Forces new industry minister will contend with

Okechukwu Enyinna Enelamah, the co-founder of African Capital Alliance, Nigeria’s biggest private equity firm, is the new Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment.

Enelamah is coming into the ministry with huge private sector experience, having been serving on the board of several companies, including UAC Nigeria, Flavours Food Limited, Technoserve and Landmark Property Development Company, among others, long before his appointment.

Despite industry sentiments that Enelamah is coming into the ministry with an impressive private sector background, Real Sector Watch findings show that the new minister has a number of forces, human and inanimate, to contend with.

Top on the list of these is the unresolved issue of waivers, which is still tearing some sub-sectors in the manufacturing sector apart. Players in some sub-sectors say that a number of waivers given by the immediate past administration placed some manufacturers on a more privileged and competitive position than others in the same industry.

Similarly, there was manipulation of the well-intentioned waivers given by the immediate past administration. Some importers who had strong connections with government officials obtained papers that exempted them from paying tariffs, thereby killing local manufacturers or conferring an undue advantage on them, industry sources told Real Sector Watch.

Apart from waivers, the minister will also contend with the players in the Export Processing Zones (NEPZs), who, according to Frank Udemba Jacobs, president, Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN), sell prohibited products.

“Currently, some operators in the zones produce goods prohibited in Nigeria and sell them in our local markets- a situation that is against the spirit and purpose of the laws setting up the PEZs,” said Jacobs, said, in an industrial memorandum sent to Muhammadu Buhari in April.

“There is a need to accelerate the review of the Act establishing EPZs as there are abuses in their operations,” he said.

Also, the new minister will have to contend with political interests in his ministry as well as healthily battle with other sister ministries, if he must industrialise Nigeria. Most industrial policies do not depend on the Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment alone, but also hang on ministries of agriculture, finance and solid minerals.

Enalamah may have bright and well-crafted plans, but without proper coordination with and cooperation of these ministries, some of his plans will look haphazard. This was one key reason why some of the plans of Olusegun Aganga, immediate past Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment, did not see the light of the day.

Paul Gbededo, chief executive officer/ group MD, Flour Mills of Nigeria plc, emphasised that this was one reason why some of the policies of the immediate past government were aborted.

“One of the challenges of the immediate past administration is poor policy coordination. There was no policy coordination among the ministries of agriculture, industry and finance,” Gbededo said at the International Investment Forum held on the sidelines of the just concluded Lagos International Trade Fair.

The new minister will also have contend and negotiate with relevant authorities that handle issues such as taxes and business registration, among others, to ensure harmony and remove roadblocks to investments.

Again, he may have to look into some contracts awarded in the paper and steel industries, as well as the contention surrounding Aluminium Smelter Company, which is still in litigation. Stakeholders have suggested an out-of-court settlement. But this will depend on the negotiating skills of the minister.

ODINAKA ANUDU

 

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