Nigeria’ opportunity to tap $38bn cotton market underexplored
To quicken expansive economic growth through an overlooked part of the agric sector, Nigeria can tap from the world’s $38.45 billion cotton industry, positioning itself competitively through its major cotton-producing states and enabling structures provided by the government.
The Nigerian Investment Promotion Commission (NIPC), in its opportunities and incentives report, notes that Nigeria’s textile industry was once ranked the second-largest in Africa, having over 250 factories all operating above 50 percent capacity with the use of home-grown cotton.
However, both textile and cotton have suffered over the years with the increased reliance on crude oil for revenue and foreign exchange (FX) earnings.
13m out-of-school children: Nigeria risks socio-economic disaster – minister
Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Zainab Ahmed says with an estimated 13 million children currently out of school in Nigeria, the country is sitting on the precipice of a socio-economic disaster if nothing is done to reverse the trend.
Ahmed said on Tuesday it has become imperative for relevant stakeholders in the education sector to work in a coordinated manner to stop the current wave of systematic attacks on the fundamental rights of children to a safe learning environment.
The minister spoke at a dialogue tagged “Financing safe schools: Creating safe learning communities”, in Abuja.
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How Nigeria is feeling pain of pandemic-induced slowdown in US auto market
Nigeria is the third highest destination of used cars from the United States and Africa’s largest economy also happens to be the only African country importing the most used vehicles from the United States. According to UNEP, 14 million light-duty vehicles (cars, SUVs and minibuses) were exported to low and middle-income countries between 2015 and 2019 and 40 per cent of that total ended up in Africa.
The European Union accounted for 54 per cent of all used vehicle exports during that period, followed by Japan’s 27 per cent and the United States’ 18 per cent. Despite accounting for a lower share of total used vehicle exports than the EU and Japan, the U.S. still shipped 2.6 million overseas between 2015 and 2019 with a collective value of $24.5 million. The United Arab Emirates is the top importing nation with 389,302 cars while Mexico is a distant second with 281,545. Nigeria is the third, importing 203,136 cars from the U.S. within the period under review.
Investors find new way to ease tenants’ rent burden
As house rent continues to hit the roof in most Nigerian cities including Lagos, Abuja, Port Harcourt, Enugu and Abeokuta in Ogun State, investors and property developers have devised new strategies to ease tenants’ rent payment burden.
Nigeria is an active rental market where a report by Pison Housing Company estimates that 80 percent of the country’s 200 million population lives in rented accommodation, spending over 50 percent of their income on house rent.
Whether on Lagos Island or Mainland, or in other Nigerian cities, tenants are increasingly finding it difficult to pay rents and, apart from the ill-feeling this is generating between landlords and tenants, it is mounting intense pressure on household income.
Why Nigeria Sugar Master Plan must not be scrapped
The Nigerian Sugar Master Plan (NSMP) appears to have run into some form of controversy recently over the feud among sugar producers in the country.
NSMP was introduced in 2012 by the Nigerian government as a policy roadmap for attaining self-sufficiency in sugar production and to chart a course for the industry.
Nine years after, the country has made some appreciable level of progress in the industry. Sugar production in Nigeria has risen from 6,843 metric tons (MT) in 2012 to 38, 597 MT.
