Stears Editor's Picks

Hello Stears Community,

Here is your recap of the five?articles that we published recently:

10 shocking charts about the Nigerian economy

Nigeria is hard for everyone right now. From individuals to businesses and even the government, the state of the economy has put us all under pressure. One jarring statistic, in particular, stood out in Monday’s piece: 90 million Nigerians (45% of the population) do not have access to grid electricity. What’s worse, for those connected, about 78% receive less than 12 hours of electricity daily. It’s a bleak picture, but we believe it is important for our readers to have a clear picture of where the Nigerian economy is today so we can get a clearer picture of where it is going. That’s why we kicked off our anniversary week with?10 shocking charts about the Nigerian economy, a sobering but necessary read from our newsroom analysts.

Should Africa be worried about slower VC funding?

We turned our focus toward the African tech ecosystem. In the past, we have established that the tech ecosystem is one of the few bright spots in the Nigerian economy. However, we cannot ignore the severe slowdown in venture funding in developed ecosystems. That makes the debate about whether stakeholders in the African tech ecosystem should be worried about this slowdown in venture funding hitting our shores. Given that we are data geeks, we felt it fitting to answer the question right after the latest funding figures were published, showing that African startups had raised $3.1 billion in the first half of 2022, an 82% growth year-over-year. While this number might put some at ease, there are still growing reports of declining deal activity. So,?Should Africa be worried about slower VC funding??is the perfect article you need to help you settle this debate.

Why does the federal government struggle to meet its revenue targets?

?Next up, we have an article inspired by the recent news story that the Nigerian government is now officially spending more on servicing its debt than it earns. Let that sink in. For every ?1 the government earned in 2022, it spent ?1.20 servicing its debt. Now at?Stears, this development wasn’t too shocking as we have been sounding the alarm on the government’s inability to hit its revenue targets while we have continued to borrow and even surpass our spending targets. To get a clearer picture of the situation, Adesola dug into the fine details that underpin the Federal Government’s budget so we can understand?Why the federal government struggles to meet its revenue targets.

How today’s bad decisions are harming the next generation

As we have already established, Nigeria is in a tough place. One often overlooked threat that undermines any democratic economy is the fact that governments are short-sighted by design. The resulting myopic policies have undesired long-run consequences. This simple argument sits at the heart of our most popular article this week,?How today’s bad decisions are harming the next generation. According to our Knowledge Editor, Tokunbo, the government has not done a great job of managing today’s resources to secure a better future for the country. One key illustration of this is the fuel subsidy, which the government will spend 65% of the amount borrowed in 2022 paying for. That’s a debt that future generations will have to pay. What’s that saying from Hebert Hoover? Older men declare war, but it is the young that must fight and die.

?What's next for Nigeria's looming debt crisis?

To close out the week, we turned to one possible solution that the Nigerian government might want to consider. And so, Gbemisola, our senior development analyst took a look into the future to get a sense of?What’s next for Nigeria’s looming debt crisis. We don’t have many options but in an (inevitable) future where the government’s debt situation worsens, Friday’s article gives us a full breakdown of our different creditors and what choices the future President will have to face to restore the economy’s financial position.

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Fadekemi Abiru

Editor in Chief

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