All benefits go to the government and the companies and no exceptional increase in employment or a better life for the people, who have to rely, as it is historical and customary, on the inevitable trickle-down effect in the economy that comes from the inevtbility of the companies and government to spend money in the country. This is not planned, it is informally expected to occur, and cannot be assessed due to other complex, chronic and unsurmountable data-gathering problems. We should note that economic and other statistics used by the Central Bank of Nigeria and related government ministries and agencies to measure growth or fall in the economy are restricted to the section of the Nigerian economy that can be considered as having a face presenting their facts and tables for documentation and research, at least, in other to be able to claim legality and currency in front of the law. A large pecentage of the economic activities in the country remain uncovered. And where facts are available in the area of imports and exports, companies sometimes go into agreement with officials to reduce the values of the goods going out or coming in so that they can pay less in taxes.
Some goods even pass through the ports without documentation.
Our assessment of growth in the economy and its effect on employment has to be taken with a pinch of salt, including what companies and the government have stated that is the total FDI in the country. Nigeria s deep water area is starting to simmer. In December 1999, Shell said it will go ahead with the development of the Bonga field and ExxonMobil announced it had made a major deep-water oil and gas discovery . ExxonMobil s discovery, also announced 2. In February 2000, Texaco announced that ist Agbami field, which a recent well showed to be much larger than previously thought, could be under development this summer and in production in 2003.