Nigeria Becomes the Largest Economy in African How Does It Put Food on My Table… The Man on the Street Cries Out!

Yes, rebased the economy they may call it, yet the common man on the street does not even understand the language talk less of the economic jargons that follows it.  Okay, many have applaud the Federal Government released of the result of the rebased Gross Domestic Product, GDP for the country, even though the report portrays Nigeria as the 26^th largest economy in the world and the biggest in African throwing South Africa that has always been on top to the cleaners, but why should I care when it does not even put food on my table.

The process of replacing an old economic base with a more recent one provides a reference point for which future values of GDPs are compared hence providing an accurate reflection of the direction of the economy, but if you ask me, it is like putting a new win in an old bottle. of course you know the obvious, poverty bubble in the land.

How does a larger GDP affect the Man on the Street?

Rebasing the economy or exposing the contributions of various activities in the economy to the nation financial growth will sure enable policy makers and analysts to take decisions based on current realities. Indeed the repackaging of the nation’s economic statistic reveals the contributions of new activities, investments and businesses to the nation’s economy and how these features have affected the size, components and structure of the economy. All these are still in wind when it comes to the man on the lower end of the ladder.

Throw these figures to the rich, the World Bank, IMF, CBN and the local Banks. They are the ones that need it, you may say, but how can you start or run a business no matter how small when you do not know how much money is being made in the country and where the money is is being made from, which is what the change in figures seem to stand for.

Now I know that Agriculture has a large potential and telecom is flatting out at its peak right now. Policy direction toward technology dynamism and visuals impact will sell more than establishing new assets to compete with existing ones. Connectivity, applications and online activities as it relate to telecom will pull in better profit.

The Poor Man Contribution Got a Hit

The analysis shows that the indicator or the contribution of the masses to this GDP has drop significantly and this contribution comes from the agricultural sector where we have the highest number of the poor from village participating. What a paralysis. This is where majority of Nigerians at the lower cadre are shareholders. Apart from the fact that this is where this level of Nigerians gets their daily bread, it is also where the nation is being fed from. The agricultural sector creates the largest number of employment for our so called large economy and yet has the poorest people in the nation. The most neglected and the most vulnerable to insurgent attacks, communal clashes, multiple operational cost and taxations, most of which comes from law enforcement agent when getting goods to consumers.

Though there is a strong diversification of the economy from oil, this only tilted to the area where the rich and foreigners dominate. According to the statistic released, in the nineties agriculture contributed 30.3% to the GDP, while industry contributed 46.% and services contributed 23.6%, but in the current  rebased Gross Domestic Product from 2010 the contribution of agriculture to the economy declined to 24% due to series of neglects by past governments while industry contribution to the GDP also declined to 25.8% no thanks to poor monetary policies by the CBN in the past five years, while the contribution of services to the rebased GDP has increased to 50.2%. This is not unconnected by government destruction of its monopoly in the telecom sector.

Another sector whose contribution would have been significant but could not see the light of day was the banking sectors, simply because of the series of in-house fighting between the former CBN governors and some key operators of the sector which saw the death of some key performing banks and the downsizing of the sector in terms of asset, personnel and business some years back. 

Where to Look For Opportunities in the New Economic Outlook

Although the number of economic activities that accounted for the growth in the nominal GDP after rebasing rose by over 100%, It is indeed worthy of note that importation, wholesale and retail trade are business activities that had the most notable change in all the economic activity mentioned while telecommunications and information services, cement production, food, beverage and tobacco, construction, real estate and, Nollywood and music sectors outperformed all other sectors.

The major players in these performing sectors are; the Indians, South Africans, Chinese, Lebanese, except for cement production and Nollywood where Nigerians made great impact, all others are virtually dominated by foreigners. The manufacturing sectors that had a drop in this new rating, most Nigeria have been booted out by incessant power supply while the Indians are still riding on in spite of the odds. What are they doing right?

While some Nigerians were waiting for government to handle unemployment and poverty, especially the poor, the farmers and the masses who were busy complaining, demonstrating and waiting for government, the Indians, Chinese, Lebanese whose country are not better off in term of poverty rating were busy finding solution that will inculcate them into the next generation of the Nigeria wealth profile. According to the Indian, there is so much money in the street of Nigeria, but Nigerians are so blind that they can hardly see it. What a saying and how true?  

Yes, we may have a large economy than south African but we are not richer that is simply because we have a larger population, you will also note the same applies to China and India, south African seems to be richer than those two country not because they have a larger economy but because of their lower population hence a higher per capita income.

Refuse To Join Others to Complain When You Can Make It Happen

I refuse to agreed with those who say the rebased figure did not impact on the lives of the people directly, properly significantly will be a better language or negatively though not true, but a better statement for a right debate on the issues raised. For example the growth in telecom which is a major contributor to the rebased GDP has led to at least the creation of over 5million Jobs, businesses, and entrepreneurs who ply their trades from selling recharge card on the street to becoming wholesalers, agents, contractors, shops owners, marketers, service providers, investors, etc in the telecom sector. The impact on the lower cadre who source their daily bread from this sector, selling recharge card as a whole business or adding it to their businesses to generate revenue is very visible even on major bus stops and motor parks.

The debate for those who want to move forward is not that the rebased GDP figure of $510bn for Nigeria has not made Nigerians richer neither has it improved the live of the common man, but how do I use the new GDP figure to increase the amount of income that goes into my bank accounts; how does it influence or affect the kind of goods I want to produce or import next. Can I use the new GDP to create new jobs and what area should I be looking at?

You may want to ask, Hope Eno what show I do? At least now you have an idea of the structure of the economy, making it easy to discover where to search for the opportunities to get yourself out of the rat race. You can take at these business opportunities sites that can improve your personal GDP and generate for you unending wealth for a start. Visit www.investmentlight.com

Searching for Wealth from Fuel Scarcity

Wonders they say will never end, you can imagine how biting poverty can be and what a man can do trying to keep body and soul together but end up losing the body. The fuel scarcity experience can be touching when one sees the kind of activities people go through in order to either sell or buy fuel. For many guys this is the best time to make quick money and truly so many men and women not minding the stress and risk still go through the process just to catch the cash.
I don’t need to hit my head on the wall to say this, the risk of getting fuel from truckers and tankers are huge. Apart from sourcing the product from the tanker directly, some guys go right into the tanker to mop up the products as tankers are never devoid of products no matter how hard you try to empty it from the normal processes dispersing the content. The dangers of suffocations and inhaling of petroleum product could be enormous and some of the boys die in the tank trying to do it.
There are sad moments in this business and they come more than once in a while. There was a case where a young man went into a tanker to scoop fuel without letting anybody know he was inside, so when he suffocated inside the 33,000 litre fuel tanker nobody knew. The tanker was loaded and offloaded with fuel twice before his body was discovered inside the tanker. What a pity, but this kind of situation occurs all the time, you can imagine what the desire to make money the quick way can drive a man into. Ignorance they say is not an excuse and most times information could prevent such incidence.
The law enforcement agents and the Diesel trade
According one of the dealers I spoke to, the risk is not worth it for the black marketers. I would have preferred the real stuff if I know how. Police is our greatest enemy as we pay consistently in advance for our trade to be allowed at the port and more often than not, our goods (gas diesel) are seize by the law enforcement agents, either, police or Navy who then in turn sell to truck drivers for peanut or collect huge sum of money from us if we want to effect the release of our goods.
These illegal buyers can come in pick-up vans that carry drums to buy from boaters or come in single carrier that is people who use bikes to carry 50 litres jerry cans. Some bikers do nothing else but supply product to black marketers around the port. It is a brisk business with quick cash for some young folks.
Some bus vans have been constructed in a way to carry as much as 200 to 400 liters of products illegally. This business though illegal has become a very lustration business around the port.
Individuals black marketers can make as much as N3,000 to N10,000 daily from supply of product to trailer drivers while those who source product in pick-up vans and drum can make as much as between N30,000 to N100,000 daily. Those who use other means too numerous and illegally risky can make as much as over 100,000 daily. According one black marketer spoken to, I had to leave the business for sometime as the law enforcement agent were now turning my shop into a toll gate each time my product lands the shop they would just arrive units and seize everything. The loses was becoming unbearable since my source are illegal and I even contribute weakly to police in order to prevent arrest, they still come and cart away my goods. They as different patrol units and the runs has become a loss consuming business if I may use that word. visit www.investmentlight.com/oilandgas for the right way to do this business
Product adulteration,
The guy I learnt the business from was too bad I could not even continue the business with him. When he sells diesel to drivers he mixes it with kerosene, black oil, water and sometime sand just to make lot of profit. It was terrible. Some truck like fiat cannot stand this, but for truck like MAC, very rugged it could withstand any form of adulteration. The effect can only reduce the effectiveness of the engine, either by moving slowly or smoking but for other trucks, these adulterations can damage the engine completely.
For generator, this illegal diesel source can kill your power plant completely according to him; I really desire to be part of the legal method of doing this business. I know a guy that has five trucks for distributing diesel (commonly called gas at the port). He started small but today he is a big man. Police does not disturb them, because their sources are legal and that is why I had to take a break from the risky methods of black marketing business at the port and try to see how I can be connected to right way to play the oil and diesel business.
What a story, better to read than be in those shoes. Now you can get access to the legal methods of starting this business. Get the report on the legitimate methods of doing oil and gas business that will give you peace on www.investmentlight.com/oilandgas