Our finance ministry should launch a competition asking every Nigerian to come up with 10 suggestions about how we replace the $30bn we were getting from the sale of crude oil annually. Here are my 10:

Ayo Akinfe

[1] Target a minimum of $20bn from the export of processed agricultural products like chocolate from cocoa, animal feed from cassava, furniture from timber, palm oil derivatives, etc

[2] Woo every car manufacturer to open a production plant where they make at least one component in Nigeria. This job creation will boost income tax and corporation tax intake significantly

[3] I would seek to increase the gross domestic product (GDP)-to-tax ratio to the OECD average of around 34% from the current pathetic 6%. Developing nations have an average figure of 15% but we have to leapfrog that as we have a lot of catching up to do

[4] I would purchase a stake in a major international airline. My plan would be to make Abuja a global aviation hub and the place you fly to is you are going anywhere in Africa. Aviation must become a major cash cow for Nigeria given how we are centrally placed in Africa

[5] As we now know that a nation of 200m people simply cannot survive unless it has health security, I would make the manufacturing of medical equipment a top priority. Hospital beds, ventilators, oxygen tents, scanners, syringes, nebulizers, facemasks, drips, etc, will all be mass produced across Nigeria

[6] In the same vein, every major pharmaceutical producer will be invited to Nigeria to open a factory. If you do not open a plant here, we will not buy your products

[7] I will get Nigeria’s rich clergymen to float a conglomerate that manufactures household goods like fridges, TV sets, laptops, mobile phones, freezers, cookers, washing machines, etc. We will export all these products across the African continent

[8] I will seek to have the world’s largest ship breaker in the Niger Delta. We would then move on to ship building with plans to match the world’s great shipyards like those along the Tyne in northeast England

[9] Every major fashion chain in the world will be invited to open shop in Nigeria. We will ensure that our local tailors and seamstresses supply them with all they need

[10] I will aim to raise at least $5bn a year in the form of an entertainment tax. Nigerians spend too much time partying, which is largely responsible for the poverty of thinking in our society. We have to tax a lot of owambes, thanksgivings, 10-year anniversaries, gala dinners, etc out of existence. Get people thinking rather than partying