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NIGERIA
A new business climate |
 Business - Economy - Lean and clean - Core issues - Home truth -
Oil business - Private sector - Banking 
 HOME TRUTH
nigeria's business community has been championing the economic reform agenda that the present government has inherited. Obasanjo has set up a Presidential advisory committee on revitalization of the nigerian economy. Headed by the vice president, the committee draws its membership mostly from business groupings that make up the organized private sector. A major reform advocate is the nigerian Economic Summit Group (NESG) that comprises mostly the big operators in the oil, banking and manufacturing sectors. Mr. Bunmi Oni , managing director of Cadbury nigeria Plc says the group's objective was to set up "a continuous platform for an ongoing dialogue between the government and the business community".
From its yearly summits, a Vision 2010 economic policy blueprint was developed in conjunction with the previous governments. The Vision 2010 program which calls for increasing liberalization of the economy has earned high praises from the IMF managing director Mr. Camdessus. It has been adopted by the Obasanjo administration. Says Oni: "We have seen increasing commitment to the ideals of moving the country to a truly market economy as quickly as we can".
Mr. Bassey Ndiokho, out-going chairman and CEO of UAC Nig. Plc, urges the new government to maintain constant vigilance on the economic front. His words: "There is the unspoken belief that democracy promotes good governance which in turn leads to economic well being. This is more apt in our situation where bad leadership had robbed us of economic welfare for very many years".
Mr. Ndiokho says a starting point in dealing with the economy lies in a resolve to quickly embark on its radical restructuring and the setting up of fresh national economic priorities. " There is need for us to evolve and implement a national program of economic transformation as a basis for serious pact between the government and the citizens on the one hand and between nigeria and the international community on the other".
Another strong campaigner for policy reforms and member of the NESG is Mr. Atedo Peterside, Managing Director of Investment Banking and Trust Company Limited. He urges the government to instill fiscal discipline while speeding up the restoration of economic reforms. He wants the government to reduce the cost of doing business and revive nigeria's non-oil exports. Debt relief, he said, should " revolve around the demonstrable and sincere pursuit of economic programs and policies by a democratically elected government that is running a transparent, honest and open administration".
Obasanjo agrees that nigeria deserves concrete benefits for turning a new leaf. He hopes international concern for democratic governance does not stop with his government's assumption of office. "All nigerians are expecting democracy to yield dividends that they can perceive in their lives. It is in this regard that we are hoping to count on further support from our international friends".
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Some nigerian economists say the "Washington consensus" on nigeria might not accord with Obasanjo's expectations or the country's aspirations. Since expressing interest in an IMF facility in 1983, nigeria till date is yet to access IMF funding. The country's ineligibility stem from failure to meet certain conditions linked to macroeconomics variables. nigeria is equally ineligible to benefit from the heavily indebted poor countries (HIPC) initiative adopted in 1996 by the IMF and the World Bank .
Furthermore, World Bank project financing in the country has been drastically cut down over the past ten years.
That nigeria is in dire straits on the international financial front makes Obasanjo brittle. Here is a teaser of the hard ball he is equally committed to playing with the international financial community.
"Our national circumstances are far from easy, so our message to our international well wishers has to be blunt: the euphoria today could quickly evaporate if it is not followed by massive inflow of foreign investment and a more realistic re-appraisal of the crushing debt burden".
Various private sector advocacy groups have proffered sundry economic policy options to past and present governments. The vice-president has the responsibility with his various committees, to distill from a myriad of policy documents, a upprecise action blue print. Some analysts say the emphasis should be on raising productivity across the various sectors so as to enhance nigeria's competitiveness within the global economy.
Actions in this regard will range from revamping the macroeconomic setting to spinning off various activities undertaken by the public sector as well as embracing global best practices in every sector of the economy. Mr. Oni captures the mood in nigeria regarding the economy: "people are beginning to make demands and I see that growing dramatically. Expectations from them are very high. I think that there will be a better commitment to moving to a market economy. It has been slow but I think it will pick up as the government is aware that we cannot continue to fund the public enterprises, so better make them private and open up those industries to competition as that is what will bring in development."
Oni anticipates, over the next decade, what he calls a "totally different nigeria". One whose economy grows at 8.10% per year given the country's enormous potential. His optimism is one with that detailed in the Vision 2010 blueprint that his group helped put together. Translating the plan into action is however proving to be harder than the authors envisaged.
nigeria's private sector operators have been playing substantial role in government policy formulation. Top positions in the Central Bank have gone to former heads of private banks. There is continuous cross- fertilization of ideas between the public and private sectors in a joint effort to lift the economy. Dr. Shamsudeen Usman, former head of an investment bank and now deputy governor of the Central Bank says nigeria's failure to achieve good economic performance in the past can be explained by lack of expansion in aggregate and per capita output, inability to effect positive changes in the sectoral composition of output and inability to acquire an improved position in the international division of labor. |
© World INvestment NEws, 1999.
This is the electronic edition of the special country report on nigeria published in FORBES Magazine,
October 18 th issue.
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nigeria
