP not to enjoy second term till date. Please learn your political history and stop confusing thaie learning from Nairaland.

Regional politics can only work in our contemporary level at the national if and only if we return to region government. No regional party had ever had headway in our contemporary life, except they merge with other regional party.
AC fielded candidate and they could not get 2m votes. ACN fielded candidate and they could not get 3m votes. It's only CPC that was able to get 12m votes two times because of fanatical followers Buhari have and that doesn't win him the presidency the two times.
If you think APGA will have a headway of winning presidency that would be a bogus lie. If Soludo comes out to take as a presidential candidate under APGA, even won't get up to 1m and someone like you won't vote for him.
Take this to bank, no regional political party will win presidential election in Nigeria because the way Nigeria is structured.

Again know your history. It wasn't only ACN and CPC was used to build APC. It was a coalition of ACN, CPC, nPDP and APGA that made the coalition effective and virile. That powerful five governors and some legislators that joined the APC made the election at ease for APC then. I want to give you an assignment, APC did not get up to 2.5m votes in south west in 2015 presidential election. You can fact check me for that. APC votes came largely from the NE, NW and NC. APC coalition was more effective because of the entrance of the nPDP and not because of ACN.

Liberating Africa from the IMF Debt-Trap
Afriwonk
https://medium.com/@afriwonk/liberating-africa-from-the-imf-debt-trap-632d7bcec97c


There were times when there riots in Africa, demonstrations against the IMF because of the policy advice they were giving, the conditionalities they were imposing and the difficulties that arose out of the implementation of those conditionalities. — Jakaya Kikwete, former President of Tanzania

I am a child of the 1990s, I grew up in Kenya when the economy was crap, and the politics was hot. Something I used to hear a lot about on the news at the time was the IMF, alongside words like reform, privatization, and taxes.

Today it feels like a bad remake of the film ‘Back to the Future’ because the economy is crap and the politics is hot, and the IMF is driving economic policy. Today Kenya is implementing broad tax increases on fuel, incomes, imports, and businesses and even mulling carbon taxes on the advice of the IMF. Privatization is top of the agenda and ‘reform’ is everywhere, conditions of the IMF program that the country has entered because of fiscal distress. Kenya is not the only country on the continent under an IMF program, Ghana, Zambia, Mozambique, SA etc. are all under IMF ‘guidance’.

In the 1990’s under the structural adjustment programs imposed the IMF, African countries were forced to liberalise their economies, sell off state assets, pull down trade barriers and dismantle social safety nets. Causing immense pain and hardship on the back of policies dictated by disconnected bureaucrats and economists in Washington. Today, African countries are being advised to increase taxes, remove cushioning subsidies and tax breaks, let the value of currencies depreciate and sell off state assets, that are once again causing immense pain.

How did we get back here? How do we get out of it again? Most importantly how do we make sure that it never happens again?

How did we get here?
Getting out of the clutches of the IMF in the first couple of decades of the 2000’s took a lot of hard work, a booming Chinese economy and debt Jubilee from the west. How did we get back here? As with most things it was a combination of stupidity, naivete, and bad luck.

Stupidity: We borrowed too much for projects with disappointing returns (like Kenya’s SGR) or it was outright stolen like the tuna boat scandal in Mozambique. Essentially wasting the money that we had borrowed.

Naivete: After the financial crisis of 2008–09 money in the developed world was cheap, with 0% interest rates. Thus, that money needed by investors, pension funds, banks etc. was looking for returns. African governments seeing cheap money looking for a place to go, floated all manner of Eurobonds, dollar bonds and took syndicated loans and with our aforementioned stupidity, we spent it on the wrong things.

Bad Luck: The Covid-19 pandemic gave every economy a kick in the teeth, stopping growth and investment and then in 2022 the perfect storm hit, inflation forced interest rates up and the cheap money disappeared, at the same time those increased interest rates made the dollar much stronger, thus debt payments had higher interest rates and a dollar penalty. The war in Ukraine caused global food and energy prices to increase steeply, and with most African countries being net fuel and food importers., those imports got more expensive.

How do we get out of it (again)?
In the early 2000s African got lucky on two fronts. The Chinese economy boomed driving demand and prices of the raw materials up and providing a much needed boost for African economies after the IMF induced stagnation of the 1990s. Secondly, many African countries were granted debt relief under the highly indebted poor countries initiative, giving much breathing room to African economies that had been struggling under a significant debt burden. However, the continent cannot rely on lightning striking twice, thus we must actively put in place solutions that get us out of this situation.

Tax reform

First, Africa needs more of its own revenue, which means taxes. However, unlike the IMF’s advice African governments should not be putting additional taxes on their already overburdened citizens who make up their narrow taxbases. As I have written about previously by reforming the tax regimes for natural resources, targeting tax avoidance by multi-nationals, and expanding the tax base, African countries can expand their revenue collection without squeezing their citizens for little gain, with higher income and consumption taxes as many are doing on the advice of the IMF.

Spending Cuts

Second, spending cuts. Governments, particularly African governments waste money on unnecessary or silly things. The most glaring example is Ghana’s national cathedral. Focusing spending on the fundamentals, paying salaries, delivering services and key development projects, while cutting unnecessary spending would give governments some breathing room and ease the crowding out effect in domestic debt markets that is seeing governments borrow every cent they can, leaving little for the private sector to borrow, limiting investment and growth.

The IMF

Third, use the IMF. Not the institution, but its assets through something called Strategic Drawing Rights (SDR) these are interest bearing international reserve assets of member countries of the member countries of the IMF. SDRs are allocated to IMF members in proportion to their quotas of shares. SDR’s are held by states or specified institutions such as the Africa Development Bank (AfDB) as part of their forex reserves or they can be used to pay the IMF for loans or transactions. Many wealthy countries are holding SDRs that they do not use, and in the past the G20 pledged to reallocate $100 billion worth of SDRs to Africa. The Africa Development Bank has calculated that with its AAA credit rating it could leverage the funds as much as 4 times, meaning $100 billion could deliver $400 billion to African economies. Part of that could be used to help African countries refinance and restructure, dollar-based debts.

For instance, Kenya has $2 billion dollar bond payment it must pay in 2024. If it defaults, it would be disastrous to its economy and currency. If it tried to finance the payment through its own revenues it would cripple the government requiring massive cuts to services and personnel. If it tried to refinance the bond through international markets the interest would punish the country for years to come. If through the AfDB Kenya was able to refinance the bond, at favourable rates, for a period of time that made sense, Kenya bond holders would be paid back, and the country would get the economic and fiscal breathing space it needs to invest in development and not tax its private sector and citizens to desperation. This wouldn’t be a bailout or debt Jubilee, in the end Kenya would pay the money back to AfDB. There is no need for the painful choices Kenya and many other African states are being forced into, when the AfDB could use already pledged assets to solve the problem.

How do we make sure it never happens again?
Assuming we can find our way out of this mess, how do we make sure that Africa never loses its economic sovereignty to the IMF or other non-African institutions again. It won’t be easy, and it won’t be simple, but it is worth doing.

Discipline. African countries need to develop fiscal discipline, the days of presidents and political leaders using treasuries as personal playthings must end. If not the vanity projects, white elephants and waste will continue to drive bad debts and IMF bailouts.

African Capital Markets. As the continent comes closer together around trade, climate issues, and payment systems, we should add capital markets to that list. Why go to Europe or America to float sovereign bonds or raise capital, why not do it in Africa. Raising money from markets and investors that better understand and appreciate Africa. Most African markets rely on a combination of domestic markets, draining capital away from the private sector, and unreasonably expensive Eurobonds and syndicated bank loans. Developing regional/pan-African capital market would open a new venue for African countries to borrow potentially in their own currencies.

Expertise. Many of the African finance ministries who “took advantage” of international capital markets over the last two-decades, have, unfortunately shown that they do not fully grasp the complexity and repercussions of these markets. Thankfully long-gone are the days where there are not enough Africans with the right type of skills. There are more than enough qualified African bankers, financial experts and advisors who have worked from wall street to Hong-Kong executing complex transactions and trading in these markets. It is time to bring this expertise in house. Debt departments at ministries of finance need these people staffing them to develop viable debt strategies that are built for long term sustainability.

Conclusion — Back to future
In the film back to the future the protagonist, who went back in time eventually goes back to the future, safe, sound and more secure than before. We must strive for the same for the future of the continent’s fiscal well-being. A prosperous future for Africa, requires Africans being in-charge of our fiscal resources not faceless bureaucrats from the other side of the world. Questions around how African countries tax their citizens, where they spend that tax revenue and what they should be borrowing for should be debated and determined at home not in Washington, Brussels, or Beijing.

Africa is back in the IMF debt trap, and just like in the 1990s African countries are sacrificing their citizens through higher taxes, cutting services, and selling assets as demanded by the IMF in the name of sound economic reform. Getting out of this debt trap will be harder and likely more painful than the last time, but if we don’t our sovereignty will continue to be second class.

Originally published at Afriwonk.

IfnobeGod20:
You know how many politicians that have been in APGA that have defected to another party? One of them is Okorocha. He was elected under the platform of APGA but he didn't not finished his second tenure under the platform that elected him. Please was he the one that told him to defect? Otti was also once in APGA. He contested to be a governor under the same platform. What took him to APC and now LP?
Besides, are you aware that Soludo began his political journey from PDP? Why didn't he start from APGA too. APGA is just a convenient vehicle use by the people of Igbo extraction and not because it is nationally convenient for them and that is why you see them defecting to National parties as soon as they finished their tenure.
Obi staying in APGA wouldn't turn APGA to national party, take that to bank. He can only exert his influence to make it relevant in Anambra and probably one or two states in SE and not outside the region then.
I called you a liar because you claimed Soludo had grew APGA and that was why I asked you with how many governor and legislators.

Nigeria pins hopes on London trade mission
An economic crisis and a currency in freefall have placed huge pressure on Africa’s most populous country.

https://www.thetimes.com/business-money/companies/article/nigeria-pins-hopes-on-london-trade-mission-mphn3znd2

Amid the fury and flag-waving of a British general election it might be easy to overlook the event at the Hilton hotel in Kensington, central London, but its significance isn’t lost on those taking part. The trade mission from Nigeria is seeking to tap investment opportunities and to generate business at a time when the country’s economy is in turmoil, mired in its worst economic crisis in decades. The stakes could hardly be higher.

Two years ago Nigeria was Africa’s largest economy, with a population of about 200 million and considered an appealing growth market for global brands targeting international expansion. Today inflation is soaring, measured at a three-decade high of 33.7 per cent in April, and the country is expected to drop to fourth place in Africa’s economic league table this year, according to forecasts from the International Monetary Fund, behind Algeria, Egypt and South Africa.

According to David Smith, chairman of the British African Business Alliance, who is due to speak at the London trade mission, Nigeria is being “severely tested” and needs international partners. “There’s been some fundamental failings [in the management of the economy] and there aren’t local companies that will step in to take those things on,” he said.


Hence the heavy-hitting list of attendees, including Yemi Cardoso, governor of the nation’s central bank governor, and Nneka Onyeali-Ikpe, the head of Fidelity Bank. The focus, however, equally may be on the multinationals that have taken a step or two back in Nigeria in recent months.

This week another western company scaled back its presence. Diageo, the London-listed maker of Johnnie Walker, Baileys and Smirnoff, announced an agreement to sell its majority shareholding in Guinness Nigeria, its Lagos-listed subsidiary, to Tolaram, a Singapore-based consumer goods group, for about £55 million.

In doing so, it was following retreats by other UK companies. In April, PZ Cussons, whose brands include Carex soap and Imperial Leather, announced that it was exploring a possible sale of its Africa business, which last year accounted for almost 40 per cent of group revenue. A year earlier, Unilever’s Nigerian business said that it would stop manufacturing homecare and skin products, with its group chief executive saying it was “not being able to fight at competitive prices”.


The Nigeria affiliate of GSK, the drugs maker, also has moved to stop the distribution of its own medicines, switching to third-party Nigerian companies. Its rivals Bayer, of Germany, and Sanofi, of France, have made similar decisions. And in December, Procter & Gamble, the American consumer goods powerhouse, announced that it would end production in the country and instead would import its products.

“If giants like PZ Cussons, Unilever and Procter & Gamble are leaving the country in droves, then what signals do you think that their exits will send to potential entrants into the market?” Muhammad Shamsuddin Ibrahim, an economist at Bayero University, in Kano, said. “Scaring away other foreign investors is a major repercussion to the exodus of these firms. No country can develop without foreign direct investment.”

At the heart of the problem is the naira, Nigerian’s currency. Multinationals are grappling with a shortage of foreign exchange and the slide in the value of the naira, one of the world’s worst-performing currencies.

Under President Tinubu, who came to power in May last year, Nigeria
abandoned the naira’s peg to the dollar and removed complex currency controls. The reforms were designed to provide easier access to the dollar, to encourage foreign investment and to stabilise the naira, but instead they have led to a huge depreciation in the local currency. International companies have struggled to repatriate their money.

Investor inflows into the foreign exchange market declined by almost a fifth in April to a daily average of $200 million from a month earlier, according to data from Tellimer, the data provider. The naira, meanwhile, has lost almost 67 per cent of its value against the dollar and fuel subsidies have been reintroduced amid public anger over the costs of food and fuel. An unreliable supply of electricity and backlogs at Nigeria’s ports have compounded the sense of chaos.

A brief nationwide labour strike last week, launched to force a new minimum wage agreement with the government, was the fourth strike since Tinubu came to power and, according to David Omojomolo, an Africa specialist at Capital Economics, “caused havoc. What made this strike different was the clear targeting and escalation in disruption. This time civilian infrastructure was hit hard, with flights grounded, the country’s electricity grid taken offline and threats of a hit to oil production, too.”

He went on: “Inflation is at levels not seen since the mid-1990s and is well above the average on the continent. It may be close to peaking but is set to remain elevated for some time. The exchange rate, despite two steep devaluations, looks closer to weakening again than rallying. These are presenting biting conditions for households and, importantly, business, which has likely added to the challenges many multinationals are facing.

“Investors will need more progress on the reform agenda for Nigeria’s crisis to not be followed by another one.”

In its latest report on Nigeria, published in February, S&P Global, the ratings agency, said that the series of monetary and fiscal reforms taken by the Tinubu administration, as well as steps to boost non-oil revenues and to increase domestic refining capacity, “should benefit Nigeria’s creditworthiness over the long run”. However, “managing the current effects on inflation and the exchange rate remains challenging”.

Pat Thaker, Middle East and Africa editorial director at the Economist Intelligence Unit, said: “Despite Nigeria’s enormous market potential, a giant infrastructure deficit in the transport, connectivity and power supply sectors, alongside high levels of corruption and instability, will be lasting impediments to the business environment and foreign direct investment.

“We expect divestment in the short term after devaluations of the naira caused balance-sheet deterioration for several multinationals. In the longer term, more foreign direct investment will be held back by oil majors selling down their often-high-emitting onshore assets to local companies that will be unable to match the investing power of outgoing multinationals.”

The economic impact is being felt across Nigeria’s big cities and rural areas. In the past 15 months, begging has become increasingly common, with people pleading for help on radio stations and social media platforms to cover basic needs such as medical bills, school fees and food. In once-thriving markets in urban centres, sellers outnumber shoppers. Civil servants’ salaries can barely buy a bag of rice. Soaring prices have made everyday items unaffordable and closing businesses are adding to high levels of unemployment. The effects are equally dire in the countryside, where limited opportunities for the younger generation have left them stranded.

The scarce opportunities and high cost of living are driving young professionals to leave the country. Beki Iveren Evelyn, 28, a business administration graduate, said a career outside Nigeria was her family’s best hope for a better life. “The cost of survival in Nigeria is too high, made worse by governmental policies that don’t encourage change,” she said.

Abdullahi Jalo, 25, a pharmacist, hopes to find a position in Britain, the United States or Saudi Arabia. “A decade ago, an entry-level pharmacist made a comfortable, middle-class salary. We have been pushed into poverty like other healthcare professionals. Hospitals struggle to employ due to financial constraints. People are living hand-to-mouth.”

All of which serves to emphasise how high the stakes are for the four-day trade mission in London next week. Nigeria, Africa’s most populous country, is looking to turn a corner.

ogododo:
https://www.vanguardngr.com/2024/06/fg-states-can-pay-minimum-wage-with-recovered-loot-falana/

IfnobeGod20:
But you already lied. You claimed he has brought APGA to limelight and I asked you with how many governor and legislators?
He is still in his first term. I asked again, what spectacular thing has he done for the good people of Anambra that warrant your self adoration of him. Four years is enough to turn the tide around because having the second term is not a guarantee and not sacrosanct constitutionally but a privilege if the people you're governing find you worthy. The mentality of making it a must for second term is what makes many not to do anything for a space of 8 years.
I reiterate, reel out some heart warming development he has brought to Anambra state that is benefiting the good people there or save us the audio praise allotted to him.
Even the issue he canvassed, as laudable as it is, what step has he taken in his state? As he be bold enough to send an executive bill to his state House of Assembly to that effect and place his political appointees on minimum wage as it were? Me I always prefer people with action and not people with words alone. Enu ose ariwo ko ni music o, empty barrel no ma pari wo. Even in English, it is often said, too much cook spoils the brook. Let us even see what will follow his words for the benefit of doubt.

Bulldozer90:
An Afenifere chieftain man a rediculous restructuring proposals that forcefully put Lagos, ekiti, Oyo, Ondo, Ogun and Osun together including Yorubas in Kwara and Kogi into one region.

But he did not put Anambra, Enugu, Abia, Ebonyi, Imo, Igbos of Rivers and Anioma people into one region. Instead he balkanized them because he wants Igbos to lose control of their gas reserves. He even removed Ohaji/Egbema and carved them to south south.

Such unbridled covetousness, arrogance and hypocrisy!
If you put Itshekiri into a Yoruba region, you must create Ohimini state for Idoma and put it in an Igbo region.

IfnobeGod20:
Please which of the APGA are you talking about? Hope it is not the same APGA with just one governor and few legislators that labour party of yesterday are more than? Even if you need to lie, you should have found another lie to hold on to and not the glaring one. Even in his home state, how many legislators from APGA? I think they are 11 or 12 out of 20 something legislators. I pray lie will not kill you one day.
Just because he is trying to play dirty politics of going against your perceived enemy, you now see him as a worthy politician. No doubt Soludo tried during his term as a governor of CBN but there are some sections of the citizens that were crucifying him then because of some policies he introduced then. Again, what spectacular thing has he done for the people of Anambra? Please outline them for the world to know.
The enemy of my friend is my friend and the friend of my enemy is my friend, that's just what you're depicting and nothing more.
Meanwhile, what he said is the truth but has is gotten the ball to send a bill to his house of assembly, so that all his political appointees can be placed on minimum wage as he canvassed. Enu ose, enu ose, ariwo ko ni music o, empty barrel no ma pari wo.

franchasofficia:
Nothing concern Yoruba concern economy, Yorubas are only good in media propaganda, political activism, and maybe legal representation, but when it comes to economy, trade, commerce and money, it belongs naturally to the Igbos, but tribalism and wickedness made Buhari and Tinubu to sideline Igbos in those critical economic sectors and see where it has landed Nigeria?


Check when Soludo and Ngozi Okonjo Iweala were in charge of Nigeria's economy and CBN, at all at all, Nigeria's economy was booming against all odds

sleek214:
The same World Bank and IMF that put Nigeria in this mess. IMF and World Bank always advising 3rd world countries to remove fuel subsidies and float it's local currency

RabbleRouser:
Source: https://www.vanguardngr.com/2024/06/elected-officials-should-also-earn-minimum-wage-soludo/

hammer567:
IF NOT FOR ENVY, JEALOUSY, BIGOTRY AND HATE, IS TINUBU SUPPOSE TO DESTROY 200MILLION DOLLARS LANDMARK INVESTMENT?



6 LANES CAN ENTER THE FRONT, RED LINE..

Emu4life:
Is Tinubu still paying Subsidy or not?
Is any Nigerian Refinery currently working?
Apparently, he is not different from past Meatheads.

https://on.ft.com/3XiGcML


Diageo sells majority stake in Guinness Nigeria to Singapore’s Tolaram
Spirits group scales back presence in country amid currency and economic crisis



Diageo is selling its majority shareholding in its subsidiary Guinness Nigeria, becoming the latest western company to scale down its presence in Africa’s most populous nation on the back of a long-running currency crisis and economic downturn.

The spirits giant will sell its 58 per cent stake in the Lagos-listed company to Singaporean conglomerate Tolaram for 81.60 Nigerian naira per share or about 103bn Nigerian naira ($70mn).

“The acquisition of Guinness Nigeria marks a pivotal moment in Tolaram’s journey of growth and diversification,” said Haresh Aswani, the group’s managing director in Africa. “We are thrilled to welcome a company with such a rich legacy and strong consumer loyalty into our ecosystem.”

Western consumer groups including Unilever, GSK and PZ Cussons have been retreating from Nigeria over the past year due to a chronic shortage of foreign exchange and a precipitous fall in the value of the local naira currency.

Tolaram, which has joint ventures with several leading consumer goods multinationals such as Kellanova and Colgate-Palmolive, is one of the largest consumer goods companies present in Africa, with combined investments of more than $1bn in Nigeria.

It is one of a growing number of largely non-western groups taking advantage of the retreat of their western competitors. Others, including Singapore-listed Olam and Turkey’s Hayat Kimya, continue to invest in Nigeria. A[b]nalysts say they provide the Nigerian market with cheaper alternatives and often have a higher risk appetite.[/b]

Diageo said it would retain ownership of the Guinness brand in the country, and continue to license it to Guinness Nigeria. Nigeria makes up between 1-2 per cent of Diageo’s global net sales value.

Bernstein analyst Trevor Stirling said the deal offered a resolution to the fact Diageo has been losing share in the mainstream beer market in Africa as it focused on Guinness and spirits. “Does this presage an eventual complete exit from beer in Africa?” he asked, pointing to the company’s sale of Guinness Cameroon to Castel in 2022.

The Nigerian subsidiary used to manufacture and distribute brands, including Baileys and Smirnoff, until Diageo and Guinness Nigeria terminated their international spirits license agreement last October so that Guinness Nigeria could focus on local brands such as Harp beer, Orijin and Captain Morgan Gold.

With fixed costs such as those for raw materials and other inventory mostly invoiced in dollars, companies have to pay with a plummeting currency that is one of the worst performing globally.

Foreign companies have also found it difficult to repatriate their revenues in recent years and a $7bn backlog owed by the central bank to business groups was only resolved in March.

Nigeria, with its population of 200mn, was once considered an attractive growth market for global brands seeking to expand internationally. But the country is experiencing its worst cost of living crisis in a generation with inflation at a three-decade high of 33.7 per cent.

Kimberly-Clark Corporation, which makes the popular Huggies nappy brand, said last month it was ending its Nigeria operations only two years after restarting a $100mn manufacturing plant in Lagos. It followed Unilever which stopped producing homecare and skin-cleansing products in Nigeria last year.

GSK’s Nigeria affiliate also ended its direct medicines distribution and switched to third-party Nigerian distributors last year. Germany’s Bayer and French vaccines giant, Sanofi, are also among the groups to have exited while US group Procter & Gamble quit in-country manufacturing in favour of importing to Nigeria.

Emu4life:
From #900 to #5k. Una wan kill Nigerians?
You and the Government are dumb, Trial and Error Policies always.
What did Nigerians gain from Currency floating and Subsidy removal?
Inflation, hardship and more Inflation.
If the Customs fail to do Thier Jobs, shouldn't someone be fired? Why should Nigerians suffer bcuz Customs can't do Thier Jobs.
Mumu People

stonemasonn:
Alot of lessons learnt. One of which is to never trust IMF.

Beremx:
Festac Town has lost its glory. Bad roads and shops everywhere. Almost all ground floor of block of flats have been converted to business centres. Duplexes are not left out in the madness. The last time Festac Town had a good serenity of environment was in the early 2000s.

I miss the town though cos I was born and bred there.

Godfullsam:
wish one be half ijaw - half Yoruba ?

I am also from ondo state o, are you saying I am also half ijaw ?

Abeg carry your half - half matter commot from my mention.

Godfullsam:
Sowore is not a fan of Tinubu. No igbo or opposition dead or alive have criticized Tinubu more than Sowore.

The fact that he is Yoruba and he often criticize obi does not imply that he is a supporter of balablu.
Sowore doesn't give a damn about any bloody polithiefian, that is why I like him .

hisgrace090:
Mr sowore pls don't just look down on the person of Peter obi just because you needed a chance to contest as a president.
No amount of bad mouth can stop him.
Peter is a man of integrity!

onome25:
SOUTH AFRICA GET BETTER WEATHER ooooo
Mayb na because white people de there
Here for naija , all these Lebanese Wen de do road don bring dry season for most part of the north.....

RepoMan007:
Revenue is not profit o.