Post #1934

🇳🇬Nigeria has been admitted as a “partner country” of the BRICS bloc of developing economies. What are the benefits? Nigeria becomes the ninth BRICS partner country, joining Belarus, Bolivia, Cuba, Kazakhstan, Malaysia, Thailand, Uganda, and Uzbekistan. BRICS was formed by Brazil, Russia, India and China in 2009, with South Africa added in 2010, as a counterweight to the Group of Seven leading industrialized nations. What does Nigeria add to BRICS? TLDR: A lot!!! ✅ Nigeria is the largest population in Africa, and the 6th largest in the world ✅ Nigeria is the second largest oil and gas producer in Africa (after Angola), and the 10th in the world. ✅ Nigeria is a member of OPEC+ and helps to regulate global oil prices. ✅ Nigeria had been the world's lead exporter of cocoa and a globally significant exporter of rubber, groundnuts and cotton before the petroleum boom. This can still be upscaled. ✅ Nigeria adds about 1.5 trillion dollars of GDP PPP to the world economy. It currently holds 27th position in the world even though much of this wealth is not yet felt by Nigerians. How can BRICS help Nigeria? 📌 Eliminate corruption. By increasing the pool of creditors/partners, Nigeria is unlikely to be held hostage to the demands of any predatory creditor or behemoth. According to the World Bank, most of Nigeria's oil wealth gets siphoned off by 1% of the population. The same complaining world bank, approves loans to Nigeria that it either cannot pay or does not properly utilise. The loans are mostly either mismanaged/stolen, or spent on recurrent rather than capital expenditure. According to Junger, S. (2007) in Blood Oil, Corruption in the government is rampant: since 1960 it is estimated that 300 to 400 billion dollars has been stolen by corrupt government officials. 📌 Balance National interests. It is not in Nigeria's interest to lean exclusively to any particular geopolitical power. Nigeria has a long way to improve partnership with everyone outside of previous colonialists or commonwealth. It needs to significantly improve and deepen cooperation with Russia, China, Brazil, India, and even other Africa states outside of ECOWAS. 📌 Increase Foreign Direct Investments (FDI) particularly in Infrastructure and Agriculture, and especially in the form of equity rather than debt. 📌 Solve the anaemic energy sector. Investment in power generation, transmission and distribution will improve the lives of Nigerians and supports Businesses in the country. 📌 Solve the anaemic transport sector. Investment in roads, railways, bridges, etc will improve the lives of Nigerians and support businesses in the country. 📌 Improve the educational sector. Investment in public educational institutions especially the much-neglected kindergarten, primary & secondary schools in rural areas. Payment of salaries of educators, and provision of boards, chairs, desks, textbooks, information and communication technology (ICT) devices will go a long way to improve our factors of production especially in the area of human capital development and availability of skilled labour. 👏 We should all welcome the development and work towards effectively utilising this golden opportunity 🥇. ✍️ Dr. Godwin E. Ibe Chairman, NIDO Russia 🇳🇬🇷🇺 https://t.me/nido_russia/1934 #brics#nigeria#russia#godwinibe#nidorussia