The Nation Newspaper

Tag: abysmal

  • Nigeria’s abysmal rankings

    SIR; Last year, the Brookings Institution released a shocking and heart-breaking report putting Nigeria as the poverty headquarters of Africa. The report claimed that the country’s poverty level in Nigeria has overtaken that of India. It is estimated that over 87 million Nigerians are living below the poverty line,

    After the initial denial and lamentations by the government and Nigerians, the country has broken another record: The country is now the sixth miserable country of the world in the ranking model developed by Professor Steve Hanke, an economist based in Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, United States. The misery index assesses the happiness or otherwise of nations based on the sum of unemployment, inflation and bank lending rates, while subtracting percentage changes in real Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per-capita. The higher these indices are, the more miserable citizens of the country in question are likely to be.

    With 87 million of its population living in abject poverty, It did not come to many Nigerians as a surprise when the country received the Hanke’s gift of the year. A visit to rural communities will expose the high level of poverty, misery and hunger. This harsh condition is also being witnessed in our big cities where the inhabitants struggle to eke out a living. In the past three years, there have been reported cases of suicides in the country. This is what has been aptly captured by Hanke. Our universities and other high institutions of learning continued to chunk out hundreds of thousands graduates on yearly basis. Sadly, only a fraction of these graduating students are absorbed in the formal and informal sectors of the economy. No wonder, majority of our youths have taken solace in sports betting. In fact, the high rate of crimes and insecurity in the country could be attributed to the rise of unemployment.

    Some scholars are of the view that the increasing of population in the country might have been the reasons for our miserable condition. They argued that the population is ballooning without adequate and commensurate infrastructures development. I agree with their submission. The problem is compounded by bad governance. After all, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) last week ranked Nigeria as the world’s second bad user of the sovereign wealth funds.

    Our policies makers should fine-tune and tailor policies to reflect the interest of the country. The wide gap in inequality between the haves and have-nots should be immediately bridged. Nigeria has all what it takes to be a happier country.

     

    • Ibrahim Mustapha,  Pambegua, Kaduna State.

  • NAICOM: insurance penetration in Nigeria, others abysmal

    Insurance penetration in Nigeria and other African countries remains abysmally low, Deputy Commissioner for Insurance, Technical, National Insurance Commission (NAICOM), Mr. Sunday Thomas, said at the weekend.

    Thomas, who spoke during Chartered Insurance Institute of Nigeria (CIIN) Business Outlook in Lagos, said the industry, during the third quarter 2018, recorded 22 per cent increase in Gross Premium Income (GPI), year-on-year to N315 billion from N258 billion recorded in the corresponding period of Q3 2017.

    He said the gross claim figure for the period under review increased by 30 per cent to N143 billion from N110 billion in 2017.

    By global standards, Africa’s insurance industry remained relatively underdeveloped, accounting for just under 1.2 per cent at $0.06 trillion of insurance premiums written globally, while Asia is $1.62 trillion, Europe $1.47 trillion and North America $1.46 trillion.

    He said: “Insurance penetration across majority of Africa remains very low; South Africa remains the most dominant with about 16 per cent while other large countries, such as Nigeria, remain drastically underpenetrated

    “Looking ahead, it is expected that global life insurance premium growth will improve over the next few years while advanced markets are expected to grow at a moderate pace, emerging markets are set to outperform, mainly driven by strong growth in China.

    “The global non-life sector is expected to improve, supported by advanced markets due to a solid economic environment, especially in the United States (U.S). In emerging markets, non-life premium growth will remain robust, but slightly lower than in the recent past due to less strong growth in emerging Asia and ongoing soft rates.”

  • ‘Women participation in mining abysmal’

    Experts in the solid minerals sector have decried the low level of women participation in mining. They say women own only two percent of the total number of mining licences available in the country.

    They said a lot of factors have so far militated against female miners in the country ranging from laws and culture.

    Speaking at the maiden meeting of Women in Mining Nigeria (WIMIN) in Abuja, Country Director, Global Rights, Abiodun Baiyewu said although people tell women that they can get into mining, laws and frameworks are decidedly skewed against them.

    She lamented that when the impacts of mining come, they come first to the women that are primary caregivers and their kids, adding that when the benefits come, they come first to the men.

    She said: ““Presently only just tow per cent of licensed miners are women. The reason for these are access to capital, access to land and also when you think of the fact that it is a male dominated sector and women are traditionally pushed out and discriminated against in the sector. If you read the Nigerian Mineral and Mining Resources Act 2007, you will find that it reflects  masculinity traditionally associated with mining; no gender neutrality.

    Also speaking, the President, Women in Mining Nigeria, Hon. Janet Adeyemi, lamented that women have been agitating for inclusion for a long time and are gradually being recognised.

    She said:  “We agitated for so long for women to be accommodated in the sector. Before now, nobody talked about women in mining but if you look at the policies now and recent activities of government, it is now trying to mainstream gender into the sector and women are being accommodated so there’s the need to sensitise and bring stakeholders together so we can forge a common font for that.”

     

     

     

  • Ekiti executive busybody and abysmal IGR

    SIR: Some newspapers recently published a report from the National Bureau of statistics (NBS) and Economic Confidential Magazine identifying 15 financially distressed states in Nigeria. The affected states are those with 2015 Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) below 10% of their Federation Account Allocation (FAA) from June 2015 to May 2016.

    According to the report, states that cannot survive without the monthly allocations from the federal account include 13 states from the North, one from the South-east and one from the South-west.

    It is no surprise that Ekiti State was named as the most distressed state in the South-west with IGR lower than 10% of her monthly allocation. First the governor came to power unprepared and without any campaign manifesto or any clue on what to do. With workers’ salary arrears spiralling to stratosphere, all Governor Fayose has been preoccupied with is an agenda to pull down President Buhari’s government through the most infantile schemes which include a revanchist trip to China with an oversized entourage.

    Now whilst other struggling state governors have remained calm and introspective, Ekiti governor has chosen a rouble rousing trajectory taking EFCC to court at a time he should make effort to prosecute tax evaders and tax avoiders in Ekiti State.

    The legal “res” in the case between the governor and EFCC has been allegedly traced to ONSA’s funds meant for arm’s purchase. Fayose would be paying his team of SANs to stop EFCC from further investigation and allow him to appropriate the very essence of the investigation by pleading some nebulous immunity.

    The governor is not alone in the tragic reversals visited on the state through cluelessness. The state House of Assembly has descended into the arena of untrammelled fatuity holding plenary under the tree.

    The question for the good people of Ekiti haven been shown that the governor is now richer than the whole state is what does the future hold for Ekiti? It is evident that the governor has no further developmental agenda for the state going forward. The rest of governor Fayose’s term is likely to be consumed in the litigation fireworks that would ultimately end at the Supreme Court. Head or tail the people remain the ultimate looser in the four years of irredeemable megalomania.

    • Bukola Ajisola,

    Victoria Island, Lagos.