Regulatory agencies are stifling rather than promoting and creating the much-desired enabling environment for businesses to thrive in Nigeria.
This was the submission of Nigeria Employers’ Consultative Association (NECA), when a delegation from the Organised Private Sector (OPS) met with Vice President Yemi Osibanjo in Abuja, to discuss ways of making the Nigerian environment more attractive to investors and investments.
Arising from the concerns raised, the Federal Government is considering setting up a clearing desk within its ease-ofdoing-business framework to receive and address complaints from the OPS.
According to Timothy Olawale, director-general of NECA, who spoke with journalists after the visit, it is worrisome that while the government is promoting ease-of-doing-business, regulatory agencies at the same time are putting spanners in the work.
“What we are seeing and saying is that it is not all regulatory bodies of government the are on the same page with government on the desirables.
“Even when you have cases in court and there is restraining order; we have instances where some the regulatory bodies go against such restraining orders and still go ahead to disrupt businesses,” Olawale said.
Olawale made reference to instances where some of the regulatory bodies shut down businesses without recourse to dialogue and instances, where there were interventions from the agencies of government outside their enabling Act.
Noting that the regulatory agencies were working at cross purposes, the director-general submitted that except the vision behind the ease-of-doing-business, supervised by the office of the vice president, was allowed to work, the OPS might have to regularly approach the court to check the excesses of the agencies.
The NECA DG said the meeting with Osinbajo afforded the OPS the opportunity to raise issues of concerns to businesses in Nigeria, including competitiveness and tax burdens.
“There are several of them but key among them are the issue of regulatory bodies that are working at cross purpose. The ease-of-doing- business that is being championed by the Office of the Vice President and Presidential Enabling Business Environment Council (PEBEC); what we are saying is that we may not have access to Office of the Vice President every now and then to escalate issues for his attention.
“While also we do not want to be running to the court to seek relief because of the issue of non-accessibility of some of the chief executives of some regulatory bodies, we want a situation where there is a clearing desk on the Office of the Vice President, where we can escalate these issues and they can be resolved amicably, in the interest of national development and national economy,” he said.
The vice president, Olawale said, has promised to look into the concerns of the OPS by setting up a desk where these issues can be escalated because government is desirous of partnering OPS to better the economy.
