GDP: Lagos chamber calls for improvement in business environment

 

The Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI) has stressed the need to improve the nation’s business environment to enhance the contributions of various sectors to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

Mr Muda Yusuf, Director-General of LCCI, said this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Tuesday in Lagos.

Yusuf was reacting to the Q1, 2018 GDP report released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) indicating that GDP grew by 1.95 per cent year-on-year in real terms.

He noted that the growth rate was still fragile despite the nation’s recovery from the recession and that concerted efforts should be made across all sectors to achieve a robust and sustainable growth.

According to him, the government should do more to drive activities in the non-oil sector.

“The economy is not about the oil sector, it is about a whole lot of other sectors that are suffering very serious productivity problems.

“The cost of diesel is increasing; we do not talk about that because we are generating foreign exchange.

Diesel is deregulated, so as the oil price increases cost of diesel also increases.

“Cost of aviation fuel is also increasing, all these add to cost and create a problem for businesses and minimises their contributions to the GDP,” he said.

Yusuf said operators in the non-oil sector were faced with several challenges with infrastructure, funding, high-interest rate, technology and skills gap.

He also said the Agric sector was faced with a myriad of challenges including insecurity arising from Boko Haram, herders/farmers clash, lack of fund and climate change.

According to him, addressing the issues of infrastructure deficit, cost of gas, diesel cost, smuggling, counterfeiting will enhance the performance of the manufacturing sector.

“Government needs to continue work on creating an enabling environment so that all these sectors can contribute better to GDP growth,” he said.

The LCCI boss also stressed the need to encourage more domestic investors to participate in economic activities.

“Presently, we have an economy in which the foreigners are overrunning the locals in almost all sectors which is not good for economic growth.

“The foreign investors have access to cheaper funds of between zero per cent to seven per cent in their countries and this gives them an advantage over local competitors.

“We need to position our citizens to play a bigger role; it is not necessary to do anything to undermine foreign investors, but we need to strengthen the capacity of domestic investors,” Yusuf said.

He also emphasised the need to patronise more locally produced goods to boost production, employment, wealth and investments in the country.

Credit: NAN.