Whilst exchanging banters on Facebook regarding why Buhari was not invited to the recently concluded G7 summit despite the fact that leaders of smaller African countries were invited, i recently made a post which elicited a lot of response and controversy (It’s been shared over a thousand times and elicited over a thousand comments as well) in which i stated that Nigeria became the fastest growing economy in Africa under the leadership of Obasanjo and as a result of this Nigeria gained respect amongst global leaders and the country was regularly invited to participate in important global economic events.
Whilst it is an incontrovertible fact that Nigeria became the fastest growing economy in Africa and the second fastest growing economy in the world under the leadership of Obasanjo (several data from reputable institutions worldwide confirm this), i was challenged based on this statement by a lot of people i assume to be Buhari/APC apologists and supporters who did not like the idea that their “enemy” had succeeded where their idol had failed woefully. While it was obvious that some of them were just being antagonistic and in obvious denial, i will concede that some of them were actually ignorant of the giant economic strides that the country made under the Obasanjo/Atiku Administration because their administration then did not embark on chest beating, noise making and propaganda that has become the hallmark of the government today. It is because of the genuinely ignorant ones that i decided to write this article to set the records straight.
When Obasanjo resumed power in 1999, Nigeria was a pariah state as a result of the tyranny of the Abacha administration, the country was in huge debt and had challenges servicing her debt obligations, oil price was very low at less than $15 a barrel, our foreign reserves was just $3 billion and the economy was in a general state of lethargy. Everything that could possibly be wrong with the economy was wrong with it and the future looked very bleak. Undeterred Obasanjo set to work on the arduous task of restoring confidence to the country and re-building the economy.
To start with, Obasanjo leveraged on his massive international connections as a highly respected global leader to get Nigeria back into reckoning as a member of the global community. He then set off to build institutions to strengthen governance and the fight against corruption which was the biggest problem holding the country back as at that time. Amongst his achievements in this regard are the following;
• He created the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and empowered them to effectively fight corruption without fear of favour. (The achievement of the EFCC under the Obasanjo administration remains unparalleled to this day).
• He also created the Independent Corrupt Practices Commission (ICPC) another agency of government to strengthen the fight against corruption.
• He set up the Budget Monitoring and Price Intelligence Unit (BMPIU) otherwise known as Due Process office to monitor the budget and ensure that government contracts were not inflated. The unit was ably headed by the no nonsense Oby Ezekwesili and as a result of this, the country saved Hundreds of billions of naira from cutting down inflated contracts
• Under the Obasanjo administration, the practise of open bidding for oil blocks was introduced. Prior to this, oil blocks were awarded on a discretionary basis by the military to their cronies. As a result of this, the country was able to generate billions of dollars from the sale of oil blocks and signature bonuses which had hitherto remained in private pockets.
• Although the National Administration for Food and Drug Administration and Control was set up by the Babangida administration, it did not become an effective organization for fighting fake drugs and corruption until Obasanjo injected life into it by appointing the enigmatic late Dora Akunyili to head the parastatal and empowered them to fight the incidence of fake drugs in the country to a standstill.
• To reduce wastage in government, Obasanjo promulgated and signed the Fiscal Responsibility Act into law thereby legally committing all tiers of government to fiscal prudence in public financial management and inter governmental fiscal co-ordination to secure greater macroeconomic stability.
While the Obasanjo administration was embarking on these laudable reforms to strengthen governance through building of institutions to fight corruption and reduce the cost of governance, they also embarked on several economic reform initiatives which all added up to unleashing the potential of the Nigerian economy and saw the country’s economy emerging as the fastest growing economy in Africa. Some of the landmark economic reforms embarked on are enumerated as follows;
• Privatization of Public enterprises: When the Obasanjo administration resumed office in 1999, the government was by far the biggest player in the economy being the owner of most of the large companies in the country. Unfortunately, these companies were very badly run and most of them had become comatose with the few surviving ones being heavily in the red. In line with the reality that the private sector was better equipped to own and manage businesses, the federal government embarked on a privatization exercise and in the process, government was able to make billions from the proceeds of the sale of these companies whilst further saving billions in subventions they were paying to keep the hailing companies afloat. The companies were eventually re-invigorated by the private sector and today a good number of them are contributing to the growth of the economy instead of being the drain pipes that they previously were.
• The administration paid off our national debt of $35 billion which had become an albatross through a negotiated settlement thereby massively improving on Nigeria's sovereign ratings and making it possible for Nigerian banks/private sector access the international financial market for capital to fund growth.

• Banking reforms: enough has been written about how the Obasanjo years banking reforms increased the capitalization of banks in the country by over 300% and catapulted at least five Nigerian banks to become amongst the largest in the world but the real beauty is that with larger capital base Nigerian banks now have a lot more resources with which they can finance economic activities and growth.

• Bond market: Prior to Obasanjo's regime the bond market was
virtually non existent, today it is worth over ten trillion naira and is a
veritable source of long term funds for development growth which the government of the day mostly depends on to fund it’s activities.

• Pension reforms: In my opinion, this is the most uncelebrated and understated achievement of the Obasanjo regime. Apart from the primary goal of taking care of the future retirement needs of today's workers, a huge pool of funds has been created which can be channeled in various sectors of the economy to finance economic growth. Today the total pension funds have exceeded 9 trillion Naira and still growing at a phenomenal rate. The strength of our financial service industry today is largely dependent on the long term accumulated pension funds.

• Capital market boom: Due to Nigeria's improved sovereign
ratings after Obasanjo paid off our National debt and our sound macro economic fundamentals, foreign investors poured in and stock market grew exponentially from a market capitalization of about 600 billion Naira when Obasanjo assumed power in
1999 to well over 10 trillion Naira when he left power in 2007.

• Telecoms revolution: So much has been written about the
phenomenal success of Obasanjo's telecoms revolution that it would be a waste
of time repeating it here again. It's to his government’s credit that we have
over 150 million active phone lines today up from 400k lines in 1999 representing a phenomenal growth rate of almost 30,000% in the industry.

• Backward integration of the cement industry: Nigeria today is a net exporter of cement thanks to Obasanjo's policies of stimulating local production by giving incentives to local manufacturers. Today hundreds of thousands of jobs have been created down the value chain and Nigeria now saves billions of dollars in foreign exchange that would have been used to import cement.

• Foreign reserves: By the time Obasanjo left power in 2007, despite the fact that by then he had paid off our external debt and he met only $3 billion in our foreign reserves when he assumed power in 1999 he was able to leave almost $50 billion in our foreign reserves with about $22 billion of it being in our excess crude account. It was with the huge savings he left that Nigeria was able to survive the global financial crisis that brought the western world to it’s knees between 2008 and 2010.

• Power reforms: Now this is a very controversial one as many people would like to assume that the Obasanjo administration failed in this regard but
nothing can be further from the truth. Even though today power supply is still abysmally low, Obasanjo laid the foundation for power reforms in the country. Although he did not stay in office long enough to complete the projects he started and the succeeding governments have been slow in completing these projects. It is on record that Obasanjo’s government initiated the National Integrated Power Project (NIPP) which has the capacity to solve our power problems in the interim if well implemented. Under the NIPP Obasanjo commissioned the building of 11 new power plants across the country three of which he was able to commission before he left power and others were in various stages of completion. These power plants were designed to add over 5,000 Megawatts to the national grid thereby doubling our national power supply in one fell swoop. Though all sorts of ridiculous figures have been brandished by detractors as the amount spent on the power projects with “noting to show for it” it was later confirmed after thorough investigation that only $3.08 billion was released by the Obasanjo administration for the project and today most of the power plants have now been completed even though due to laxity of the government of the day, they are not supplying power to the national grid.

As a result of the prudent management of the country’s resources, institutional fight against corruption and dynamic economic policies of the administration, the country’s economy grew rapidly, millions of jobs were created and Nigeria attained an all time high of 19.17% in it’s economic growth rate in the fourth quarter of 2004 positioning the country as the fastest growing economy in Africa. The rest of the world also started viewing Nigeria as the next economic giant along with the BRICS countries. It was also as a result of the rapid growth that Nigeria attained during the Obasanjo years that necessitated the need to rebase our economy during the Jonathan Administration and it was discovered that Nigeria had actually overtaken South Africa to become the largest economy in Africa in terms of GDP.

Even though Nigeria is yet to attain it’s full economic potential, it will be very uncharitable to deny the phenomenal achievements of the Obasanjo/Atiku administration in significantly growing the countries economy and laying an even more solid foundation for it’s future growth. Politics asides, history will indeed be kind to them based on what they were able to achieve with the country’s economy.

http://parrotnigeria.com/how-obasanjo-made-nigeria-africas-fastest-growing-economy/

Not far from the truth.

Brainwashed children of hate & anger are coming to deny with venom.

Yoruba Muslim, over to you.

Growth Only On Paper Or For Real? Don't Be Fool My Bro, The Real Growth Started With Buari The Greatest African General Take It Or Leave It

One of them above ^^

BBBmall25:
Growth Only On Paper Or For Real? Don't Be Fool My Bro, The Real Growth Started With Buari The Greatest African General Take It Or Leave It

Buhari kee you there...

Some Nija bloggers ther are going to hell directly! This Mofo blogger is trying to promote obj! Spits

Which Obaaanjo are you really talking about?

Cos if na our ex president... Name e be say you dey misyan no be small

abbaapple:



Some Nija bloggers ther are going to hell directly! This Mofo blogger is trying to promote obj! Spits

Point out any false hood in the write up!

BBBmall25:
Growth Only On Paper Or For Real? Don't Be Fool My Bro, The Real Growth Started With Buari The Greatest African General Take It Or Leave It

It was not growth on paper bros.

Real economic growth and mobility, as evidence by the largest expansion of the Nigerian middle class since the oil boom of the 70s.
This is fact.
Middle class growth is the global standard to measure economic progress.

yanabasee:

Buhari kee you there...

Mbom!

ProjectNaija:

Whilst exchanging banters on Facebook regarding why Buhari was not invited to the recently concluded G7 summit despite the fact that leaders of smaller African countries were invited, i recently made a post which elicited a lot of response and controversy (It’s been shared over a thousand times and elicited over a thousand comments as well) in which i stated that Nigeria became the fastest growing economy in Africa under the leadership of Obasanjo and as a result of this Nigeria gained respect amongst global leaders and the country was regularly invited to participate in important global economic events.
Whilst it is an incontrovertible fact that Nigeria became the fastest growing economy in Africa and the second fastest growing economy in the world under the leadership of Obasanjo (several data from reputable institutions worldwide confirm this), i was challenged based on this statement by a lot of people i assume to be Buhari/APC apologists and supporters who did not like the idea that their “enemy” had succeeded where their idol had failed woefully. While it was obvious that some of them were just being antagonistic and in obvious denial, i will concede that some of them were actually ignorant of the giant economic strides that the country made under the Obasanjo/Atiku Administration because their administration then did not embark on chest beating, noise making and propaganda that has become the hallmark of the government today. It is because of the genuinely ignorant ones that i decided to write this article to set the records straight.
When Obasanjo resumed power in 1999, Nigeria was a pariah state as a result of the tyranny of the Abacha administration, the country was in huge debt and had challenges servicing her debt obligations, oil price was very low at less than $15 a barrel, our foreign reserves was just $3 billion and the economy was in a general state of lethargy. Everything that could possibly be wrong with the economy was wrong with it and the future looked very bleak. Undeterred Obasanjo set to work on the arduous task of restoring confidence to the country and re-building the economy.
To start with, Obasanjo leveraged on his massive international connections as a highly respected global leader to get Nigeria back into reckoning as a member of the global community. He then set off to build institutions to strengthen governance and the fight against corruption which was the biggest problem holding the country back as at that time. Amongst his achievements in this regard are the following;
• He created the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and empowered them to effectively fight corruption without fear of favour. (The achievement of the EFCC under the Obasanjo administration remains unparalleled to this day).
• He also created the Independent Corrupt Practices Commission (ICPC) another agency of government to strengthen the fight against corruption.
• He set up the Budget Monitoring and Price Intelligence Unit (BMPIU) otherwise known as Due Process office to monitor the budget and ensure that government contracts were not inflated. The unit was ably headed by the no nonsense Oby Ezekwesili and as a result of this, the country saved Hundreds of billions of naira from cutting down inflated contracts
• Under the Obasanjo administration, the practise of open bidding for oil blocks was introduced. Prior to this, oil blocks were awarded on a discretionary basis by the military to their cronies. As a result of this, the country was able to generate billions of dollars from the sale of oil blocks and signature bonuses which had hitherto remained in private pockets.
• Although the National Administration for Food and Drug Administration and Control was set up by the Babangida administration, it did not become an effective organization for fighting fake drugs and corruption until Obasanjo injected life into it by appointing the enigmatic late Dora Akunyili to head the parastatal and empowered them to fight the incidence of fake drugs in the country to a standstill.
• To reduce wastage in government, Obasanjo promulgated and signed the Fiscal Responsibility Act into law thereby legally committing all tiers of government to fiscal prudence in public financial management and inter governmental fiscal co-ordination to secure greater macroeconomic stability.
While the Obasanjo administration was embarking on these laudable reforms to strengthen governance through building of institutions to fight corruption and reduce the cost of governance, they also embarked on several economic reform initiatives which all added up to unleashing the potential of the Nigerian economy and saw the country’s economy emerging as the fastest growing economy in Africa. Some of the landmark economic reforms embarked on are enumerated as follows;
• Privatization of Public enterprises: When the Obasanjo administration resumed office in 1999, the government was by far the biggest player in the economy being the owner of most of the large companies in the country. Unfortunately, these companies were very badly run and most of them had become comatose with the few surviving ones being heavily in the red. In line with the reality that the private sector was better equipped to own and manage businesses, the federal government embarked on a privatization exercise and in the process, government was able to make billions from the proceeds of the sale of these companies whilst further saving billions in subventions they were paying to keep the hailing companies afloat. The companies were eventually re-invigorated by the private sector and today a good number of them are contributing to the growth of the economy instead of being the drain pipes that they previously were.
• The administration paid off our national debt of $35 billion which had become an albatross through a negotiated settlement thereby massively improving on Nigeria's sovereign ratings and making it possible for Nigerian banks/private sector access the international financial market for capital to fund growth.

• Banking reforms: enough has been written about how the Obasanjo years banking reforms increased the capitalization of banks in the country by over 300% and catapulted at least five Nigerian banks to become amongst the largest in the world but the real beauty is that with larger capital base Nigerian banks now have a lot more resources with which they can finance economic activities and growth.

• Bond market: Prior to Obasanjo's regime the bond market was
virtually non existent, today it is worth over ten trillion naira and is a
veritable source of long term funds for development growth which the government of the day mostly depends on to fund it’s activities.

• Pension reforms: In my opinion, this is the most uncelebrated and understated achievement of the Obasanjo regime. Apart from the primary goal of taking care of the future retirement needs of today's workers, a huge pool of funds has been created which can be channeled in various sectors of the economy to finance economic growth. Today the total pension funds have exceeded 9 trillion Naira and still growing at a phenomenal rate. The strength of our financial service industry today is largely dependent on the long term accumulated pension funds.

• Capital market boom: Due to Nigeria's improved sovereign
ratings after Obasanjo paid off our National debt and our sound macro economic fundamentals, foreign investors poured in and stock market grew exponentially from a market capitalization of about 600 billion Naira when Obasanjo assumed power in
1999 to well over 10 trillion Naira when he left power in 2007.

• Telecoms revolution: So much has been written about the
phenomenal success of Obasanjo's telecoms revolution that it would be a waste
of time repeating it here again. It's to his government’s credit that we have
over 150 million active phone lines today up from 400k lines in 1999 representing a phenomenal growth rate of almost 30,000% in the industry.

• Backward integration of the cement industry: Nigeria today is a net exporter of cement thanks to Obasanjo's policies of stimulating local production by giving incentives to local manufacturers. Today hundreds of thousands of jobs have been created down the value chain and Nigeria now saves billions of dollars in foreign exchange that would have been used to import cement.

• Foreign reserves: By the time Obasanjo left power in 2007, despite the fact that by then he had paid off our external debt and he met only $3 billion in our foreign reserves when he assumed power in 1999 he was able to leave almost $50 billion in our foreign reserves with about $22 billion of it being in our excess crude account. It was with the huge savings he left that Nigeria was able to survive the global financial crisis that brought the western world to it’s knees between 2008 and 2010.

• Power reforms: Now this is a very controversial one as many people would like to assume that the Obasanjo administration failed in this regard but
nothing can be further from the truth. Even though today power supply is still abysmally low, Obasanjo laid the foundation for power reforms in the country. Although he did not stay in office long enough to complete the projects he started and the succeeding governments have been slow in completing these projects. It is on record that Obasanjo’s government initiated the National Integrated Power Project (NIPP) which has the capacity to solve our power problems in the interim if well implemented. Under the NIPP Obasanjo commissioned the building of 11 new power plants across the country three of which he was able to commission before he left power and others were in various stages of completion. These power plants were designed to add over 5,000 Megawatts to the national grid thereby doubling our national power supply in one fell swoop. Though all sorts of ridiculous figures have been brandished by detractors as the amount spent on the power projects with “noting to show for it” it was later confirmed after thorough investigation that only $3.08 billion was released by the Obasanjo administration for the project and today most of the power plants have now been completed even though due to laxity of the government of the day, they are not supplying power to the national grid.

As a result of the prudent management of the country’s resources, institutional fight against corruption and dynamic economic policies of the administration, the country’s economy grew rapidly, millions of jobs were created and Nigeria attained an all time high of 19.17% in it’s economic growth rate in the fourth quarter of 2004 positioning the country as the fastest growing economy in Africa. The rest of the world also started viewing Nigeria as the next economic giant along with the BRICS countries. It was also as a result of the rapid growth that Nigeria attained during the Obasanjo years that necessitated the need to rebase our economy during the Jonathan Administration and it was discovered that Nigeria had actually overtaken South Africa to become the largest economy in Africa in terms of GDP.

Even though Nigeria is yet to attain it’s full economic potential, it will be very uncharitable to deny the phenomenal achievements of the Obasanjo/Atiku administration in significantly growing the countries economy and laying an even more solid foundation for it’s future growth. Politics asides, history will indeed be kind to them based on what they were able to achieve with the country’s economy.

http://parrotnigeria.com/how-obasanjo-made-nigeria-africas-fastest-growing-economy/

The achievement in cement was done at great cost to the economy. More jobs were lost than was created as it made locally produced cement very expensive and had a very negative effective on the building industry.

Also, his protectionist policies such as the ban on textiles and poultry into the country were also counterproductive

BBBmall25:
Mbom!

Unam Ikot... come first, let me tell you something...

Obj really tried in reviving the economy during his time.

I can remember his effort at getting debt relief.

Bringing investors into d country and bringing d GSM telecoms.

If not for his effort, Nigeria would have broken down completely shortly after d devastating military era in 1999.

Just that the ones that have come after him are mostly confused about how to get the country working. It's a pity!

yanabasee:


Unam Ikot... come first, let me tell you something...

Mbok Nso Ikot Innan Inno Mi... Sese Utenge Nkpo Si Kpi Boro Etubom Iko? Afo Edi Ata Ebot!

BBBmall25:
Mbok Nso Ikot Innan Inno Mi... Sese Utenge Nkpo Si Kpi Boro Etubom Iko? Afo Edi Ata Ebot!

Unam Atebe Idem.... Asimi Ata Ndisimi.... Ebot Ikot nte afo....

yanabasee:



Unam Atebe Idem.... Asimi Ata Ndisimi.... Ebot Ikot nte afo....

Mbok Ekene Mi Ekut Ndusunu Nkpom, Ukap Uyonke Ke Obio Efik Uka Ufok Mmang Udu Kpa Obiong! Se NKpo Se Kpe Kot Etubom Atebe Idem, Mme Se Fi Uyoho Ke Ukem Uto Nduk Oro Ye Ami... Now Disappear And Bye Attention Seeker!

BBBmall25:
Mbok Ekene Mi Ekut Ndusunu Nkpom, Ukap Uyonke Ke Obio Efik Uka Ufok Mmang Udu Kpa Obiong! Se NKpo Se Kpe Kot Etubom Atebe Idem, Mme Se Fi Uyoho Ke Ukem Uto Nduk Oro Ye Ami... Now Disappear And Bye Attention Seeker!

Idad Atebe Idem..... Ado Ata Useme.....

grandstar:


The achievement in cement was done at great cost to the economy. More jobs were lost than was created as it made locally produced cement very expensive and had a very negative effective on the building industry.

Also, his protectionist policies such as the ban on textiles and poultry into the country were also counterproductive

this is the dumbest comment I ever seen on NL....cement policy that made billionaires and many millionaires and create thousands of job is what you condemn....can you and buhari employ people that work in Nigeria cement industry and many other benefit that we get from mining our limestone..do you even know that richest company in Nigeria is cement company(dangote cement)

many other people benefit from poultry policy and it has improved the economy of oyo state even day old chick market in Ibadan is called obasanjo market

do you even know that his policy have helped the country and you are behind your phone that came into Nigeria under obj typing rubbish bcoz online defender job

hargbolahan01:
this is the dumbest comment I ever seen on NL....cement policy that made billionaires and many millionaires and create thousands of job is what you condemn....can you and buhari employ people that work in Nigeria cement industry and many other benefit that we get from mining our limestone..do you even know that richest company in Nigeria is cement company(dangote cement)

many other people benefit from poultry policy and it has improved the economy of oyo state even day old chick market in Ibadan is called obasanjo market

do you even know that his policy have helped the country and you are behind your phone that came into Nigeria under obj typing rubbish bcoz online defender job

First of all, I did not contend about the achievement of many of OBJ's policies. His employment of seasoned technocrats during his second term ensured a lot of dynamic results. I have always referred to the $60bn in the foreign reserves and the $20bn left in the Excess Crude accounts as massive achievemnets.

However, all leaders are imperfect and fallible, hence in some areas he fell short.

What many people don't seem to realize is that protectionism actually cost more jobs than it creates. That's what the best economists will tell you.

Let us take a good look at cement.

The ban on cement led to the product becoming very expensive and this adversely affected the building and construction industry. What you have left out is that the building and construction industry employed far more workers than the cement factories. I don't know anyone that works for Dangote but I know many who have worked part time or full time in the construction industry.

I won't be shocked that for everyone employee that Dangote has, the construction industry has ten or even 20.

When the ban took effect, cement was so expensive that many projects were abounded.

In 2014 if I'm correct, Dangote Cement announced an after tax profit N124.8bn after tax profit on sales of N248bn. That means if Dangote slashed the price of his cement by half, he would have still made a profit and paid tax.

You also mentioned the poultry industry. Yes, the ban helped to increase the size of the poultry but as what cost- it has forced Nigerians to pay far more for chicken than necessary. This is unfair on the general populace.

Why people like protectionism is because you can "see" the benefit - a shiny new factory for instance producing the banned product. What you don't see are the negatives such as abandoned projects or factories closing down or layoffs of workers.

Another reason why people support protectionism is that they can't see the benefit of imports. To them, imports are bad and local product is good.

Imports are actually very good for you. The reason why you export is to have money pay for your imports. We don't stock Venusian pounds because we do no business with Venus. We do not stock Uranian dollars as we do no business with that planet.

Imports are extremely important in the supply chain. 52% of raw materials used in Nigeria's manufacturing industry are imported. It also enables the country to benefit from the consumer side of globalization. Nigerians should have access to cheap goods made overseas.

I know you'll say, "if we open our borders, the country will be doomed!''. Will it?

Countries do best when resources are pumped into areas they comparative advantage. An open economy will compel businesses to focus on areas the country has comparative advantage.

Nigeria would have been better off focusing on snails, grass cutters and other animals it has comparative advantage in. I'm sure Nigeria can export as much as a $1bn worth of snails for instance. Thailand exports as much as $1.8bn worth of farmed shrimp. That country exports more food than all of Africa combined. And profit margins are much fatter in snail farming than in poultry. Snails are very healthy to eat. I'm sure there's a ready market just waiting in China for them.

plaetton:


It was not growth on paper bros.

Real economic growth and mobility, as evidence by the largest expansion of the Nigerian middle class since the oil boom of the 70s.
This is fact.
Middle class growth is the global standard to measure economic progress.

I remember when I finished from Lag in 1997, then everyone wanted to leave Naija for overseas, mainly to go hustle. Within a space of 10 years, the children of middle class who graduated stopped going overseas to find work. If they did, it was through the proper route like to Canada with their papers intact. There seemed to be enough jobs for them.

When I finished, everyone wanted to work in a bank. That was the most popular route to the middle class then. Oil companies employ very few people.

If things had continued at that space, the children of the working class who graduated would have eventually joined that gang and lastly the children of the poor as well. When a country's per capita income hits $8,000, the urge to travel to find work collapses. The Chinese whose per capita income is already at that level have stopped dashing overseas to look for work.

grandstar:


The achievement in cement was done at great cost to the economy. More jobs were lost than was created as it made locally produced cement very expensive and had a very negative effective on the building industry.

Also, his protectionist policies such as the ban on textiles and poultry into the country were also counterproductive

I very strongly disagree with you on your position here. Do you realize that Nigeria now saves $3 billion per annum as a result of the cement policy? Do you realize that the price of cement would have been at least N3,000 per bag if we were still importing cement due to the current exchange rate of the Naira? Do you know how many hundreds of thousands of jobs were created locally as a result of the cement policy? Do you know that it is as a result of Dangote's success in the cement Industry that empowered him to be able to raise funding to build the world's largest refinery in Nigeria? Do you know that Nigeria will save $10 billion annually and earn an additional $6 billion when the refinery is fully operational? Don't let antagonist mislead you with the illusion of cheap cements being imported then, I can assure you that it is currently cheaper to produce cement in Nigeria than to import and in fact Nigeria now exports cement to neighboring African countries. The benefits of the cement Industry far out weigh the imaginary short comings you listed above.

ProjectNaija:


I very strongly disagree with you on your position here. Do you realize that Nigeria now saves $3 billion per annum as a result of the cement policy? Do you realize that the price of cement would have been at least N3,000 per bag if we were still importing cement due to the current exchange rate of the Naira? Do you know how many hundreds of thousands of jobs were created locally as a result of the cement policy? Do you know that it is as a result of Dangote's success in the cement Industry that empowered him to be able to raise funding to build the world's largest refinery in Nigeria? Do you know that Nigeria will save $10 billion annually and earn an additional $6 billion when the refinery is fully operational? Don't let antagonist mislead you with the illusion of cheap cements being imported then, I can assure you that it is currently cheaper to produce cement in Nigeria than to import and in fact Nigeria now exports cement to neighboring African countries. The benefits of the cement Industry far out weigh the imaginary short comings you listed above.

Why are Nigerians always fixated with "save" foreign exchange! What is meant by "save"?

When one picks up to read the best magazines in the world such as The Economist or Forbes, you never read "save foreign exchange". It is never there.

Even when Donald Trump placed tariffs on many Chinese made imports because of China's protectionist policies, no one ever wrote how much "foreign exchange was saved" by such the US. The only time you ever see "save foreign exchange" in these magazines are when Nigeria pays for a special editorial trying to promote the country.

The best way to manage foreign exchange is by making the currency flexible. If imports are too high, the currency will depreciate in value and therefore make imports less affordable and locally produced products more competitive. If the Central Bank believes that the currency is depreciating fast, they will raise rates which will encourage investment in treasury bills will will take money out of the system and thereby deprive the money of funds to buy forex thereby reducing pressure and hence, a strengthening of the currency.

There is no way cement manufaturing can create more jobs that the building and construction sector. No single. I very much doubt it can produced even a tenth of the workforce in it. Take it from me, cement had adverse effect on the construction sector. If you think what I am saying is baseless, let the government lift the ban on cement and you'll see price of cement drop and people will buy from the cheapest supplier.

Cement is a special product by the way. The price is extremely sensitive to transport cost because of its low price and bulky mass and that's why cement plants are located all over the country. To ship a trailer load of cement worth 1.5m for instance up North may cost up to 600,000. That's 40% of the price of the price of the goods. Imported cement therefore may not pass beyond the the South of Nigeria.

Price of a bag of cement in Thailand ranges from about 1,200 to 1,450. Dangote's price is at least 2,500 per bag. I repeat Nigerians got burned by the ban.

How will the price hit 3,000? What evidence is there that it will hit 3,000?

If the price of imported cement will hit 3,000 or be higher than the locally produced one, why was Dangote eager that the license to import up to 1,500,000 metric tons of cement yearly granted to Obat Cement be revoked? What you said here about the price hitting 3,000 is untenable.

grandstar:


Why are Nigerians always fixated with "save" foreign exchange! What is meant by "save"?

When one picks up to read the best magazines in the world such as The Economist or Forbes, you never read "save foreign exchange". It is never there.

Even when Donald Trump placed tariffs on many Chinese made imports because of China's protectionist policies, no one ever wrote how much "foreign exchange was saved" by such the US. The only time you ever see "save foreign exchange" in these magazines are when Nigeria pays for a special editorial trying to promote the country.

The best way to manage foreign exchange is by making the currency flexible. If imports are too high, the currency will depreciate in value and therefore make imports less affordable and locally produced products more competitive. If the Central Bank believes that the currency is depreciating fast, they will raise rates which will encourage investment in treasury bills will will take money out of the system and thereby deprive the money of funds to buy forex thereby reducing pressure and hence, a strengthening of the currency.

There is no way cement manufaturing can create more jobs that the building and construction sector. No single. I very much doubt it can produced even a tenth of the workforce in it. Take it from me, cement had adverse effect on the construction sector. If you think what I am saying is baseless, let the government lift the ban on cement and you'll see price of cement drop and people will buy from the cheapest supplier.

Cement is a special product by the way. The price is extremely sensitive to transport cost because of its low price and bulky mass and that's why cement plants are located all over the country. To ship a trailer load of cement worth 1.5m for instance up North may cost up to 600,000. That's 40% of the price of the price of the goods. Imported cement therefore may not pass beyond the the South of Nigeria.

Price of a bag of cement in Thailand ranges from about 1,200 to 1,450. Dangote's price is at least 2,500 per bag. I repeat Nigerians got burned by the ban.

How will the price hit 3,000? What evidence is there that it will hit 3,000?

If the price of imported cement will hit 3,000 or be higher than the locally produced one, why was Dangote eager that the license to import up to 1,500,000 metric tons of cement yearly granted to Obat Cement be revoked? What you said here about the price hitting 3,000 is untenable.

When it comes to the term "saving" of foreign exchange which you have issues with, you have to realize that Nigeria is an import dependent country and and demand for foreign exchange puts massive pressure on the Naira. Our ability to save foreign exchange means less pressure on the Naira and a better exchange rate. The countries you used as example do not have their economies structured the way our economy is.

I agree with you on having a flexible exchange rate but if it's flexible and your imports are excessive, you will end up killing your economy. The best thing to do is to promote local production and be less import dependent. That said going to your argument that the construction industry provides more jobs than the cement Industry, this argument is simply not tenable as they actually compliment each other and the construction industry has not been negatively affected by the cement Industry, if anything at all, it has benefited from it.

Concerning the prices of cement in Thailand that you referred to, are you sure that the price you quoted is current and the right exchange rate was used? Is the price wholesale or retail price? Does it factor in the cost of production in Thailand as opposed to Nigeria? Does it also factor in the cost of transportation, distribution and profit margins of the retailers? Does it factor in the tax rate in Thailand as opposed to Nigeria? Really there are so many factors to consider before reaching a conclusion but which ever way you want to spin it, Nigeria is better off producing cement than importing it from foreign countries.

Another point to note is that importation of cement was never banned but merely restricted to only importers that were investing in local production of cement and apart from Dangote, there are at least eight other companies in the country that were allowed to bring in cement, if Dangote's cement is too expensive, why aren't all the other cement manufacturers/importers under cutting his prices?