Chiropractor checkup

Infrastructure probably right behind people as the backbone of an economy. Nigeria has pretty good cell phone service as far as I can tell; like most developing countries, cell phones dominate landlines. I use the same operator here (MTN) that I do in SA. I also have an MTN 3G card for my computer. We have a love-hate relationship because it can sometimes be fast (periodic averages of 400 kbps, faster than any landline I’ve had in Nigeria), but it is not dependable. As I am writing this I have no connectivity.

Roads here vary. They are pretty good in Abuja and they are expanding a long stretch of the main road. In Benin there is some paved road, but a lot of packed dirt roads that are washboards in parts and collect small lakes when it rains. I’ve heard that the roads between cities are pretty bad. However, I have yet to be on a full domestic flight, so either a lot of people I haven’t met are driving between cities, or there isn’t a lot of travel.

A store along a Benin City road.  This is a nice store in the sense that it is an actual store, as opposed to a shack.  The guy in front is a motorcycle taxi driver waiting to carry either a passenger or goods.

The power grid is not too good, and I would be interested in an estimated economic impact of its instability. In Benin, power goes out about 6x/day. Everyone has generators, so the power is usually only down for 15-30 seconds. In Abuja the power flickers but I haven’t experienced a full outage; I’m not sure if this is because the power didn’t go off, or if the Sheraton generators caught it and switched over before total power loss. I heard about a guy getting stuck in an elevator, so I know the power does sometimes go totally down.

Nigeria shares some issues of other developing oil-rich countries. Despite having lots of crude production, it must import refined fuels. About a year ago they had so many issues that they had widespread fuel shortages. (Remember that this is even worse when everyone uses liquid fuel for power generation backup.)

Coke bottling plant in Nigeria -- and here it comes in true glass bottles.  Coke's logistics and global marketing never ceases to amaze me.

Comparing SA and Nigeria might not sound good for Nigeria – Nigeria undoubtedly has more problems at the moment: South Africa’s power doesn’t cut off daily, a story of 500 people killed in religious or racial violence would be astounding, corruption is probably lower, and SA is starting way ahead in the infrastructure game. However, hope is the first derivative of condition: it measures expectations of rate of change, not the current situation. On the future expectations side, my small sample of Nigerians I’ve talked with seem more hopeful than my small sample of South Africans I have talked with.

Let that go down as a “hypothesis to investigate,” since I’m not yet qualified to make an observation on this point. I’m interested to see how my thoughts change on this subject after four months in Nigeria and then again after my year in SA.