Written by Ebenezer
Akinseloyin
SP: Hey babe, guess
what?
#: Hmm, you know I
am not good at guessing. Kindly tell me what it is I should guess
about.
SP: Ok, It is time
to show you off to the world!!!
#: Really? You have
always said, “it’s not yet time”, how come it is now the time? All the same, I
am glad, thank you!
SP: Understanding
the time and season is a “secret” for the privileged few.
#: Ok ooo, I sha
thank you again.
#: Come on, dress up
for the world press conference.
(*the above analogy
is just a thought in picture*)
Last week, the
senate president announced through his twitter handle @bukolasaraki about
launching a programme in the new year of 2017 tagged MadeInNigeria Challenge
Roundtable, the idea is that such roundtable
“will provide us opportunity to interact with stakeholders from various
sectors on use of local contents” and “ give local manufacturers chance to pitch their products” -
@bukolasaraki.
The essence of this
article is to constructively admonish the senate president about better ways
the entrepreneurship community in Nigeria will best appreciate his involvement
in the MadeInNigeria scene through using his good office for systemic
solutions. Find below are my concerns and solutions.
Concerns:
1. #MadeInNigeria Challenge Roundtable:
This programme is simply a piece meal with respect to the plethora of
challenges startups and established businesses are faced with in Nigeria.
Entrepreneurs and budding entrepreneurs are facing more acidic challenges that
are not necessary known to their counterparts in a more entrepreneurship
friendly environment. It makes me cringe whenever someone in public office,
either elected or appointed thinks that the best way to provide funding/any
other help for startups and entrepreneurs is to setup some form of lottery or
competition scheme i.e. YouWin and the recent one done by this present Buhari’s
administration. No two startups are the same, therefore setting up competition
or haphazard style of funding is a no-no.
2. The senate president: If this sort of
piece challenge is being done by someone who is not a political officer holder,
perhaps, one would understand that such individual lacks the capacity to go the
whole lane to proffer a systemic solution to the series of challenges
entrepreneurs are facing. Certainly not a senate president who is blessed with
real legislative powers to really and genuinely help these set of people
through bringing about landmark solutions, therefore, Mr. senate president, why
the piece meal?
3. Friendship Galore: The senate president
is putting the cart before the horse, certainly belittling and crushing
(perhaps unknown to him) the little hope many people have in the roundtable
challenge when he mentioned that he will be introducing indigenous startups to
friends like Aliko Dangote, Tony Elumelu etc., good but not good enough as your
office can do way better than that. For me, that is a serious slap in the face
and a serious disrespect from the office of our dear nation’s number 3 man with
legislative powers. If a Dangote were organizing such programme with his
friends attending to support, it will be forgivable, because he is not a
political office holder and holds no political powers to effect a systemic
change, therefore, he will be seen to be giving his widow’s mite, certainly not
the person or office of the senate president. Why the piece meal?
The above concerns
of mine puts one in doubt of the genuine intent of the organizer(s) of this
programme, however, the senate president ,aside from this “piece meal”
programme can also use his good office to effect the following systemic
changes.
1. Funding: The senate president talked
about getting startups to pitch to few individuals. Not good enough! He should
sponsor a bill (entrepreneur funds scheme: FG/private Banks), participating
banks get FG’s guarantee for funds given to startups i.e. Startup loans, of
course following due process. This will ensure that any budding entrepreneur
can approach participating banks to finance his/her idea on the strength of
his/her business plan. Mr. senate president, this will be a more and better
systemic solution that will ensure entrepreneurs can walk into any
participating banks with SMEs funding desk, pitch his/her idea, if strong and
viable enough, get funded. Don’t scrap BoI, PLEASE, I mean Bank of Industry.
2.
Ease of doing business: The senate president can latch on the laxity of
the executive arm of FG in bringing about ease of doing business in Nigeria.
The best place to start will be the CAC – (Corporate Affairs Commission). It is
atrocious and torturing that in 2016, registration of business in Nigeria is
still full of bottlenecks such as fill an online form for reservation of name
(takes a week, manually approved), filling lots of paper application forms,
making payments at banks, running to FIRS to submit bank receipts and part of
your filled forms for various stamps to proof you actually paid at the bank!
Infact CAC employees on the Island make you feel they are rendering some sort
of favours to you. The senate president can also use his good office to ensure
24-48 hours completion of business registration through sponsoring a bill or
pass a resolution to push CAC to fully make use of technology. They can at
least copy from Companies House in the UK, no need to re-invent the wheel. This
will allow for many companies to be captured for taxation purposes.
3. Affordable and Available Borrowings: It
is no secret that finance is the lifeline of any business. I often ask if Mark
Zuckerberg were to be a Nigerian living in Nigeria, would he be able to start
facebook? If he did, could such venture be this successful? So what is the
difference? The difference is simply structured support in the USA from Banks,
Venture capitalists and various investors who will invest on the strength of
business plans. The same cannot be said of Nigeria, interest rate is shocking
and disgraceful. The senate president and his colleagues should do all the
needed interventions/lobbying to ensure that interest rate is reduced to a
single digit so that businesses can access affordable and available loans with
holidays on repayments. Not the piece meal.
4. Tax Break: Any serious govt knows that
SMEs are the backbone for employment, hence, govt do all they can to support
and not stifle the growth of SMEs. The senate president can help pass a bill to
ensure that startups and new businesses of all types get tax break for few
years. The ease of registering a business will allow for many businesses to be
captured by the tax net, hence, a few years break will be crucial to their
sustenance and growth. It is difficult to start and run a business anywhere in
the world, double difficult in Nigeria, therefore, any systemic or structural
solution that will holistically help alleviate the challenges ahead of startups
will help build a stronger economy. Not the piece meal.
Lastly, senator Bukola Saraki must use the
weight of his good office to truly commit to the #MadeInNigeria through
systemic solution that will contribute to healthy SMEs and growth to the economy
of our dear nation.
Ebenezer Akinseloyin
msanii2001@yahoo.com
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