Ease of Doing Business in Nigeria: Lessons from Dubai Expo 2020
Since it began on 1st October 2021, the Dubai Expo 2020 has played host to several leaders from across the globe. The most recent? Nigeria’s President, Muhammadu Buhari, who concluded his 4-day visit to the city on Sunday, 5th December.
When we discuss tourism and economic opportunity on a global scale, we cannot ignore Dubai and its sister cities in the United Arab Emirates. It remains one of the world’s most famous tourist attractions. While most people visit for fun, some couldn’t help but have a first-hand experience of a city that morphed from a semi-desert inhabited by petty traders and fishermen into one of the wonders of the world. If cities were human, one can simply tag Dubai as a grass-to-grace story.
According to the Brookings Institute, the unassuming desert has become a world-class location for tourism, international exhibition, tournaments such as the FIFA World Cup and world-class film festivals. Recently, it was chosen as host for the 2020 World Expo.
More so, the UK’s largest online travel agency listed Abu Dhabi as one of the world’s most travelled destinations in 2008. This shows that there is no limit to how far a nation can go given the right kind of leadership.
In the past two months now, Expo 2020 has become an avenue for the UAE to showcase its beauty to the world. To attract and retain the attention of its projected 25 million visitors, the Dubai authority set up high-capacity pavilion housing entertainment, creativity, beauty, and glamour. The iconic Al Wasl dome ultimately promises tourists an unmatched experience.
Living up to its name, Al Wasl connotes Connection in Arabic which, in a literal sense, is the central idea of the Expo 2020 activities. While this Expo will further raise the profile of Dubai and expose the city to more prospects and business opportunities, there is another side to the event. For those who know, Expo Dubai will serve as a lecture theatre for leaders of developing nations who are open to learning and growing. But before that, a little definition of terms might help.
What are Expos?
Expos have existed for over 200 years. They are events that unite participating countries; enabling them to showcase their culture, innovation, and products.
However, these displays are not for sales but to promote ideas and educate participants on various frontiers about novel cultures and arts. It is safe to say that Expos serve as a yardstick for the host nation to veer into tourism.
In the 21st century, the perception of tourism transcends sun and sea. It has spread into terrains such as the health, history & culture, agriculture, etc. Expos are a basis for improvement and national publicity.
What’s in store for Dubai?
In 2010, China invested a whopping $40 billion to up the ante in infrastructural development during Expo 2010 which was held in Shanghai. Development trickled into roads, bridges, tunnels and metro lines.
Dubai is no different as deliberate effort has been made to put their best foot forward in ensuring that the world sees the emirate leadership as creative, forward-thinking, and innovative. Predictably, when it was unveiled as the next World Expo destination, the Emirate stock market index soared by four per cent.
As the Expo proceeds into the first quarter of 2022, there is no doubt that Dubai’s GDP will rise due to the heavy influx of visitors. Of course, this is only a snippet. There are tons of non-economic benefits to come but my emphasis in this article are the lessons we can draw from the event.
What lessons can we draw from Dubai Expo 2020?
1. Visionary leadership
Beyond the glamourous display and creativity at the Dubai Expo 2020, we must turn our attention to the factors that made Dubai a worthy destination for the World Expo. The excellence demonstrated in preparation for Expo 2020 only speaks of the UAE’s track record of visionary leadership since the latter part of the 20th century.
Speaking of visionary leadership, a former Ugandan member of Parliament, Edward Baliddawa wrote; “When leaders knowingly or unknowingly decide to adopt retrogressive methods in the name of vision, it becomes easy for even the naturally beautiful and endowed countries to remain small; dismal global visibility.
“Unfortunately, this seems to be the situation in African countries and the African people continue to just dream of breakthroughs that have happened in the Middle East and Asia.”
To achieve Dubai’s feats, we still have grounds to cover. Sadly, we have barely scratched the surface. With stressors such as falling oil prices, economic uncertainty, and constant depreciation of the Naira, whoever decides to take the bull by the horn has his work cut out for him.
2. Stop talking about diversification; do it!
On paper, Nigeria’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) looks appealing but the reality on the ground tells a different story. It is normal for economies to occasionally go through hell and high water. A perfect case in point is Dubai. During the Great Depression of the 1920s, the city’s economy crashed. Dubai’s recovery from the dark days gives a new perspective to business and leadership; pearl trading which was its primary source of revenue had to be alternated with something more promising.
With regards to Nigeria’s current economic crunch, my honest opinion is as old as ever; consolidate other sources of revenue as opposed to depending solely on oil. Judging from history, the oil and gas market is a volatile sea that only enjoys short-lived periods of stability. It is ludicrous to think we can build something viable from one revenue source serving over 200 million people.
Dubai’s history is a perfect example of how Nigeria can jumpstart and consolidate new revenue streams. Despite its aridity, the UAE morphed from the proverbial ugly duckling we admire today.
However, its transformation is a testament of genuine and visionary leadership, the singularity of focus and transparency of purpose; with the right institutions in place to ensure economic growth. Conversely, our major limiting factor has been corruption, bad governance and a sheer lack of purpose or vision.
In a public lecture delivered at the National COVID-19 Summit organised by the Presidential Steering Committee (PSC) in Abuja on Monday 6th December 2021, ace Virologist Oyewale Tomori said that the COVID-19 pandemic and other disease outbreaks in Nigeria are nothing compared to the real enemies of the country; corruption.
While delivering his address, the Academic waxed emotional saying “COVID-19 is not the enemy, Lassa fever is of minor league, yellow fever is yellow-livered, monkeypox is child’s play, cholera is a dehydrator. Our underdevelopment and backwardness rest on four pillars–they are the real enemies of our nation.
“They are (1) lack of patriotism — the destroyer of our nation; (2) self-interest — the burial ground of our national interest; (3) corruption — the executor of our underdevelopment, and (4) shamelessness — the destruction of our national pride.”
I don’t believe the popular notion that the discovery of crude oil in Nigeria in the 1950s is the genesis of our problem. The same substance has been discovered in other nations such as the UAE yet it did not decimate them. I think Nigeria’s leadership remains the most influential factor in our malady today.
What was a curse to us became a blessing to the UAE because it had the leadership capacity to leverage oil. Though its oil reserves were not plentiful, what kept the Emirate on the path of prosperity and progress was visionary leadership and transparency.
Nigeria has spent several decades battling poverty and subpar leadership as we shamelessly chop oil money. Unfortunately, old ways can no longer serve as the drumbeat has changed.
It’s high time we revisited the cocoa plantations of the South-West, the groundnut pyramids and leather factories of the North. Let’s double down on tourism because we have the tangible and non-tangible assets to become the world’s #1 tourist location.
Unlike the UAE, Nigeria is richly blessed with diverse natural resources. Overall, we need to learn how to stimulate economic growth, stop talking about diversification and start living it! I believe that like Dubai, we will realize our full potentials when we prioritise visionary and principle-centred leadership.
