A WORLD Bank Enterprise Survey Report disclosed that a whopping 322 companies were forced to close shop between 2009 and 2014. The report also found another 1,136 out of the 5,833 firms sampled within the period facing the same dire risk of forced closures. The report, published by the African Development Bank (ADB), identified the political environment, corruption, stifling business regulations, inadequacy of infrastructure, particularly transportation, electricity and telecommunication facilities as well as access to finance as major constraints to doing business, just as conflicts along ethnic and, by extension, regional lines, have stalled the nation’s economic growth.
Although the survey period predated the Buhari administration, there are, important takeaways from the survey, if only to enable Nigerians appreciate where the country is coming from and hence evaluate the impact of the measures being undertaken by the current administration vis-à-vis those factors known to have hobbled the nation’s growth.
To start with, the problems identified in the survey are not just familiar, the indices aggregate those ineluctable elements in defining the graveyard that the Nigerian business environment has become – factors that successive governments have sought to deal with, in different degrees, albeit with very limited success. At a time the country would appear to be locked in the foreign direct investment (FDI) mode, the survey ought to be a reminder of how much information the global investment community already has on Nigeria: the unreliable state of the power infrastructure, the inefficiency and the mind-boggling corruption in our ports, and the terrible state of the transportation infrastructure and their impacts, not just on businesses but on the security of lives and property.
In highlighting the countless red tapes in the bureaucracy, the underdeveloped state of the local credit infrastructure, all of which make businesses truly unprofitable, the report, offers yet again, a ready mirror to see whether true progress is being made.
Agreed, the country has come a long way – in some respects. Today, reference is made to the progress being made by the so-called steady climb on the World Bank’s Annual Ease of Doing Business Report. In the report, Nigeria moved from 170th place in 2015 to 169th place in 2016; and then from 145th place in 2017 to 146th in 2018, and finally to 131st position in 2019 – making her one of the most improved economies in the world for running a business.
Be that as it may, the mere fact that the risk factors cited in the survey have not only lingered but have somewhat defied solutions indicate how far the country has to go. To that extent, the report remains relevant for 2014 as it is today.
And so, while the Buhari administration could claim to have done more with far less resources; it is nonetheless beyond question that the administration could do far more provided it is ready to shed the tardiness which has since constituted its hallmark. We do understand also, that no administration could ever have all the resources it needs to make a difference, the perennial wringing of hands by hierarchs of the administration over so-called paucity of funds would seem to suggest either that the administration is out of depth or has also run out of ideas on the countless options still available to get things going, at a time of dire emergency that Nigeria is at the moment.
This takes us back to the point that has been repeatedly made by this newspaper for years about the government’s obsession with FDI. It is better, in our view, for the government to attend to those peculiar issues in our environment that continue to render businesses difficult and unprofitable. That way, the government would not need to be chasing investors and Nigerians would have no need to worry about firms closing down.
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