The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has added milk to the list of items that their importers have been restricted from accessing Forex. It was a decision that did not go down well with many. The development was so unwelcomed especially in the social media that CBN has to issue a statement to clarify and defend its decision.

“For the avoidance of doubt, milk importation is not banned. Indeed, the CBN has no such power. All we do is to restrict sale of forex for the importation of milk from the Nigerian Foreign Exchange.” A statement issued by the Director of Corporate Communications, Isaac Okoroafor, said.

But the Nigerian people did not buy the message, their reaction is that milk is an essential food item that most people can’t do without, restricting access to forex for its importation is tantamount to a ban. A decision that will only increase the chances of malnutrition in a country where poverty reigns supreme.

Although the CBN stated that the decision dated back to 3 years ago, when the policy to encourage backward integration to conserve foreign exchange and create jobs for people were formulated. The policy which has seen some 43 imported items blacklisted on the Nigerian forex was aimed at fostering local production of the imported goods. And there has been provision for soft loans by the Apex Bank to encourage that. It doesn’t matter, people are skeptical about the timing, some saying the CBN is looking for an idea that will justify RUGA.

There are also claims that Nigeria doesn’t have the capacity to produce sufficient milk that will bridge the gap emanating from the restriction. First of all, Nigeria has little of the kind of cattle that produce milk, secondly, the NLTP that will create the enabling environment for milk production has not been implemented yet. Nigeria produces about 600, 000 tonnes of milk yearly, but the consumption rate is at 1.7 million tonnes which leaves a deficit gap of 1.1 million, which importers are filling with over $500 million in forex yearly.

So the conflict of interest that has been created by this policy cannot be ignored, and the alternative to businesses affected is farfetched. A fact that the CBN acknowledged in its statement.

“While we are aware that some of our policies may hurt some business interests, we are thankful to Nigerians for the buy-in and intense interest in the policies of the CBN.”

There have been only a handful of companies who took interest in this policy, the existing ones are struggling due to infrastructural issues. So the issue doesn’t depend on soft loans alone, the enabling environment that will facilitate the success of this policy is lacking, and cannot be provided by the investors who need more than they have for milk production. They include:

• Difficulty in land acquisition.
• Climatic variations – high temperature and irregular rainfall.
• High cost of power generation.
• High cost of processing equipment.
• Limited storage facilities.
• Poor road network.
• Low cost of imported products.

It certainly appears that the CBN focused on the last on the list and decided to eliminate it without giving consideration to other hurdles on the list. A study conducted by PwC on Nigerian Dairy value chain in 2017, noted that Pastoralists account for an estimated 95% of the total dairy output, but only a small percentage (around 15%) of these small farm producer’s milk is collected by formal processors, limiting the amount of milk available for processing.

This is a result of open grazing that has, in most cases kept Pastoralists on their feet. Moving from one place to the other has minimized the collection of milk products by processors, which in turn has resulted in high importation of powder. It has also become cheaper to import powdered products from Australia, India, New Zealand, Ukraine, South America and Europe, due to infrastructural deficiencies in Nigeria.

The report also outlined some steps to be taken to achieve adequate production of milk in Nigeria. One of them is ‘breed improvement’ that has so much to do with the kind of cattle that yield milk, which are not common in Nigeria. The steps outlined by PwC, (which includes addressing the above mentioned concerns) if implemented will take about ten years to yield results. And the Nigeria’s booming population will likely widen the demand gap before then. So the government’s partnership with companies like FrieslandCampina WAMCO and Arla Foods will likely help, but not to the extent of bridging the speedily widening gap.

The culture of banning goods and services as a way to encourage local production has done more than hindered competitive market. It has become a source of sorrow and smuggling without providing the needed alternative.

The recent decision by the CBN to add milk to the list of “No Access” to the Nigerian Foreign Exchange has reasons to give Nigerians concern. The 43 other items on the list have not made convincing difference to win the people’s trust that it’s going to work out fine for everyone. And the over 100 on the list of banned products have not resulted in improved local production to the satisfaction of the needs.

Milk is a daily household food item that its scarcity may result in nutritional deficiencies. Especially, in a time of food crisis when basic meals are luxury. And being a perishable product, the concern that whatever plan the government has to develop a sustainable value chain for milk production will never be attainable without stable power supply. So the focus should have been on facilitation of amenities that will enable local production of milk, not the easy decision to remove it off the list of Nigerian Forex.

There are so many negative comments about Nigerian civil servants that, as one of them, I felt I should make some contributions. I’ve heard that a lot of civil servants are lazy, corrupt, unprofessional and unproductive. I’m not debating these. In fact, to a large extent, these assertions are true. But I don’t think there’s anybody became a government paid worker so he could be unproductive – at least to the best of my knowledge. Please, I’m not here to make excuses for civil servants, I just want to relay what I have observed and felt is wrong with the system so proper adjustments could be made by the government and the workers.

I joined the Nigerian Civil Service after hustling for more than ten years in the private sector. I came in with the same spirit as seen in the private sector and was frustrated with the slow motion in the public sector (even though things are considered fast in the academic sector). It took me time to understand and adjust to the system (though I’m still adjusting). So, I’ll list some of the problems I observed – both as an outsider and as an insider.

a. Low Salary: An average Nigerian civil servant cannot afford good housing, good meal, good education for the children, good means of transportation, and so on. No matter how we look at it, the truth is that it hurts when you, with all your certificates and expertise, cannot afford to live in a decent neighbourhood, rent a good apartment, or even build your own house(despite the National Housing Fund monthly deductions). It hurts when you are going to work in the morning and you have to struggle for keke (commercial tricycle) or bus, while your counterparts in the private sector move around in their cars. It hurts that before your salary comes, it has finished (those in the system will understand). I know that some people in the private sector earn the same thing civil servants do (or even less) and they still work hard and are very productive. Maybe when we look at other factors we will understand better. By the way, civil servants are prohibited from having side hustles. The reason isn’t clear to me because I was just told not to do it (that’s part of the problems we have – information underload).

b. Promotion Scheme: While in the private sector, I realized that promotions and assignment of special duties and positions are based on values added to the company – people are promoted based on their performances and portfolios are assigned based on who can deliver. In Nigerian civil service scheme, people are due for promotion after spending a certain number of years in one level – usually three or four years. Though promotion exam is given (publications and academic qualifications are considered in some), output and impact of workers are not really tested. So, most civil servants are not ready to go the extra mile when they know that it won’t count in their appraisals. So what most do is to relax and wait for when they will get to the top so they can create an impact. What they don’t know is that by the time they continue with the bad habit of not being productive, that habit will not be easy to break when they get there. So, the old story continues.

c. Victimization: This is a part of the civil service no one hears of until they find themselves inside. Generally, civil servants are afraid of doing what may lead to stepping on the toes that belong to the feet of someone that may kick their behind sooner or later. It doesn’t matter who the toe belongs to – whether junior or senior colleague – once the owner has the right “connection” … well, so many things could go wrong. Ways of victimizing people in the civil service range from a missing file (which could deny the worker a lot of things, including promotions), transfer to remote and unsafe area, denial of training, and so many other things. And, unlike in private sector where the victimizer could leave the job voluntarily or involuntarily, the victimizer in civil service will continue this wicked act until retirement or when the victimized was able to get a godfather that could rescue him. Now you understand why some civil servants will tell you, “Please leave me to be collecting my salary. Let them continue. Only God will judge them.”

d. Bottlenecks: The bottleneck in the civil service is the major reason things don’t move fast in the system. Something that would take the private sector an hour to treat will take the public service one month or more to handle. Flow of information isn’t fast in the civil service. You can’t send a document to the top without passing through several offices (even complaints and petitions against junior and senior colleagues). And when the matter has been treated by the director, the document will start crawling back down till it reaches the last office that may have to raise a memo regarding your document. When this memo has finally been raised, it will start crawling around the offices until it finally gets to you. If perchance, the person where the document got to is not available, everything about that matter will be put on hold until the person in charge comes back to attend to it (unless there are formal instructions that someone else should handle it). Hope this also explains why documents sent to MDAs are hard to trace.

e. Undermining Staff Opinions: In private sector, everybody has a voice. Nobody’s opinion is undermined. This is not so in the public sector. In fact, during staff meetings or briefings, unless a junior staff was called upon to explain something, he dare not talk (if not he will be considered not respectful). Even if he gives his suggestions, it will not be considered. Like some will say, “You can’t do that in the civil service. That’s not the way we do it here”. Only the opinions of the management team are important. Now think of the sayings about using the same unworkable solutions to solve the same problems.

Ok, so we have seen a little bit of what Nigerian civil service is like. But the system shouldn’t continue like this, if you ask me. Changes need to be made. I have been toying with some ideas for some time now, I don’t know if they are applicable. Here they are:

a. Nobody should be employed into the civil service unless they have worked in the private sector for a minimum of five years. This is because they will come in with the spirit of the private sector.

b. Promotion of officers should be the same way it is done in the private sector – performance based, not duration based. This method will bring a radical change in the civil service. The civil servants will find different ways of being professionals in their fields. This method is already in use in the academic and health sector but there is still need for improvement.

c. All MDAs should have a working website and the staff members, emails. This way, dissemination of information will be easy. Besides, this will encourage civil servants to be computer literate.

d. Platforms should be created, where civil servants can freely air their views, ideas and opinions towards the system. Presently, civil servants don’t have a voice except when agitating for salary increase (lol).

e. Civil servants should be encouraged to have side hustles so long as it does not affect their primary job. The government should release a list of secondary jobs civil servants should not engage in, which it believes might compromise their main job. If civil servants are allowed to have side hustles, they will create jobs, think like entrepreneurs and will not constantly agitate for salary increase.

There is hope for Nigerian Civil Service if necessary adjustments are made.