I have wracked my brains tirelessly over this and Nigeria simply has no choice but to introduce a post-coronavirus tithes-for-power programme

By Ayo Akinfe

(1) Mull over it as much as you want but the fact remains that crude oil prices will not hit $100 a barrel for at least another two years. This puts Nigeria in a perilous position as 95% of government revenue comes from the sale of petroleum products

(2) In the past, Nigeria has got out of such cul-de-sacs by borrowing. We cannot even do that now as virtually every economy on the planet is in recession too

(3) Nigeria was lucky to get a recent $3.4bn loan from the IMF but we should realise that this will be it for now. There are about 70 other developing nations after Brett Wood funds and we were actually given the highest amount of any applicant. The thought of even going back for more is downright cheeky

(4) Whether we like it or not, Nigeria simply has to manufacture her way out of this one. However, to step up manufacturing, you need two key things - steel and electricity

(5) These two products have got to be our two main priorities over the next year, with all our energies devoted expanding production. We have one major problem though, investors are not keen on expanding at the moment, so we have to raise all the capital locally

(6) We need to raise private capital to build power plants, steelworks, electricity distribution companies, machine tool factories, transformer plants, etc if we are to get out of this rut. I do not know of any other sector in Nigeria that has this kind of required liquidity other than the general overseers. I challenge anyone to name me one similar possible source of capital

(7) For starters, our commercial banks charge interest rates of about 25%. There is no way industry can thrive under such conditions, so even if they had the liquidity, industrialists would be advised to look for alternative sources of funding. No matter how hard you search in Nigeria, the only people who can offer large scale funding of investment projects without borrowing from third parties are the pastorprueners

(8) What makes these general overseers uniquely successful and attractive is that if they need to raise an additional $5bn tomorrow, they can do it at the drop of a hat without resorting to borrowing. If they tell their flock that this month’s tithes have been increased to 15% and anyone who pays up will be showered with a special blessing like Jacob, people will be falling over each other to pay. Just call it the Unique Laban Month. Now, what these churches raise so easily is a nightmare for private firms as they have to go through IPOs, get stock exchange clearance, acquire board approval, etc. Do we realise we are sitting on an unprecedented resource here?

(9) Post-coronavirus, I would like to see all our evangelical churches pull their resources together and establish an industrial conglomerate. Call it something like Man of God PLC and make it a major player in heavy industry like say Siemens, Man, Mitsubishi, Daewoo, etc. This conglomerate should become the bellwether of the Nigerian economy

(10) Our problems as a nation are more psychological than anything else. Because we have been spoonfed by the government since independence, we cannot get our heads around the concept of private sector economic initiatives. People chant government, government every day and then in the same breath complain about corruption. Do they not realise that state cronyism breeds corruption? Take it or leave it but if Nigeria wants to industrialise, religious finance is going to have to become the major source of funding. Let us start off with a special tithes-for-electricity programme

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