Hamlet answered Lord Polonius, “Words, Words, Words”. And in “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner” , Coleridge muttered “Water, water everywhere, / Nor any drop to drink”. And the peerless Achebe wrote, “an adult does not sit and watch while the she-goat suffers the pain of childbirth tied to a post”.
Good People, as I read this chart, I can shout “money, money, money” and also remind myself that even though this money is everywhere in Nigeria, many cannot just find it. And then the big one: we need better policy to unlock shared prosperity for ALL in this nation of abundance.
You need to salute MTN Nigeria, it is dancing where it matters most: value capture. Indeed, MTN Nigeria is more profitable than the whole of Airtel operations in Africa. Can you hear me now?
Data from Nairametrics
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MTN serves far more people than Dangote Cement does, yet the latter is raking in uncontrollable profit, on essential commodity? If MTN attempts to increase price of data or even sms, there is always a protest, with the regulator always blocking them. Who regulates price of cement, or is cement also a luxury item? Our sense of injustice seems to be fully embedded.
This is what makes the concept of ‘shared prosperity’ an eternal joke, because shelter is one of the three basic needs of humans, and cement being one of the most essential components in shelter provision, why is the price allowed to float like a sports car? Importation of cement is not allowed, and we produce more than enough cement, and yet the price is up there? Our insensitivity is amazing.
On a curious note, the monies being spent on MTN and Airtel, where were they spent before the advent of GSM here? I hope this brings home what being productive means, do it across sectors/industries, and you see what exponential economic growth looks like.
For now we are being carried by a handful of relatively large companies, their number is not big enough, neither do we even have enough SMEs, so we are still on the ground across board, while few are milking sizable profits.