Ide John Udeagbaala, National President of the Nigerian Association of Chambers of Commerce, Industry, Mines and Agriculture (NACCIMA), has expressed sadness over the declining business environment in the nation, which he claims has put a significant burden on output.
Udeagbaala claimed that this, among other issues, has contributed to the nation’s accelerating decrease in domestic production yesterday at a media briefing on the state of the country. He disclosed that the country advanced 15 places to rank 131 out of 190 countries in 2019 when the Federal Government started promoting its program on the ease of doing business (EoDB).
The nation was ranked among the top 10 economies in the world by the World Bank for business-related ease of doing business. He bemoaned the declining ease of doing business across the nation, according to recent GDP numbers from the Nigeria Bureau of numbers (NBS).
According to him, this has put pressure on the manufacturing sector and caused the growth rate to slow down.
“For example, Nigeria’s growth rate declined from 5.01 in Q, in 2021 to 4.03 in Q; of the same year. It went down to 3.98 in Q4 of 202 1 and Q, of 2022 dropped further to 3.11. This spiral decline has continued unabated. Many of the challenges impeding the ease of doing business in Nigeria include multiple taxation, multiple exchange rates, constant government policies somersaults, poor infrastructure, high cost of power and so on.
“NACCIMA as the voice of organised private sector in Nigeria (OPSN) calls on the government to consider these impending factors affecting the EoDB and implement the various solutions we have suggested in time past for lasting solutions to these myriads of challenges. Collaboration with the OPSN and implementations of suggested solutions to these challenges will help ginger the economy back to inclusive growth and development,” he said.
He voiced profound concern on the recent plan by Zainab Ahmed, Minister of Finance and National Planning, to raise the value-added tax (VAT) charges from 7.5% to 10%.
He claimed that the chamber has previously emphasized the detrimental effects of the 2022 Finance Bill, which would result in a rise in financial burden on the OPSN.
“We expressed our fears that any further tax increase on businesses may lead to the shutdown of many small and medium-scale enterprises (SMEs) and worsen the unemployment crisis in the country,” he concluded.
