The President of Nigerian Association of Chambers of Commerce, Industry, Mines, and Agriculture (NACCIMA), Dele Oye, has faulted President Bola Tinubu’s economic policies.
Oye said the President’s economic policies have not helped the country’s economy, including the growth of the private sector.
In an interview with Arise News on Tuesday, he decried the continued decline of the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and the slide of the nation’s economic ranking among other African nations.
Recall that Henzodaily reported that the NACCIMA’s President, in his New Year statement, condemned the country’s 2024 economic performance.
He warned that borrowing more loans or increasing taxes would not help the nation’s economy.
“What is important is that we normally have inflation when government has spent its revenue. And the tendency for government is to try to borrow or to increase taxes to fill that gap. If you do that, you only make Nigeria poorer.
“If you look at our current GDP, in 2014, we were at $568 billion. And we are going down every year. So you cannot use the same treatment for a sickness that has never worked before. Last year, we had a budget for 2024. And look at it in real terms, we are declining.
“In fact, this year’s budget is far lower in real terms than last year’s budget. And we are shrinking. And also look at our standing in the African GDP. We are about number five now, maybe going to six. All these are due to the domestic policies that have been made, deficit financing, this coordinated transfer from the private sector to the public sector. So what you are seeing is that the private sector is shrinking while the public sector is expanding,” he said.
2025 Budget, Loans, Tax, Cost of Governance and Collaboration with Private Sectors
Oye faulted the 2025 budget, stating that it lacked the essentials to lift the hardship plaguing the nation. According to him, there was not much difference between the 2024 budget and that of 2025.
He called for collaboration between the government and private sector. He stressed the need for the government to include the private sector in some of its policy formulation and execution.
“So government must listen more to the business and the business that will generate the income that will be used to pay these loans. The loans are not sustainable, but they will start cutting down costs in the government sector. It will be very difficult to grow the economy. So government must listen more to the private sector.
“We are not aware of the effort the government has made in giving us two ministers recently in the Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment to support the private sector. We are grateful and we are fully engaging with them. But what is important, government must also get its other organizations, other MDAs, the Central Bank, the Ministry of Finance, all of them to key in and work with the private sector. Because we are the ones to pay the loans back from our production. Government does not produce any goods or services. A holding contract is not an economic activity or you are launching a project. What pays for these bills is the efforts of the private sector. So government must work with us,” he noted.
NACCIMA President enjoined the President to listen less to praise singers. He warned that too much taxation would shrink the economy more.
Oye further advised the government to consider business competitiveness, particularly, in comparison with other nations before further actions on taxes.
“And if you look at the current budget, tell me, anything that is different from the 2024, there is nothing. It is the same old, same old budget. So we need to change. The people that are telling the President that he is doing very well, they should show us. All the indices show there is a decline. So it is not to tax us more or to increase tax.
“In fact, to increase our competitiveness, we must find a way to reduce tax. Anytime we are making laws in Nigeria, look at what our neighbors are offering. Before we plug in our own rates so that we can be competitive. So this is the reason. We cannot tax ourselves out of this problem. We have to increase capacity of the private sector. We are not asking for a handout. We are not asking for money from government. We have the formula that will bring down interest rates so that people can borrow at a sustainable level,” he explained.
He reiterated that private sector players want a conducive business environment from government and not handouts.
“The President himself gave us an eight-point agenda that he will give us single-digit loans. I’m not asking for government to give us money. Government should create the enabling environment. We need to sit down with government to establish this. So this is what NACCIMA is saying in nutshell,” he added.