Why not? Why won’t it be? What does a country that has nothing to lose not underprice you?
The goods are not meant for their markets and local consumption. They could well afford underpricing the fees and tarriffs on imported goods not meant for their narket.
Imagine that import duty on either brand new vehicles or Tokunboh through our seaports is about 10% at the moment, Innoson will never see the light of the day.
We cannot be commending and encouraging a player like Innoson for instance and still be crying for policies that could undermine his efforts.
One of the factors that made Maize farmers suffer losses last year was because some companies got waiver to import them cheaper last year. They imported maize cheap from countries where their farmers were able to source cheaper loans and still got huge subsidies on improved seeds. They can conveniently underprice our farmers.
What should we say about fish? Those who import Tilapia fish get it to Benin Repiblic at about N550 per KG. It costs our local farmer about N800 to produce same quantity at the moment. And guess what? Beninoise do not eat the fish they allow through their own ports. They could allow it into their country through cheap import duty.
I expect the banks to cooperate with many of the CBN policies by directing funds to specific industries. For instance, I asked an executive of a fish farmers association if the government has spent as much as N10bn on aquaculture. His response was in the negative. This ought not to be so.
The CBN has definitely made a lot of policy intervention and fund provision, but they are not trickling down enough and when they do, they are somewhat slow. And the worst bank of it is that many of the banks are not cooperating.
A few people have suggested obtaining banking license, buf we have repeatedly declined, choosing to stick with lending. And our reason is very simple. Many of the MSMEs we have funded would never have qualified or accessed credit with the banks….and none of all the successful abd thriving MSMEs have. There are over 1,000 distinct Microfinance banks with thousands of branches nationwide. As a natter of fact, there would be about 5 microfinance branches per LGA is spread evenly. There are over 150 finance houses. There are about 8 branches of Deposit money banks per LGA is evenly distributed. Why be another face in the crowd?
Many MFBs setup shop with the sole aim of attracting deposits to do business and also also access cheap international grants which never get to the supposed beneficiaries in the real sector.
Ratesetter and Zopa operated for over a decade. In fact about 12 years before taking up digital banking licenses after facilitating Billions of Pounds and Euros in loans for MSMEs across the UK and Europe in a continent and in countries with developed financial systems. These are just two examples.
Our model have courted attention in Germany, Bangladesh and Afghanistan, as KiaKia has consulted for one international development organization focused on the middle east in Germany, and one credit provider in Bangladesh trying use Diaspora funds to stimulate funding of the real sectors.
We need to simply get out of straight jacket thinking radically in this country and learn how to execute with determination and speed.
