MON, FEB 24 2020-theG&BJournal- Finance Minister DR. Zainab Ahmed is blunt about the way the federal government will approach the issue of import duty waivers or lengthy tax holidays for investor going forward.
‘’We will design, and implement targeted and more efficient fiscal incentives that reward investors AFTER they have kept their promises to invest, create jobs, deepen our capital markets, and abide by applicable rules and regulations.’’
She was addressing members of the National Council and Management of the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE), the domestic and international investor community and stakeholders Monday during the NSE hosted event ‘’A DAY AT THE NSE’’, where key government stakeholders interact with the capital market community on important issues that affect both parties.
‘’Going forward, we are committed to moving away from blunt and expensive fiscal incentives – like Import Duty Waivers or lengthy Tax Holidays – that reward investors merely for their INTENTION to invest,’’ she said.
She told the gathering that the federal government’s target is to move Nigeria into the top 100 on the 2020 World Bank’s Doing Business Rankings.
‘’It is our expectation that this enabling business environment will spur the industry, innovation and investment that our people, world over, are renowned for and accelerate our industrialisation in the light manufacturing, agro-processing, petrochemicals and construction sectors, which seek capital for investment from The NSE.’’
Zainab Ahmed also spoke to some key investment incentives that has been initiated by the President Muhammadu Buhari administration including the Finance Act 2019, the commitment to achieving economic diversification and revenue generation.
Oscar N. Onyema, OON, the Nigerian Stock Exchange CEO, welcomed the Honourable Minister to the event, acknowledging the Minister and her team for effective coordination of the finance, budget and national planning portfolios and working closely with other arms of government especially the National Assembly, to achieve return to the January – December Budget Cycle, which raises the chances of higher budget implementation; as well as the signing into law and subsequent implementation of the Finance Act 2019, which contains incentivizing clauses for investment in the capital markets.
Onyema also recalled the Minister’s appearances at the UK Africa Investment Summit and the World Economic Forum held earlier in January, which were highly successful investor meetings that delivered significant investor commitments and benefits for Nigeria.
‘’While these are positive signals, there are still mixed perceptions of the overall growth trajectory of the Nigerian economy,’’ Onyema noted.
Drawing attention to the recently released preliminary findings by the IMF on the health of the economy, after the Article IV Consultations, he said major policy adjustments remain necessary to contain short-term vulnerabilities and unlock Nigeria’s growth potential.
‘’I must balance the IMF’s comments with Nigeria’s GDP numbers that were released just this morning by the National Bureau of Statistics reporting a Q4 2019 GDP growth performance of 2.55%, which is the highest quarterly growth since the recession in 2016 and culminating in a full year 2019 growth rate of 2.27%.
‘’Putting this side by side our annual population growth rate of about 3%, the message still remains that we have our work cut out for us as a nation and the economy must grow at over 8% – 10%; and control inflation to single digit rates, if we must enjoy robust real per capita income growth.
This is not a short-term task but a long-term one and we look forward to the sequel to the Economic Recovery and Growth Plan (ERGP) to address this existential economic threat of a sustained slow growth. Suffice it to say that the government’s fiscal and monetary reforms over the past 2 months have shown some intent at tackling the nation’s challenges.’’
|twitter:@theGBJournal|email: info@govandbusinessjournal.com.ng|
