By Udeme Clement

The Director General, Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI), Mr. Mudashiru Yusuf, has said that the economy is currently dominated by buying and selling because the risk of failure in the manufacturing sector in Nigeria is high. This  he attributed to dearth of infrastructure and a hostile operating environment.

He said these in a chat with Vanguard, in Lagos, emphasising that many industrialists today are lamenting over delving into the manufacturing sector because of the overwhelming challenges.

He said, “Investors by nature want to succeed but looking at our own environment, their success has been limited by the unfavourable investment climate, poor infrastructure, high cost of fund, hostile regulatory institutions, policy inconsistency, influx of cheap imported products, poor ethical standards and corruption in the system”.

On the role of LCCI in nurturing growth of industries, he explained “Our role is classified into four areas such as public policy advocacy, which is geared towards the improvement of business environment and provision of networking platforms among the business community between domestic and foreign investors. This strategy aims at creating new window of investment opportunities, which in turn would create more jobs and generate revenue for the economy. Business development service is also one of roles played by LCCI. The focus is on development of the capacity of Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs), to manage their businesses. Organising trade fair and exhibitions are among the roles we play. This is an important aspect of what LCCI does, which provides a good platform for investors to showcase their goods and services.”

Responding to question on what he considered the benefits of the World Economic Forum (WEF), organised few months ago by the Federal Government, he said,  “It was a good opportunity to draw global attention to prospect of  Nigeria’s economy. Part of the reasons we now have a global coalition against terrorism in Nigeria was because we hosted the Forum. The issue of terrorism, especially the kidnapped of Chibok girls was a reoccurring issue at almost all the sessions of the Forum.

Secondly, the WEF offered opportunity for international networking and for foreign investors to explore investment opportunities in Nigeria. Also, it offered a platform to promote Public Private Partnership (PPP) between some State governments, the Federal Government and foreign investors, especially in the area of infrastructure.”  On the power sector reform he stressed, “We are yet to achieve the desired result. The investors in the sector had apparently underestimated the challenges of fixing it. The sector also has a peculiarity of a long chain in the delivery of desired outcome. Unless each component of this chain is properly fixed, we may not have the expected service. The system is therefore as strong as the weakest link in the chain.