Little Mr All-Talk-and-No-Do
Nigerians are starving and FG is lying…or stalling
It’s the most beautiful day of the month, Big Brains. Salary day! Even the sound of the credit alert makes me want to bugee. Go ahead and do a dancey dance. You’ve earned it.
- Margaret
Word count: ~ 1,000
Reading time ~3 mins
Let’s get into today’s edition:
FG ghosts Nigerians after promising to remove taxes on food in July
Tinubu’s economy is turning fintechs into digital lenders
Oil marketers are still hopeful that Dangote refinery is going to make fuel cheaper
The Big Deal
FG ghosts Nigerians after promising to remove taxes on food in July
Another day, another shege. Which of you will take one for the team and remind T-pain that it's Renewed Hope he promised us, not Renewed Shege?
Two months ago, President Bola Tinubu gave the green light for the temporary removal of duty and value-added taxes on basic food items. This was supposed to take effect from July 15 to December 21, 2024. The temporary removal was supposed to do two things – reduce food prices significantly and help Tinubu beat the “tone-deaf” allegations. Well, only the opposite of these two things happened. Food inflation rose to 39.53% in July and Tinubu asked hungry Nigerians to “be patient”.
We’re a few days away from October and the policy still hasn’t taken effect. In case you need someone to blame, it’s all the people in the Federal Ministry of Finance. The experts (and we use this word very loosely) in this industry didn't publish a list of approved importers as the Customs guidelines from August required. They’ve also refused to give Customs a list of importers and companies allowed to temporarily suspend taxes.
Right now, nobody knows when or if this policy will ever take effect.
Why is this a big deal?
If you read yesterday’s edition (Margaret is judging you if you didn’t), you’d know that the World Food Programme recently found out that 31.8 million people in Nigeria can no longer afford to eat. So if there was ever a right time for a policy like this, it is now. The next best time is tomorrow morning.
With fuel prices rising faster than you can spell jack, food prices are going to get even more expensive (logistics and all that). The recent cases of flooding and new flooding predictions are also expected to destroy farmlands and slow down food production. So far, 442,790 hectares of farmland have been destroyed. Do you need more reasons?
You should be familiar with Tinubu’s ways enough to know that he’s not the type to typically stall policies. Actually, it’s his love for controversial policies that got us all in this mess.
One of the first things he did after he got elected was to remove fuel subsidies, raising the price of fuel from about ₦230/litre to ₦617/litre in less than two months. Then he floated the naira, causing the local currency to jump from about ₦400/$ to ₦750/$ in just one week. And very recently, he changed the “Arise O Compatriots” national anthem we’ve used for 46 years to the former national anthem we used under colonial rule and that change took effect almost immediately.
None of those policies have benefited Nigerians yet Tinubu put his back into making sure that they took effect quickly. But the one time he decided to do something for the people, he’s suddenly no longer Mr talk and do. Yeah, he’s never beating those allegations.
Tinubu’s economy is turning fintechs into digital lenders
Whoever coined the adage “One man’s food is another man’s poison” knows what they are talking about. Loan services have become the new “it” products that every fintech is trying to get a piece of.
The number of companies offering loans to Nigerians through digital banking has risen to 320 in September, up from 284 in May.
According to the lenders, loan applications from Nigerians have quadrupled this year! It’s Tinubu maths – the rising cost of living + decreasing purchasing power = loans as a means of survival.
We asked around and we found an expert (we’re keeping him anonymous) who was willing to explain the reason behind the rise in the number of lenders in Nigeria.
“Lending is big business in Nigeria right now. I work with a fintech and we’ve been raking in serious money since we started offering loans. Right now, our loans are our best-selling products. We recently rolled out ‘Back to School’ loans and we got 1,200 applications in barely 8 hours. This isn’t a good thing to say but the economic hardship in the country has a few perks for us.”
Again, one’s man food is really another man’s poison.
Oil marketers are still hopeful that Dangote refinery is going to make fuel cheaper
We don’t want to get your hopes up again but oil marketers seem to think that Dangote Refinery still has the chance to cause a significant drop in fuel prices. We’re not sure where we stand on that because the last time we were of that opinion, fuel went up to ₦950/litre in Lagos and ₦1,150/litre in some parts of the North.
So what are these marketing guys talking about?
Right now, Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation is the sole distributor of Dangote’s fuel but there’s a chance that that could change tomorrow. At least, that’s what oil marketers think. They believe that when they start lifting fuel from Dangote, they can make favourable pricing decisions for the end consumer.
The Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN) spokesman, Chinedu Ukadike said marketers are already in talks with the refinery for a possible direct lifting of petrol.
They might be on to something because they’ve pulled off something similar with Dangote. Dangote partnered with IPMAN when he started producing AGO, diesel and the partnership made prices drop from around ₦1600 to ₦1100.
This Week’s Big Question
“What’s the funniest excuse you’ve used recently to avoid adulting?”
Femi’s response - “I’m 33, I don’t care about making excuses anymore. If I don’t want to do something, who will beat me? ”
You can also share your response here and if it’s as interesting as Femi’s response, we’ll feature it in the next edition.
The Big Picks
Unemployment Rate Increased To 5.3% In Q1’24 – NBS: On Tuesday, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) reported that Nigeria's unemployment rate rose to 5.3% in the first quarter of 2024.
APC Faults Yiaga Africa’s Report On Edo Gov Poll: On Tuesday, the All Progressives Congress (APC) criticized a report from the civil society organization Yiaga Africa regarding the recent governorship election in Edo state.
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