Nigerian-American Chamber Harps on Ease of Doing Business

• Nigerian-American Chamber Harps on Ease of Doing Business

The Nigerian-American Chamber of Commerce, NACC, yesterday said that for Nigeria to prosper economically, the ease of doing business has to be improved.

Speaking this at the March 2017 NACC Business Dialogue, with the theme “Improving the Ease of Doing Business in Nigeria”, the president of NACC, Chief Olabintan Famutimi, said the task of moving Nigeria up the ladder was daunting and depended on the abundance of the political will on the part of the government to achieve such an improvement.

He noted that there were key areas where businesses in Nigeria face challenges and which has greatly affected the ease of doing business.

Unnecessary red-tape and corruption

Famutimi said, “despite Nigeria’s available resources, it is still unable to meet up with the electricity demand. The epileptic power supply throughout the country has hindered the growth of many businesses, especially within the manufacturing sector, as majority of these businesses have to run on generators, which is a huge burden on their overhead. Some have closed down or moved to neighboring countries, this has hindered the development of our economy generally.”

According to him, the unnecessary red-tape and corruption in obtaining operating licenses for businesses is a crucial area that needs to be addressed.

“The upgrade of the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) online portal to ensure document upload capabilities that will make it possible for new businesses to be registered online from start to finish is commendable. The Commission also stated that it has consolidated the forms required to incorporate a business in Nigeria by reducing the number of forms from seven to one. Also work is ongoing to streamline the number of agencies operating at the nation’s port to just six,” he stated.

On inaccessibility of funds, he said, where these funds are available they come at extremely high interest rates to the small and medium business owners in the country, stressing, “this is one key area which hinders the growth of start-ups. There is also a need to enhance tax reliefs and access to venture capital for small business operations by means of promoting lending through equity instead of debt.”

Famutimi noted that inconsistency in government policies, exceptions and exemptions have been the bane of the Nigerian business environment. This, he said, plays a huge role in the daily operations of businesses, with onerous regulations, multiple taxes and unfriendly government officials diverting the energies of entrepreneurs from developing businesses.

“Government has been most notorious in failing to pay its debts and honouring its contractual obligations. This factor alone, accompanied by a poor dispute settlement mechanism has led to the untimely death of many companies. Government must demonstrate integrity in keeping its obligations. Putting the country back on the path of recovery and growth to help boost businesses will require efforts from the government and private sector hence the decision of the NACC to organise this event” he stated.