Meet The Man Who Has Overtaken Bill Gates As The Richest Man In The World (Photos)

The latest Forbes billionaire version of the show, Bill Gates was beaten to the first position of the richest man in the world of European Entrepreneurs.

Amancio Ortega

Bill Gates has for years been the richest man in the world, with mega Microsoft is one of the most influential companies in the world, but the richest man in the world.

That title goes to Amancio Ortega, owner of the retail chain Zara. Zara is a staple in the clothing sector with stores that dot almost every shopping complex in the world.

Spanish company Inditex, owner of Zara has experienced an increase of 2.5% in their actions, which in turn boost the fortunes of Ortega $ 79.5 billion Forbes reports.

It grows out of Bill Gates at $ 78.5 million. What makes a significant Ortega is that very few people have heard of it, he was not in the spotlight a lot and is serious about his private life.

80-year-old, giant founded Zara fast fashion with his then-wife Rosalia in in 1975.

Inditex SA, a retail company that owns Zara, Massimo Dutti, and Pull & Bear - more than 6,600 stations around the world.

Here are some facts that should be known Ortega presented: -

Amancio Ortega is the richest man in the world, with a net worth estimated at $79.5 billion.

This is his second wife, Flora. The couple has been married since 2001.

In August 2013, his ex-wife and Zara co-founder, Rosalia Mera, died at 69. She was Spain’s richest woman.

This is his daughter, Marta. The socialite is married to top Spanish equestrian Sergio Álvarez Moya.

Ortega and his wife live in a discreet apartment building in La Coruña, Spain, near a major port of the Atlantic Ocean.

Kate Middleton is a huge fan of Zara’s designs and is often photographed in its clothing.

Ortega is known for being private. In 2012, Bloomberg noted that he had only granted interviews to three journalists.

He also dresses modestly. He usually wears a simple uniform of a blue blazer, white shirt, and gray pants – none of which are Zara products.

In his free time, Ortega enjoys horseback riding and owns an equestrian center in Finisterre in Galicia, Spain.

He goes to the same coffee shop every day and eats lunch with his employees in the company cafeteria. Here’s a picture of Zara’s headquarters.

He also bought the tallest skyscraper in Spain, the Torre Picasso in Madrid. The building stands 515 feet and cost $536 million.

He owns The Epic Residences and Hotel in Miami, considered to be one of the best luxury hotels in the US.

Ortega drives an Audi A8 luxury sedan that is said to be more about comfort than luxury.

He also owns The Global Express BD-700, a private jet designed by Bombardier, one of the leading manufacturers of luxury private jets. The plane carries a price tag of $45 million.

But he rarely jets off on vacation. He says he loves working too much to take time off.

CBN Suspends Dollar To Naira Trades Till Monday

Nigeria’s central bank made no dollar to naira trades on the interbank market on Thursday but settled $13.6 million of trades made on previous days at about the naira’s pegged rate of 197.5 per dollar, an official said.

The central bank said on Wednesday it would begin open-market foreign currency trading next week, abandoning its 16-month-old peg against the dollar and setting the stage for the Nigerian currency to fall sharply.

Dealers said they expected no interbank currency market activity until the new trading regime starts on Monday.

“Central bank is not selling any money. Those who want to trade can do that among themselves,” the official said, referring to the volumes as “carryover trades” agreed but not settled before Wednesday’s announcement.

Nigeria, Africa’s largest crude exporter, has resisted devaluing its currency for more than a year even though other major oil producers, including Russia, Kazakhstan and Angola, have allowed their currencies to fall as crude prices plunged.

Currency traders were meeting on Thursday to discuss the new rules and will seek to determine trading spreads including circuit breakers, if any, they say.

“The rules are just a guideline. The practicality is totally different so people are holding on until Monday,” one trader said.

Three economists estimated the fair value of the naira at between 280 and 300 against the dollar, although the black market rate is around 370.

Is This Not A Treasonable Offence? Niger Delta Avengers Unveil Currency (SEE)

(DGW) Militancy in the oil-rich Niger Delta has taken a new turn as militants have vowed to break away from the federation of Nigeria.
The separatist feelings and aspirations which resulted in the ongoing bombing of oil and gas facilities in the region have eventually found expression in unveiling its ‘national’ currency.
Militants have been carry out attacks on oil and gas facilities of multinational oil corporations in the region the very latest being Chevron facility at its Escravos terminal on Thursday.
Niger Delta Avengers which have claimed responsibility for the attacks have vowed to stop at nothing until a sovereign state of the Niger Delta is actualized.
A source who spoke to our reporter on condition of anonymity says much has been done to the region’s ecosystem resulting from the operations of oil companies in the region and that every hue and cry raised so far to draw the government’s attention to their predicament has fallen on deaf ears.
Hence the action to secede from Nigeria became absolutely necessary to save communities in the neglected region from gradual extinction.

5 Entrepreneurs In Africa Who Started A Successful Business With $100 Or Less

Let me start by saying that there are terrible lies about starting a business. One of the dumbest lies is that business is for people who are illiterate. Jeeez! That’s pathetic. Another fat lie is that you need really huge amount of capitals. Another lie from the pit of……….ignorance!

Now, i want to debunk those lies by sharing this short stories of 5 Entrepreneurs in Africa Who Started a Successful Business with $100 or Less in hand. Guess what? They are smiling to the banks after just having started a few years ago.

Now let’s meet them…

1. Heshan de Silva (Kenya):


In 2007, Heshan de Silva dropped out of school and as things got worse for him in the US, he joined his parents back in Kenya to get his life back together.

Aged only 18 at the time, his parents gave him 10,000 Kenyan Shillings (US$116), which he used to start a new business. He targeted the bus travel sector in the country by selling insurance bundled with the bus ticket purchase. And it is widely reported in the media that by the end of the year, the business had made 90m Kenyan Shillings (US$1.05m). Isn’t that amazing!? Heshan has since invested that money in his new business, De Silva Group, a venture capital firm.

With an incomplete education, no capital, not even a great deal of life experience and yet Heshan made it in a short period of time. He was featured in CNN and Forbes Magazine as one of Africa’s most successful young.

2. Abasiama Idaresit (Nigeria):


Abasiama Idaresit graduated with an MBA at Manchester Business School and moved back to Nigeria in 2010 to start his own business. Today, he is the Founder and CEO of Wild Fusion, a digital marketing company.

Guess what? He started his company in 2010 with a gift of $250 from his mother and it took him 8 months to make the first deal. Just three years later, Visa, Vodafone, Samsung and Unilever as well as several large Pan-African corporations are his clients and his company is valued at over $6 million in revenue. Yes, you heard that indeed right; $6 million! And yes, he started in 2010. Wild Fusion has now become Google’s certified partner in Africa!

3. Axel Fourie (South Africa):


Take Axel Fourie from South Africa. By the time he was 27, he had tried unsuccessfully to set up several businesses. When his iPod was faulty and he was told by specialists that nothing could be done about it, he searched for a YouTube video online and learned how to fix the iPod himself!

He then put an advert into a local newspaper and offered to fix faulty iPhones and iPads. The response he got exceeded his expectations as he was flooded with calls and requests from potential customers. He knew he was onto something!

Axel opened his company iFix and started fixing iPods and iPhones from his university dorm. This was in 2007. Today, Alex runs a chain of 8 stores and employs 85 people. He has since expanded his business into manufacturing mobile phone accessories which he exports into 12 countries across Africa. Oh, we forgot to mention the amount of his starting capital. Here it is: Zero! (unless he paid a little for that newspaper ad).

4. Anna Phosa (South Africa):


Anna Phosa started her pig farm venture in 2004 in Soweto with about $100 in hand. She bought four pigs with that money after she was introduced to pig farming by a close friend.

A little less than four years later, in 2008, Anna was contracted by Pick ‘n Pay, the South African supermarket and retail giant to supply its stores with 10 pigs per week. This was a first breakthrough and the request by the retailer grew quickly to 20 pigs per week.

But the really amazing bit happened in 2010 when Anna signed a breathtaking contract with Pick ‘n Pay to supply 100 pigs over the next five years under a 25 million Rand deal – that’s nearly 2.5 million US Dollars!

She did not even have so much land or enough pigs! With a contract in hand, Anna received funding from ABSA Bank and USAID to buy a 350-hectare farm property.

Anna started with 4 pigs in 2004, today her farm employs about 20 staff rearing 4,000 pigs at a time. Her perseverance has made her a millionaire!

5. Jacky Goliath and Elton Jefthas (South Africa):


The venture ( De Fynne Nursery) started in 2001 by South African entrepreneurs, Jacky Goliath and Elton Jefthas, in Jeftah’s home backyard. Market demand grew fast and steadily which meant that they moved the nursery to a 0.5 hectare land in 2005, and in 2008 had to move again to a 1.5 hectare area outside Cape Town where they hosted 600,000 plants!

Today, the De Fynne nursery supplies its products to retailers such as Woolworths, Massmart and Spar in South Africa and it was reported that they since moved to a whopping 22-hectare commercial property. This is a simple start up idea on a shoe string budget anywhere in Africa where you have a booming housing & hotel sector and expanding city areas!

It’s Your Turn…
What are you waiting for? Will you allow your mum, dad, sister, brother, friend, enemy, the government, college degree or whatever to stop you? After reading this, do you still think that you need a million dollar to start that business? I don’t think so. While you’re not guaranteed success but you’ll never know if a business will succeed or fail when you start. Just start anyway.

I hope this article inspired you to start your business today. Not tomorrow.

Share this to Inspire a Friend.

Another Olajumoke? Abeokuta Dapper Windscreen Cleaner Gets A Job Offer

It’s another case of Former bread seller, Olajumoke Orisunga whose life took a turn off when she walked into a photo shoot on the streets as Dapper windscreen cleaner, who goes by the name Abdullahi Olatoyan is a University Of Ilorin dropout, who turned to the streets after the demise of his father to make ends meet and start a business. spotted in Abeokuta has been offered a job.

Fashion entrepreneur, Uche Nnaji took to his IG page to offer him a job in his fashion label. He wrote

”Pls TAG him or send us his number we have a JOB waiting for him at OUCH: . I WOKE up to see this image and wondering…How can a young-man make an effort to DRESS this way to CLEAN car windshield in TRAFFIC and be LEFT to continue with this? ..God Forbid Bad Thing . 7 Reasons why this Man deserve a JOB at OUCH… 1: He made an effort to DRESS better than his present SITUATION shows/tells me that this is a Man with a VISION who needs a PUSH. 2: He could have decided to DRESS in a T-shirt and Jeans like others in the same TRADE,but HEY! He won’t have stood out and be noticed .. #sellyourself3: He could have STAYED at home living in self delusion that he is better than this kind of JOB. 4: He saw a NEED and DECIDED to provide a SOLUTION#solveAproblem 5: He understood the IMPORTANCE of wearing a SUIT I have said this countless TIMEs to Fresh graduates and JOB hunters to #DRESS4SUCCESS 6: He had a CHOICE of sitting at HOME, Living in SELF-Pity and BLAMING the Govt for his WOES in Life.but he decided to MAKE A MOVE and get his hands BUSY #7: For a bit I thought about what SOME people may say about this Gesture , but I quickly realized that even JobSEEKERs and those who have NEVER added VALUE TO SOCIETY or another human LIFE would ALWAYS talk as they NEVER see the brighter side of things…So let them TALK… PLEASE All I want is his nos as he deserves BETTER from life#Dress4success #MCM #SartoriallyCorrect #StyleInfluencer #OUCHman #Menswear #Suitgang #suits #Bowties #dapperlydone”

FG Officially Removes Fuel Subsidy; See How Much Fuel Will Now Be Sold Per Litre

The Federal Government, Wednesday, removed subsidy on Premium Motor Spirit, also known as fuel as it will now sell for N145 per litre.
Details later…
Source: Vanguard

First Bank To Sack 1000 Workers

FBN Holdings Plc, the parent company of First bank Limited said it would cut jobs and focus less on providing loans to the oil industry in a bid to reverse last year’s 82 percent slump in profit.

Managing Director/Chief Executive, Mr. Adesola Adeduntan, FirstBank Limited disclosed this in an interview with Reuters.

He said the bank plans to boost its return on equity, a key measure of profitability, to between 11 per cent and 14 per cent in 2016 from last year’s “really bad” figure of 3 per cent.

The bank is also targeting a cost-to-income ratio of 55 per cent in two years time from 59 percent, he said. “ROE will be much better than last year,” Adeduntan said.

“At a minimum, we should triple it. We do not shy away from taking difficult decisions. We used to have above 8,000 people. We’ll push it down, gradually, to 7,000.”

Vanguard investigation reveals that the process of pruning the staff to 7000 commenced last year.

A source within the bank confirmed to Vanguard saying, “It is not that we plan to sack 1000 staff at a go. It was part of the measures taken last year to enhance the profitability of the bank. So the pruning will be gradual and it started last year”.

FBN Holdings’ Net profit fell to N15 billion ($76 million) from N84 billion naira in 2014, as impairments soared and Africa’s biggest economy slowed amid a crash in the price of crude, the biggest source of government revenue and export earnings.

First Bank’s non-performing loans ratio stood at 22 per cent at the end of March, compared with 3.8 percent a year earlier. Reducing that figure is the “number one priority,” said

Adeduntan. The bank will do that by reducing the proportion of it’s lending to the oil and gas sector, currently at about 39 percent of total loans, and focusing more on blue-chip companies in other industries, he said.

Adeduntan ruled out any equity raising this year, saying the bank’s capital adequacy ratio of 17.2 percent was enough of a buffer and above the central bank’s minimum requirement of 15 percent. It would still be adequate if the floor is raised to 16 percent in July for systemically important institutions, including First Bank.

“We continuously evaluate it and the position now is that there’s no need for external capital,” said Adeduntan, 46, who became CEO in January after joining First Bank as Chief Financial officer in mid-2014. “We generate enough internal capital,” he said.

FBN’s shares rose 5.3 percent to 3.57 naira on Wednesday. They’re still down 30 percent this year, more than the Nigerian Stock Exchange All Share Index’s drop of 13 percent.

The bank’s valuation lags that of its main competitors such as Guaranty Trust Bank Plc and Zenith Bank Plc. Its stock trades at 0.22 times book value, or the theoretical price that shareholders would get if all assets were sold and liabilities paid-off.

That compares with 1.18 times for GTBank and 0.62 for Zenith.

“The market has over-corrected,” Adeduntan said.

“It’s priced in all the negative information. For us, it can only go up.”

Wow! The Story Of This Blind Young Man Who Built A Company Worth Several Millions Will Open Your Eyes To Life

A man who was born completely blind, has redefined the heights human beings can climb if they only try hard enough.
At age 23, Indian entrepreneur Srikanth Bolla is the CEO a company valued at INR 50 crore (over $7.5 million) . That’s a wonderful achievement in itself, but what’s truly inspiring is that he managed to do it despite being born completely blind.
Today, he considers himself the luckiest man in the world, not for his success, but for having supportive parents who always stood by him.
When Srikanth was born blind, several of his parents’ friends and relatives advised them to abandon him. That would indeed have been the easier thing to do, given the fact that they were poor and uneducated, earning a mere INR 20,000 ($300) a year. But they chose to not only keep the boy, but also raise him in a positive, loving environment.
“They are the richest people I know,” he often says.

And their excellent parenting has paid off – today, Srikanth is the CEO of Bollant Industries, a Hyderabad-based company that employs physically challenged staff to manufacture eco-friendly consumer packaging solutions made from leaves and recycled paper.
The company has four manufacturing units in three states in southern India – Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, and Karnataka. Srikanth’s hard work and unprecedented success has impressed the business world, attracting investments from the likes of Indian business tycoon Ratan Tata.
It wasn’t an easy ride for Srikanth – he’s had to face several challenges all his life, including rejection from his peers at his village school. But he was later transferred to a school for special children, where he excelled at academics and also developed an interest for chess and cricket.
As he grew older, he started taking on larger challenges like former president APJ Abdul Kalam’s Lead India project. Although he struggled to keep up in high school, he eventually found a teacher who was kind enough to convert all his lessons into audio clips, helping him ace his final exams.

More rejection was in store for Srikanth, who dreamed of going to college at the IITs, India’s premier technology institutions. He was rejected despite having scored well in the entrance test, on the grounds that he was blind. But he managed to use his excellent academic records to gain admission into the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, from where he graduated in 2012. He returned to India soon after, and decided to start a company that would employ people who had struggled like himself in life.
“Compassion is not about giving a coin to a beggar at the traffic signal,” he said. “It’s showing somebody the way to live and giving them the opportunity to thrive. Show compassion and make people rich. Include people in your life and remove loneliness, and lastly, do something good; it will come back to you.”
Srikanth set up Bollant Industries in collaboration with Swarnalatha, his special needs teacher in school and lifelong mentor and friend. “She trains all the employees with disabilities at Bollant thereby creating a strong community where they feel valued,” explained Ravi Mantha, one of the company’s investors.
“Srikanth is my true source of inspiration. He is not only my young friend and protégé but is also my mentor who teaches me daily that anything is possible if you set your mind to it.”

China Lends Dangote $2bn: Is Yuan The New "Dollar" for Nigeria?

Dangote Group, the company owned by Africa’s richest man Aliko Dangote, signed a deal on Tuesday for a $2 billion loan from the Industrial Commercial Bank of China Ltd for two cement plants, he told Reuters.

“The interest rate is okay, quite favorable with me,” Dangote said, without elaborating. “It’s for my two cement companies that we are establishing in Nigeria.”

The deal included China Export & Credit Insurance Corporation

Meanwhile the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China Ltd (ICBC) , the world’s biggest lender, and Nigeria’s Central bank on Tuesday also signed an agreement on yuan transactions, a Chinese Foreign Ministry official said.

“It means that the renminbi (yuan) is free to flow among different banks in Nigeria and the renminbi has been included in the foreign exchange reserves of Nigeria,” Lin Songtian, director general of the Foreign Ministry’s African Affairs Department, told reporters.

The agreement was reached following a meeting between Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari and Chinese President Xi Jinping.

Nigeria has already converted up to a tenth of its reserves into yuan five years ago.

Songtian said a framework on currency swaps has been agreed with Nigeria making it easier to settle trade deals in yuan.

China has currency swap deals with countries ranging from Kazakhstan to Argentina and New Zealand.

Economy: Buhari Is On Right Path – Dangote

President and Chief Executive of the Dangote Group, Alhaji Aliko Dangote, said yesterday that the President Muhammadu Buhari administration was on the right path in the diversification of the nation’s economy.

His assertion followed new policies implemented through the Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment as well as Ministry for Solid Mineral Development.

Dangote spoke at the ground-breaking ceremony of Okpella cement financed by his group.

He hailed efforts of the President in revitalising the solid mineral sector, noting that the sector could provide employment and improve non-oil revenue.

Dangote noted that the new plant could transform the economy of Okpella and Edo State.

Dangote said investment in local cement plants saved Nigeria $3 billion spent on importing cement.

He urged the private sector to invest in critical areas of the economy since the Federal Government has expressed readiness to resuscitate the industrial sector.

Dangote said he would always invest in Nigeria, adding that Nigeria remains the best place to invest in the world.

He said: “While others are sitting and waiting, the Dangote Group is thinking ahead by investing in additional cement capacities in Okpella in Edo State and Itori in Ogun State. We have also invested in a 100MW Power Generation Plant for Itori and Okpella.

“A key factor that drives investments in an economy is the presence of an investor-friendly business climate. Indeed, Edo State is one of the most attractive investment destinations in Nigeria.

“The economic reforms in Edo State, especially in tax, innovations in rural finance and investment on infrastructure, have produced an enabling environment that has further provided a platform for future growth. These factors encouraged us to consider Edo State as the right destination for this investment.

“By this investment, Dangote is increasing its production capacity, thus maintaining its leadership in the industry. The Okpella six million capacity plant will take our local capacity to 35m mtpa, and with the coming on stream of the 6m mtpa plant at Itori in Ogun State, our local capacity will go up to 41m mtpa.”

The project, he added, “is only one of our several successful projects in parts of the country and outside in more than 15 other locations in African countries, in line with our Pan African investment strategy”.

Edo State Governor Adams Governor said his administration has created enabling environments for businesses to strive in the state.

However, impressed at the continuous investments in cement production despite having met local demands, the Federal Government said the gains of backward integration in the cement sector, as championed by the Dangote Group, is saving the nation billions of foreign exchange.

Minister of Solid Mineral Development Dr. Kayode Fayemi and his counterpart in Trade and investments, Dr. Okechukwu Enelamah, said government was pleased with Dangote Cement in ensuring that the nation frees itself from endless importation and becoming net exporter.

This said tallied with the change agenda of the Buhari government to substitute importation with local production and consume only products produced locally.

They said the volatility in the international oil market and the excessive dependent on importation have put pressure on the naira, adding that the government would free the naira from such pressure.

Fayemi said the Federal Government would meet with the 36 governors to simplify access to land by investors in solid minerals.

He said continuous investment in the mining sector would earn the nation $25 billion annually by 2025.

The $1 billion cement plant has the capacity to hire 6,000 new jobs.

The new six million metric tonnes per annum capacity cement plant is coming on the heels of similar arrangements in Itori and Ibeshe, Ogun, with 12 million metric cement in combined capacity.

By this investment, Dangote cement’s production capacity will increase to 41metric tonnes per annum in Nigeria alone.

The Dollar Vs Naira, Can This Be Done?

As annoyingly repetitive as it may seem, we can't get out of this quagmire without addressing the below 'causes' -- even if we devalue the Naira to N1,000 to a Dollar!

1. Check excess liquidity and currency racketeering/fraud (see Henry Boyo's explanation. . . I have posted many stuffs about it previously), while promulgating industry revolutionizing monetary policies.

2. Amend our laws to draw in investors (use propaganda if need be).

3. Amend power generation and transmission laws to attract investors in that sector . . . do everything possible on earth and beyond to achieve at the least, 15 hours stable power supply averagely (this would catalyze industrial revolution, while reducing demand for refined pet. products).

4. Refineries -- we need all four gov't refineries, and tens of modular ones running since last decade -- until we stop the importation of refined petroleum products that eats up, up to 30-40% of our Forex, we are going no where!
We were bringing in hundreds of millions of dollars in the early 90s from refined products exports, right now, we should have colonized West Africa with NNPC products everywhere (refined products have no OPEC cap)!

5. Encourage exports, and local content.

Re: Senator Bruce: As much as I admire his vigor and enthusiasm about the whole 'buyNaija' awareness, it's just a fraction in the scheme of things!

While importing palm oil from the same Malaysia we introduced palm oil to, importing eggs from South Africa we fought and paid to liberate, importing rice from a politically unstable Thailand, or toothpicks from hell are all 'weirdos', they account for far less than what
importation of refined petroleum products cost us; then we have the importation of aircrafts and parts and servicing which costs us hundreds of millions of dollars annually -- but Bruce believes it's about our average $20-$50 shoes or bags, $100 phones, or what-not (roughly 10-20 percent of our forex demand), or about our cheap $5,000 cars which by the way generates income for customs when they 'land', while gov't and it's officials are actually the ones bringing the forex gulping machines (probably without paying custom duties).
NBS just released a report indicating between January 2010 - September 2015, we spent over N20 trillion (roughly $130 BILLION . . . 2014 dollar) on just importation of PMS, AGO, and DPK alone!
Same refined products we mine from our backyards, same refined products we were net exporters of (raking in millions of dollars from), 25 years ago! If this is not madness, what is?

Re: Ifeanyi Ubah: Though he is yet to disclose his so called "secret" or magic wand (but I guess it is: probably supporting the country's fuel import-consumption . . . probably for some while).
My own idea of bringing the dollar exchange rate to below N200 in say 3 months would be namely:

Stop the importation of refined products now and find alternative to how we survive without it -- it gulps 40% of our forex!

Crazy, right? However, we probably can (everyone's contribution and criticism would be helpful here), if the gov't is serious about it, and if it can carry the people along especially with the budding awareness of the demise of our economy.

1. Get the NNPC, special task forces, Armed forces, and the people on board as regards protecting the pipelines.

2. Get NNPC to make sure the refineries do not slouch again, rather, increasing in production.

3. Get the few trains we have working, and create an awareness on conserving fuel.

4. Provide very affordable mass transit buses, while encouraging car owners to shed usage, or re-introduce something similar to our old 'odd number/even number system' for cars that should have access to the road on particular days.

5. Provide gas, give free/cheap cylinders to boot if necessary.

6. Power: without fairly stable power supply it will be a difficult one. Fairly stable power reduces the need for PMS and AGO, reduces importation of generators and alternative power equipment.

7. Checkmate cross-border fuel smuggling.

8. Modular refineries: they can be imported and made operational in months.

9. Sell off some portion of gov't assets to foreign investors. #ppp

Additionals:

10. Encourage Nigerians overseas to invest back home.

11. Recover all debts, 'stolens', and 'accruables'.

12. Reduce gov't recurrent expenditure and buying local for all gov't purposes if available -- starting with them senator's cars, and presidential budget and travels.

13. Consider changing currency colors.

14. Agric exports.





If we can do all the above (sounds crazy though . . . desperate situation calls for desperate measures), our refined fuel consumption rate should drop to 'near' what NNPC can support, or at worst, greatly reduce importation of refined fuel by more than 60%. Then we "buynaija"; the Naira will firm up, and the CBN can probably tweak the exchange rate to gain say N2-N4/$, which will indicate a direction of positive purpose, causing the BM, hoarders, and racketeers to panic-sell their dollars, while the CBN tries its best to enforce and enhance/support a strict range for bank rates.

Devaluation in our case', is a symptomatic approach to a systematic malady: underlying causes won't be cured!
It's like taking paracetamol as a curative for stage 4 cancer -- it 'probably' might make your pain dissipate (very likely it won't), but just for a very little while.

*Everyone's contribution and criticism would be helpful here.

Nigerians Do Not Need Visas To Get Into Ghana - Ghana's Foreign Affairs Minister

Earlier today, a piece of information made the rounds claiming that from July of this year, Nigerians would need a Visa to get into Ghana.

The Current Minister for Foreign Affairs in Ghana, Hanna Tetteh has come out to debunk the story. Earlier quotes attributed to the Ghanaian President made the rounds. It was alleged that he said:

With effect from July this year, we will be allowing citizens of AU Member States to enter our country and obtain visas on arrival with the option to stay for up to thirty days and experience what our country has to offer,”

“This measure, with time, should stimulate air travel, trade, investment and tourism.”

Mrs. Tetteh on her Twitter account has said this is a misinterpretation and that Nigerians won’t need visas in line with ECOWAS’ provision.

Dangote: Is Firms Upcoming Refinery A Solution To Fuel Crisis?

Mansur Ahmed, Executive Director, Stakeholder Management and Corporate Communications, Dangote Group have stated that soon Nigeria will transform from an oil importing country to an exporting one.

He stated that Dangote was building the largest single refinery in the world and that the firm plans to produce petrochemical products.

“That plant itself is the largest single refinery plant anywhere in the world. In addition to the refinery, we are also going to produce some petrochemical products from the same complex. These are polyethylene and polypropylene,” Ahmed told journalists in Abuja.

“One would prefer if it was deregulated so that we know that we are playing in the open market. The key issue is that if I buy crude, whether from Nigeria or anywhere else, I buy at an international price. If I produce a product and want to sell, I should sell that product at an international price.

“So, I will not be affected by the decision of local pricing; it is on that concept that we went into refining. We expect that we will buy our input, especially crude, for international market price, and that when we produce products, we will sell those products at international prices.

“The refining industry is a global industry; if you use those international benchmarks, you shouldn’t really worry about the price. It is about time Nigeria completely deregulated the downstream industry. The kind of reason that has compelled the government to fix petroleum product prices has not been tenable.”

US To Press Nigeria To Devalue Naira - Reuters

The United States said on Monday it will press Nigeria in talks this week to adopt a more flexible foreign exchange rate to boost growth and investment in Africa’s largest economy.

U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Africa, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, told an audience at the U.S. Institute of Peace that Nigeria should ensure the value of the naira currency versus the U.S. dollar was “more realistic.”

“While most people complain about the possibility of there being a devaluation, people are already operating on a devalued currency, and the only people who are not, are people who are doing it officially,” Thomas-Greenfield said.

“Our recommendation is, and we will have discussions about it … that they should look at the exchange rate and try to make the exchange rate more realistic to what the value of the naira is to the dollar,” she added.

She spoke ahead of talks in Washington on Thursday involving officials from the State Department, Pentagon and Treasury and their counterparts in the Nigerian government.

Nigeria faces its worst economic crisis in decades as the falling price of oil has slashed revenues, prompting the central bank to peg the currency and introduce curbs to protect foreign exchange reserves, which have fallen to an 11-year low.

Some members of Nigeria’s central bank monetary policy committee have said the naira should be devalued. However, President Muhammadu Buhari has said devaluation will not bring any benefit whatsoever to the Nigerian economy.

Thomas-Greenfield said the parallel currency market in Nigeria was “alive and well,” warning that a rigid exchange rate, capital controls and import bans could undermine President Muhammadu Buhari’s efforts to expand economic growth and fight corruption.

“Capital controls that limit access to foreign exchange rewards insiders and undermines the stated goals of Nigeria to increase domestic production because both Nigerian and expat investors alike tell us many businesses are unable to obtain the capital to purchase badly needed intermediate goods,” she said.

The naira trades some 40 percent below the official rate on the black market versus the dollar. The central bank last year pegged the exchange rate to curb speculative demand for the dollar and conserve foreign exchange reserves after it restricted access to hard currency for imports of certain items, frustrating businesses.

The International Monetary Fund last month called on Nigeria to lift the curbs and let the naira reflect market forces more closely, as the restrictions have significantly affected the private sector.

Dangote Group Sponsors Nigerians To India To Understudy Refinery Operations

President of Dangote Group and Africa’s richest man, is sending about 800 Nigerians to India, to learn the operations of a petrochemical refinery.

A source in the multi-billion naira company, Dangote Group, has exclusively confirmed to TheCable on Friday that billionaire business mogul and Africa’s richest man, Alhaji Aliko Dangote, is sending about 800 Nigerians to India, to learn the operations of a petrochemical refinery, adding that the first batch to be trained will leave for India on Sunday, March 20, 2016.

It was learnt that the 800 Nigerians will travel to the Asian country over the next 24 months in a batch of fifties, to learn from the nation with the largest refinery in the world.

India is home to the world’s largest refinery, Jamnagar Refinery Reliance Industries, Jamnagar, which refines as much as 1.2 million barrels per day.

“About 800 will be trained in batches within 24 months. The first batch of 50 is leaving for India on Sunday,” the source said.

Dangote is looking to creating employment within the Nigerian economy, rather than importing expatriates to run the first private refinery in Nigeria.

The refinery, projected to worth $9 billion, is being built to have a refining capacity of about 500,000 to 650,000 barrels per day.

“After receiving a private licence to build a refinery, Dangote has commenced the building of a 650,000 barrel per day (BPD) petroleum refinery, which will be the single largest in the world.

“The refinery would have a larger capacity than all of Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) refineries put together,” the conglomerate said in a statement more than a year ago.

Dangote, who hosted Godwin Emefiele, governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), at the site of the refinery in January, assured Nigerians that the refinery would be ready to meet the nation’s need by 2018.

Thursday Rates: Naira Falls Against Dollar In Black Market

At a time when Nigerians are yet to come to terms with the prevailing fuel scarcity and epileptic power supply in the country, the country’s currency has refused to give the populace any reason to smile. Instead, the uncertainties surrounding the exchange rate of the naira against the dollar has kept up with its inconsistency. 

Earlier in the day, there had been reports about Nigeria’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) declining to 2.11%, an all-time low since the return to democracy in the giant west African country. As at 3.00pm on Thursday, March 10, Naij's Bureau De Change (BDC) sources informed that the fluctuation in prices of the foreign exchange fell on the negative side as the naira fell against the dollar. One of our sources informed that the new exchange rate now stands at N322 and are pessimistic about any improvement in the coming days. “With the way things are in the country presently, there is no possibility that the naira will fare better in the coming days because the price suddenly rose in a few hours. “It stays at N322/dollar right now. Hopefully, things will get better in the next few days, but the hardship in the country right now is killing,” our BDC source disclosed.

Source: Naij.com

Exchange rate as of today Feb 23rd

It was N378 to $1 yesterday February 22nd. Its N367 to $1 as of this morning. Photo credit: Instagram @TheGuardian

Today, our country has the fastest growing economy in Africa & the world - Buhari

President Buhari says Nigeria presently has the fastest growing economy in Africa and the world. Buhari said this at the public presentation of a book, ‘Nigerian Century’ written by Dare Babarinsa at Shehu Musa Yar’Adua Centre, Abuja, yesterday February 18th.

His speech was read by former governor of Ekiti State and deputy chairman of All Progressives Congress in the South, Segun Oni who represented him at the occasion.

 "Yes, our land is blessed by providence with riches in oil and gas, iron ore, gold, limestone and almost all the minerals of this earth. Our soil can grow almost any crop and our vegetation supports animal life as varied as creation can manifest. Our rivers and coast lines are rich with fishes and various kinds of life. Yet, despite these bounties from nature, I have no doubt that the greatest blessings of Nigeria are the people of Nigeria, the wonderful people that give expression to the grandeur and majesty of our beloved country. Today, our country has the fastest growing economy in Africa and one of the fastest in the world. Our dominance is not so much because of our wealth, but because of the tremendous energy and resourcefulness of our people. How many countries of the world can parade the likes of Professor Wole Soyinka, Jay Jay Okocha, King Sunny Ade and Alhaji Aliko Dangote literally under the same roof?”he said

Exchange rate as of today

Above is the exchange rates as of today February 18th. Yesterday it was 348...today it's 358! Wow! Photo credit: Intagram @The Guardian

Now that the dollar is ridiculously high...Freeze may have made a good investment with all them watches

He has so many expensive watches...now that the dollar is so high, he can sell these watches for almost twice as much as he bought them. Read the rest of what he wrote after the cut...

"especially with the recklessness of the last regime, coupled with their absolute lack of foresight. Global oil prices were falling, alternative energy was a major issue as every automaker was cutting down engine size and adding a turbo or making their engines hybrid thus demand for oil was dwindling and all of a sudden the US discovered a clever way to produce oil. Most people didn't have my foresight so they didn't share my school of thought..... Well they say most people don't see the big picture. It's tempting to laugh at them for the way I was mercilessly crucified.....But I won't... I won't give myself unmerited credit for being a financial genius as I only expected to guard the value of my investment in a dwindling economy, so this is a windfall beyond my wildest expectations. In Genesis 26:12 Isaac sowed and reaped a hundredfold in a time of famine. But unlike the biblical Isaac, I don't want a testimony while millions starve. I want my Nigeria back. Back to its original glory of being a land of milk and honey. And for the moral of the story, I would leave Chris Brown to say it with a song: "Please don't judge me, so I won't judge you........"