Ms. Aisha Oyebode, the Chief Executive Officer at the Murtala
Mohammed Foundation, originally published this contribution to the civil
society engagement discussion forum.
In the course of discussion last
night, it suddenly occurred to me that I just couldn’t comprehend what
$20bn could possibly buy. It began with my mother saying that is Two
Thousand Million USD. Incomprehensible?
Now if I can’t comprehend, I am sure there are many out there like
me who can’t either, hence perhaps the challenge with feeling enough
outrage. So I went shopping on the internet. I bought things that I
could find prices for. Some not so useful like 4 GSM licenses but just
to get a sense of how staggering the amount is, my shopping is as
follows;
$20,000,000,000
|
SN
|
Quantity
|
ITEM
|
COST
|
COMMENT
|
|
1
|
1
|
HeathrowTerminal 5
|
$7,500,000,000 ($7.5bn)
|
Commissioned March 2008 and cost 4.3bn pounds which was
described with pride by her majesty as “a 21st Century gateway to
Britain” .. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/
|
|
2
|
10
|
Boeing 787-10
|
$3,000,000,000
($3bn)
|
2 for each geo zone and remaining 2 for vip movement! Approximately $300m each direct from Boeing http://www.boeing.com/b
|
|
3
|
37
|
State of the art Tertiary Care Hospital
|
$2,600,000,000
(2.6bn)
|
1 in each of the 36 states plus Federal Capital territory……..
(Basis for assumption ApolloBranwell Hospital Mauritius commissioned in
2005, cost $70million, was actually over initial $50million budget)
|
|
4
|
10
|
5 star hotel
|
$2,350,000,000
($2.35 bn)
|
2 in each geo zone and 2 in FCT……(Basis for assumption Fairmont Lagos 220 keys with 50 residences each $235m )
|
|
5
|
20
|
State of the art mall
|
$1,000,000,000
($1bn)
|
5 in each geo zone ( Like Palms Lagos approx. $50 million for 20,000sqm mall)
|
|
6
|
4
|
GSM Licence
|
$1,140,000,000…($1.14bn)
|
GSM Phone Licence….. at $285m each = http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/b
|
|
7
|
1
|
Cement plant
|
$1,000,000,000
($1bn)
|
Cement Plant…..Dangote Ibese Plant ……http://www.forbes.com/si
That of Abdulsamad is said to cost $500m ….http://www.forbes.com/site
|
|
8
|
76
|
State of the Art Secondary School
|
$1,300,000,000
($1.3bn)
|
Secondary Schools- State of the art plus equipment…. 3
Billion Naira approximately $17m each, approximate cost of recent one
built in Delta, can build 2 in each of 36 States plus 2 in Federal
capital territory.
|
|
9
|
|
?????
|
$110,000,000
($110m)
|
A couple of state of the art universities and or medical colleges or nursing schools and or teacher training colleges but couldn’t find any prices to benchmark. At this point I was tired of spending anyway! |
|
|
|
Grand Total
|
$20,000,000,000
($20bn)
|
|
Too many to carry, I agree, how about:
|
SN
|
Quantity
|
ITEM
|
COST
|
COMMENT
|
|
1
|
1
|
HeathrowTerminal 5
|
$7,500,000,000 ($7.5bn)
|
Commissioned March 2008 and cost 4.3bn pounds and described with
pride by her majesty as “a 21st Century gateway to Britain” .. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/
|
|
2
|
1
|
Petroleum Refinery
|
$9,000,000,000
($9bn)
|
|
|
3
|
5
|
7 Star Hotel
|
$3,000,000,000
($3bn)
|
Burj Al Arab cost $600m http://en.wikipedia.org/
|
|
|
|
Grand Total
|
$19,500,000,000
(19.5bn)
|
|
I am not a mathematician and my calculator kept running out of zeros, but I think quite accurate. Have a great day!
Aisha Oyebode
