Onyebuchi Ezigbo in Abuja
Nigerian Employers Consultative Association (NECA) says the federal government needs the collaboration and support of organised businesses to effectively drive economic policy reforms and to achieve the desired goals.
The umbrella body of employers and top business owners in Nigeria said government also needed to consistently review, reassess, or re-plan reforms to ensure their outcome aligned with the country’s economic objectives
Director-General of NECA, Mr. Adewale-Smatt Oyerinde, made the statements on Tuesday, in an interview with journalists at the Nigerian Employers Summit in Abuja.
Oyerinde said the focus of the Employers’ Summit was to do a thorough review of the reforms being implemented by government and to assess their impact so far.
He said the reforms had apparently become very harsh for Nigerians to bear due to prevailing circumstances.
Oyerinde said, “Removing the fuel subsidy in 2023, I suppose, was a bit late. We would have removed it long ago.
“But it changed the dynamics of doing business. Because as someone says, all of us seem to have been eating our breakfast for dinner. We were living large.
“Past governments were printing money. No economy prints money. We are subsidizing what is not subsidisable.”
He stated, “So we were all living large, thinking everything is okay. So, and that’s the context of saying we are eating our breakfast for dinner. Then it was dawn.
“It was morning. We were all expecting breakfast. And the president said, look, I won’t borrow to buy breakfast for you again.
“Because everything you’ll have used for breakfast and for lunch, most likely, you have had it for dinner. So, the pain of, the hunger pang of breakfast, we all have to bear it. The hunger pang of lunch, we all have to bear it.”
Oyerinde said the removal fuel subsidy had come with its challenges, which included the distortion of the way citizens did business.
According to him, the cost of doing business increased because everyone has to pay for fuel and diesel.
Oyerinde said the measure also affected individuals whose disposable incomes had reduced.
He stated, “Somehow, those reforms affect everybody. Businesses, individuals, workers. So, for the reform to be effective, government needs the collaboration and support of organized businesses to drive it and drive it effectively.
“And government also needs to consistently review, reassess, or re-plan these reforms. If at any point in time, we realise that those reforms are not giving us the kind of outcome that we want.”
However, he said organisations, businesses, social enterprises, and even individuals could leverage the reforms and also the Economic and Social Governance (ESG) regime.
The NECA director-general said if businesses were not sustainable, hardly would anyone be able to create jobs.
“If the business is not sustainable, hardly will the government be able to make revenue from those businesses in the context of company tax,” he said.
Oyerinde said apart from providing a platform for top government officials to interface with business owners, the summit hoped to share its outcome and recommendations with the federal government to guide the implementation of reforms.