There is one word I love so much.
ECONOMY.
A lot of people use that word… and if
you want to feel smart, then you should use it sometimes.
But
what really is economy?
Economy is another word for “collective
wealth Management”. Wealth is riches – not necessarily money.
My wealth is individual; your wealth is
individual. When we join them together, they become “collective wealth”.
So the economy of a country e.g. Nigeria
is how the government (and citizens) manage their collective wealth.
When a government improves the economy,
he…
Increases and shares the nation’s riches in a way that
(at least almost) everybody is comfortable.
And what of…
POVERTY?
It is when you can’t afford the basic
things in life.
You can’t eat 3 times a day; you can’t
transport yourself; you can’t buy what your mates are buying; you can’t be comfortable; you’re broke. That’s
poverty.
To get out of poverty, you need to
either…
1.
Get a well-paying
job or
2.
Own a profitable
business
Another way out is to depend on somebody
else – bad advice.
In this Video, You'll discover...
The formula for National Prosperity
But where do jobs come from?
From business and government
establishment. Everybody can’t work in government. No space. Even if space
magically came out for everybody, it will still not work: the economy will die
– that’s what economists say.
To get job for everybody, new and expanding
businesses is the answer.
Accountants. Lawyers. Engineers. Factory
workers. Managers. Cleaners. Scientists. Businesses need them to stay alive.
But what is the use of all these
professions and skills when every living
business already have all they need?
That’s why graduates are jobless. The ones
with Jobs get peanuts – some o, not all. It’s even worse when you’re half
baked.
No wonder as of 2011, 22 million
Nigerian youths had no job.
But
what is the way out?
More new (or expanding) businesses =
more job vacancy.
But most new Nigerian businesses die
before their 5th birthday. They don’t make profit. They just try to
survive. So they never grow big enough to employ others.
Why? Because doing business in
Nigeria is hard and expensive. That’s why even big companies with a lot of
money run to other countries.
And how can the government solve this
problem? Simple! Just make business in Nigeria…
-
Cheaper
-
Faster (time na
money)
-
Easier and
-
More profitable
1. He Started With
A Plan
Nobody can solve a big problem without understanding… and
WITHOUT a plan – and President Jonathan knows that.
That’s why he (and his team) started by finding out
the situation of things…
He re-based
the economy
But what really is “re-basing?” Let me explain with a story.
Mrs. Okafor is a big business woman in aba. She has a
very big factory. Her factory makes a
lot of things: soaps, detergents, disinfectants etc.
Almost every year, her factory adds new products.
But here is
the problem… she has lost count of
the number of things her factory makes – they’re just too much.
10 years ago, she hired a personal accountant, Mr.
Musa. His job is to…
1.
Calculate every
year-end, how much the factor makes and…
2.
Count and record
every 5 (or 6… or 7 years) all the goods the factory
produces. Plus calculate
what percent each good adds to the company’s
profit.
Re-basing is
Job #2. Here, Mr. Musa re-based Mrs.
Ngozi’s Factory.
And why is this important? With re-basing, Mrs. Ngozi
will know the goods to spend more time, energy and money on – which one brings
the most profit.
After re-basing, President Jonathan (and his team)
started planning. The plan is to industrialize Nigeria.
So in 2013, they came out with NIPR (aka. National
Industrial Revolution Plan).
In 2014, they documented it (in a .pdf format) and
brought it to the public.
In that document, they plan to build giant industries
in Nigeria before 2017.
America and Europe banished poverty from their land by
building giant industries.
Giant industries = MILLIONS of quality Jobs.
Some of these plans have already started bringing
their head from under the water.
Some popular examples are…
The “National
Automobile Industry Development Plan”
Maybe you’ve heard – maybe you’ve not: many giant car
companies are now building car producing factories in Nigeria. Some of them
are…
-
Nissan Motors
-
Hyundai Motors
-
Innoson Motors
(the first made-in-Nigeria-by-a-Nigerian car company)
-
And many more
How will
this help fight poverty?
It will…
Help create and develop other industries and
businesses – who will
in turn, employ others.
A car has over 2,000 parts. Car building companies
don’t usually produce these parts. They contract other companies (usually small
and medium sized) to make them.
The car industry also needs steel, iron, glass,
plastic, rubber etc. to operate.
As a result, they’ll be buying from the local industry
(which President Jonathan plans to develop – according to the NIRP
document).
The result? More jobs.
It will also…
Help our people (Nigerians) get advanced technology
skills.
To make a car, you need advanced technology.
When these companies start producing in Nigeria,
they’ll be working with Nigerians. As a result, our people will learn what they
(the foreign experts) know – Nigeria will become a technologically advanced
country through this.
Also…
More Nigerians will now afford brand new cars (aka.
Tear Rubber) – the price will come
down a lot.
Another popular one is the…
Local
Content Act
In 2010, President Jonathan signed the Local Content
Act.
It’s a law designed to make more Nigerians get more
quality jobs in oil companies.
As a result, many Nigerian companies are already
getting juicy contracts from oil companies. For example…
NigerDockNig. PLC got an off shore platform contract
from Exxon Mobile.
S.C.C Limited, a Nigerian company, got a contract of N7.8
billion ($49.9 million) from Royal Dutch Shell for the manufacture of high
pressure line pipes – which before that law was usually awarded to foreign companies.
The result? These companies will employ more Nigerians
to do the job.
In 2015, the mining industry will be another next big
one.
Sources:
Premium
Times - 30 vehicle
manufacturing plants set to open in Nigeria
CNBC Africa - Nissan makes
first made-in-Nigeria car
Nigerian Tribune - Are these
cars really made in Nigeria?
2. Shouting “UP
NEPA” Will Soon Be History
“President Jonathan’s effort to make power (aka. NEPA
light) constant is where most Nigerians are already beginning to see results. I
now sleep with NEPA light almost every night”
-
Anthony Obuegbe, Blogger
95% of Nigerian businesses
(or more) depend on electricity (aka. Power). Some depend heavily on it; others
can survive without it.
NEPA light is usually not
dependable. So most businesses depend on their noisy, smoky, fuel consuming and easily spoilt generators.
But since President Jonathan
intervened, NEPA light has seen great improvement.
How did he do it?
When he came in, he studied
what past governments has done.
These governments have
pumped in billions; yet, no visible result. No matter how much they pumped in,
corruption and i-don’t-care attitude swallowed it.
So in 2013, he took NEPA
(aka. Power holdings) from public officers and gave (sold) it to private
companies.
Why?
If NEPA is owned by a
private business, they’ll take it seriously – no man plays with his business.
He divided NEPA into 17
companies…
-
6 generation
companies (GENCOs)
-
11 distribution
companies (DISCOs)
…and sold it to different owners.
Then he went as far as
setting up a commission, NERC (aka. Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission),
to protect both the consumer (Nigerians) and the companies.
Now, his major focus is
increasing megawatt (Aka. The size of electric power).
Why?
So that megawatt will get so
abundant that there will be no need for NEPA light to go off – and that’s why
power has been improving.
The result?
Ekene (my guy) owns a small
cybercafé with only 3 computers in Lagos (one server; two clients).
He does other services like
typing and printing, scanning and sending, lamination etc. Every week, he
spends N9,000 on fuel (filling his 30 liter keg cost N3,000 – he buys fuel 3x a
week).
In a month, he spends almost
N40,000 on fuel.
But since power started
improving, his story has changed. As of late
December last year (2014), he was still using the fuel he bought in November.
When NEPA light finally
becomes constant, he will be saving N40,000 every month. Now imagine what he
can do with extra N40,000.
He can…
-
Improve his
business
-
Make his service
cheaper and
-
Improve his life
And he’s just one business. Now think about the
thousands of similar businesses across Nigeria. How many people will it affect?
Dangote spends N250 Million daily on diesel – in just
one of his cement factory.
And he’s not the only one. There are hundreds (if not thousands)
of similar businesses across Nigeria.
Now imagine what will happen to the price of things in
the market when power finally becomes constant and reliable.
Sources:
Nigeria Electricity Privatization Project
- Background
New Telegraph - Dangote
spends N250m daily on diesel at Ogun cement factory
National Morror - FG targets
12,500mw of electricity by 2017
3. Railways To
Make Transport Fast, Stress Free, Comfortable And Cheaper
If you’re a frequent traveler, you may have started noticing the railway lines on the road.
That is President Jonathan’s
effort to ease the stress of transportation for the common man – and make
business activities smoother.
When it’s finally completed,
traffic hold-up will disappear.
A lot of people have lost
their job – and important contracts – because of traffic hold up.
Take Lagos state for
example, to drive from Amukoko to mile 2 is not supposed to take up to one
hour. But most times, it takes more than 4 hours. It’s even worse in some
areas.
How did he do it?
When President Jonathan (and
his team) came on board, the rail sector was in a sorry state. Every
infrastructure decayed. Rail activities almost stopped.
President Jonathan’s
strategy has been massive rehabilitation – where possible, he went for low
interest loans.
Trains have started running
again in some parts of Nigeria.
In December, my cousin’s
friend, Michael, traveled from Port Harcourt to Abia via train. He got to Abia
within 45minutes. He paid just N150 – under air condition o.
By bus, it usually cost N650
(in December) – and takes – 2hrs (if no hold up o).
Sources:
International
Railway Journal - Nigeria
backs rail to boost economic growth
Premium
Times - Nigeria
secures N80bn loan for Abuja-Kaduna train project
Wikipedia -
Nigerian
Railway Corporation
4. Thanks to
YouWIN: Idea Rich Nigerians (with no Money) Can Now Own a Big Business
Many Nigerian youths have
great business ideas – but no money.
They don’t have collateral
to borrow from banks. And when they do, the interest rate is scary.
Some try looking for good
jobs – so that they can save. But no job.
So their ideas die with
them.
President Jonathan knows
this. So in 2011, he brought out a solution – YouWIN.
And how does YouWIN work?
Simple!
You submit your business
plan. If it’s good, you get between N1 Million – N10 Million grant – you DON’T
pay back.
The result?
As of 2014, 44,000 youths
have won.
Adora in Enugu
lost her bank job. She applied for YouWIN and got N8.5 Million. Now she owns a
big poultry.
Utibe is a web designer. He won the YouWin Competition. Now, his business has
gone to the next level.
Tolulope owns a small cosmetic manufacturing business. She used to work from home and worked with plastic
containers. She got N10 Million YouWIN grant. Now her business is big.
Mr. Ibrahim in Lagos is an engineer. He got N10 Million grant. Now he owns a robotic
company.
And there are over 44,000
young Nigerians that got similar grants. Now think of the impact – how many
more Nigerians will these businesses employ?
Sources:
[Video] Nairaland – YouWinWithGEJ;testimonies
From Few Of The Beneficiaries
After
School Africa – How I won in
the YouWIN Business Plan Competition – Interview with Utibe Etim
5. The value of
Naira (to Dollar) Fell: Yet, Food Price Did Not Increase – It’s not Accident
Recently, oil price in the
world fell from $115 (per barrel) to $49 – and oil is Nigeria’s major income
source.
To make matters worse,
America (our biggest customer) stopped buying from us.
As a result, Naira value (to
dollar) fell from N168 (per dollar) to over N200. Yet, it did not affect food
price – unlike before.
Why?
Because of the great changes
President Jonathan made in the Agric sector.
He...
-
Ended 40 year of
corruption in fertilizer distribution (within 3 months) – as a result, 10 Million
Nigerian farmers now get fertilizers with ease.
-
Introduced paddy
(dry season) rice which lead to 467,000 new jobs – and 1.1 Million tonnes of
extra rice. As a result, these new farmers collectively earned N37 Billion.
-
Banned rice
importation to help local farmers grow – even the President (and everybody in
Aso Rock) eat only made-in-Nigeria rice.
-
Increase
Nigeria’s rice milling company from 1 to 18.
-
Worked with
Nigerian based research institutes to crate faster (and higher) producing
seedlings
The Result?
Agriculture became the next big thing – it became a
big support for the economy.
As of 2011, Nigeria was spending N1.8 Trillion ($11
billion) yearly to import food. By 2014, the number fell to N875 billion ($5.3
Billion). As a result, food price has stopped rising the way it used to.
As if that is not enough, Agriculture is now becoming
a big business: even big foreign companies want to take part.
So far, Nigeria has attracted over N1.7 Trillion worth
of Investment.
We (Nigeria) are now the world largest producer of
Cassava.
Sources:
The Economist – Why the oil
price is falling
Daily Independent – National
food imports dropped by $5.3b in one year
This Day Live - 2015 Rice
Importation Ban: Disregard US Report, FG Urged
Many Nigerians may not know this but President
Jonathan has been fighting corruption in a smart way: He has focused on
blocking corruption loopholes. Where possible, he used technology.
The result?
He has saved Trillions of
Naira for Nigeria. This money is part of what he’s using to build infrastructures.
Sources:
Explore
Anthony Obuegbe’s Mind - 7
Little-Known Ways President Jonathan Fought Corruption
7. “Unemployable”
Graduates (and Secondary School Leavers) Will soon be History
Most Nigerian graduates
don’t have jobs. They say there is no job.
But Nigerian businesses say
there is job – that they can’t find the skills they need.
So it becomes obvious: the
problem is not job. The problem is skills. Graduates don’t come out with useful
skills.
To make matters worse, most
of these universities (and polytechnics… and colleges of educations… and
secondary schools… and primary schools) are in shambles.
Decayed structures
everywhere.
Laboratories not working.
Hostels jampacked and smelly. Class rooms inadequate: imagine more than 300
students taking lectures in a small class room – jampacked like tinned sardine.
Even the things they learn
(aka. Curriculum) has nothing to do with today’s realities – imagine a computer
science student still talking about COBALT
and FORTRAN when the world is talking about HTML5 and PHP.
The fact that most teachers
are not properly trained makes matters worse.
As if that is not enough,
many Nigerian children (and youths) are dropouts. As of 2011, 10.5Million
children were out of school – mainly in the North, South-East and South-South.
To completely solve these
problems, president Jonathan completely took the whole responsibilities on
himself.
What does that mean?
According to the
constitution, the Federal Government is responsible for only university education. The State and Local government is responsible for primary and secondary
education.
But if the federal
Government continues to wait for the local and state government, the problem may
persist.
So how is he solving it?
He started with a plan – the
“Four-Year Strategic Plan for Education”.
In that plan, he looked at
what past governments did. The ones that were working, he improved. The ones
that were not, he changed – or removed.
For example…
The TETFund (A.ka Tertiary
Education Trust Fund).
TETFund was born from ETF (Education Trust Fund). ETF wasn’t working. So, he
scraped and replaced it with TETFund.
TETFund was born to fight
infrastructure decay in Government universities, polytechnics and college of education.
It got N615 Billion from 2010 – 2014.
The Result?
New structures are now
appearing in most government owned tertiary institutions.
He also improved UBE (for
public primary and secondary schools) and review school curriculum to suit
today’s realities.
To solve the problem of
out-of-school children, he built 125 Almajiri schools, in the North and
technical and vocational school, in the South-South and South-East – he also
built 16 Girl-Model schools.
Then he trained over 1
Million primary and junior secondary school teachers and administrators.
He also rehabilitated 25
unity colleges. Out of 104, 72 now have electronic library.
Then he partnered with
private business to provide 60 Million free text books for less privileged
children.
The Result?
School enrollment has
increased from 23 Million in 2010 to 29 Million in 2012 – and it’s still
growing.
As if that is not enough, he
built 12 new universities.
Why?
So that every state can have
a federal university.
The best part is that
budgetary allocation for education has almost tripled from N224 Billion in 2007
to N634 Billion in 2013.
Sources:
TETFund - History of
TETFund
NewsWatch Times - TETFUND:
N480bn released to tertiary institutions
Daily
Independent - Public
tertiary institutions get TETFund’s N135b to boost infrastructures
8. Low Income
Earning Nigerians Now Owning their Own Home
Housing is a basic human
need. But in Nigeria, it’s a big problem.
Nigeria needs 17 million new
homes – and additional 700,000 every year.
Affordable housing is
scarce: if you’ve looked for one, you’ll understand what I mean.
To build – or buy – a new
one is also very expensive. The average Nigerian cannot afford it.
To borrow from the bank is
even harder. You need collateral. Repayment period is also very short.
To solve this, President
Jonathan (and his team) initiated the “Nigeria
Housing Finance Project.”
How does it work?
If you qualify, you can get
between N2 Million to N20 Million and pay within 20 years.
On July 2014, President
Jonathan launched the first batch. The target was to finance 10,000 new homes.
Then something happened…
66,402 applied and
qualified. Then President Jonathan ordered that every qualified applicant get
loan. So 66,402 Nigerians benefited.
Sources:
National
Mirror - FG orders
processing of 66,400 mortgage applications
This Day Live - Jonathan
Boosts Housing with N50bn Mortgage Refinancing Company
9. Mining To
Become The Next Big Thing
Nigerian Mining industry
used to be big. It employed millions.
But when Nigeria discovered
oil, the government abandoned mining. Years of neglect made the industry die.
When President Jonathan came
it, he saw the industry’s potential. So he set out to revive it.
How?
He attracted more
technically advanced foreign companies: mining is highly technical – Nigerians
with those skills are scarce.
He used favorable policies
and diplomacy to achieve this.
The Result?
A lot of big foreign
companies are already setting up their machinery in Nigeria. They’ll start
mining by 2015 and jobs will follow.
Sources:
Think
Africa Press - Nigeria Digs
Deep in a Bid to Revive its Mining Sector
Change
& Revolution - South Africa
To Help Develop Nigeria’s Gold Mining Industry
In
Conclusion
To succeed in the 21st
Century, work smart; NOT hard – and that’s what President Jonathan has done.
No wonder in Just 4 (… OK 6) years, he
has achieved a lot for Nigeria.
But he’s not done yet…
He needs your help to finish the good work.
Help him by helping more Nigerians see this article: Just share on Facebook or Re-Tweet.
No comments:
Post a Comment