Nigeria Employers’ Consultative Association (NECA), a key member of the Organised Private Sector (OPS) has observed contradiction in the Federal Government’s ease of doing business policy, following the frequent sealing off of business companies by government’s regulatory agencies.
The latest in the series of gestapo style actions, according to NECA, is the recent sealing off of the premises of Nestle Nigeria Plc, by the National Lottery Regulatory Commission (NLRC) over an alleged N65.1 million indebtedness to the commission from sales promos carried out by Nestle between 2009, 2012 and 2014.
The business premises of Nestle Nigeria Plc, including its administrative head office in Ilupeju, Lagos, were last week sealed off by the operatives of NLRC but later unsealed same day after both parties entered into an agreement.
Speaking on the development on Tuesday, Timothy Olawale, the Director General of NECA, said the regulator’s penchant for shutting companies has become a source of concern to business operators.
“This approach is counter-productive to the efforts to improve the ease of doing business in Nigeria. It has the potential to roll back progress towards attracting further investments into the country,” said Olawale.
The DG rejected the allegation by NLRC that Nestle owes N65.1 million to the commission as unpaid lottery fees. He said: “This matter is currently pending at the Court of Appeal, and the officials of the NLRC, fully aware of this situation, invaded the premises of Nestle Nigeria accompanied by cameras, forced the management to sign an undertaking to pay the claimed sum within four days as a pre-condition for unsealing their premises.”
Olawale further contended that NLRC’s action in sealing the premises of Nestle and forcing it to sign an undertaking in a matter pending in court raises concerns about the ease of doing business in Nigeria.
“The rule of law requires that parties in a court case should respect the rule of law and maintain status quo until the final determination by the court,” he said.
The NECA DG observed that this was not the first time that the NLRC unduly pressures its members. He called on the Federal Government to impress on the NLRC the imperative of respecting the rule of law as well as promoting dialogue and engagement to resolve issues amicably within the provisions of the law when dealing with businesses.
On Monday
The enforcement team of NLRC led by the director of monitoring and enforcement, Sajo Mohammed, on Monday, October 7, sealed the administrative office of Nestle Plc located at 22-24 Industrial Avenue, Ilupeju, Lagos, last week Monday
The premises of the company, was however, unsealed same day, following what the commission described as a “written undertaken by Nestle Plc to pay up its debts to the Federal Government of Nigeria, totaling N65.16 million.”
According to NLRC, Nestle had in 2009 carried out a promo lottery captioned “Nestle Milo Scratch and Win”, whose value was put at N10.92m; another promo in 2012 titled “Buy Save and Win More Promo” (Nestle New Year Shopper’s Combo) valued at N15m, and another in 2012, titled “Super Market Back 2 School, valued at N20 million and another in 2014, captioned “Year-End Shoppers Bag Promo, valued at N188,072,500.
“All these promotional lotteries were carried out by Nestle Plc without authorisation of the National Lottery Regulatory Commission, as required by law; ignoring all attempts by the commission for those lotteries to be properly regularised,” said Mohammed.
The commission alleged that the total value of the promotional lotteries was N233,992,500, with total regulation fees of N65,155,365.00.
JOSHUA BASSEY
