Tough environment fending off foreign investors – NACCIMA

The Nigerian Association of Chambers of Commerce, Industry, Mines and Agriculture (NACCIMA) has said that stringent monetary policies are discouraging foreign investors from tapping into the economy.

“All these efforts (to get foreign investors) have not yielded desired results due to government monetary policies, which are currently not encouraging to investors,” said Bassey Edem, president, NACCIMA, in Lagos.

The federal government has recently introduced import restriction policies, which make importation difficult.

Many manufacturers cannot import some of their raw materials as they cannot get foreign exchange at the official market.

The gap between the official and parallel markets has been very wide, pushing exporters to sell their foreign exchange at the parallel market where they can get up to N400/$, rather than pay it into domiciliary account where they are paid N197-N199.

According to NACCIMA, the private sector credit, which is only five percent of the total credit, is insufficient to steer the real sector.

“This trend may continue unless the CBN further reviews downward it’s Monetary Policy Rate (MPR) and enforce some of the policies put in place to empower the real sector and ease access to low interest funds,” said Edem.

Edem said several management policies introduced by the CBN to stimulate the economy and salvage Nigeria’s currency are below the expectations of the business community, adding that the apex bank should strive to meet up with the reality of time as it affects the global economic situation and business community.

“The recently introduced stamp duties on all banking transfers have called for concern among private sector operators as they have added to their overhead cost in spite of different challenges being faced by operators,” NACCIMA helmsman said.

He said the anti-corruption crusade by the current administration is laudable, but added that government should ensure the enforcement of structure already put in place to check future occurrence of fraud in the country.

“We laud the Federal Government in the implementation of Treasury Single Account (TSA), which aims at accountability of government revenue, enhancing transparency and avoiding misapplication of public funds,” he further said.

He, however, pointed out that government should consolidate on the success of applications such as the Government Integrated Financial Management Information System (GIFMIS) and the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS) by ensuring the judicious appropriation of saved funds on projects that will impact on the citizenry to promote productivity and efficiency.

“It is important for the economic team of Mr President to present a direction to the business community by prioritising the economy and fashioning out comprehensive policy options and strategies that will enable the country to transit into the path of sustainable growth and development,” he said.

ODINAKA ANUDU