The global economic slowdown has left some mature economies like Greece stricken and more on a par with emerging markets like Nigeria, mainly because of their Achilles Heel of over-leveraged government debts. At last count, Greece owes 242 billion euros to its creditors the IMF and European Central Bank, an amount that the IMF decided is unsustainable just after the country missed a 1.5 billion-euro repayment.As a Eurozone member state, Greece’s economic performance has a direct impact on the value of the euro, which slumped to its lowest point in 2015 against the USD, while declining to 0.00462 from 0.00451 against the naira at the height of the Greek debt crisis in mid-July.Why is this good news for Nigeria-EU trade? In the process of signing a trade agreement with West African countries, the EU has been steadily developing its relations with Nigeria, which is the largest economy in Africa. In the face of some difficulties in trade talks, business has picked up considerably between the two partners, and the EU is gaining market share in Nigeria, which imports millions of euros-worth of goods from the bloc. The EU sells machinery, chemicals, industrial goods and vehicles to Nigerian companies. A fall in the value of the euro means that European goods are more affordable than they used to be, so this could mean an increase in the level of goods ordered from the EU by Nigerian companies.Nigeria exports mainly oil and other commodities like gold and diamonds to the EU, accounting for 80% of West African exports together with Ghana and the Ivory Coast, and this is where the bad news comes in. As the euro declines against the USD and the naira, Nigeria gains buying power, but loses some selling power because the EU may reduce the current level of purchases or imports from the West African country, which will have a knock-on effect on government tax revenues. A lower-valued euro means less buying power for the EU, which sees Nigeria as its top source of oil in West Africa, and the longer the Greek debt crisis drags on, the more damage it will do to the bloc’s exchange rate stability with its trading partners.Emerging markets like Nigeria are coming into an era of opportunities and increased bargaining power in their relations with giant economies like the EU, which is the world’s second largest economic power. With each member state crisis, the euro loses value. There are also some serious underlying economic trends that are concerning, such as disinflation, slow GDP growth, and the challenge to the euro that is posed by vulnerable economies like Italy, or Spain and Portugal, which are only just emerging from their own crises.Back to the good news, with lower oil prices around the globe, maintaining oil imports to the EU may not be such a difficult challenge as originally assumed. This is balanced out by future developments in the level of the USD against the euro, if the US economy continues growing and outpacing its developed rivals, the currency exchange challenge returns to the table.My view is that Nigeria could see the Greek debt crisis as an opportunity to increase its bargaining power with the EU, both in terms of bilateral trade agreements and in terms of increasing its national exports to the bloc.
Monday 27 July 2015
HEALTH CORNER: FACTS ABOUT MENSTURATIONS SOME FIRLS DON'T KNOW
A lot of people think it’s weird to talk about periods, but not us. Menstrual cycles are part of our biology, just like the nervous system or the billions of cells that make up our bodies.Periods has been ignored by the society so much that most girls are left to find out about their bodies on their own. Here are 10 little known facts about menstruation – and the science behind them.1. Menstruating makes you hornierThe hormone progesterone is said to lower a woman’s libido. Yet while menstruating women produce less progesterone, which makes them likelier to crave sex during this phase.2. And less attractive to menA man’s testosterone levels are directly affected by a woman’s scent, which changes during a menstrual cycle.One study where men sniffed the T-shirts of women who were ovulating showed the men’s testosterone levels spike, while testosterone decreased when they sniffed T-shirts of women who weren’t ovulating.Another study showed that strippers make twice as much in tips when they’re ovulating than when they’re on their period.3. In the olden days, girls didn’t used to get their period until around 16 or 17Right now, the age of 12 is an average launching pad for a girl and her period pads. She will continue menstruating until around age 50.In the 1800s, the average girl did not get her first period until well into her teens. It is thought that girls reach puberty earlier these days due to a combination of better nutrition and increased stress.4. Your periods isn’t just bloodYou can tell just by looking – if you cut your finger, the blood appears different from what shows up in your underwear. That’s because what comes out during a period is actually the lining of the uterus, a mixture of blood and tissue.Your body builds up the lining of your uterus each cycle in preparation for potential pregnancy. But if an egg isn’t fertilized by a sperm, the thickened lining of the uterus is shed through the vagina. This is your period.5. Your period can change your voiceOne study published in the journal Ethology claimed that men who listened to recordings of women’s voices were generally able to tell which women were menstruating.One would assume that their tone while menstruating was slightly more menacing than normal.6. You can get pregnant on your periodIt’s unlikely, but still possible, since sperm can stay alive inside the vagina for up to a week. The risk of pregnancy is highest when having sex during the end of one’s menstrual cycle.7. Your body mimics the symptoms of pregnancy in the days leading to your periodIn the days leading up menstruate, your body secretes hormones that cause irritability, feeling bloated, acne, and fluid retention—which are precisely the same symptoms one experiences during pregnancy.8. You think more like a man when you’re menstruatingLowered estrogen levels during menstruation may actually enhance a woman’s “male cognitive skills,” lending a temporary cognitive advantage in areas such as spatial thinking.9. You may bleed form other places than your vaginaIn a very rare and a little scary medical condition known as “vicarious menstruation,” women on their period may also harmlessly bleed from their mouth, ears, lungs, nose, eyes, and skin. It is not known exactly why this happens, only that it does.10. You need body fat in order to menstruateIf your body fat plummets below 8-12%, your period will abruptly cease, if it ever began at all. Fat cells are correlated with a woman’s estrogen levels and are thus necessary in both menstruation and procreation.
WAEC to Withhold Some States Results Over Debts
Hundreds of candidates who sat for the May/June West African Senior School Certificate Examination may not have their results released in the next two weeks, the West African Examinations Council has announced.No fewer than 19 states of the federation owe the council about N4bn examination registration fees.The WAEC Head of National Office, Lagos, Mr. Charles Eguridu, announced this on Monday at a briefing in Lagos.He, however, failed to make public the affected states.Eguridu said, “A total number of 19 states in the country owe the Council in respect of entry fees for state government sponsored candidates for the May/June 2015 WASSCE. Some states also still owe the Council registration fees for the May/June 2014 WASSCE.“We have written to the affected state governments without any response. The poor response of the debtor states is threatening the smooth operations of the Council.“We, therefore, want to publicly plead with the affected states to off-set the registration fees of their candidates as soon as possible, as we cannot guarantee that the results of their candidates for the May/June 2015 will be released along with others.”