Maurana limited

30/03/2022

How big is Africa's Shadow Economy?

How big is Africa's shadow economy? According to Schneider, Friedrich, and Dominik H. Enste. 2000 in their report titled "Shadow Economies: Size, Causes, and Consequences" published in the Journal of Economic Literature, 38 (1): 77-114, Africa's economy could be 40% bigger than reported! Using various methods, the report estimates that the "size of the shadow economy in 76 developing, transition, and OECD countries varies from 12 percent of GDP for OECD countries, to 23 percent for transition countries and 39 percent for developing countries. Increasing taxation and social security contributions combined with rising state regulations are driving forces for the increase of the shadow economy, especially in OECD countries. According to some findings, corruption has a positive impact on the size of the shadow economy, and a growing shadow economy has a negative effect on official GDP growth." By these estimates, Africa's GDP estimated by Wikipedia at $2.6 trillion in 2019 was actually about $3.6 trillion in the review year with Nigeria, Africa's biggest economy having GDP of $700 billion rather than the $500 billion currently reported. African governments and development partners must put deliberate policies in place to bring the millions of MSMEs operating undercover into the formal economy. This discussion must be front and center in the decade leading up to 2030 if inclusive development and the SDGs must be achieved.

20/07/2021

07/01/2021

Love him or hate him... What Lord Frederick Lugard wrote of Nigeria 102 years ago rings true today. Hear him and ask: How can we change the narrative?

“Of Nigeria it could be said with equal truth, as it has been said of India by the Industrial Commission, 1916-1918, that ‘she is rich in raw materials and industrial possibilities, but poor in manufacturing accomplishment… Her labour is inefficient, she relies almost entirely on foreign sources for foremen and supervisors, and her educated people have yet to develop a right tradition of industrialism’… It has been a pernicious tradition of West Africa to order everything – doors, window frames and even bricks and tiles from England – As a result, not only has industrial development been arrested , but the materials with which the country abounds have been unexplored”… Sir Frederick D. Lugard, Amalgamation of Northern and Southern Nigeria, and Administration 1912 – 1919, December 1919

23/10/2020

At any given point in history, you will only find a few committed people who put mind, body and soul to building society. Conversely, you can almost randomly pick scores of people who either do nothing, or jeer at the few persons who make the effort.

The labor of a few committed Nigerians over the past 60 years of Nigeria's independence has no doubt been ravished by a 'kleptocratic' leadership class that has not learnt to rise to the occasion at the junction between a consuming past and a beckoning future.

We are in dire need of a few good people who will rise above party politics, ethnic, religious and sectional jingoism; renouncing 'stomach' interest to unify all of Nigeria for the arduous task of nation building.

The time to rebuild the nation from the ashes of its past is now!

22/09/2020

15/09/2020

"Food prices in sub-Saharan Africa are 30% to 40% higher than prices in the rest of the world at comparable levels of GDP per capita" -

Thomas Allen, Sahel and West Africa Club Secretariat (SWAC/OECD) 2018

If you have ever travelled from Lagos, Accra or Nairobi to rural Africa, you will be accustomed to spending less on food in the villages than in any urban market.

In my own case, I plan to buy from the rural farmers market well ahead of any visit and whenever I am inclined to carry on extra luggage! For one, any opportunity to interact with the hardworking people that feed the continent is priceless. It is usually a masterclass on resilience in the face of systemic challenges to small holder farmers across the continent.

From the villages to the cities, households across sub saharan Africa spend at least 55% of their incomes on food by some estimates; and the food is quite expensive!

Imagine for a moment a world where all the bottlenecks faced by the African farmer is removed: inputs are readily available, access to market is established, infrastructure is provided for production, processing and storage, eliminating postharvest losses and the rural farmer has all the social amenities to make for a better life!

That world will have a definite impact on food security across the continent! Until then, the 55% of us who dwell in urban Africa must buckle up for ever higher food prices!

21/08/2020

11/08/2020

25/07/2020

20/07/2020

10/07/2020