How business can create a sustainable Nigeria

The Federal Government’s Economic Recovery and Growth Plan is a golden opportunity for the business class to reflect on its role in national life. This moment allows a move away from two negative views of the business class. First, there is the view of the business class as accomplices in the crimes of predatory politicians. Businesses are believed to enjoy political patronage in form of preferential licences, contracts, anti-competition policies and other entitlements of those who “know someone” in power. Second, there is the view of the business class as indifferent or indeed wary of the political process. And this is the political process charged with improving the quality of life of ordinary citizens and addressing the struggles of small businesses that are worst hit by shortages in power, funding, security and talent. Although the business class washes its hands of responsibility for the sufferings of the masses and the nation’s 37 million SMEs, in the public eye, trust in the business class is severely eroded. It seems that expanding CSR projects alone cannot redeem this poor image. The business class can restore social bonds through deep and sustained engagement with the public decision-making process and local communities. These stakeholders make it possible for businesses to be productive and profitable.

The response of the business class to government’s new economic plan is significant. There is the tendency to see any new policy as an oddity pulled out of a magician’s hat, a kind of illusion that will soon fade away. Those in business and the Nigerian public roll their eyes and say “they have come again.” There is a sense that this too shall pass and hopefully, like the plague, pass over us. An alternative to this posture of skeptical paralysis is a renewed commitment to engage the political process – nationally and globally – working with other businesses to drive positive economic policies that lead to sustainable human development. It is enlightened self-interest. Consider the digital financial services industry, a field of intense research focus at Lagos Business School. Advocating appropriate policies in this industry would enable businesses create wealth on investment, contributing $88 billion to Nigeria’s GDP by 2025, through innovative products for the poor in mostly rural areas. Growing this industry involves the collaboration of businesses from banks, telecommunications to fintech companies; and engaging a range of regulators – CBN, NCC, NDIC etc. Government benefits from a functional digital payments system through increased efficiency and reduced corruption. Society benefits through the creation of 3 million new jobs by 2025, McKinsey projects, which would lift many out of the widespread poverty in the land.

 

Going it together – globally

Business engagement with public policy is of a piece with opportunities of engagement with a wider international governance space. For over a decade, the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) were the focus of global policy debates and national policy planning. They became incorporated into the work of NGOs, curriculum of schools, and even built into NYSC Community Development projects. Regrettably, the goals were not achieved leading to a new set of goals in 2015 – the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The SDGs proposes a 15-year journey to achieve 17 goals, ranging from ending poverty, tackling gender inequality to building strong institutions. Some ascribe the shortfall of the MDGs and Nigeria’s previous economic growth plans to the fact that government was left to ensure the goals were met with little or no collaboration with business and civil society. Realizing the SDGs entails new cross-sector partnerships, forging new connections.

Basically, the SDGs present an important lesson to Nigerian citizens and the business class, who are skeptical that anything good can come out of Nigeria. This negativity and foreboding colours our interaction with employees, mistrust of business partners and surprise when someone does something right in Nigeria. No country has developed on the basis of such deficits in trust and self-belief. That all the countries in the world aspire to achieve the human, economic and environmental targets embodied in the SDGs tells us that Nigeria does not own all the problems of the world and that we should aggressively commit to solving our challenges in the dogged and intelligent way many countries are doing. The SDGs are framed to address not one but many overlapping global crises. The world is faced with climate change; massive environmental pollution, unsustainable demands on forests, depletion of resources including oil and groundwater. We are also faced with high unemployment rates and a rapidly increasing population. Another set of challenges relates to widening social inequalities, gender inequality and so on.   All these are threats to business and social continuity, such that public decision-making around these issues should be of paramount interest to the business class.

All too often, politicians are held responsible for addressing these contemporary challenges and leading their countries toward sustainable development. It is not a task that they can accomplish alone. Indeed, the IMF recently noted the steep challenges the Nigerian government faces in executing the broad targets set out in the EGRP, targets from creating a “ well-targeted social safety net” to improving the business environment to enhance global competitiveness. Undoubtedly, money and technical expertise would be required to provide the needed infrastructure such as energy, water and agricultural technology, to put in place sustainable institutions, as a foundation for realizing the ERGP and SDGs targets.

 

Strategic Public-Private Partnerships

Business leaders tend to limit their concern about politics to managing what Professor Pat Utomi calls “regulatory risk,” since regulation impacts how effectively strategies for business development can be implemented and thus business competitiveness. Through effective partnerships, the advantages of the private sector, including access to finance, technical knowledge, managerial efficiency, and entrepreneurial spirit, are combined with the public responsibility mandate and power to scale of government to create long-term positive social impact.  As Aaron Levie, CEO of Box put it, “We are at a point where business and politics are inseparable if we’re going to stay competitive and be able to innovate for the future.” With the desperate socio-economic challenges Nigeria faces, this is moment for the business class to step out of its comfort zone.

 

Ijeoma Nwagwu

Dr. Nwagwu, earned a doctorate at Harvard University and is Faculty at Lagos Business School. Email:[email protected]