By Nigeria is the most populous country in the western African region and presents itself as one of the biggest consumer market in the African continent. Earnings from Crude remain by far, the most important component of the national GDP. Crude Oil accounts for more than 95% of the exports of Nigeria and over 80% of the country’s GDP. These figures would be enough to establish the importance of crude for Nigerian People. Thinking beyond crude often becomes a challenge for the economy and that is why often oil trade markets are crowded by Nigerians sellers. Let us further study and highlight few more points which govern the obsession of crude among Nigerians.
Over-dependence on Oil
As mentioned earlier the revenue generation by the country’s economy is totally dependent on crude oil. According to the US Energy Information Administration, Nigeria world’s eighth leading exporter of oil and 10th most petroleum rich country. Nigeria is also an OPEC (Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries) member, an organization that accounts for almost 80% of world’s total oil reserves.
Lack of other avenues
Nigeria in spite of being an oil rich nation has failed to generate alternative means of revenue generation other than oil. The politics of the country is tangled around oil as well. After decades of obsession with oil the common man also finds it difficult to think beyond oil and wants to find a way of getting involved with this national trade.
Lack of Industrialization
It seems the entire country was so busy and content with crude production that they missed the Industrialization bus. Government is now gradually implementing policies and encouraging Industrialization throughout the country.
Lack of foreign Investment in Non-Oil segments
Overseas investors found Nigeria too hot to invest is non-oil businesses. High level of corruption and lawlessness in the nation were the main reason for this. Although Nigeria presented a good consumer market, the preferred mode of trade remained import and distribution, rather than setting up manufacturing facilities.
All the above factors combined have led to emergence of a situation where avenues in non-oil businesses are very limited in Nigeria. More and more people find it comfortable to be associated with crude oil business rather than doing anything else. Easiest perceived way is to somehow get associated with NNPC and arrange allocation for buyers. Nigeria is has by far more agents or traders of crude oil than anywhere else in the world. That is the reason we able to come across many Nigerian sellers offering crude oil.
