Dear Elon,

I know you co-founded the boring company but I promise not to bore you with pleasantries, I would go straight to the point. I chose to write this letter to you because you are a “rocket science” man and I would be talking a lot about “rocket science” in this letter as it relates to my dear country; Nigeria.

I wish your rocket science was the same definition as ours in my country, I mean you launched Space x project and successfully launched a rocket into space that could be re-used and it took you less than 10 years to figure out how to make it work. That is genius, a feat that must be celebrated, a laudable achievement but as I said earlier in my country that is really no “rocket science”.

Let me attempt to explain rocket science for you; there is a stretch of 129.9 kilometers (79.3 miles) to and from route we call Lagos-Ibadan expressway; the said road has been under repair (please note repairs not construction) since about 1999 and now 20years later it is still under repair, I must re-emphasize that the same repair that started in 1999 wasn’t completed and another one started, no! The road has not been fully repaired for 20 whole years! That’s “Rocket Science!”

Since I am on the issue of roads let me go further, a dear friend of mine Adeteju told me a story about when she was about to start Secondary School (you most likely know it as High School), the then government was beginning construction of a road from Ibadan to Ilorin and vice-versa (164.5km stretch), the then existing road was very narrow, bad and accident prone and her dad was very happy when the construction started saying “thank God this road is being constructed, this would ease your journeys to and from school, make it safer, shorter and less stressful” (Paraphrased), the road till date has not been fully completed, about half stretch of it was completed after a very long time and the stretch at the moment now needs urgent repairs less than a decade after it was constructed.

To put in context, my friend has since completed high school (6 years), completed her first degree (which for the Nigerian factor was for about 7years for a 5years course which is a 3years course in your country) and she also had a year gap between Sec School and joining University), she has completed her 1-year mandatory service and has been actively employed for well over 4 years. That is indeed some “Rocket Science”

Elon I am sure for the SpaceX project, from the start date of the project and company till present date you can give me in specific terms amount spent and also rough estimate of budget and projections of spending for years to come. For the two combined projects I mentioned earlier, well over $10billion has been spent so far with no cap as to what could be further spent, trust me for these two I mentioned, there is at least 1 similar case in the 36 States and Federal Capital Territory. In a nutshell, one of the “rocket science” in my country is road constructions and repairs. The science can be drilled further and we see at the base a distorted, corrupt procurement system.

I promised not to bore you earlier but since you are a huge player in the power sector under Tesla I thought to quickly mention another “science that has defied logic” as much as “space defies gravity” in my country. The rocket science of power generation, transmission and distribution.

For over 20years we have the power plants to generate about 12,500MW of electric power but have been on a maximum cap of 4000MW and we need an estimated 180,000MW of electric power to completely service Nigeria. The fact is that the maximum we ever generated was 5150MW in 1980. We have the resources needed in abundance, we have a lot of gas, we have so much sun that could power states but somehow due to the “complexity of power” and the “rocket science” involved that cannot be solved by “mere mortals” for 20 years we have not been able to “launch into space”. What greater “rocket science” could there be Elon?

Elon, I could go on and on about the impossible science of infrastructure, of the insurmountable health science, the inexhaustible education challenges and so on but I believe you already get the point. We actually need to start discussion on the real rocket science and need to leave the very basic discussion such as roads, power and health as they should be a given to any forward-thinking country. It took Japan 6 days to reconstruct a whole network of roads after the Tsunami, took Indonesia 8 years to journey from disaster to recovery. I would attempt not to even imagine such disasters happening in Nigeria.

I am actually writing to you because in your model I see a journey to recovery, in following closely your “rocket science” journey and experience we could rise from the ashes and build our Nation again. I believe you would say “If Nigeria is really important enough to us then even with the odds not in our favor (which I think they are) we must act”, and like you also say “The first step is to establish that something is possible; then probability would occur”

Elon, thank you so much for your time and listening ears, I would write a follow up letter to my country Nigeria on the “Elon Musk model” we could adopt to be better for it but even as I prepare my case, dot my “I”s and cross my “T”s, I would be glad if you could share an advise or two on things that worked for you and how you would advise we plan and strategize out of this state we are. I really hope this was not boring (pun intended)

P.S: Perhaps we could outsource our road construction to The Boring Company, thankfully then we can use one-third of the budget, and complete the projects in one-eight the duration proposed.

Best Regards,

Kehinde Beyioku

Tomorrow, I will deliver a keynote in an important event – Reliance Enthuse 2021. The organization behind it is a supporter of visions. Yes, when we began Tekedia Mini-MBA, we did not even have all dotted, yet Reliance Infosystems and its CEO Olayemi Popoola sent us more than 40 team members from the company.

I checked the company site, and saw that it has been winning awards from Microsoft, etc, yearly, on digital transformation. Simply, a digital transformer and a maker in this domain, understands the redesign in education and training. Reliance Systems is a high priest in helping companies transform digitally.

I will speak on a topic I have titled, “The Wealth in Digital: Playbook of the Empires of the Future”. It would be an amazing conversation on how digital will power the empires of the future.

More info and sync’ing the webcast in hub.tekedia.com.

Update: We will webcast this speech here – https://hub.tekedia.com/webcast – as noted. Since this will be on a page, you do not need to “friend” anyone to watch it. All you need is to visit the page and watch it.

“Amazon is committed to partner with the Indian government to advance the vision of an Aatmanirbhar Bharat. We have pledged to invest US $1 billion to digitize 10 million small and medium businesses, help Indian businesses sell worldwide thereby enabling US $10B in cumulative exports, and create an additional 1MM jobs by 2025.” said Amit Agarwal, Amazon’s global senior vice president of Amazon India

India is having a moment with technology companies congregating in the Asian country. From Google to Facebook, Qualcomm to Amazon, American big technology companies have invested massively in India. But that did not come by an accident. 

Yes, the Indian government has executed a world-class playbook, and the world has responded: ‘The Indian government calls its campaign to encourage local investment and growth in India-based enterprises, “Aatmanirbhar Bharat,” which translates to “self-reliant India” and has become a cornerstone of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s economic policy since its official introduction last year’.

There is a lesson here for Nigeria: unless you have a clear vision which the world can key into, the help you need will not come. India has Aatmanirbhar Bharat and it has brought the world of technology to the nation, Nigeria should pick that playbook and develop a vision which can be sold locally and internationally. Now is the time.

Amazon Launches First Manufacturing Line in India to Produce Fire TV Devices

India is increasingly becoming a choice destination for American big tech companies. Last year, Google, Facebook, and Qualcomm notably invested in the Asian country as its booming population makes it an attractive market. This year, Amazon is joining the party.

Amazon is opening its first manufacturing line in India in a partnership with Foxconn-owned Cloud Network Technology, an India-based subsidiary of the Taiwanese electronics giant, Amazon announced on Tuesday.

“Tamil Nadu has been an essential partner for Amazon India & we are excited to launch our 1st manufacturing line in Chennai. This contributes directly to the local economy & showcases India’s ability to produce world-class products,” Amazon tweeted on Tuesday.

The partnership is part of an effort to work with the Indian government, which has embarked on a campaign to encourage companies to invest in the Indian economy to avoid roadblocks, like high import taxes to enter and competing in the country’s competitive and fast-growing economy.

The Indian government calls its campaign to encourage local investment and growth in India-based enterprises “Aatmanirbhar Bharat,” which translates to “self-reliant India” and has become a cornerstone of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s economic policy since its official introduction last year.

Ravi Shankar Prasad, the country’s minister for communications, electronics, and information said in a statement: “We welcome Amazon’s decision to set up a manufacturing line in Chennai, as it will enhance domestic production capacities, and create jobs as well.”

According to Amazon, the Chennai line will be capable of producing hundreds of thousands of devices every year, starting with the Fire TV line of streaming devices. The company says it will “continuously evaluate scaling capacity to additional marketplaces/cities depending on the domestic demand.” The announcement comes a year after Amazon said it would begin investing as much as $1 billion in local Indian businesses.

“Amazon is committed to partner with the Indian government to advance the vision of an Aatmanirbhar Bharat,” said Amit Agarwal, Amazon’s global senior vice president of Amazon India, in a statement. “We have pledged to invest US $1 billion to digitize 10 million small and medium businesses, help Indian businesses sell worldwide thereby enabling US $10B in cumulative exports, and create an additional 1MM jobs by 2025.”

Amazon’s heavy investment in India is more evidence of the country’s growing significance as both a prime market for Western consumer electronics and as a manufacturing center that can compete with China and other fast-growing production hubs. It’s also a sign that Modi’s aggressive foreign and economic policymaking is translating to successful infusions of outside investment, as Amazon, it seems, would rather create local jobs and work with established production partners than face potential restrictions on reaching Indian customers.

Since last year, Modi has been pushing an aggressive digital campaign that is aimed at economic development that will help India stand up to China. Mukesh Ambani, India’s richest man has been working on many fronts to keep the digital market’s lion share. In partnership with Silicon Valley’s big names, the Reliance behemoth has set off with a development plan for the digital economy in line with Modi’s vision.

However, India has kept attracting more interest and increasing competition.

In 2020, Amazon announced the ‘Local Shops on Amazon’, a program that helps retailers and local shops be Atmanirbhar, and benefit from selling online.

“We have over 22,000 neighborhood stores registered across the country gathering additional footfalls through their online presence and furthering their earning potential by acting as pickup points, logistics partners, and experience centers for e-commerce,” Amazon said.

Nigeria’s federal government has set the terms for the conversion of its stock of central bank overdrafts into long-term notes in a bid to create transparency around its dependence on that source of funding, Bloomberg reports.

The 10 trillion naira ($25.6 billion) debt will be exchanged for 30-year notes issued to the central bank, Patience Oniha, head of the Debt Management Office said by email. The agreement on timing for the conversion needs to be finalized to get the required approval from the cabinet, at the earliest in the second quarter, Oniha said.

The Nigerian government became dependent on central bank borrowing after oil prices collapsed in 2015. Earnings from crude sales account for about half of government income in Africa’s largest economy. The financing helped plug spending shortfalls as non-oil revenues failed to cover the gap created by lower earnings from crude exports.

The increasing reliance on CBN overdrafts has come with negative consequences, the International Monetary Fund said in a report published last week.

“The financing is costly for the federal government at interest rates of the monetary policy rate plus 300 basis points, and for the CBN, with sterilization done through issuance of open market operation bills,” the IMF said.

The converted debt will be amortized over 30 years starting with a two-year moratorium when the government will not pay anything, Oniha said. The central bank will decide whether the securities will be sold to the public.

Rising Debt

The conversion will add to Nigeria’s debt stock, which stood at 49 trillion naira at the end of last year, according to estimates by the IMF. Public debt, including the central bank overdrafts, as a proportion of gross domestic product rose to 34.4% in 2020 from 29.1% in 2019, IMF data shows. The fund forecasts the debt to GDP ratio will remain largely unchanged until 2023 when it will rise to 35.5% of GDP.

Finance Minister Zainab Ahmed and central bank Governor Godwin Emefiele last year agreed to end CBN overdrafts to the government by 2025 in a letter of intent to the IMF before the release of emergency financing. However, Emefiele rebuffed criticism on the danger of the practice by Fitch Ratings, saying it would be irresponsible not to finance the government when revenues drop.

Money printing in Africa’s most populous nation has increased the excess liquidity in the system, and pressured the naira to be devalued twice, with inflation jumping to a four-year high in January.

There will be strict adherence to the statutory limit of the central bank overdraft to the government going forward, which is 5% of the preceding year’s revenue, Oniha said.

“There is a statutory limit, but it is then a question of if it is being implemented. Let’s clean the books and going forward the intention is to comply,” she said at a meeting with market players last week.

Raised Limit

In a strategy paper released last week, Africa’s biggest crude producer raised the amount it could borrow as a proportion of GDP to 40% from 25% to accommodate its growing debt portfolio and stimulate an economy that is recovering from its second recession in four years.

The government will borrow mainly from domestic markets, while external debt will be raised mainly from multilateral and bilateral lenders, according to the debt office head. The government is seeking to raise the dollar equivalent of 2.3 trillion naira in offshore markets and will consider issuing a Eurobond depending on market conditions.

The government also plans to issue Sukuk and green bonds to finance some projects, Oniha said.