Nigeria's Oil Crisis - $800 Million Debt

This is so unfortunate for the citizens of both countries mentioned. They have the resource but they don't get to taste the advantage of having such. If only they had the same platforms as the Saudis, they too would be rich and powerful countries.

 

When a debt gets that large, there's not a lot that can be done about it, and the problem will only get worse. It's too much to be written off, but at the same time if there's no way of paying a debt off, maybe some sort of compromise is the only option.

 

Nigeria's problems are far more deep rooted than paying off the debt. There are huge bureaucratic, efficiency and infrastructure issues in the country. And that's not to mention the corruption issue that worsens when any new government comes to power with the patronage that has to come with it.

The fact that Lagos continues to see major power outages on a regular basis says a lot - the country's industrial output levels would be significantly higher if it had a stable grid. But that would require some long-term planning and implementation. And those that benefit from short termism aren't interested in investing in that.

 

It is pretty amazing how corruption can affect the countries with good natural resources such as Southern American countries and few African countries. Countries where corrupt officials are in charge and have power are definitely risky. A lot of third market investors still love to invest in countries with corrupt officials but they have to make sure that those officials do not control as much power over the people compared to Nigerian politicians (like some Southeast Asian countries where the governments are corrupt but at least people and the private sectors are actually the ones in charge).

 

President Buhari indeed has a lot of cleaning up to do and tackling the oil-crisis is one of his tough missions as he starts his rule. Talks between the Nigerian government and distributors have somehow eased the oil shortage but the President still has a long way to go. Not to mention the Boko Haram group who have been terrorizing the country for a long time now.

 

Right and this doesn't bode well for the area as well as Nigeria is a huge power broker and economic hub, if things deteriorate in Euro and spread to Africa this could certainly explode into a lot of violence for the area that's still reeling from the last surge.