Unit 4: Country Analysis Presentation - Nigeria

Running Head: NIGERIA 1

NIGERIA 6

NIGERIA

Name

Institution

Competitiveness

Nigeria is recorded to have a competitive average of 48.33 scores out of 100. The score is a lower one as compared to other countries in the world. Even though the government has invested a lot in developing the infrastructure, there is still room for improvement. Moreover, factors such as low innovative capability and dependence on importing most of its machinery have dragged down its competitive advantage (Fafunwa, 2018). Political instability and high cases of terrorism in the region are also a challenge in improving the country's innovative capability. Last year’s report on competitiveness of nations indicated that Nigeria holds number 116 among the 140 nations in the world in 2019.

Some of the factors that have contributed in the country’s poor performance in its competitiveness are narrow trading gaps in certain periods, shrinking activities in the country’s factories, high rates of joblessness among its population, high inflation as well as low GDP. Nigerian government has failed in offering job opportunities to the youths who are mostly affected by the current situation of being unemployed. Moreover, the companies in the country are reducing their operations since the trading markets have limited consumption. As a result, the industries fail to develop innovative strategies to stand a chance of competing in the global markets.

Healthcare

The healthcare sector of the country requires to be improved. Recent studies have shown that most patients pay medical costs from their pocket; about 77% of medical expenses are produced from the patient's pocket. Overcrowded hospitals have been encountered in some of the prominent facilities in the country. The hospitals have recorded cases of holding maximum patients and having hospital beds full with one patient per bed (Arowolo.et.al, 2018). Nigeria’s healthcare sector lacks strategies of integrating the required medical intelligence. As a result, the facilities fail to provide timely and sufficient medical care to the patients. In addition, there is insufficient surveillance intelligence which is useful in tracking, monitoring and controlling outbreak of diseases. The insufficient funds allocated in this industry make it difficult for healthcare organizations to improve the poor conditions of the facilities. Other factors that contribute to the poor healthcare system in the country are shortages of medical practitioners, offering low payments to the workers in the healthcare facilities, and utilization of poor techniques of recording and keeping patients’ data.

Recommendations

The assessment of the country indicates that there is enormous potential regarding natural resources and the business environment. The exportation of products such as oil has helped the country to add to its overall income. However, the government should invest most of the financial resources available in improving the country's infrastructure, healthcare services to ensure that the country can attract more investors into their companies. There is a need to strengthen its competitive advantage to operate well in the international trade markets.

References

Arowolo, A. O., Deng, X., Olatunji, O. A., & Obayelu, A. E. (2018). Assessing changes in the value of ecosystem services in response to land-use/land-cover dynamics in Nigeria. Science of the total Environment, 636, 597-609.

Ayodele, T. R., Ogunjuyigbe, A. S. O., Odigie, O., & Munda, J. L. (2018). A multi-criteria GIS based model for wind farm site selection using interval type-2 fuzzy analytic hierarchy process: The case study of Nigeria. Applied energy, 228, 1853-1869.

Fafunwa, A. B. (2018). History of education in Nigeria. Routledge.