Chapter Zero

More local children and teenagers’ storybooks are being published, but they face many challenges, writes OBODO EJIRO.

"I want that one. No, not that one, I want the one with the dancing princess on the cover,” says a teenage girl, as she stoops over a pack of short storybooks under the Ojuelegba Bridge in Lagos.

Photo Credit: AC Nielsen

Bet On The Stars

The industry emerged unannounced, taking off from the ashes of previously popular football pools. Today, sports betting or gaming, as it is called locally, is big business in Nigeria.
In the past five years, the industry has grown in leaps and bounds, attracting new entrepreneurs and higher patronage.
With outlets now numbering over 300, scattered across the country, most entrepreneurs in the business are Asians (particularly, Indians and Lebanese) who see the opportunity in a country where there is much love for sports.

Saturday, saturday medicine

Concerns about the quality of education from part-time programmes university keep growing writes OBODO EJIRO

During the week, she works as a cashier at a new generation bank in Lagos while he works as a shopkeeper at a small shop in Abeokuta, but at weekends, they are classmates at the University of Lagos. This is how tertiary remedial or part-time programmes bring people together across Nigeria weekly.

FG, CBN battle stagflation as inflation, unemployment rise

The Federal Government and Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) are battling an economic anomaly called stagflation as both inflation and unemployment which should have an inverse relationship are rising simultaneously.

The burden of a sale

There is a peculiar challenge facing Nigeria’s economy OBODO EJIRO writes.

They can be seen even when it rains heavily. Young men in their early twenties or late thirties braving the cold, chasing vehicles in desperate efforts to sell loaves of bread in front of Nigeria’s National Stadium in Lagos.

Who moved our cheese?

Decline in oil price (and subsequently, government budgets) often predates economic decline in Nigeria. Proposed states and federal budgets for 2015 confirmed this position earlier this year.

In 2014, 33 of Nigeria’s 36 states budgeted higher than what they spent in 2013. But in 2015, only 9 states had higher budgets compared to what they spent in 2014. (27 states budgeted considerably less than what they spent in 2014 for 2015.)

While state budgets rose by 13 percent in 2014, they dropped by 5.3 percent in 2015. The federal budget for 2015 rose by only 4.3 percent over what was spent in 2014, which amounted to a considerable drop compared to the 2013/2014 period.

Diversification or competitiveness, which is Nigeria’s problem?

It is at best unfair to say that the Obasanjo, Yar’Adua and Jonathan administrations did nothing to diversify the Nigerian economy. The structure of the Nigerian economy has in fact changed remarkably since 1999.

In the last four years, the agric and oil sectors which used to occupy commanding heights in the Nigerian economy shrank relative to other sectors.

In the last two years agric sector contributed an average of 22% of GDP; industries and services contributed 24% and 53% of GDP respectively (oil and gas contributed much less). The reality is that the process of diversification has no end, it only has a beginning.

Destination Zero

Militancy in the Niger Delta could remain a big problem in Nigeria, writes OBODO EJIRO.

At exactly 1:32am on January 30 2016, an unknown individual pushed the enter bottom of a computer, launching 16 words onto Twitter and giving birth to the fastest growing, yet mystic online group in Nigeria. 

Agric still in shambles as policy makers fail to tackle key problem

The informal sector’s overbearing influence on agricultural output is seen as responsible for Nigeria’s inability to diversity its export base through farm produce.

Budget: States to spend 5% less y-o-y as economic realities bite

The total amount budgeted by 35 states for the 2016 fiscal year is 5% less than what they spent in 2015. The states presented a combined appropriation of N5.77 trillion for 2016, as against the N6.07 trillion appropriation they presented in 2015 (Zamfara State is yet to release its budget,). 

Nigeria’s import, export dichotomy

OBODO EJIRO examines Nigeria’s international merchandise trade mix.

Legacy of Apapa roads

Two features are sure to be noticed on the roads leading in and out of Apapa, Nigeria’s premier port city. First, though both roads are generally in bad shape, the ones leading out of Apapa are far worse. Secondly, there is always traffic on both sides.

The first of the two features is a subtle indication that much more, in terms of volume and value, comes into Nigeria through the two ports in Apapa than goes out of the country through them. (The roads leading out of Apapa are under more pressure and consequently suffer more wear and tear.)