My Nigerian 10-point catching up plan 2020 to 2030

Ayo Akinfe

(1) Boost generated electricity from the current 7,000MW to South Africa’s 50,000MW

(2) Increase the kilometres of tarred roads from the current 200,000km to South Africa’s 750,000km

(3) Increase the length of our railway network from the current 4,000km to Pakistan’s 8,000km

(4) Increase our literacy rate from the current 60% to Brazil’s 91.7%

(5) Boost steel production from the current zero level to Egypt’s 7m tonnes

(6) Increase sugar production from the current 37,500 tonnes to the 762,000 tonnes of Sudan

(7) Increase rice production from the current 5,000 tonnes to Thailand’s 20,000 tonnes

(8) Boost palm oil production from the current 1m tonnes to Malaysia’s 19m tonnes

(9) Increase natural rubber production from the current 150,000 tonnes to the level of India’s 900,000 tonnes

(10) Increase the ratio of hospital beds from the current 0.5 per 1,000 people to the Turkish level of 2.7 per 1,000 people

We are supposed to be a Mint country made up of Mexico, Indonesia, Nigeria and Turkey and a member of the D8 leading developing eight countries. The D8 is made up of Iran, Indonesia, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Turkey, Malaysia, Egypt and Nigeria, so our standards should always match up. At the moment, we are lagging behind in too many areas.

As you can see, I have not compared Nigeria with any industrial giant like Germany, Japan, France or the UK. I do not think it is too much to ask that we keep up with other developing nations