SBL conference and Nigerian economy
In spite of a decline in revenues occasioned by a fall in global oil prices, a devalued naira and other prevailing economic conditions, Nigeria – with a population of over 170 million representing about 20 percent of total African population, and an economy larger than the 15 West African countries combined – remains a desired destination for investors. This desirable investment climate has become even more clement following a fresh wave of optimism that is sweeping across the country with the election and subsequent swearing-in of President Muhammadu Buhari, a man reputed for his anti-corruption stance and whose major campaign promises centred on “improving developmental indices (poverty reduction, employment, security, etc), tackling corruption, insecurity and diversifying the economy”.
On the back of the outcome of the polls and subsequent events, “Nigeria saw its stock index rise by 8.3 percent and its currency, the naira, rose by 7 percent against the dollar in the parallel market”. With the successful conduct of the elections and peaceful handover to a new government, analysts say the country is poised for new beginnings.
But for Nigeria to benefit from these recent events in terms of attracting direly-needed investment, there must be visible improvement in doing business in the country. Currently, starting and running a business in Nigeria is filled with numerous bottlenecks and hurdles, with the country ranking 170 out of 189 countries in the 2015 World Bank Ease of Doing Index. Issues of poor infrastructure, high cost of energy, high cost of credit, logistics, high cost of ports, demurrage, regulatory bottlenecks, etc persist.
This is why we welcome the idea behind the 2015 Annual Business Law Conference organised by the Nigerian Bar Association Section on Business Law (NBA-SBL), which opens today in Lagos with the theme ‘Regulators as Catalysts for Economic Growth’. Coming at a time when regulatory agencies in the country appear to have constituted themselves into a burden on investors, with government apparently looking the other way, the 2015 conference, the 9th in the series, could not have chosen a better theme. Over the years, investors’ complaints regarding regulators have centred around issues of multiple regulation, multiple taxation, highhandedness, among others.
The 2015 conference, according to Asue Ighodalo, chairman of the Council of the NBA Section on Business Law (NBA-SBL), hopes “to engage regulators, policymakers and key actors in the economy with a view to exchanging ideas and causing a change towards the improvement of Nigeria’s Ease of Doing Business Index”. This, indeed, is the way forward. In our view, there is no alternative to improving Nigeria’s business environment as well as properly structuring the regulatory environment and putting in place all the necessary legal frameworks to protect investors and their investments.
With the conference focusing on a number of sub-themes that include ‘Long-term Global Economic Trends and Implications for Nigeria’, ‘Improving Nigeria’s Ease of Doing Business Index’, ‘Raising Money for Projects: Latest Trends in Nigerian Financing’, ‘Nigeria’s Power Privatization Process: Learning Curve and Next Steps’, ‘Value-based Pricing for Legal Services’, ‘Nigerian Content and the Service Industry’, ‘Chinese Lending in Africa’, among others, we see a lot of positive impact on the investing public, the entire business community, and the Nigerian economy.
It is also gladdening that the conference will feature a wide array of prominent speakers that include John Hawksworth, chief economist of PwC; Mawenah Trerbah, chief executive officer of the Ghana Investment Commission; Bello Mahmud, registrar-general of Nigeria’s Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC); Ekwow Spio-Garbrah, Ghana’s minister of trade and industry, among a host of others. We hope these speakers will bring their wealth of experience to bear on the way they dissect their different topics with a view to causing the desired positive change.
Furthermore, while it is regrettable that many conferences of this nature often end up as mere talk shops, it is heartwarming to note that over the years, one of the cardinal principles of the SBL conference has been to involve the business community as well as policymakers in all the activities of the section so as to ensure that the activities are not reduced to mere talk shops, but to influence advancement in legal practice, policy, business development and government action. We urge the organisers to ensure that this year’s conference does not deviate from this noble tradition.
It is also our hope that as it begins to formulate its economic policies, the Buhari administration will have one or two things to learn from the outcome of this conference, which is coming barely a week after the inauguration of the new government. Indeed, the time is now for the new administration to work towards creating a better and friendlier business environment that does not stifle business.