In the recently released Q3 2020 debt report by the National Bureau of Statistics, the total public debt was N32.22trn as of 30 September 2020, with local debt making up 62.18% of the total public debt in the period while external debt made up 37.82%.

This is similar to the country’s debt structure in the same period of 2019 when domestic debt made up 68.45% of total public debt and external debt made up 31.55%. Whilst debt to GDP ratio remains within the acceptable threshold, we are increasingly concerned about the nation’s ballooning debt service to revenue ratio.

READ: U.S. budget suffers a deficit of $3.1 trillion in 2020, as pandemic slams the economy

Recall that the Federal Government of Nigeria following a series of revisions to the 2020 appropriation bill arrived at a fiscal deficit of N4.98trn. Based on the finance ministry data, an aggregation of debt monetization (N2.86trn) and New borrowings (N3.28trn) was used to finance the deficit.

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The 2021 appropriation bill forecasts a budget deficit of N5.60tn which would be financed mainly by borrowings of N4.69tn, privatization proceeds of N205.15bn and project linked bilateral & multilateral loans of N709.69bn. The country’s financing structure is of concern when one considers that the budget is tilted more towards recurrent expenditure than capital expenditure and raises questions on the sustainability of the current fiscal practices.

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The significantly higher recurrent component of the budget continues to drag the country’s economic growth, resulting in poor infrastructural development. Spending more on capital projects can promote industrialization, improve local purchasing power and help the federal government’s diversification drive.

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Nigeria continues to face issues of poor revenue generation and lack of will to efficiently manage its expenditure. No significant cuts have been made to its overheads and statutory spending has continued to rise. Nigeria’s growing debt stock with little to show for it in terms of capital expenditure remains a major concern.

READ: Nigeria’s total public debt stock increased by N2.381 trillion in 3 months

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Africa has been called a lot of names – dark continent, the savage, the continent of Safaris, third world, emerging market continent and more recently, Sh**hole, but it is hardly called the Continent of Youths.

It is not a secret that the youths are the future of the African continent. They are already emerging and will be the next thought leaders, creators and innovators that will help galvanize the African continent to greater heights.

According to the United Nations in 2015, Africa has 226 million youth aged 15-24 and one-fifth of the world’s youth population. This means that one out of every five youth on earth is from Africa. The African Youth population is forecasted to grow by 42% by 2030. There should be a new focus on the youth in Africa, as we examine how much they contribute currently to the continent.

One area where youth are thriving well in Africa is in the tech sector. The sector has become an interesting source of Foreign Direct Investments and in 2019 accounted for close to half a billion-dollar raked into the continent. In 2020, – the Paystack/Stripes deal brought in about 200 million dollars. The growth of technology has created an opportunity for several African youths to come up with new innovations, which are even more helpful in the current fledging economic and social climate affected by the pandemic.

There are several examples of many African youths using technology to start new ventures. Mike Endale, an Ethiopian American based in Washington, D.C, who is the principal at BLEN Corp, an information technology firm that leads the Ethiopia COVID-19 Emergency Tech Volunteer Task Team and assists Ethiopia’s Ministry of Health. During the pandemic, they have recruited over 1,700 software engineers and have even created an Africa COVID-19 response toolkit.

Temie Giwa-Tubosun, the founder of LifeBank in Nigeria, is another African youth making strides in the tech scene. Since its establishment in 2016, it helps to deliver 22,830 units of blood, according to Next Billion, to hospitals in Nigeria, which help connect donors to blood banks. Next Billion also stated that LifeBank conducts drive through COVID-19 testing and supply oxygen to health centers. The Lifebank recently expanded in East Africa. In December 20280, the US- Africa Business Center of the US Chamber in conjunction with the American Business Council Nigeria in recognition of the great impact of start-ups in the wake of the Pandemic, inaugurated a digital entrepreneurship competition.

African youths are also thriving in the entertainment sector, particularly in the music business.  The Afrobeats genre continues to rule the music world and the likes of Burna Boy, Davido, Mr. Eazi and Omah Lay, who are still in their 20’s, spearhead and remain the face of the genre. The international recognition of Afrobeats has given artists more visibility on the global forefront. This was the case for Davido, Mr. Eazi and Tiwa Savage, who were featured on the cover of the Billboard magazine. Music remains of significant importance and the youths are a big factor to the success of the industry.

In Nigeria, the music revenue grew from $26 million in 2014 to $34 million dollars in 2018, according to Statista. The music revenue in Nigeria is expected to increase to $44 million by 2023 as reported by Statista.

Africa’s youth are also flying high in the area of sports, particularly in soccer. Wilfred Ndidi and Kelechi Ihenacho of Nigeria (both players at Leicester City in the English Premier League) come to mind. Also, Percy Tau, a South African soccer player, who was with R.S.C Anderlecht in Belgium, will now be returning to his parent club, Brighton & Hove Albion in the premier league. Tau plays in a forward position and he is expected to make his debut for the seagulls (Brighton & Hove Albion) in the 2020-21 season of the premier league.

Lastly, youths in Africa have also been influential on the activism forefront, especially in the last couple of years. This was evident in October of 2020, when several Nigerian youths took to the streets to fight against police brutality in the End SARS protests. In Uganda, Musicians like Bobi Wine’s foray into Politics first as a parliamentarian and presidential candidate is attracting more youth to get into politics.

Other youths like Christelle Kwizera, founder of Water Access Rwanda, have been involved in helping communities with access to water. According to Global Citizen, Kwizera’s plan is to eradicate water scarcity and to provide clean water for people in local communities. Currently, her organization has supplied 70,000 people in Rwanda with clean water. Kwizera’s efforts earned her the Cisco Youth Leadership Award at the 2020 Global Citizen Prize.

African youths definitely have a lot to offer in several sectors and this would be vital to the growth of the continent. African governments need to understand this and invest meaningfully and in a sustainable way on the youth population to reduce the migration drain.

The enthusiasm, the work rate, and efforts are why the current children of Africa have an opportunity to be wonderful leaders of tomorrow. With the right nurturing environment in place, Africa’s future is in safe hands.

Written by Paul Olele

Nigeria’s downstream oil and gas players are in the midst of one of the lowest revenue declines in their history of operations. In an industry used to the highs and lows of economic and commodity price cycles, 2020 poses one of the greatest challenges to oil and gas companies.

Total Plc, 11 Plc, MRS, Ardova and Conoil are some of the major downstream players (all quoted) that have suffered revenue declines and margin drops in one of the worst years in modern history.

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• Conoil Plc, one of the major downstream players reported its 2020 9 months results revealing revenue declined 21.84% YoY t0 N88.1 billion.
• 11Plc, another major player in the sector, also saw its topline revenues plummet from N141.5 billion in the first 9 months of 2019 to N114.7 billion in the corresponding period in 2020.
• Total Nigeria Plc, one of the largest players in the downstream sector also recorded declining revenues. In 2019 it reported total sales of N181.6 billion compared to N117.3 billion in 2019. The 35% drop was the largest of the lot.
• The only outlier of the lot was Ardova Petroleum which somehow managed to record revenue growth with 2020 9 months revenue rising to N116 billion compared to N110.7 billion same period the year before.

READ: Nigeria’s 5,000 BPD refinery will produce 271 million liters of petrol every year

In general, revenues for the major oil and gas downstream players in the country fell by a whopping 21% from N646.8 billion in 2019 (9M) to N514.2 billion in the corresponding period in 2020. What is to blame for these declines? Covid-19!

The Covid-19 pandemic triggered a nationwide lockdown for most of 2020 that has negatively impacted demand for petroleum products across the country. The lockdown has grossly affected volumes for downstream oil and gas companies hitting their margins and profitability.

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Businesses across the country such as manufacturers, airlines, restaurants, schools, the transportation sector and motor vehicle owners have all reduced their demand for fossil fuel.

The downstream sector has also struggled to take advantage of the drop in oil prices as they still need to deal with the multiple devaluation of the naira and being able to gain access to foreign exchange. Their inability to access the forex market leaves them with little choice but to continue to rely on NNPC, the sole importer of petroleum products for their inventories.

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In a recent comment, the Chairman of Depot and Petroleum Products Marketers Association of Nigeria (DAPPMAN), Mrs. Winifred Akpani, lamented that “the inability to source FOREX from the official CBN FOREX window by independent marketers is continually hindering the effectiveness of the principles of DEMAND and SUPPLY market forces to correct the current inefficiencies in the pricing mechanisms adopted in the deregulation process.”

Mrs. Akpani also explained that inability of marketers to source FOREX creates a situation which can be described as “pseudo subsidy” in the market, suggesting that being forced to sell petroleum products at fixed prices means they cannot recover their importation cost, most of which is paid for in US dollars.

READ: FG gives reason oil marketers are not yet importing petrol, stops monthly price fixing

This is further exacerbated by the fact that the federal government regulates pricing irrespective of the unique operating costs of these private oil companies. Also, being the sole importer of petroleum products means the NNPC will likely pass on inefficiencies in managing cost to petroleum marketers, eliminating any chances of efficient pricing that can be obtained from increased competition. The effects of these are low profit margins and ‘never-shifting’ revenue positions, except for exceptional cases.

READ: Has petroleum product deregulation finally come to roost?

Last December, the Federal Government revealed it was ending its subsidy programme, increasing fuel to reflect its market cost. However, it balked after pressure from the labour unions, reducing prices without recourse to sector players.

Despite these challenges, the sector will likely eke out some profits largely due to cost cutting initiatives and income from ancillary businesses. However, dividend payment might be a challenge as it will be advisable for these companies to set aside cash for what could be a pivotal year.

READ: Nigeria to import petroleum products from Niger Republic, sign MoU on transportation, storage

The Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB) will likely be signed into law this year and will produce new investment opportunities for the downstream sector if things go as planned. The government will likely relinquish its hold on the sector and fully deregulate the downstream before the end of the year.

When it does, those with a strong balance sheet will be winners.