₦airaland Forum

socialmediaman:
That's the problem with mediocrity. It makes you think that the government knows it all and you accept everything they give you without question. I was at the office of a minister to ask why a sector of the economy was not being promoted and empowered and I was surprised these people were listening and taking notes of my suggestions and went on to implement a successful project in that category. Most of their input come from the public, but when they don't listen, they fail in many instances

Its not celebrating mediocrity but acknowledging that policy makers encounter bottlenecks that hinder policy implementation. Buhari has already listed the bottlenecks and challenges his administration will face and he doesn't even know how to solve them. If you've never been a policy maker in Nigeria or asked one about the challenges they face, then I doubt you'd ever understand.

socialmediaman:
The collateral was a major issue. I was privileged to attend business forums in different parts of the country where intending beneficiaries complained bitterly about the stringent policies of the programme, even after meeting up the business plan requirement. You won't know these problems exist if you don't listen to people on ground and work with them to ensure a successful project. Most of the organizers of these programs were arrogant, they don't listen, and when people cannot access your programme and you keep blaming their inefficiencies, you'll end up not having a successful implementation. People are qualified for these things, believe me, but the system is just too stringent with the wrong people implementing it. If Okonjo Iweala and co as coordinators of the Youwin had a successful implementation without much bottlenecks, even in their limited capacity, then why would other agencies be in the habit of blaming the beneficiaries for their poor implementation policies? I bet you, if these same people were implementing the Youwin, you'll hear the same story. So you mean to tell me that Nigerians can no longer write or even consult people to write business plans for them? Haba, even many of the Youwin winners had people write their business plans for them so this can't be the problem.

Some classes and levels of these loans don't need stringent requirements like some others. For example, I know that the bank of industry don't require collateral for loans below four million naira. All they need is a reliable guarantor to guarantee that the money will be repaid. The people complaining about the stringent collateral requirements are just unserious. Hiring someone to write your business plan is one thing, defending, implementing and sustaining it is another thing entirely and this is where they fail woefully.

socialmediaman:
If these programmes were not working, it was the fault of GEJ's implementation plan, not Nigerians. Other countries issue Social Security IDs to their citizens tied to their bank accounts. GEJ could've done same, ensuring that when you default, all banks and financial institutions will know and you can't hide. The implentation system was simply lacking and serious people couldn't aceess it. You can't keep blaming the system when you're the government who should put the checks in the system.

I doubt if you know what you’re saying. You’re nothing but an armchair critic. You just sit and imagine what the FG should have done and what not, without imagining if they hadn’t thought about what you’re thinking in the first place.

socialmediaman:
Unlike Youwin which was open and didn't require so much bottlenecks and bureaucracy, the CBN SME loan scheme, just like Bank of Industry loan scheme, required collaterals like you would provide when obtaining loans from a commercial bank, the only difference being lower interest, how many entrepreneurs can meet up with such stringent requirements? You have most of those loans lying idle and still being utilized by bigger companies who used it as a means of bypassing higher interest loans from commercial banks. These programs were not meeting their intended beneficiaries, if they were, you won't need a soothsayer telling you GEJ's programmes were working, they were simply not.

The collateral wasn't more of an issue than a lack of feasible business plans. You can't simply blame it on stringent requirements. You can as well say that we lack innovative and serious minded entrepreneurs in Nigeria because that seems to be more of a problem.
The scheme has its beneficiaries, they are not too many because banks started to disburse the funds late last year but there are beneficiaries.

So? Why should this be on the front page three times?

socialmediaman:
I've been to many shops abroad and each time I tell them something is expensive, they immediately offer "you can finance it", I studied the system and I understood government pumps money into the economy through the banks and companies to encourage the system to offer financing and mortgage to individuals, but that money is not free, you'll pay it back with interest except student loans and some specific non-interest financing options. This is a system that helps you succeed when you need help. Given same opportunity, Nigerians will take this nation to the next level with successes in various sectors, that's why I get pissed at so much waste going on in the system while Nigerians just need a little push to succeed

Under GEJs administration, so much money was pumped into the system for entrepreneurs to access and fund their businesses but they were not being utilized. People don't know how to access them, business plans prepared by the entrepreneurs were very poor and lacking in substance, there was also no security to ensure that the loans will be repaid (even though the interest rates were very low). In advanced countries, these problems barely exist.

socialmediaman:
It's N500 billion actually, not N5 trillion, it's very feasible. As long as it's not a grant. Some developed countries give this in form of credit to their citizens as a social security benefit. Serious people will succeed when given opportunity

There's already a 220 billion naira fund for SME's setup by the CBN in 2013. So why should the government setup another?

jmaine:
I think it will amount to N500 billion and not 5 trillion . . . . . .Kindly recheck your calculation . . . .

Corrected. . Thanks

socialmediaman:
You're too angry to have an objective discussion with your display of arrogance and lack of reason.

To the topic, personally I support removal of subsidy, but not by a government who cannot fight the corruption in the sector. If you remove subsidy without fighting corruption in NNPC and the ports, you end up creating artificial scarcity because importers will hoard the product so the pice can go up before they sell, and you end up plunging the nation into crisis.

On the Youwin programme, yes it's a lottery. Even with a good business plan, you could still not qualify because only 1,500 have to be selected out of 6,000 finalists. And I wasn't talking about a welfare package, 50,000 entrepreneurs can be empowered with 10million naira each, yes that's just 25% of what the government was paying subsidy cabals and nothing happened. By the way, I never supported that money being a grant, this is a support programme and the money should be in form of a repayable long term credit facility, like on a 20-year repayment plan. Any serious business entrepreneur would even want to take a Loan for his business, but since Nigerians were not getting business loans without collateral, this should be a way of giving them non-collateral interest-free credit facility for viable businesses.

The youwin grant is meant for entrepreneurs with the most feasible and viable business plans. It is NOT a lottery. If you apply and you were not selected among the finalists, it means that your business plan was not impressive enough and it was deemed to be unfeasible.

I hope Buhari follows suit

The crux of the matter is that even after all the cost cutting measures have been implemented, the money received or saved from those measures will still be too small to achieve anything important.
The annual budget will still hover around 4 or 5 trillion naira, an amount which cannot sustain the education sector.

The ban lifted on Iran was the breaking point. We should come up with other ways to sell our crude or else. . .

Why does this man like to deceive himself?

We all admit and acknowledge that Goodluck Jonathan was a waste of time. However, to dismiss the ambitions and objectives of the Lower Niger Congress in a bid to spite the Ijaws is counter productive.
You can't dismiss that the Ogoni are and will always be an integral part of the Niger Delta struggle for self determination.
In fact, the ogoni are forerunners in the struggle, with the most notable activists in the Niger Delta region.
The failures of GEJ has enabled the self determination activism of the Niger Delta and its immediate neighbors to gain momentum. There are now renewed and vigorous calls for self determination which is being championed by the Lower Niger congress.
It will be highly beneficial to everyone in the delta, including the esteemed Ogoni, to join and support the movement to break free from the shackles of despair and gloom in this entrapment called Nigeria.
It will be easier for the Ogoni to achieve their own separate mission if they join hands with their immediate neighbors to demand for their collective freedom. Ogoni cannot sustain or achieve its aim of self determination by being a lone wolf.
You need the numbers and the will, which can only be gotten from your neighbors in the Niger Delta.
Peace.

I doubt if the PIB will be passed this year. I'm not deceived

Everyone knows this.

The problem facing these governors is that due to the drop in government revenues, they will continue to owe salaries till oil rises back to 100 dollars a barrel, which is not happening anytime soon.

Your recipe is not my portion.

It will be a thing of joy to watch Buhari's government fail terribly.

Nothing to fear. Government being short of funds doesn't mean that the economy is in a terrible shape.

Muazu talks too much with less action.

Over priced properties.

Nigeria is a country where anything goes.

uboma:
There is crude oil at the chad basin. The people of Chad are already benefitting from their own share.

However its high time Nigeria breaks free from a mono economy (being overly dependent on cude oil) when other resources are begging to be exploited...

Its been over 30 years since they started searching for crude in the chad basin with no positive results.
Why continue to waste time and money on such a futile project?

If not for political reasons, what is the point of this nonsense and expensive adventure? We have 32 billion barrels of proven reserves, why waste millions of dollars prospecting for oil where it can't be found?

Begun in 1978 when Buhari was the Federal Commissioner (minister) for Petroleum, successive governments (northerners) have committed funds, through the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, to prospecting for oil in the area with only little results. Buhari, especially, appears to have taken it up as a personal crusade as he resumed the search when he rode to power as head of state in 1984 on the back of a coup.

I'm just short of words. I pity the people of the Niger Delta.

Lol. OBJ dey vex

Buhari's brothers at work.

Dangote's refinery may help in 2018. Till then, Buhari should ensure that subsidy payments are prompt and steady.

Making money from blogging and adsense is very very difficult. That's all I can say.

Do something else

esere826:
i think we should let go of this oil business as a determinant of our economic success

if we continue to insist that our wealth as a country would be dependent on oil
then i'm afraid those whose villages sit on the oil wells and oil pipeline routes
would by necessity gradually determine the fate of project Nigeria

My brother, lets be realistic.
Apart from oil, how else will the federal government generate revenues of over 50 billion dollars in a fiscal year over the next 10 years? How possible is it?
Lets not kid ourselves, our dependence on oil is here to stay, there's nothing we can do about it.
People say diversify the economy but how? Our economy is already diversified but it is too small and disorganized to enable diverse revenue streams for the federal government.