The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Gross Domestic Product (GDP)

  • GDP: FG will encourage MTN, Etisalat, others – Minister

    GDP: FG will encourage MTN, Etisalat, others – Minister

    • seeks more collaboration on employment generation

    The Federal Government of Nigeria has commended MTN Nigeria on its impressive contributions to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) since its inception in 2004.

    Speaking during his working visit to the Head Office of MTN Nigeria on Monday, the Honourable Minister for Communication, Barrister Adebayo Shittu, said that the federal government will do everything possible to encourage and develop innovative ideas from MTN Nigeria and indeed other telecommunication companies in the country.

    “As a matter of fact, as a person, I consider MTN as first and foremost a Nigerian company. Nigerian company in the sense that it is a company registered in Nigeria like any other company. In fact, the government appreciates the contributions MTN Nigeria is making to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP), generating employment and putting smiles on the faces of Nigerians,” Shittu said.

    Speaking on the level of investment by MTN Nigeria, the Minister said: “MTN has made a lot of strides, pioneering efforts if I may say in regards to investment and in liberating Nigerians. As it were, time was when if you have to phone a relation, you will go to NITEL, queue up and pay through your nose for a minute or two. But with the coming of MTN and GSM, things have been wonderful.

    “There is no doubt over the last couple of months that we have had issues; those issues are normal in relationships like this. I want to assure you that the Nigerian government has nothing personal against MTN” while reassuring earlier that “my motivation for visiting companies is to do everything I can to give motivation and encouragement to companies operating in Nigeria.”

    It would be recalled that MTN Nigeria recently paid a sum N50billion to the Nigeria government in good faith with regards to the fine on the company by NCC. The company upon payment of the amount reiterated its commitment to the Nigeria government and assured of conducting its business within the parameters of the laws and regulations guiding its operations.

    The Company also reiterated its commitment to national security and human capital development as it places an unquantifiable premium on lives of Nigerians with its reinvigorated effort at complying with the SIM registration exercise.

    Stressing the value MTN has contributed, the Minister said: “I believe that MTN appreciates the fact that Nigerians love MTN. More than half of people who patronize GSM operations in Nigeria are your customers and I think that is an appreciation which must be acknowledged.”

    However, the Minister has promised to work in tandem with MTN Nigeria and other telecommunication companies in Nigeria to address challenges faced in the industry.

    “Am aware of deficiencies in broadband and some of the challenges you have mentioned. I want to assure you that we will do our best to collaborate with you to identify those things you can do very quickly and take all the needed steps to remedy the situation,” the Minister assured.

  • Nigerian tax to GDP ratio of 7% not acceptable, says Okonjo-Iweala

    Nigerian tax to GDP ratio of 7% not acceptable, says Okonjo-Iweala

    The Coordinating Minister for Nigeria’s Economy, Dr Ngozi okonjo-Iweala says the nation’s tax to Gross Domestic Product (GDP) ratio of 7 per cent of GDP Is not sufficient to build a strong economy.

    Okonjo-Iweala disclosed this during a presentation at the Spring meeting of the World Bank Group and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in Washington DC.

    The Minister spoke on the topic “Fiscal Policy, Equity and Long-Term Growth in Developing Countries”.at a forum of  the World Bank.

    “In my own country, Nigeria, tax to GDP ratio is an unacceptable 7 per cent of GDP as we depend mostly on government’s direct share of oil revenue.

    “This has to change,’’ she said.

    According to her, the fundamental observation is that for low-income countries, more resources need to be mobilised from domestic sources given the anticipated decline in Official Development Assistance (ODA).

    She noted that the IMF estimates that many low-income countries still have tax revenues which fall below the generally accepted threshold of 15 per cent of GDP.

    “For example, low-income countries in Africa are below the 15 per cent of GDP.

    “Overall, we know that a further increase in tax revenues of about 2-4 per cent of GDP is attainable in many low-income countries.

    “Interestingly, investing ODA in building strong tax systems in developing countries can yield excellent returns.

    “Some research by the OECD indicates that one dollar of ODA spent on building tax administration capacity results in another 350 dollars in increased tax revenues,’’ she added

    Okonjo-Iweala said that in developing countries, policy-makers must first take responsibility for reviewing how resource mobilisation in their economies would be improved.

    She said that a complete diagnostic had been carried out, with the help of McKinsey consult, to see how to improve compliance in the tax system.

    She noted that about 75 per cent of registered firms were not in the tax system.

    “When we looked more closely at our tax payers’ database, we discovered that about 65 per cent of registered tax payers had not filed their tax returns in the past two years.

    “The main culprits tend to be this intermediate group of medium-sized professional service providers, contractors, and landlords.

    “This non-compliant group fall in the grey area between the informal sector and large companies and I think, from an enforcement viewpoint, we can get a good `bang for the buck’ by focusing on this sector,’’ she said.

    Okonjo-Iweala said that the estimated tax leakages due to unpaid real estate rentals in Nigeria amounted to about 250 million dollars per annum. (NAN)

  • Outdoor advertising practice

    Outdoor advertising practice

    In contemporary society

    WORLD over, national growth and development is predicated upon same indices, predominantly dependent upon Gross Domestic Product (GDP). Calculating any nation’s GDP, draws inputs from simple evidences such as the nationals’ overall standard of living which in turn is broken down into little details that includes literacy level, life expectancy, employment rate, standard of infrastructural development and such other seemingly distant indicators not readily considered in frontal calculations in the determination of a nation’s wealth.

    Looking at the various World Bank literatures on national growth on the basis of economic activities could be knotty, so, for the purpose of this article, we shall limit ourselves to the broad framework of global appreciation of national development. National development is a summation of the various activities of economic value that happens within any given nation, within a given year, and a value-interpretation of the natural and human resources of economic value as well. That is why the World Bank has described Economic Development as “QUALITATIVE CHANGE AND RESTRUCTURING IN A COUNTRY’S ECONOMY IN CONNECTION WITH TECHNOLOGICAL AND SOCIAL PROGRESS”.

    Interestingly, economic development is given expression by a culmination of many other indicators building up to economic growth, namely: labor force, life expectancy at birth, living standard, productivity and literacy level, prevalent. In modern economy, nations are getting more competitive of one another in their quest for economic development and growth. Primary among the reasons for the heightened aggressive drive for development and growth, among nations, is the aim for status of respectability at the comity of nations, worldwide. The strength of any nation is determined by her economic power. Hence the TIGER NATIONS earned a good level of respect for themselves through economic power as against military might. The gradual but steady global power shift to Asia is influenced by economic growth and development.

    Suffice, therefore, that nations, world over are getting pettier in their quest for economic growth and development in the face of openness and growing inter-dependence and co-operation, because at the end of the day, survival is an individual ambition.

    Like other nations in the world, Nigeria exists for itself, drawing from her natural and human resources, exploiting inherent opportunities and competitive advantages among other nations, to drive economic growth and development. But we must as a nation, appreciate that high growth rate correlate systematically with a number of variables that describe the economic and political environment. The two important trends in the world economy today are:

    (A) Technological innovations – it is becoming ever more important contributor to economic well-being

    (B) Global co-existence and interdependence among nations

    So, communication and close contacts among innovators in different countries facilitate the process of invention and the spread of new ideas.

    Secondly, rapid changes in technology intensify the motives for trade and the consequences of integration into the world trade system. It is, therefore, not surprising that increasing attention is being paid to issues of productivity and technology on the one hand, and to national competitiveness and the world trade system, on the other.

    Given that Nigeria does not possess the sophistication for technological advancement, the question remains how can we now play in this competitive world, among nations? Yet, we must, as a nation, compete, survive and grow. Nigeria must appreciate the fact that the contemporary society is competitive, aggressive and increasingly discriminatory of one another on the basis of evident capabilities demonstrated in what is known as economic growth and development. In the face of our obvious limitations, we must draw from our appreciation of our advantages and opportunities, protect the little we have and can trade with, and optimize such resources to our advantage.

    Our natural resources have resilient in sustaining us since we evolved into a nation. Evidently, it is upon the strength of our natural resources that we have registered the little progress made so far. A lot has happened since 1960/63, in our quest for growth, but the most evident of progress so far made by our country is the slow but steadily progressive sophistication of her human resource. That is why, over time, we have owned top quality professionals across industries such as banking, medicine, academics, communication and communication technology, among others. These are evidences pointing to some level of investment of readily available resources in pursuit of development, in this case, education.

    It is by reason of good quality education we invested in as a nation, in the past that we grew good quality human resources that enabled that level of international interaction and communication that led to aspirations such as technology transfer from the technologically advanced nations to Nigeria, in so far as we have experienced (we know our short-comings).

    From my standpoint as a practitioner in communication, I like to appreciate the nation’s growth and development from my perspective. Our focus here is on the importance of productivity of Nigeria’s human resource, to the over-all economic growth and development, leading on to the specific contribution of OUTDOOR ADVERTISING PROFESSION to the nation’s development.

    Outdoor advertising in Nigeria predates her independence, having been in practice since 1928 (August 13). Suffice that outdoor advertising has been for 84 years. It started as a foreign intervention in the development of trade and commercial activities in our local market environment, through its unique method of (1) helping manufacturers connect with the market and making known that which they have on offer in form of goods and services, and (2) to enlighten the market/consumers on the available options and their inherent benefits.

    In 84 years and still running, Nigerians –men and women- have committed themselves to growing the contribution of outdoor advertising to our national growth and development by dedicating their intellect, time and resources to advancing the practice of outdoor advertising, keeping in line with global technological, creative and strategic standard, and practice. As in technology, education, medical sciences, Nigeria can be said to have advanced in professional know-how, in the area of outdoor advertising. From the early days of static display board, we now have technologically advanced digital display panels that have effectively combined interactive audio and visual impact in outdoor advertising. Today, brands are better appreciated, manufacturers are enabled the new technology to help them do and stay in business profitably through efficient channel of reaching the market with their offers

    In outdoor advertising, we now talk of ENVIRONMENT BEAUTIFICATION instead of hoardings and placement of outdoor advertising boards. Individual practitioners now invests hundreds of millions of naira in providing outdoor advertising services and products, to keep Nigeria at par with other nations of the world, not minding their technological advancement. Over 8million Nigerian men and women are today gainfully employed by outdoor advertising industry.

    Now, all of these come through as the fundamentals that add up for a nation such as ours, not competitively on the advantage in the area technological advancement in today’s world. The strength and industry of our people (our human resource) count for us as our resource for competitive advantages in pursuit of economic growth and development. So, we like to emphasize the importance of outdoor advertising as a profession, as business practice and enterprise, in the over-all growth and development of Nigeria at the micro and macro levels. Outdoor industry is a big employer of labor and an avenue for inflow of advanced technology, helping the growth of commerce, trade, advertising and marketing communication. Add to that is its added value as a trainer of professionals and appreciation of human resource.

    However, we are not unaware of the points of conflict between outdoor advertising practice and some other change agents such as government agencies and institutions. Put succinctly, outdoor advertising practice in Nigeria today, is grueling under heavy burden brought upon it by State governments regulatory policies, geared towards drive for internally generated revenue. Pursuant to identified objective, most state governments have evolved innovative administrative systems that seek to achieve the following:

    Optimize revenue earnings from outdoor advertising and signage

    Environmental beautification

    Regulation and control of outdoor advertising within their individual states

    To achieve the above, state governments now have agencies established for stated purposes.

    On the face of these changes or innovations, outdoor advertising practice and their professional association, Outdoor Advertising Association of Nigeria (OAAN), are agreed on the purpose and good of the industry. However, there are areas of conflict that needs to be resolved by the state governments, for the good of all.

    Outdoor advertising practitioners represented by OAAN, thinks harmonizing those areas of differences as below, will help the objective of the governments and their agencies on the one hand and still enable a friendly environment for profitable outdoor advertising practice.

    SYSTEM ADMINISTRATION: from a professional stand-point, governments will gain more from their new system if they appoint heads and other staff of their various agencies for outdoor advertising regulation and control, from among professionals or practitioners. That way, professional competence will come to play at the point interaction between the industry practitioners and the government agency. Secondly, professionals will better appreciate the stop-points and areas needing of caution against making decisions that will result in negative outcome, advising the government properly on issues of rates determination, regulation and control, in line with practice code and ethics.

    We make this suggestion because it has become evident that where such agencies are headed by non-professionals, rules based on the peculiarities of outdoor advertising practice (open to a professional only) are not applied. Consequently, governments are misled into taking decisions detrimental to all.

    RATES & LEVIES: again, from our professional stand-point, we know there has to be a fine balance between cost and benefits. As in all transactions, cost influences market performance delicately. So, one of the troubling issues presently is the new rates (and levies) regime coming from some state government agencies. These rates are rather threatening to the business because the present and prospective clients are beginning to consider alternatives to outdoor media with the new rates.

    So, we ask that the new state governments’ initiatives reconsider their new rates, advised by a professional.

    Still on rates and levies, there is also the need to harmonize the system of collection because there are incidences of mix-up in the system and method of collecting rates and levies from practitioners that amount to double-taxation.

    The issues are legion, but I will like to sum up by establishing the fact that outdoor advertising is pivotal in our quest for economic growth and development, and an integral part of our resources as a nation. Therefore, permitting policy decisions inimical to the survival of outdoor advertising practice will have a direct negative effect on the nation’s economic growth and development. OAAN and her member-agencies will continue to work hard to keep millions of Nigerians in employment and in business, stimulating trade and commerce and enabling technological advancement in critical advertising and marketing communication.