Nigeria needs competition laws that will address regulatory issues – Expert

Nigeria legislators have been charged to concentrate their efforts on making laws that will further create an enabling environment for businesses across the various sectors in Nigeria. The lawmakers have also been counselled to ensure that the laws are made in line with global best practice.

Speaking on a Channels Television programme, Information Data and Political analyst, Babajide Ogunsanwo gave this admonition.

According to Ogunsanwo, “the lawmakers should focus on creating competition laws across all sectors to make the sectors more service driven”.

He said “creation of a full competition law is more important for the survival of the telecoms sector than attempts towards overregulation on the part of the legislators because since 1914, Nigeria is yet to have a full competition law and this situation leaves much to be desired”.

Commenting on the recent summon of the Mr. Fred Moolman, CEO MTN Nigeria by the lower house with respect to the NCC fine on the company, Ogunsanwo said “because there is no competition law, there are no clear penalties for companies that violate procedures. In simple terms, it is do as you like. When it is do as you like, issues like this will arise. If we don’t use this time to manage it, instead of treating the causes, we will start treating the symptoms”.

He continued, “the telecom sector is important to Nigeria. The most recent report from the National Bureau of Statistics says the telecom sector contributes 7 to 8 percent of GDP. MTN at the moment hold 42% of that market share. So in simple terms, MTN contributes 1.5 to 2.5 percentage of GDP. So we need to be careful on how the negotiation goes between the parties”.

According to Ogunsanwo, competition laws are laws designed to ensure fair competitive practices among firms, the focus is on creating an environment for companies to operate and grow by best principles in business. He added that such laws are created to support the healthy competitive growth of an industry.