Making Nigeria Great Again Financially -By Kenneth Doghudje

Kenneth Doghudje

In 1997 South Korea faced a serious economic crisis. This necessitated borrowing $ 58 Billion from the IMF to rebuild their economy. The money had strict conditions attached to it: Interest rate hikes, fiscal austerity, and structural reforms.

In fact the national currency took a sudden dive, with companies and banks collapsing under the weight of their debts, and millions of people lost their jobs during the course of the crisis. Does this sound familiar? This is where we are right now.

However what was most remarkable about the Koreans and their situation is that the citizens donated their gold jewellery to be used to pay the debt. The result was impressive. Within months, 227 tonnes of gold were collected, valued at more than $3 billion, according to a report in Hankyoreh newspaper. Voluntary action contributed to enabling Korea to repay its IMF loan ahead of schedule, after just three years.

The Koreans made personal sacrifices and today South Korea is one of the best economies in the world. Nigerians too, have to make some sacrifices if we want a better financial future for our country. While I’m sure no one is asking you to give up your personal valuables here are nine things every citizen should embark on to help make Nigeria great again financially:

Paying your taxes

According to PwC’s Taiwo Oyedele in his article, “Guess how many Nigerians pay tax and how our government spends the money?” there were slightly over ten million registered to pay personal income tax in 2015. The National Bureau of Statistics however puts the Nigerian Labour force at around seventy-seven million at the same time, so only thirteen percent of the working population is in the tax net.

Nigeria collected slightly under N700 billion in taxes in the same period and we can do so much more. Even companies seem to be doing everything to avoid paying the government their due. This can change if individuals who make up these companies decide to start paying. If you really want things to change then you must contribute by paying your taxes promptly and paying the proper sums so our government can have more revenues.

Hold our government more accountable

For too long the governed have been too docile thus allowing those who govern free rein to do and undo with our scarce resources. In fact the twin evils of corruption and mismanagement by the ruling class are some of the reasons we are in this present mess.

We cannot continue to allow the political class to make and implement decisions that pertain to our financial future without our input. Let’s look for positive and beneficial ways to question them regarding how are funds are spent with a view to improving the process. Any government that is not prudent with our resources at all levels will need to be changed at the ballot box.

Diversify your sources of income

One of the reasons for our economic malaise is over dependence on oil. So when oil prices fell we had nothing to fall back on, leading to recession. The need has now arisen for Nigeria and its people to break their dependence on one income stream and embrace multiple streams of income. With this in place you can easily tap from another income stream if one fails without having to make major sacrifices. I urge you to immediately look for ways to diversify right away.

Establish more small businesses

This is a wake-up call to Nigeria’s middle class, who according to the African Development Bank account for  around 23% of the population to establish more small businesses if they can. This is because small enterprises are the back bone of any economy.

Small businesses or SMEs are critical components of growth as they employ more people, do not require a lot of capital, and have good relationships with local consumers. These businesses are flexible, innovative and have low overheads, plus the potential to be large in future. While I sincerely acknowledge the difficulty in managing a business in Nigeria we cannot afford not to create more employment.

Pay your debts

Paying down your debts promptly is one of the keys to recession-proofing your finances, especially if you owe institutions that charge interest. These times require tightening the belt and freeing up as much resources as possible to quickly pay those you owe. Debts only add more stress to an already stressful economic situation with no money and higher levels of unemployment.

This is important when you consider that others’ careers or continued peaceful existence may be threatened if you do not pay what you owe as soon as possible.

Encourage local production where possible

Nigerian consumers have to imbibe a patriotic zeal to creatively seek for local alternatives to certain products and services and patronize them. This is because funds spent on local products continue circulating in our economy, while funds spent on foreign goods end up in foreign hands.

Embrace export initiatives

Our focus must shift from being import dependent to becoming export driven if we want to make Nigeria great again financially. There are many things that the outside world needs that if we export we can acquire much needed foreign exchange that will be repatriated back to Nigeria.

Agricultural products, art, expertise and talent, labour are examples of some of the things we have that are needed in other countries of the world. Some of them may be willing to beat a path to our door for these items. The more we drive exports the more our potential to earn increases. Government has a major role to play in creating an enabling environment.

100% reorientation

A reorienting of our minds and hearts towards building the Nigerian project should be on the cards as well, if we want to make Nigeria great again financially. Right now most people understandably cannot see the positives and prefer to emphasise the negatives. The problem is that the road to progress out of the situation we’re in cannot be revealed to the complainers and naysayers. We have all complained enough, right now it’s time to accept the situation and contribute our own quota to turning things around.

Eliminating Corruption

Don’t take or give bribes, report corrupt officials who do and don’t share in the proceeds of corruption should be the norm in an economy such as ours. Corruption has so destroyed the fabric of our society that if we continue to ignore it we will fail to make giant strides. Imagine if many Nigerians say no to corruption henceforth? There will indeed be a better chance at managing our resources and getting our institutions to work properly which will aid economic growth.

Our focus has been on what individuals can do to turn our financial fortunes around as a nation. I believe that there are many writers who have proffered solutions regarding government’s duties and responsibilities in times like this, but it is extremely important that the people need to get involved in making things happen. If the Nigerian people can work in tandem with their government just like the Koreans did then things can literally turn around in the shortest time possible. This is the time for all hands to be on deck to make Nigerian great again financially.

The seventies were a great time for Nigeria because we were in the middle of an economic boom, where it was said that money was not our problem but how to spend it. I’m seriously looking forward to contributing my own quota to bringing boom times back to Nigeria again. What about you?