By Naomi Uzor

The Nigerian British Chamber of Commerce, NBCC, has blamed failed and abandoned projects littering every nook and cranny of the country on government’s policy somersaults. The President of NBCC, Prince Adeyemi Adefulu, made this assertion during a breakfast meeting organised by the chamber in Lagos.

“In each case entrepreneurs were motivated to bring forward proposals, partners were selected, uncountable trips were made overseas, billions of dollars were pumped into the investments by the Federal and sometimes by state governments but the Nigerian landscape is littered with failed and abandoned projects many of which were hinged by corruption, ineptitude and downright sabotage and counterproductive policies” he said.

According to him, it cannot always be said that all these projects were informed by compelling economic demands which is the base on which economic projects, to be successful must be based. Sometimes, location was based on political influence and patronage. This was possible because government was a major investor in these projects.

He said national experience has shown that government is a bad business manager and that the country would have been better off if an enabling environment was created tax incentives established , soft long term loans extended in deserving cases and the experts allowed to get going with the jobs. “This was the formula adopted in the NLNG project which has turned out to be a most successful project because the private sector was given the commanding lead.  In consequence of poor organisation, expectations failed and many partners lost money after wasting years on projects that government policy sabotaged”” he said.