summary guide to understanding the problem with economic reform in Nigeria

chapter 2

CHAPTER TWO

POOR ECONOMIC VISION AND PLANNING

At the periods Nigeria experienced great revenues, the boom years, the Nigerian government were not too keen on saving money for the future, in fact the country was ran like it had an expiry date. I am yet to uncover the true amount of money Nigeria was able to save from the eras of the Niger delta trading companies till the formation of the central bank of Nigeria up until the 1970s. The failure to save money, lead to the exodus of Nigeria’s moneys in to foreign countries, who kindly repaid their contacts and business associates in Nigeria, by interfering in the political power struggle, often putting their men in key positions. These kinds of relationship lead to the collapse of so many Nigeria industries that it became necessary to privatize.

The collapse of these Nigeria industries was as a result of the lack of supporting industries or process factories inter linked like a chain structure, where one industrial output leads to another industrial need to another output of products, geared towards self sufficiency and independence, there was a huge gap in the industrial chain line. For example, the palm oil industries were not supported by an out let industry like a soap processing or manufacturing industry which the nation could use to make different kind of soap for both domestic and export reasons, as a result of this kind of gap, there was no innovation in marketing strategies or companies which will lead to the formation of industries responsible for product package marketing, advertisement companies and molding firms who restructure products and packaging these products for export purposes, resulting in a more attractively designed products which will keep Nigeria’s firms in competition on the global market, forcing foreign investors to secure shares in her companies lifting the economy up and currency value will maintain some steadiness, in subsequent jobs will be created within the country and even off shores leading to economic prosperity.

Another contributing factor for the economic woes in Nigeria today was the displacement of human resource capacity. Most Nigeria industries preferred man power over technicians and innovators, the owners of industries, private or public felt that to produce more goods rapidly was far more rewarding than taking time to research into advancing the process to be more efficient, there was hardly local professionals involved in the process of production and export innovations, and when it came to that, most government and private organizations simply hire a foreign consultant to advice or innovate marketing plans. The problem with such approach was, most of these foreign consultants were patriotic to their home countries and were diabolic and did not want Nigeria’s industries to compete with their home industries and so they will intentionally leave out vital clues and information or technology, encouraging a type of produce that was not globally acceptable, encouraging dependency for machines and tools this was evidence in the crude oil and the refinery infrastructures in the country. But another example would be the sugar industry; the quality of sugar manufactured locally lacked acceptable global standards guideline, it made it almost impossible to market these produce in developed nations (just like Europe shut down the importation of beans from Nigeria since 2015). The reasons for such policy was that some of these developed nations had agencies(strategically placed in various ventures) designed to verify sugar contents and quality and its health impact to the lives of their citizen, yet most of these hired foreign consultants were on ground in Nigeria giving advice during the production process misleading in often in order to also make quick gains for example,. As a good business strategist, these foreign developed nations resulted in the use of bee honey as an ideal alternative to an industrial processed sugar based on its health benefits and in so doing bought Nigerian made sugar for pennies.

If Nigeria went into trade negotiations these foreign companies will prove that the quality of local goods were poor in that case forcing our worried marketers to sell huge quantities of goods for cheaper, all these often are done just to keep the companies afloat and maintain office presence in Nigeria. Well as usual the Nigeria elite were quick to fall for this economic strategy, importing honey products to the country, then the sugar manufactured in Nigeria was locally circulated at most, perhaps life in Nigeria doesn’t worth studying the implication of the sugar type.