It appears the Nigerian economy is now indirectly dollarized. From airfare prices to shifting cost of goods based on the exchange rate. I bought a laptop this week and the price shifted over the course of a few days because of the USD-NGN rate. Who are we fooling? When remittances equal 60% of all oil exports, what are we producing? Until an entrepreneur can produce and export from the comfort of their home, without dealing with multiple agencies, extortionist practices and hellish bureaucracy and logistical delays, Nigeria is not ready to overcome its dependence on oil. Even when we have fantastic export potential, like creative industries, instead of focusing on creating markets, we run around building skills & production capacity instead. Think! Until the rails had been built to allow an average software developer earn global wages, only then was there a viable market for training thousands of software developers! What happens when you focus on skill and product first is this - you will train people and then they will enter a market environment that is not commercially viable. What then happens? They leave. And just like in the medical field, we will end up subsidising training costs only for people to take those skills elsewhere, where they can adequately monetize them! And, where there is an enabling environment to live and grow.
When @volitioncap put together a deal to help our Coop become the largest investor in The Black Book, the only way it made sense was because there was a market - @NetflixNaija. People complain that why do filmmakers keep recycling the same A-List stars? The global success of The Black Book is why. Because of what The Black Book has achieved, new markets are now open. Because until you have dozens of big budget Nollywood movies in production at the same all year round,there will be NO PIPELINE for new actors, film villages and the like. All those things will have no viability without sorting out the commercial end of offtaking, sales and distribution.
@subomiplumptre That is the grand plan, train them so they can get jobs abroad. We have a young restive population that is clamouring for change which this government needs to disperse. We have run out of oil so human resource export is next.
@subomiplumptre “Think! Until the rails had been built to allow an average software developer earn global wages, only then was there a viable market for training thousands of software developers!” The part that invalidates everything you said in this episode 😩
@subomiplumptre Well said, we have been focusing a lot on skilling and less focus on the right policies/frameworks, politics/government.