Last week, Nigeria’s Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Mrs. Zainab Ahmed, announced during a policy dialogue initiative organized by the Independent Corrupt Practices and other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) that the federal government will soon begin to merge or shut Ministries, Department and Agencies (MDAs) with similar roles to eliminate induced wasteful expenses […]

The Q4:2020 debt report as recently published by the Debt Management Office (DMO) and the Nigerian Bureau of Statistics (NBS) reveals a 20.1% rise in Nigeria’s public debt stock to ₦32.9tn and a 23.4% increase in FG’s debt burden to ₦26.9tn as at 2020 year-end. The current debt amount implies a Debt-to-GDP ratio of 21.6% […]

In our 2020 Outlook report, titled Nigeria in the New Decade: Nothing Ventured; Nothing Gained, we had reviewed the performance of the Nigerian economy over the last decade and highlighted critical imperatives necessary to restore the nation on the path of prosperity in the new decade. We noted that while economic performance in the last […]

The Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) will hold its second set of meetings of the year on the 22nd and 23rd of March 2021. We expect the Committee to review the domestic and external macroeconomic conditions and financial markets developments since its last meeting in January and provide forward guidance on how it intends to balance […]

Q4:2020 Labour Market Statistics: Youth Unemployment at an All-time High The Nigerian Bureau of Statistics (NBS) released the labour statistics for Q4:2020 and we summarise the highlights. Interestingly, the NBS was able to conduct the survey through face-to-face interviews following the lifting of restrictions imposed by the pandemic compared with the Computer Assisted Telephone Interview […]

Nigeria’s merchandise trade improved 8.9% q/q in Q4:2020, the highest since Q2:2019 though dipped 9.9% y/y to ₦9.1tn. For FY:2020, merchandise trade fell by 10.3% y/y to ₦32.4tn due to a sharp contraction in exports according to report by the NBS. Consequently, the trade balance had a deficit of ₦7.4tn, the first since 2017 and […]

Despite the abudance of fertile lands and favourable weather considered very good for agriculture in Nigeria, the country still ranks amongst the top three net importer of food items in the world, a situation some analyst have described as worrisome. According to the Minister of Agriculture, Dr. Akinwumi Adesina, the Federal Government spent over N99 […]

Ikechukwu (lastname witheld) was working with a machine at one of the expatriate owned hair extentions and wigs factory when some hot liquid fell on his arm. He described the pain that ripped through him as immense. He was wounded for weeks and scarred for life. On December 9, 2011 “at about 3pm”, Bolaji Sekoni […]

Over the past couple of years the 6-3-3-4 educational system has been under the radar. Several analysts have recommended that the primary and junior secondary phase of the system be merged; the ‘6’ and the ‘3’. Looking at the educational system especially in the rural areas, most parents (low income earners) end the education of […]

Nigeria is both a promising and a challenging place to do business. This fact is amplified in the World Bank’s ease of doing business index where Nigeria is ranked 133 out of 183 countries as at June 2011. The World Bank derived its rankings from the average score of 10 topics which are; starting a […]