LCCI Advocacy to Focus on Continental Competitiveness of Nigerian Companies

The newly elected President of Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI), Mr. Leye Kupoluyi, has dropped the hint that the chamber’s advocacy during his tenure would be targeted at continental competitiveness of Nigerian companies. Dike Onwuamaeze brings the excerpts:

What will be the direction of LCCI’s advocacy under your leadership?

Thank you so much for this question. As you know advocacy is one of our major mandates as a chamber because of the different interests that we are representing. Under my leadership we will carry on advocacy as usual as evidence based engagement on how to strengthen Nigeria’s productive capacity and enhancing business generally. Our advocacy will be for competitiveness of Nigerian businesses beyond the borders of Nigeria. The chamber will focus on advocacy that will enable Nigerian companies to be very well competitive within Nigeria and in Africa because it is now a borderless economy.

Do you think that Nigerian companies have the muscle to push their competitiveness extend beyond the country?

If we do not have the muscle then we have to develop it. But truly we have the muscle to push it. Nigeria is the hope of Africa. Arguably Nigeria is the largest economy in Africa. I do not want to go into the statistics of people saying which country has the largest economy because there is no country in Africa that is bigger than Nigeria. Therefore, if we cannot take the lead in Africa then there is no one to do it. There is no doubt that Nigeria is the arrow head of Africa.

But the West African market is shrinking for Nigerian made goods due to the exit of Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger Republic from ECOWAS?

There are challenges in terms of organised legal exports to these countries even though most of the manufactured goods they require still come from Nigeria. But definitely there are challenges in terms of doing business the way we know it at this chamber, which is formal, legal and legitimate trade and not through smuggling. Informally, Nigerian goods are reaching these countries but there are challenges when it comes to formal trade. And we know that ECOWAS leaders are doing everything possible to bring these countries back into the fold.

With the benefit of hindsight what do you see as the gains and losses of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s administration’s economic reforms?

Thank you very much for this very important question. President Tinubu right on his first day in office declared that petrol subsidy is gone and merged the multiple exchange rates. He did these because the fiscal choice before him at that moment was extremely limited. The economy was already on a life support system them and had he not taken those decisions may be that life support system might have been taken away from our noses. From the benefit of hindsight we now know that the President did not have many choices not to have taken those decisions. But what are the implications of those actions? The implication is that the reform has put more money into the hands of governments for them to provide the right infrastructure.

The unified exchange rate has eliminated those that just take advantage of the system to become billionaires overnight. But the question now is what are the ordinary people gaining from these reforms? We need growth and that is where investing on infrastructure is important. The ordinary people want to see good roads, support for agricultural inputs; support for the power system so that manufacturing can have cheaper and stable supply of electricity. We want our industries to produce enough for local consumption and to export and earn foreign exchange. We need broadband. Lagos and other cities may be okay but what about the hinterlands? Nigerians should be able to stay at any place in the country and still have internet access. The people should not only be looking at the indices that show that the economy is moving forward. They ought to see these benefits on their dining table as well.

What do you think will be the immediate impact of the implementation of the new tax laws from January 1, 2026?

 Thank you very much. For every reform like Nigeria’s tax reform there must be some shocks and benefits. But with the tax reforms we know that the benefits will be more than the shocks. It is a very good relief that the low income earners have been removed from the tax net. The multiple taxations that have been an epidemic in Nigeria’s business environment for many years will be taken care of. The tax reform must not be a burden to the people. It will unlock lots of revenues for the government because the tax net has been widened and strengthened. Also the harmonisation of taxes will be a relief to companies that have been paying over 16 taxes. The reform will make the environment predictable because we will know where we are going. Its implementation will be transparent as we move along and be beneficial to both the government and the tax payers. But we should wait to see how it goes in January. In our own case we keep enlightening our members and sending the feedback to the government.

However, there are lots of apprehensions regarding the implementation of the tax reform?

Those of us in the orgnised private sector are looking at it as a relief because those multiple taxation will go, low income earners exempted, the tax net expanded and that the tax system made more transparent and harmonised. If these are achieved it will bring big relief to the organised private sector.

What are your views on Nigerian business environment and ease of doing business?

The environment in Nigeria is good but we need to work more to have a competitive market where Nigeria will be the first choice when it comes to foreign direct investment. For this reason we need to fix power. We need to streamline our regulations. There are lots of immense potentials in Nigeria. One of them is that we have very forward-looking population. A large population of people that want to excel is always a fertile land for development in any environment. Non-oil exports are what we should be focusing on. We have to make sure that the single window for export works. Digitalising most of our operations will help in positioning Nigeria as one of the leading nations for investment decisions.

How far has President Tinubu addressed the binding constraints in the Nigerian economy?

Tinubu started addressing them right from his first day in office by removing the petrol subsidy. The subsidy was a heavy constraint and a very heavy load that we could no longer carry. It is one thing to have a load that you can carry and another thing to have a load that you cannot carry. Another constraint is the multiple exchange rates which he also took away. He is also addressing infrastructure with road constructions and decentralising the power sector by empowering the sub-nationals to take charge of electricity in their areas. This will take away many people out of the national grid so that the grid will be concentrate on supplying power to industries. The administration is also addressing the security challenges to enable people to farm and produce more food.  

What does 2026 hold for Nigerian economy? 2026 will be a year of growth for Nigeria?

The past two years tried our resilience but from all indications 2026 will be a year of growth.