Experts in the real sector have argued for effective collaboration and dialogue between the regulators and regulated (private sector) for growth of the Nigerian economy especially as it is entering into the African Continental Free Trade Area.
This was revealed at the Day two of the maiden edition of the 2022 Nigeria Employers’’ Summit hosted by the Nigeria Employers’ Consultative Association (NECA) in Abuja on Tuesday, with the theme, ‘The Private Sector – An Engine of National Development’.
The aim of the summit is to promote and deepen a collaborative and development focused engagement between employers and government for the creation of decent work, employment generation and other social economic imperatives that the nation desperately needs.
During the panel session themed ‘Building a Collaborative Regulatory Environment for Enterprise Competitiveness, job Creation and National Development, Segun Ajayi-Kadir, director general at Manufacturing Association of Nigeria (MAN) said if people are interested in the now, it is most likely that the industry will be able to grow.
“We are always very conversant with the fact that the government hardly has enough resources to take care of the regulatory agencies. And that has been the reason for its aggressive revenue drive. And this is one of the areas where we have conflicts or some scuffles between the regulator and the regulated,” Ajayi-Kadir further said.
He added that if we are able to arrive at an environment where there’s mutual understanding into the long term interests of the industry and the economy, we will have a synergy that takes into consideration the need to regulate in such a way that there is survival, growth and competitiveness especially now that the economy is opening up and entering into the African Continental Free Trade Area.
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Commenting in the same vein, Muda Yusuf, chief executive officer at Centre for the Promotion of Private Enterprise noted that one thing that we cannot undermine is the kind of confusion we are having in our economic policy space.
“It is very important that we tidy it up. You cannot fix infrastructure overnight but you can change policy within minutes. Policies don’t cost money, what it costs is the engagement with major stakeholders.
“And if you’re really committed to fixing the economy, engagement with stakeholders can help a great deal in driving the real change in policy process which would make the economy much better for us,” Muda added.
Regulations are important to protect consumers from unwholesome practices, especially price gouging. But in Nigeria, businesses complain of the overregulation especially from multiple agencies which is affecting them to scale in terms of growth and development.
Earlier in the year, Vice President Yemi Osinbajo complained about how overregulation was killing businesses in the country.
According to him, “there are too many regulatory requirements. Too many regulations kill output. We have to take a second look at how we regulate. Over-regulation is killing businesses. It kills investments. An agric exporter can’t export perishable produce after months.”
On his part, Taiwo Oyedele, a West Africa Tax Leader at PwC Nigeria said it is very important for us to promote certainty, stability or moderation in the fiscal policy environment.
“Interest interestingly, about 98 percent of the tax revenue generated in Nigeria today, across all levels of government, comes from less than 10 taxes. Yet we have over 60 official taxes and 200 unofficial taxes,” Oyedele complained.
He advised that the country should focus on few broad based taxes that can make a lot of money from and reduce the number of agencies to at most one revenue agency per level of governments.
“This is also the reason why many of the ministries, departments and agencies are confused about their roles focusing on revenue generation instead of doing their work of regulation and facilitating businesses.”
