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Mathew Page gets it: 'Shameful' Nigeria - a country that doesn't care about inequality
(Guardian) The number of people living in poverty, meanwhile, increased from 69 million in 2004 to 112 million in 2010, despite an average economic growth of more than 7%. In the same period, the number of millionaires in Nigeria increased by 44%. "The overlap between political and economic power in Nigeria is near total," says Page. "Politicians often use businesses to siphon money from state coffers, and many business moguls have grown rich on the back of close relationships with top officials, juicy government contracts, or protectionist policies. Nigeria resembles the United States in this way ‐ but with less transparency and minimal independent scrutiny of what are often conflicts of interest." Emphasis added. In 2014, a report by the former minister of finance, Ngozi Okonjo Iweala, found the Nigerian government had lost approximately 800bn naira (£1.9bn) to tax wavers and concessions to businesses and corporations between 2011 and 2013. The report concluded these wavers led to no measurable benefit for the Nigerian economy. Posted by: Besoeker 2017-07-18 |
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