I need to say this quickly and brief: Presently in Nigeria, we don't have a policy.
At #500 to $1 exchange rate in the parallel market, we are not supposed to be protesting, except you have so ran out of ideas that you don't know what to do with your time.
At this rate, we are supposed to experience an influx of FDI in the key sectors of our economy. Say in Real Estate, Capital Market, Local manufacturing industries, Pharmaceuticals and Chemicals industry because the cost of oil is way below $100.
So when you have foreigners dumping money here because the exchange rate favours them, more jobs will be created and businesses will start experiencing a quantum leap. But the reverse is the case. Our Tax policy is counterproductive. It doesn't encourage business growth in these key sectors.
Another sector that comes to one's mind is the SME's which is the largest employer of labour in Nigeria.
Yet in every state, the SME's hardly receive any form of government support in form of grants and soft loans, rather they are taxed to death. The recent tax policy in some States are structured in a way that SME's hardly grow or survive beyond 5 years.
Recently, given the reduction in Federal allocation to States, some States have gone totally berserk on SME's to milk them till death. Levying uncountable taxes on the SME's. This is counterproductive.
FYIWe have to reframe the argument for our next political debates. We need tax holidays for SMEs'. Already we don't have a conducive environment for businesses to thrive; no steady power supply, few access roads, high cost of petrol and diesel etc, and yet we pay tax to the government that haven't completed a single project since inception. This is horrible and pathetic. So before you rush out to go and protest against bad policies, know that we don't have a policy at all. Gracias Amigo.
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