In July 2016, the Minister of Finance, Kemi Adeosun announced that Nigeria’s economy was technically in a recession. Nigeria’s GDP contracted by 0.36% which was the first negative figure in many years. As if that was not enough on August 10, 2016 a report by Bloomberg and the IMF confirmed that Nigeria had lost the position of Africa’s largest economy to South Africa. This is a position it had held for two consecutive years.

Where are the groundnut pyramids? Where are the palm oil exports from the east? Where are the cocoa exports? After all, infrastructures pre-independence were constructed with revenue gained from agricultural exports amongst others. This was an era when oil was not yet discovered. After oil was discovered in Oloibiri, Bayelsa state in 1956, agriculture has been largely neglected in Nigeria.

Oil price fell to $27.67 a barrel, its lowest since 2003. And to make matters worse, the Niger Delta Avengers have reduced Nigerian oil production capacity to its worst in 20 years.

Oil should not be the only determinant of our economy. We should start looking towards agriculture as we did in the old days. Nigeria has about 71.2 million hectares of available agricultural land and only about half of that is utilized. The lands utilized currently are not even utilized to their highest production capacity.

Here are 5 crops that may turn Nigeria’s economy around.

1. Cocoa: Nigeria was the fourth largest exporter of cocoa in 1990/1991 with sales of 135,000 tons which is about 7.1% of world trade as at then. Our exports reduced a lot due to black pod disease, labour shortages, aging trees etc. If we’re serious we can retake our position as a leading exporter of cocoa beans in the world.

2. Palm Oil: Nigeria was the leading exporter of palm oil in the world until we were overtaken by Malaysia in 1971. Nigeria’s palm oil export was about 43% of the world production at a time. Now it is less than 7%.

3. Rubber: Nigeria was once the largest exporter of rubber in Africa. But this is no longer the case. We currently export about 60,000 tons. In 1990, we were exporting 147,000 tons. According to the International Rubber Study group, the global demand for natural rubber may reach 14.2 million tons by 2020 while global production would be 13.6 million tons/ year in 2020. As you can see the production would not be able to meet up with the demand. Rubber could turn Nigeria’s economy around.

4. Rice: More than 90% of rice consumed in Nigeria is imported. An economy that focuses on importation would not be strong. We need to consume more of our local rice. We now have Dangote, Kebbi, Anambra and Kano rice. As at 10th of August 2016, a bag of Thailand parboiled rice was N16,000 in the local markets. Some of these our local rice now sell for as low as N8000 per bag. The more local rice we consume, the less rice we import. The less rice we import, the lower the demand for dollar and foreign currency used in importation. This would boost our currency and stop the catastrophic fall of the naira in relation to the dollar.

5. Cowpea: Nigeria is the largest cowpea producer in Africa. We could still increase our production further and boost our economy more. This crop has play a vital role in animal feed formulation.

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Vital steps are taken when processing an international trade. Considering import trade, export trade and entreport, balance of trade and balance of payments are also essential elements in making an international trade successful.

Procedures for International trade

For international trade to take effect, certain procedures must be followed. The step by step procedures are:

1. The importer and exporter are brought together through difference means e.g, letter of inquiry.

2. The next step is for the producer to send quotations to the buyer in response to the letter of inquiry. The quotation will show the description and features of the products.

3. After receiving the quotation, the importer will place an order with the manufacturer. The indent will show details of goods, prices and date of delivery.

4. The next step is to make arrangement for payment through any agreed means of payment e.g, documentary credit, telegraphic mail transfer, etc.

5. Then, an agreement for the goods to be shipped through a shipping company will be made. The shipping agent will get all the necessary documents like shipping note, calling forward note, etc; the goods will be packed and well arranged in containers.

6. The exporter will then prepare and send copies of bill of lading to the importer in advance. Other documents that will accompany the consignment will be prepared and sent.

7. When the goods arrive, the clearing agent will process and complete all necessary documents. The agent will check the manifest to endure that the goods are on board. The customs personnel will assess the consignment and compute the duties to be paid.

8. The goods will be taken to the warehouse after all necessary documentations have been completed.

Divisions of international Trade

International trade can be divided into three: import, export and entrepot trades:

Import trade: This is the act of buying goods and services from other countries. It is sometimes restricted to control a country’s balance of payment. The goods are imported either in response to direct orders or on consignment. Import can either be visible or invisible. Visible imports consist of goods that can be seen and touched I.e, tangible goods which come from other countries for example, automobiles, electronics, plants, and machinery etc. Invisible imports on the other hand consists of services rendered by other countries that cannot be seen or touched. Examples of invisible imports are banking, tourism, aviation, etc. This will appear in the balance of payments.

Export trade: Export trade may be defined as the act of selling goods and services to other countries. It is the selling of a country’s products abroad. Some governments frequently attempt to encourage exporters by introducing export subsidy. Export can equally be divided into visible and invisible exports.

Entrepot: This is a form of foreign trade in which goods shipped to one port are subsequently re-exported to another port. If customs duty had been paid on imported goods which are later re-exported, the duty can be claimed back. Simply put, entrepot is the re-exporting of goods imported from other countries.

Balance of trade and Balance of payment

Balance of trade refers to the total value of goods sold and bought by a country during a given period, usually a year. When visible exports equal visible imports in monetary terms we have balance of trade. A positive balanced of trade means that a country is exporting more in monetary terms than it is importing while negative or unfavorable balance of trade means that a country is importing more in monetary terms than it is exporting.

Balance of payment is a statement or record showing the relationship between a country’s totally payments to other countries and its total receipts from them in a year. A country’s balance of payment can be grouped into three parts, namely current account, capital account and monetary movement account.

There are lots of technicalities when processing an international trade, but here are the simple basics just to have an idea that foreign trade is not just about buying from another country or selling to them.

The Manufacturing Industry in India accounts for about 18% of total GDP employing 12% of India’s population directly. Among the humongous manufacturing sector, SME and MSME accounts to 90% of the totally industry activity and with new policies like The National Manufacturing Policy, the industry is looking to contribute more than 25% to GDP and employing over a 100 million workers. Some of the most profitable sectors among them are:

Agrochemicals – India is ranked as the fourth highest producer of Agrochemicals in the world. Agriculture being the largest employer and known as the primary sector of the economy of India,it has created an operational sector of never-ending need of agrochemicals making it one of the high profitable manufacturing industries. The firms vary from large scale to small scale manufacturing firms that can be and are set up in villages. It is projected to reach a market of US 269.7 billion by the year 2022.

Automobile/Auto Components – India is predicted to be the third largest manufacturer of automobile in the world by 2025. In a survey in April 2018, just in one metropolitan city of the lot in India; Bangalore showed the results of 4,000 new registered vehicles added to road every single day. This obviously boosts the Auto Component industry which vary from large scale to small scale manufacturing, the exports of components in India stood at INR10.90 billion in 2016-2017. In the Indian export industry, Automobile ranks third with the valuation on US $14.5billion.

Pharmaceutical Industry – India is the largest provider of generic drugs globally. The domestic pharmaceutical sector accounts for 3.1-3.6 % of the global pharmaceutical industry in value terms and 10 per cent in volume terms. In a 2017 report, there were 10,563 pharmaceutical manufacturing firms (inclusive of large- and small-scale pharmaceuticals) under the ‘Directory of Pharmaceuticals Manufacturing Units in India’.

Textile Industry-Starting from the colonization till date India is known for its cotton and use of cotton in textile. As per the Ministry of Textiles, the Indian textile industry contributed about 14% to industrial production, 4% to the country’s GDP and 13% to the country’s export earnings in 2017. India is appeared to be the largest producer of cotton and second largest exporter after China. The industry employs about 40 million workers directly and 60 million indirectly.

Food and Beverage – The F&B industry stands fifth largest in manufacturing sectors. It was ranked 13th largest receiver of Foreign Direct Investment in 2017. By market size India stands fourth in the world for the overall F&B industry making a revenue of $200 billion. India is largest producer of pulses, milk and second biggest of rice, wheat, fruits and vegetables. The category constitutes about 40% of its Consumer Package Goods.

Gems and Jewellery – The Gems and Jewellery sector play a noteworthy role in the Indian economy as it contributes to about 7% of the country’s GDP and ranks as India’s major exporter constitution 15% of total exports resulting in $42.6 billion.

Packaging Industry– Ranked as the fifth largest sector of India’s economy with $32 million in 2015, it stands as a salient sector for most of the other segments of the industry. By the increased standard of living the stigma of packed good to have higher value is ingrained in the minds of the consumer and this has resulted in the growth of the packaging industry. This industry is backed by various other industries without relying on just one sector and so will forever bloom even with the changes from plastic to paper and cloth.

Glass Manufacturing – The per capita consumption of glass in India is 1.8Kg. With applications in large no of areas such as architecture and construction, most of the buildings from malls to office buildings and apartments use glass as well as fiber glass as walls and doors as decor. India’s glass export stood at $639 million which has shown an immense growth from $225 million in 2012.

Rubber and Rubber Products– India is the World’s largest producer and third largest consumer of natural rubber which produces more than 35000 kinds of rubber products. It is used for domestic as well as for international trade whose export was recorded as $5 Billion per annum.

Metal Sector – Raising its demand in automobile, capital goods and infrastructure, Indian metal players remain profitable in their sector. India is ranked as the third largest steel producer with production of 101.4 million tonnes of crude steel. GOI has allowed 100% investment in the sector along with exploration in the metal and mining sector which would boost the sector.

Over the past few years the line between traditional CB radio and 10 meter radio has become blurred. Phrases like ’10 meter CB radio’ and ‘export radio’ have irrevocably woven themselves into the vocabulary. Despite widespread use of both technologies many users have no idea what the real differences are.

A traditional CB operates on the 11 meter band at about 27mhz. This gives it 40 channels ranging from 26.965mhz on channel 1 to 27.405mhz on channel 40. The distinctive characteristic of CB is that access to these frequencies is unrestricted by the FCC and available to anyone. Thus the term ‘Citizens Band’.

However although access is unrestricted, use of these frequencies is another matter. Users are required to adhere to certain codes of conduct and severe hardware limitations. By FCC rule no CB transmitter may exceed 4 watts of transmitting power. A smart operator may use a high quality antenna to ‘get out’ further but increasing output by almost any other means is prohibited.

By contrast 10 meter radio access is restricted but the allowable hardware is not as limited. 10 meter radios operate on frequencies ranging from 28mhz to 29.7mhz. To access 10 meter radio frequencies you are required to obtain an amateur or ‘ham’ radio license from the FCC. Such licenses are relatively easy to get and usually free of charge. Certain 10 meter radios also operate on FM radio frequencies which will require an even more advanced license. The hardware involved in 10 meter radio can be quite impressive. Unlike CB communications the FCC considers the 10 meter band acceptable for long range communication, many radios offer over 100 times the transmitting power of a traditional CB transmitter.

So why has the line between the two become blurred? Many CB operators dislike the severe restrictions placed on CB transmission output. Manufacturers responding to this desire have produced 10 meter radios that look and operate exactly like a standard CB. These new radios are easily modified to operate on CB radio frequencies which is probably what both the manufacturer and operator both had in mind when it was purchased. It is important to note that such modifications are against FCC rules.

The term ‘export radio’ is used to refer to these new CB radio style 10 meter radios. The catch is that these radios are supposed to be marketed for export use only. Many other countries do not have such severe restrictions on transmitting power as does the United States.

Although there is a large amount of public desire to allow greater transmitting power amongst CB radio users the FCC is very unlikely to change its policy anytime soon. The FCC regards CB radio as a short range communication device and does not want high powered transmissions interrupting local communications between other operators. This viewpoint will almost certainly preclude any change in policy any time in the near future. By knowing the difference between 10 meter and CB radio, and how you intend to use your new equipment, determining which is the right model for you should be clear.

Nowadays, the business world is talking increasingly about data visualization, different web based solutions and software platforms that allow export, modelling, analysis, processing, and visualization of large database. Every large or medium business can benefit to a great extent from using these new capabilities for data visualization. For companies in the area of marketing, sales, finance, sociologic research, for scientists and organizations dealing with analysis, as well as for many other companies, this efficient technological tool plays an important role for achieving set goals and tasks. Currently these tools are having huge impact on healthcare and banking industry.

One of the best approaches to present data is by using data visualization components that can be used in different web projects and industries. In this way attention is easily drawn to the key messages and indicators inherent in the presented data. It is important that the data visualization can be presented on different devices like personal computers, laptops, smartphones, tablets etc. It is also significant for the data visualization components to be integratable and to maintain different languages like HTML, ASP.NET Core, Java. It is recommended that they can maintain large database, and provide interactivity and responsiveness.

In this article, we will present you some of the best tools for data visualization available on the web, which answer to all the above-mentioned criteria and provide drill down capabilities and responsiveness.

Charts

The Shield UI Chart is a very powerful controls, suitable for visualization of different data. It offers more than 23 diagram types, and flexible API for additional customizations. It can be integrated in any web project as it is available for JavaScript and HTML,ASP.NET Core and Java. The charts also support advanced features like PDF export and flexible configuration.

TreeMap

The TreeMap widget by Shield UI is a space constrained visualization of hierarchical structures that helps users identify patterns and exceptions. Each branch of the tree is presented with rectangle that is tiled with smaller rectangles that depict sub-branches. Available for JavaScript and HTML5, ASP.NET MVC, Java.

Grid

The Shield UI Grid is a component for visualization of large database, which is exceptionally fast and adaptive. Supported in JavaScript and HTML, ASP.NET, ASP.NET MVC, ASP.NET Core and Java Apache Wicket. This powerful widget rovides many functionalities like Sorting, Paging, Search by Filtering, Editing, Keyboard Navigation, Export to Excel, Export to PFD, Virtualization, etc.

Recently, the Chinese government has begun to restrain the export quota of the rare earth. The countries like Japan, America and some European countries become rather worried about the policy, as they have always imported the rare earth from China for a long time. These counties blame the Chinese government for the new policy, while the Chinese government regards the policy as one of legal ways to control the resource of rare earth. Therefore, it is important for these countries to develop the rare earth in their own sovereign territories. In addition, the development of alternative technology to cast off tombarthite is also necessary.

A great upsurge of developing rare-earth ore deposits has been activated all over the world. For example, the Japanese enterprises have accelerated the cooperation with the foreign companies to develop the new mines beyond the sea. However, many people doubt that whether the exploration of new mines can help these countries get rid of the dependence on the Chinese tombarthite or not. The exploration of new mines can not realize the timely operation of producing tombarthite, and the demand of the resource among the enterprises can not be met to support the normal operation.

All the countries have tried their best to decrease the dependence on the tombarthite imported from China. However, the market dominant position China takes up can not be changed easily. Most of the projects of developing new mines outside China are in the preliminary stage and they can not provide various kinds of tombarthite products for the counties in need.

The export limitation of rare earth has been started by the Chinese government in 2005, which is a kind of introspection based on the large export of the resource at a low price in past years. Many Chinese enterprises explore the resource and enlarge the export at the cost of environment. In order to protect the environment and control the resource, the Chinese government begins to restrain the rare-earth industry and control the price by grasping the market. In addition, the government accelerates the introduction of advanced process techniques from abroad.

It is difficult to say whether China will increase the export amount of rare earth to the world or not in the future. It will take a long time for the world to explore and process the resource to meet the production. Various vehicles and home appliances can not be used without the tombarthite metals like neodymium and dysprosium. Therefore, the development of alternative technology can not be delayed.

Adding a rollover button to a webpage with Dreamweaver is a really simple task…if you have the button images ready to go.

If you don’t have the images yet, here’s what you need to do: Open a graphic design program like Fireworks or Photoshop and create a rectangle with a solid fill (for this example, blue) and then put some white text on it that says ‘Home’.

Next you want to trim the canvas and export this image as something like ‘home1.gif’ or ‘home1.jpg’ file. Export the image to the folder where your webpages are so that you can use it for your webpage.

Next, simply change the color of the text on the button to yellow, and export that version as ‘home2.gif’

Once you have these 2 images, creating a rollover button in Dreamweaver is cake because Dreamweaver does it all for you.

Simply place the cursor where you want the button on your webpage and choose ‘Insert’ > ‘Image Objects’ > ‘Rollover Image’ from the Dreamweaver dropdown menu.

Then use home1.gif for up image and home2.gif for the over image. Once you click ok, Dreamweaver will create all the necessary code for you. Then you need simply to upload the images and the page to your website!

Another option is to use the pop-up menus feature. You can find this under the ‘tag inspector’ in Dreamweaver. You can use this to make some exciting looking pop-up menus that appear when you put your mouse over an image.

Transferring files in-between SharePoint sites can sometimes be tricky and often times time consuming. When transferring files from WSS to MOSS, there is no inherent method to test for file consistency and version between an existing SharePoint 2003 site and MOSS 2007 site. We will use ROBOCOPY from the Windows Server 2003 Resource Kit Tools to export data from an existing document library to a local share which can then be encrypted and uploaded to send. Follow the steps outlined below:

First you will need to install the Windows Server 2003 Resource Kit Tools to either a Windows XP desktop or the Server 2003 server that the SharePoint 2003 site resides on. Once installed you, will have the ROBOCOPY command line tool available for use. The tools will reside in “C:Program FilesWindows Resource KitsTools” and can be accessed via the command line, or the shortcut to “Command Shell” via the Windows Resource Kit Tools program folder created in the Start Menu.

The next step will be to map an existing SharePoint 2003 Document Library to a Network Drive on the PC or Server that Robocopy is installed on. This can be done by going to My Computer, and then selecting Map Network Drive from the Tools file menu. In the window that appears you will need to select a drive letter that is available and not in use, and also type in a Folder name. The folder name will be formatted as follows, for example: http:\example.phase2.comDocsDocLibrary, where example.phase2com is the portal name or address used to access the site, Docs is the sub site if the library exists in a sub site, and DocLibrary is the name of the document library we are going to export files from. Once this is mapped, it should show the contents of that document library within the root of that drive.

Finally we will need to export the data from that Document Library to a file folder for storage and subsequent uploading. As an example, the data we will export will be any data that has a modified date of 04/18/2008. You will first need to open the command prompt to use robocopy. Once in the command prompt, you will need to use the robocopy command line tool as follows:

robocopy z:* d:fileshare* /E /Z /COPY:DAT /MAXAGE:20080418

In the above example, these are the criteria and switches used.

o z:* – File source, in this case we would have mapped the document library being export from to the Z: network drive on the PC

o d:fileshare* – File destination, where the fileshare is on a local drive on the PC

o /S – Copy subdirectories and exclude empty ones

o /Z – Copies in restartable mode

o /COPY:DAT – Copies file Data, Attributes, and Timestamps

o /MAXAGE:20080418 – Copies files with a last modified date of 04-18-2008 and Newer (Excludes files with a last modified date that is before 04-18-2008)

Running the script above will have robocopy read through the mapped drive and copy only those files newer than the date set. Once the export has been completed, the client will then be able to upload those files to us for upload into their MOSS site.

The above must be run for each Document Library that they would like to export and export only newer/updated data. This is because we can only map the Document Library from SharePoint and not the entire site.

Development of substitutes, weather type, difficulty in diversifying the economy due to competition from foreign countries, reliance on primary production and vulnerability to world recession and price fluctuations are major economic problems associated with dependence of African countries.

Terms of Trade in Africa, Especially the West

Terms of trade in West African countries have been witnessing an unfavorable or worsening trend because the prices of their imports have been increasing relative to prices of exports. reasons for the worsening terms of trade include: most west African countries are producers and exporters of primary products eg, agricultural produce and crude minerals; they import lots of capital goods in an effort to industrialize thereby increasing imports more than exports; there has been a fall in the demand for certain primary products of West African countries. This is due to the development of substitutes by the developed nations. this leads to a decrease in the price of export and increase in the price of imports and then finally, the production of low quality of manufactured products is also a problem. This is due to low level of technological development. The importation of high quality manufactured products, therefore increases importation over exportation.

How to Improve Terms of Trade

The terms of trade can be improved by any method which will increase the price of exports relative to imports. these methods are: use of inflationary policy, appreciation of the currency, imposition of higher export duties on commodities with an inelastic demand, a reduction in the demand for imports; through collective bargaining, developing countries could achieve higher prices for their exports; improvement on the quality of manufactured goods and there should be increased internal use of primary products in production.

Reasons for High Volume of Trade Between West African Countries and Developed Countries

The bulk of west African foreign trade is directed away from Africa to the developed countries due to:

1. Presence of processing industries: Industries that make use of the raw materials which are the main products of West African countries are found in Europe and America.

2. World Economic order favors developed countries: The world economic order tends to be in favor of the developed countries hence West African countries export the goods to them.

3. Absence of developed markets: There is absence of developed markets in Africa because its system of exchange is still underdeveloped and there is low demand as a result of low per capital income.

4. Over reliance on foreign products: Over reliance on foreign products has made West Africans to have notion that foreign products are superior.

5. Ineffective transport and communication system: Ineffective transport and communication system in Africa makes international trade difficult.

6. Low level of technology: Low level of technological development makes it difficult for African countries to produce goods needed in the continent, hence its going to Europe an America.

7. Production of mainly agricultural products: African countries produce mainly agricultural products and this makes exchange of goods between them very difficult.

8. Provision of capital goods are mainly from developed nations: Capital goods which west African countries depend heavily on are mainly produced in Europe and America.

9. Colonial ties: The inclination of some developing countries to their colonial masters has helped to increase the volume of trade between the nations.

So, it is now left for the government of the various African countries involved to tackle these issues because the remedy is a straight forward one. Reversing most of these problems will create a lasting solution.

Introduction

The exchange rate refers to the value of the US dollar against the values of currencies of other countries. Such a rate helps determine how much we pay for imported goods and services and how much we receive for what we export, among other things. When the value of the US dollar drops, imports become more expensive, and we tend to reduce the volume of our imports. Simultaneously, other countries will pay LESS for some of our products and that will tend to boost export sales. If imports and exports are a substantial part of a country’s economy, as is the case with Canada, the exchange rate plays a particularly important role in our economy. The exchange rate between two countries’ currencies is particularly important if the two countries are heavily involved in trade.

What factors affect an exchange rate?

A country’s exchange rate is typically affected by the supply and demand for that country’s currency in international exchange markets. This is typically known as a floating exchange rate. If demand, for say dollars, exceeds supply, then the value of the dollar will go up. If however, the supply of dollars exceeds demand, then its value will go down. A huge amount of money is bought and sold on international exchange markets for many different currencies.

Several factors influence the supply of, and demand for, a given country’s currency.

If INTEREST rates are HIGHER in, say, the US than in other countries, then investors WILL choose to invest in the US, increasing demand for the dollar, provided that the expected rate of inflation is not higher in the US than among our trading partners. If INTEREST rates are LOWER in the US than in other countries, investors will choose NOT to invest in the US, decreasing demand for the dollar.

If the US INFLATION rate is HIGHER, investors are LESS likely to prefer the US -even with higher interest rates- because of the expectation that the value of the dollar will be ERODED by inflation. If our INFLATION rate is LOWER, investors are MORE likely to prefer the US, because there will be NO expectation that the value of the dollar will erode.

Trade balance also has an effect on a country’s currency. If world prices for what a country exports rise in comparison with the cost of that country’s imports, that country will be earning more for its exports than it pays for its imports. The more demand there will be for that country’s currency, the better the deal becomes. If investors are confident that the US economy will be strong, they will be MORE likely to buy American assets, pushing UP the dollar’s value. If investors are not so confident that the economy will be strong, they will be LESS likely to buy the country’s assets, pushing the dollar’s value DOWN.