•Shettima: FG creating enabling environment for enterprise

Onyebuchi Ezigbo in Abuja

As part of efforts geared towards ensuring positive outcomes from the federal government’s economic policy reforms, the Nigeria Employers Consultative Assembly (NECA) has said that the country could only attain sustainable economic growth through proper synergy between public and private sector stakeholders.

To this end, NECA yesterday began a Summit in Abuja, which it said was aimed at discussing ways of aligning objectives across ministries, departments, and agencies, to reduce the friction that businesses face across regulatory

The move by NECA came just as the Vice President, Alhaji Kashim Shettima said the vision of President Bola Tinubu-led administration was to build an economy where sustainable business enterprises thrive and create decent jobs.

Shettima, who was represented by the Special Adviser to the President on Job Creation and SME, Mr. Temitola Adekunle Johnson at the

opening of the 4th Edition of the Nigeria Employers Summit in Abuja, yesterday, said members of the organised private sector have continued to contribute positively to socio-economic conditions of Nigerians through the millions of jobs as well as the goods and services they provide.

He said the theme of the Summit was not only timely but urgent as it speaks to the heart of our national aspirations to build an economy that is resilient, inclusive, driven by private enterprise, and enabled by government.

“We are a nation in transition, navigating our part of bold reforms designed to stir our economy away from volatility into becoming a more stable, sustainable, and prosperous one.

“These reforms, though difficult in the short term, are laying the foundation for a more transparent, competitive, diversified, and investor-friendly environment,” he said.

The Vice President said the vision of the President Bola Tinubu-led administration was to build an economy where sustainable business enterprises thrive and create decent jobs.

He said one of the comprehensive reforms being undertaken by the government was the reform that prioritises prudent expenditure and more efficient, transparent and equitable tax system.

While welcoming participants, the president and Chairman of Council of NECA, Dr. Ifeanyi Okoye, said the focus of the Summit was on fostering inclusive and sustainable development that employers enterprises, strengthens human capital and improve living standards across the nation.

“We therefore urged the federal government to demonstrate firm commitment to actionable outcomes of this Summit. He said that the summit must be taken as another talk shop but a catalyst for policy coherence and reform implementation,” he said.

On his part, the Director General of NECA, Mr. Adewale-Smart Oyerinde, said for any government economic reform policy to achieve the desired impact, it must seek to create conducive environment for sustainable enterprise.

He said employers play a major role in promoting national development through job creation, paying taxes, and other contributions to economic growth.

“So, for development to be organic then you must create an enabling environment for employers to thrive so that the economy can grow organically.”

According to the DG, the reforms being undertaken by the federal government are in alignment with the desires of the employers.

He said that NECA believed that there is no better time, “ to get the reformers and those that will implement the reforms, as well as those that the reform is supposed to reform, to have a conversation and engender consensus around those reforms.”

He explained that the objective of the Employers Summit was to gather policymakers and those who will implement the policies to come together to build consensus around those reforms.

According to Oyerinde, the era of imposition of policy reforms is over, adding with proper engagement with the organised private sector, the government will achieve a quantum leap in economic growth in the country.

He said the summit was unique because it came at a time government was implementing many reforms, adding that the tax reform bill is presently at the Federal Ministry of Justice.

Chairman of the Summit Planning Committee, Ms. Victoria Uwadoka, said the gathering would discuss issues such as alignment between fiscal and trade policy, so that tax reform would support rather than contradict investment and export goals.

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