NSC Boss Vows to Promote Ease of Doing Business

Eromosele Abiodun

The Executive Secretary of the Nigerian Shippers Council (NSC), Mr. Hassan Bello has pledged to promote ease of doing business in the country.

He stated this when he received a delegation of the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN), who paid him a courtesy visit in Lagos.

He stressed that the essence of privatisation is to bring down the cost of doing business comparative to what is obtainable in other climes.

Specifically, he said: “We can only do that through negotiations and we have been doing that to see that prices are reasonable and competitive together with the service providers. Everything we do, we need to get their buy-in because our regulation is democratic and we will achieve the same aim that we set out to achieve.

“The operating environment adds to little infractions here and there but with the NSC coordinating, these things will be minimised before the end of this year.”

In his speech, the Director General of MAN, Segun Ajayi-Kadir appealed to the federal government to review the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) policy which bars the importers of some 41 items from accessing foreign exchange through the official forex window.

Ajayi-Kadir, who led the members of the association on the courtesy visit said more than 200 factories have closed down within the space of two years due to CBN policy.

He said: “Customs effort to intervene has not succeeded and we are still engaging them but engagement have to stop at some point and we need to start seeing action. The restriction on the 41 items should be reviewed to remove the raw materials that are in it.”
According to him, 95 out of the more than 680 tariff lines in the 41 items are raw materials that are not locally available hence the need for government to remove them from the list.

He stressed that, “the way out is to take out those materials that are listed on the 41 items. It is not the right thing to do to deny any manufacturing industry the material it needs to produce. It just does not make sense. It was an error that was made and must be corrected. The raw materials that are needed to produce must be brought in especially because they are not locally available.”

He added: “To deny us access to those raw materials is ill advised and it should be changed. We are engaging government, the CBN and the Presidency. We have been having positive reactions, but something just needs to be done.”

He added that there is need for government to provide a conducive and friendly operating environment for the manufacturers to operate.

A conducive environment is a prerequisite for a successful manufacturing company. An environment that is not conducive is like taking the fish out of water.”