It has become a general knowledge in recent times that Nigeria runs on a monolithic economy. That is, she survives solely on one source of foreign exchange revenue which is crude oil; making it the 15th highest oil producing country, but since the oil market is beginning to fail the economy, businesses are being affected, jobs are lost, inflation swiftly descends, companies fold up, tax revenues for the government are affected, poverty increases, crime rate increases, insecurity sets in, foreign investors retreat and that’s the reality. Simply because of the country’s cosiness in relying primarily on the petroleum industry. Nigeria as we know it virtually has what it takes to be economically prosperous given to the fact that she’s endowed with various kinds of mineral resources apart from crude oil. Of course, we must give priority to crude oil production, but also, we need to channel revenues towards developing more streams of production and here’s where we need to empower business leaders and rising entrepreneurs on the need to pursue globalization.
According to Investopedia, globalization is simply the spread of products, technology, information, and jobs across national borders and cultures. In economic terms, it describes an interdependence of nations around the globe fostered through free trade.
The wealthiest nations of today understood the concept of globalization. They enhanced their business leaders to shoot for the global stage, where they can get wider consumers and foreign investors and in return gain huge return for the sector and the economy of that country. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) identified four basic aspects of globalization: trade and transactions, capital and investment movements, migration and movement of people and the dissemination of knowledge.
Globalization provides for corporations or business with competitive edge on multiple fronts. They can reduce operating costs by manufacturing abroad, buy raw materials more cheaply because of the reduction or removal of tariffs, and most of all, they gain access to millions of new consumers. The principles of globalization were effectively used since when the mode of transportation advanced from horses to ships and airplanes. The Europeans were very notorious for trading overseas to spread their products, ideas, and know-how in exchange for cheap labour and natural resources. Through this legacies, multi-international companies like Coca-Cola, Nestle, Unilever to the modern technology giants like google and Apple maximizes this principle to dominate the global market.
Although, there have been some notable corporations in Nigeria that have played some major role in the trading sector of the country, and they have done well enough. But still, there’s a need for more entrepreneurs and businesses to partake in the global markets. The recent appointment of Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala as the director general of the world trade organization was a ground-breaking achievement and an opportunity for Africa, especially Nigerian businessmen to be more intentional about being a big player in international trade.
The positive influence globalization can make to Nigeria’s economy cannot be overemphasised enough. It can open opportunities to create wealth through the export-led growth to expand international trades of goods and services to gain access to new ideas, and technologies.
Globalisation promotes the output growth that will increase national income and as a result improves the standard of living of developing country like Nigeria. And since globalization entails trade liberalization, it means that there is free and unrestricted movement of trade, finance, and investment across the international border. Globalization allows Nigeria to export and import goods, capital, and investment without restriction.
Conclusion and recommendation
The concept of globalisation has been recognised since the earliest civilization, and it has kept evolving and benefiting countries around the world that are big players in it. It provides the country with a capacity to create wealth through production and a balanced export led growth.
Recommendation
Nigeria’s only source of income affects the exchange rate and as well affect both state and federal budgets. And it’s evident that the leaders- not only the government, but also the captains of industrials and entrepreneurs need to pull more resources together to focus on local production and reducing the high importation of what we can produce. We also need to stay true to our cultural identity and way of life other than accepting what we don’t understand simply because it’s ‘’western’’
