By Victor Ahiuma-Young

Ahead of the 2023 general elections, the Nigeria Employers’ Consultative Association, NECA, has tipped the incoming government on the pitfalls to avoid to revive the nation’s ailing economy.

The umbrella body for employers and the voice of businesses in the country, notedthat as year 2022 winds down and political activities takes centre stage, the government must not abandon governance, lamenting that the outgoing year is the most challenging for businesses.

Speaking in Lagos, on “Reviving The Stuttering Economy: Neca’s Policy Options,  Director-General of the association, Adewale-SmattOyerinde, said: “The year 2022 remained one of the most challenging years for organised businesses. The pandemic-inflicted leadership and sustainability challenges forced organisations to take extraordinary measures in real time, with zero planning. Things changed drastically and dramatically, leaving no industry across the world unaffected. In Nigeria, enterprises were forced to operate under excruciating circumstances, made worse by inherent systemic contradictions.

“As organisations faced sustainability issues, they, at the same time, had to deal with rising energy cost, regulatory gangsterism, inconsistencies and contradictions in the Fiscal and Monetary policies (which has made doing business unattractive and created clogs in the wheel of attracting Foreign Direct Investment), rising inflation and increasing cost of doing business, which invariably reduced the capacity utilization of industries. While some of these challenges are not peculiar to Nigeria alone, government’s approach to solving them remained suspect and does not inspire confidence.

“Government has to stop making mockery of Nigeria and the citizens. It is distressing to witness long queues for petrol when government claimed to have paid trillions in petrol subsidy. Notwithstanding the subsidy payment, Nigerians are still compelled to endure the long queues to buy it at almost “black market” rate, fueling inflation and economic hardship. Government must unravel the scam surrounding the subsidy and make pronouncement on a definitive plan to remove it.”

On policy options to revive the stuttering economy, Oyerinde said: “The tax system is currently skewed against responsible tax payers. The incoming government must further reform the tax system to create incentives for payers and expand the tax net rather than the current over-burdening of legitimate businesses. Consistency in the tax policy will improve ‘stakeholders’confidence rather than the short-sighted attempt to sabotage the established roadmap set out in the 2022 Fiscal Policy Measures and Tariffs Amendments (FPM 2022), which covers 2022-2024. While it was gladdening to hear that government had jettisoned the proposed increases in “Excise tax” a more collaborative and evidence driven approach should be adopted for future changes.”