Vice President of the Lagos Chamber of C o m m e r c e and Industry (LCCI), Princess ‘Layo BakareOkeowo, has raised the alarm that the Federal Government’s revenuedriven target exercise given to all government institutions, including Ministries, Department and Agencies (MDAs) on specific revenue collection annually for the country’s GDP growth is strangulating manufacturing and Micro, Small and Medium-scale Enterprises (MSMEs), among lots of other businesses in the country.
Bakare-Okeowo, who also doubles as the President of FAE Group and owner of The Mart Supermarket, stated this in an exclusive interview with New Telegraph in Lagos that the enormous pressure of revenue generation collection targets being levied on these government agencies is choking businesses, causing heavy disruption in supply chain as well as triggering raw materials stock-out in many manufacturing concerns, inflicting higher cost of demurrage, increase huge volumes of unsold inventories, which worsen the competitiveness of Nigerian manufacturers.
According to her, the policy is also affecting Nigerian products in the African Continental Free Trade Agreement (AfCFTA) Area scheme, even as it contributes to manufacturing companies’ relocation to neighbouring countries, and others.
Specifically, she pointed out that it’s time for the federal authorities to take a closer look at this revenue driven targets assessment being imposed on the MDAs so that there can be stability and conducive atmosphere in the business community in a bid to achieve ease of doing business in the country. Bakare-Okeowo stressed: “I think government should stop confusing the regulatory agencies.
Because, the bulk of these problems, if I am going to zero it down; it’s government’s hunger for money. They are giving these regulatory bodies targets to meet. So these regulatory bodies are distracted. The atmosphere is tense he frustration is much.
“A lot of Chinese people come here to manufacture goods and their government gave them big money at zero interest rates. Whereas, the money you are giving us as manufacturers is not even spreading round all of us. We are not denying that some manufacturers got these monies. But it’s like you are robbing Peter to pay Paul.”
She continued: “At times, when this problem comes, as manufacturers, you would be running helter-skelter because they know that when you get to number 2 Adu Street in Ogba, FAE Group is there; they are always coming back, different regulatory bodies disrupting production and causing us to be even jittery. “That’s why you have a lot of manufacturing “The problem between Wike and Fubara is between ‘boy and oga.’
Our President is one person who has been protecting democracy and there is no way he is truncating it. We are doing everything, including the President and Wike. Fubara is coming back as governor.” There have been reports that Fubara met with Tinucompanies going out of Nigeria to Ghana or other African countries.
So this target that they are giving government’s regulatory bodies should stop and allow them to face what they are doing, let them regulate us, we will always stand by our responsibility and we would pay whatever the bills they have given us. “But all these bills are strangulating us, heating up the economy because this cost is passed down to the consumers.
“And we shouldn’t forget that we have signed into AfCFTA; If we say we are the giant of Africa our own products should be cheaper, it shouldn’t be expensive. A lot of African countries are very aggressive. “My own concern is that they should address the issue of target they are giving government parastatals.”
