The migration of Nigeria’s best brains and youths in huge numbers because of scarce job opportunities is one of the many reasons the Nigeria Employers Consultative Association (NECA) gathered stakeholders in Abuja to brainstorm and fashion out ways to change the narrative and, most importantly, engender rapid national development.
Mr Taiwo Adeniyi, who occupies the dual position of NECA President and Council Chairman, revealed this to journalists on Monday at the sideline of the NECA’s ongoing Nigeria Employers’ Summit in Abuja. He noted that NECA and its partners aim to expand the employment net in Nigeria by deepening economic activities in non-oil trade export. He added that the overall gain is the provision of job opportunities in the country and national development.
Another burning issue the gathering of employers and stakeholders at the Abuja Employers’ Summit will seriously discuss is the issue of non-oil trade export financing.
“We put this Summit together because we know there is only one way to stop the migration of people out of this country in huge numbers. When I mean migration, the popular word is JAPA. So we are enabling us to expand the employment net so that we can provide jobs via non-oil trade export.
“There is no way we will work with non-oil export that we will not create jobs. So this Summit offers a unique opportunity for us to expand the employment net. And this is what we stand to gain. We want to ensure, as much as possible, that our youths do not leave the shores of this country because there are no jobs here. If there are jobs, they will not be in huge numbers.” The NECA President said.
He said, “We expect this Summit will engender new investment and opportunities to change the narratives, and the figures of unemployed persons will reduce. So at the end of the Summit, we will submit a document containing the recommendations of this Summit to the Federal government and then follow up with various ministries and agencies of government charged with promoting non-oil export.”
On the other hand, NECA Director-General, Adewale Oyerinde, said, “Being who we are as the voice of business in Nigeria, we must play our role not only as the conscience of the nation but as an organisation that contributes effectively and actively to conversations that propel national growth. We have multidimensional challenges in Nigeria now. So we feel that dealing with multidimensional challenges, you must deal with them from a multidimensional approach.
“We have forex issues that are bedevilling the country. Once you have forex issues, it affects so many things in the country. It affects your trade balance and ability to support organised businesses within the context of importation input for productivity activities. And if they can not produce, the ability to expand to employ becomes compromised.
“Right now, the quantum of oil we produce and how much we can sell it is out of Nigeria’s control. So what we have now to control is the huge natural resource that is deposited in abundance in every state in Nigeria. Can we have value for those natural raw resources? Yes, we can. So why not focus on those natural resources we can control, the quantum we can produce and the price we want to sell? We can add so much value to our raw natural resources, sell and generate forex to complement the forex from the oil.
“So the Summit is to enable us as a country to refocus our attention to non oil export that served us in the past and can still serve us now. So one of the issues we are having is financing export. Manufacturing and exporting are not attractive because in Nigeria, except you have strong will. So we have issue with financing, regulation. So add the issue of financing, regulation and the issue of standardisation we are struggling with, you would have a massive structure of hindrance and impediment to non oil export. And those are the conversation we are having in this Summit, and also create a path towards resolving or removing those hindrances so that the generality of Nigerians, organised businesses can move forward to national development. It is all about changing the narrative for us.”
On the recent pronouncement of the suspension of some taxes, Oyerinde said; “We don’t really need suspensions, we need absolute reversal. Those new taxes; the plastic tax, the carbonated, they have the potential to dig organised businesses deeper to the hole of extinction. So what the executive has done which we are happy about is that it has stopped the trajectory into extinction. And it has given us opportunity for engagement also. So within now and September when the suspension will lapse, we will engage constructively and make government see the risks inherent in those taxes. Hopefully, the President will see our reasons and then call for a wholistic and total reforms.
“If you want to tax, you must take care of three elements. First is what exactly you want to tax, when you want to tax and balance it with how much you want to tax. If you don’t deal with those three issues, and proceed to tax. You will initiate taxes, generate revenue from more tax, but you will be destroying your industries on the other hand. Let take the issue of excess duty on carbonated drinks and the rest. You more money the tax, but you make the cost of those goods higher to the reach of average citizen. And if the citizens cannot meet the cost of buying the original product, you are authentically creating a market for adulterated products. You are making smuggling much more attractive. And once you make import more attractive, you automatically exporting your jobs. So you are making money from taxes but you are destroying your economy.”
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