‘Buhari’s investment drive may fail unless operating business environment is right’

Agbakoba, a human rights activist and senior advocate of Nigeria (SAN), made the observation in Lagos while speaking with journalists.

According to him, “nobody will come to invest in Nigeria if the business environment is constrained. If it takes you as an investor about six months to start a business, why would you come in? If you have to pay kick-backs before you do business, why would you come to Nigeria to do business? If you are sure that government gives you concession to do business and the same government breaks it, why would you come here to invest?”

Deploring Nigeria’s 168^th position out of 190 in the league of countries with favourable business environment, the former national chairman of Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) said “this is terrible.”

He commended the proposed business environment committee to be headed by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo with the Minister of Trade, expressing the optimism that the arrangement could make the Nigerian environment conducive for businesses and by extension draw investors to Nigeria.

On the implications of the dollar-naira policy by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Agbakoba said: “The fact is that investors would not come into the country, if they feel the naira is being held down. Although the President has said that he won’t devalue, the fact is that we already have devaluation. Looking at the exchange rate of the pound to the naira, as well as the dollar to the naira, two years ago and now, we will understand that the argument should not be about devaluation. Rather, it should be about revaluation of the naira. The naira requires to be revalued. In revaluing the naira, all Nigerians would agree that we want to see the naira stronger. The CBN super-regulation of the naira-dollar parity is not ideal. The CBN has no business trying to shore up the dollar against the naira. This is the first mistake. The second mistake is the CBN’s creation of an official window for forex, as if they are the only ones whose contribution matters in ascending the forex. The President said correctly that if you want to school abroad, you must be ready to foot the bills, because government can’t support you. I wonder why that error is being made.

“The general principle of foreign exchange reserve is that everybody puts its hands in the basket. For instance, Dangote is going to have his refinery on stream in 2017/2018 at Epe area of Lagos State. He (Dangote) is not going to sell his product in naira but in dollars. I, as a lawyer, will also have the possibility of earning in dollars, but I am excluded from the window, because I am not a trader. The only traders are the licensed banks, or the Bureau De Change (BDC) operators. This act makes the black market to thrive. People now go to the black market because they want to make profit. So, the correct approach is to abolish the official window and allow all Nigerians, in public and private sectors, to harness the resources. For instance, China that has over $1 trillion in foreign reserves, it is not government’s money, rather, it is the money collectively generated by the national resources of China. In that way, the pressure of the dollar on the naira will lower. Also, if you go to the United Kingdom, you can go to the money shops to buy foreign exchange. Nobody is going to ask you, do you have the Bank of England licence? This, I think, is the way to reflate. If we revalue the currency, Nigeria will definitely be an attractive destination for investment.”

It would be recalled that Chidi Amuta, chairman and chief operating officer of Wilson & Weizmann Associates Ltd, a media and information warehousing company, had during an interview session with BusinessDay described Nigeria as an “extreme location for business”.

According to Amuta, “A foreigner who is coming here is ready to die because he knows he might be attacked by armed robbers, he might be scammed; he knows that the laws might change.

This is why they only take short-term risk. They bring something to Nigeria, sell it to you, collect their money and off they go. But what Nigeria now needs is long term investors who will be willing to go into manufacturing, and employ our youths.

“I have heard people complain that government policy is not stable. For instance, government lifts ban on a product, you spend so much money importing the product, but by the time the consignment arrives Apapa, the laws have changed.”