Manufacturing’s robust performance in 2014 justifies call for industry-specific incentives

A leap in manufacturing’s contribution to Nigeria’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP), huge investments in cement, sugar and automotive industries, as well as a surge in capacity utilisation within the year are indications that the sector can perform better in 2015 if the Federal Government pays more attention to broad-based, industry- specific incentives, rather than the individual-type motivations, stakeholders say.

“Majority of the members interviewed are of the opinion that once the government continues with broad-based incentives, the possibility of capacity utilisation improving further is high,” says the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN), in its most recent economic review.

“What this translates to in the economic-wide aggregate, is

Education jobs rising amidst concerns over falling standards

The education sector, particularly the private segment, dominated economic activity, generating most of the jobs in Nigeria’s formal sector in the first nine months of the year, but this comes amid widening concerns on the declining standards of learning across the country and the spill-over of poorly skilled manpower in the market place.

The Education and Manufacturing sectors generated the most jobs in both the first and second quarters of 2014, figures from the National Bureau of Statistics show.

Education came first, with 23,643 jobs or 31.10% of the total in Q1, increasing by 5,417 or 22.91% to 29,060 new jobs in the second quarter, 36.90% of the total,

In the third quarter, 21,154 additional jobs were generated in the sector, also showing

World Bank Controls 62% of Nigeria's Public External Debt

Data released by the Debt Management Office (DMO) has revealed that the World Bank Group controls a total of 62 per cent of Nigeria’s public external debt at end-September this year.

Analysis of the data also revealed that the international capital market (ICM), where the federal government raised $1billion Eurobond has 16 per cent.

Others are: bilateral lenders, 12 per cent, African Development Bank (AFDB), 8 per cent and 2 per cent by other lenders.

The quarterly data from the DMO also showed that

Telecommunication sector shows strength

As the country celebrates 54 years of independence Wednesday, and 15 years of uninterrupted democracy, the nation’s telecommunication sector has witnessed a tremendous change and achievements during the democratic period.

The sector is adjudged an indispensable catalyst for the development of all other sectors in the country.

The democratically elected government in 1999 showed keen interest in the full liberalisation of the telecommunication sector.

The licensing of the Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) by the Obasanjo administration saw three firms emerged, ECONET Wireless Nigeria, Mobile Telephone Networks (MTN) Communications and M-Tell Nigeria.

The new GSM licences, which were awarded for a period of

Okonjo-Iweala confident 2014 GDP growth will exceed 6 percent

Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, the Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, says she is confident that growth in 2014 will be around the government’s latest forecast of 6.5 percent after discounting the economic impact of the insurgency waged by Boko Haram.

“We are confident it will be better than 6 percent and about 6.5,”  Okonjo-Iweala said in a Reuters report.

The government’s latest forecast set in the past few days, puts 2014 growth at 6.5 percent, she said, adding that the forecast already discounted the impact from the Boko Haram insurgency.

Okonjo-Iweala said

Rebased Economy: Insurance industry’s contribution to GDP drops by 0.6%

Fola Daniel, the Commissioner For Insurance, National Insurance Commission (NAICOM), on Thursday said the insurance industry’s contribution to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) has drop to 0.6 per cent.insurance

Daniel made the disclosure at the 2014 Insurance Professionals Forum organised by the Chartered Insurance Institute of Nigeria (CIIN) in Abeokuta, Ogun State.

The theme of the forum is “The Insurance Industry: New Trends, New Strategies”

According to Daniel, the the drop in the contribution was as a result of the recent rebasing of Nigerian economy which made it the largest in Africa and the 26th in the world.

The  old based economy, the insurance industry’s contribution to the GDP was 0.7 per cent.

“This, therefore calls for more dynamic strategies to deepen insurance reach among the populace. The industry as a matter of deliberate policy

Italy's economic growth will be 'around zero', says PM Renzi

Italy's Prime Minister has said that Europe's third largest economy will see growth of only "around zero" this year.

Matteo Renzi's forecast is lower than the government's previous prediction and comes as the economy tackles its third recession in a decade.

"I am not optimistic," Mr Renzi said in a pre-recorded interview to be aired later on Tuesday. It is the first time he has put a figure on likely growth.

Lacklustre growth will do little to help the eurozone's own economic woes.

The Italian economy's slowdown over the first half of this year has raised questions over whether Mr Renzi can meet his promise to cut spending, while also boosting growth and halting the rise in unemployment.

He came to power in February on a programme of tackling red tape and

Manufacturing GDP to grow on back of auto industry investment

The proposed investments in assembly operations by Peugeot Automobiles of Nigeria (PAN), Innoson Vehicle Manufacturers, VON Nigeria, among other automobile dealerships in Nigeria, are expected to push up the manufacturing sector’s contribution to the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP), BusinessDay has learnt.

The implication of this is that motor vehicles and assembly’s current contribution of 0.8 percent to the manufacturing sector will increase significantly, going by the volume of ongoing and proposed investments in the sub-sector.

Consequently, the manufacturing sector’s current GDP contribution of 9 percent, which represents about $46 billion of Nigeria’s $510 billion GDP, is also expected to increase considerably.

Low investment, poor maintenance fingered for infrastructure poverty in Nigeria

Cumulative low investment and poor maintenance of national social and economic infrastructure over the years are responsible for the deficit in urban infrastructure estimated to run into trillions of naira, experts have said.

The experts add that rapid urbanisation, urban sprawl and poor governance traits, such as lack of transparency and accountability as well as massive corruption have deprived the country’s urban areas of the much needed hard and soft infrastructure, noting that this has

UN advocates safety nets for informal sector

The United Nations, UN has advised  Nigeria to pay more attention to the informal sector of the economy. It said if well developed, the sector would make unprecedented impact on the economic development of the country.

The Economy Resident Coordinator/Representative of UNDP, Mr Daouda Toure, stated this at the validation meeting for the report on ‘Informal Sector and Economic Development in Nigeria held in Abuja.

Toure said