HOW NIGERIAN JOBS ARE CREATED AND MAINTAINED IN THAILAND

There are many reasons why Nigerians prefer to consume imported goods and services. Over the years, Government has advocated the consumption of local goods and services in order to improve productivity and create jobs. It has always embarked on fiscal policies such as import embargo, tariffs and duties to discourage importation of producible goods. In fact, Nigeria has been stupid over the years to import goods and services it can easily produce.

Beyond the above measures, we need to analyse the reasons Nigerians buy foreign made goods and services rather than being ‘patriotic’ to buy locally made alternatives. I shall attempt to highlight some of these reasons below.

Number one: Prestige.

Forget it. We like to show off at the least provocation. Even the traders in the market know it, and on approaching any, will make you believe their products are imported. For example, an Aba made shoe will be inscribed as Italian just to make a quick sale. ‘Aba-Made’ is synonymous with inferior quality. The reason for this practice is not farfetched. We indeed produce inferior goods and we must admit it. Until we improve our quality, this perception will not go away and to improve quality, there has to be (1) Conscious Government policy on Vocational and Technical Skills development (not University education alone. ASUU una hear !!!!!) (2) Quality Control which Standard Organisation of Nigeria is responsible for and must wake up. We are tired of their burning of imported inferior goods on television. Na only that one dem sabi !!!!!!

Number Two: Quality.

Nowadays, even if you want a quality building finishing such as POP, neat carpentry works etc, don’t go for a Nigerian, but look for a Benin man (not Benin city o. I mean Benin Republic). They are sought after and often ‘imported’ across the border from Cotonou. We travel all the way to Senegal to design and sew African traditional attires. Kai !!!! What has gone wrong is what I mentioned above: lack of Vocational and Technical Skills in our educational policy. Education is not only ASUU and their seasonal madness of strikes. In fact, in order climes Technical and Vocational skill are emphasised at all levels. Most of the expatriate workers in our oil industry (and others) are actually technicians who know the practical. Not degree and masters carrying engineer who cannot operate a machine.  If the quality of our goods and services are comparable, I bet you that Nigerian will buy not minding if they are Aba-made or imported.

Number Three: Price

Competitive pricing of goods and services is a major factor in our decision to patronise our own. I hear that imported palm oil is cheaper in our markets than local ones. Infrastructural bottlenecks have made Nigerian products expensive in comparison to imported alternatives. All major production inputs such as Water, and electricity are self generated and expensive not to mention access road network for movement of raw material and finished goods as well as Security. The Government must improve on these and stop coercing us to buy Nigerian goods by force!!!!

Another reason is the availability of the goods and services in the market and this is due to low capacity utilization at the factories as well as absence of production capacity in the country due to long years of neglect of the manufacturing sector.

I am about replenishing my store house as the foreign rice in the house has reached such level. I didn’t know about locally made rice when I had need of this product earlier in the year. And kudos to the marketing skills of Dr Adewunmi Adesina (Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development), I became aware of Ebonyi rice and other locally made ‘foreign’ rice in the market. Methinks, Dr Adesina can make a good marketer any day. The deftness with which he advocates his Agricultural Transformation Agenda (ATA) will get one glued to listening to him without blinking. I wish other office holders will stop reading prepared speeches at events as this shows what they are reading is not their original ideas and may not have their input. Some of them can’t even read eloquently (lol).

It is in consideration of the above factors that I stumbled at a locally-made rice at Sahad Stores in Abuja and I am considering buying it instead of imported alternatives at the same shelves. I must confess that I have forgotten the brand name of this rice but my choice based on the above factors is as follows:

Prestige: I am willing to drop my pride when I became aware of our food import bill. According to the Central Bank of Nigeria, Nigeria imports over 1.3 Trillion Naira worth of Wheat, Rice, Sugar and Fish annually and this is growing at 11% annually.  Let’s do this simple mathematics, assuming the labour cost of these items is 20% along the value chain (it could be higher), this translates to N260 Billion Naira and at current minimum wage of N18,000 per month (N216,000 per annum), over 1.2 million jobs are created and maintained (but in Thailand not Nigeria).   

Quality: Frankly, I have not tasted this rice nor seen/heard any testimonies of it but from the packaging, I am willing to take a risk. I am a risk averse person by nature (lol). Judging from our nature of poor packaging, if this rice producer can package this stuff neatly, then I presume the real thing will not be mixed with stones and husk. I hope I will not be disappointed.

Price: this is one of my attractions. The product is going 10% less than its imported alternative on the shelves. With the infrastructural bottle necks analysed above, it’s interesting that this product is coming to the store shelves at this competitive price. But why not, we have the land, and the climate for rice farming so it’s possible. Lower price is not synonymous with lower quality as often posited afterall, the cassava bread I ate today from Next Cash and Carry Stores (along Gwarimpa Road, Abuja Nigeria) is of better quality and at lower cost.

Finally, for the product to become available in a high store like Sahad at the middle of Abuja, I believe it has scaled the availability hurdle.

On the basis of the above, I shall go for this locally produced rice instead of imported rice from Thailand, and hoping that I will not be disappointed at the end.