Big players in both the public and private sectors in Nigeria have decried the enormous negative impact of insecurity on businesses in the country.They also lamented the difficult challenges of running and growing business in the country and called for an urgent and effective measures to stem the surge.
The participants spoke in Abuja at a workshop, which has ‘Crystalising Private Investments in the States’ as theme and organised by the World Bank Group. It was co-hosted by the Presidential Enabling Business Environment Council (PEBEC) and the Nigeria Governors’ Forum. The speakers include the Chief Executive Officer of Jumia, Juliet Anammah; Kola Aina of Ventures Platform; the Chief Executive Officer of Outsource Global, Amal Hassan; and Iyinoluwa Aboteji, Co-founder of Andela and Flutrerwace, just to mention a few.
The workshop also pointed at the scary situation of the Nigerian business environment and decried the penchant by the government to heavily tax operators in some sectors of the economy, hiding under the erroneous impression that they (organisations) are making it big, due to faulty ratings. Some of the private sector operators also lamented the various challenges facing investors, particularly insecurity, over taxation and police harassment of operators in the Information Communication Technology (ICT) carrying laptops under the guise of ‘chasing’ ‘Yahoo Yahoo’ boys (the euphemism in Nigeria for internet fraudsters).
According to them, insecurity, constant police harassment and other harsh operating environment are costing the country so much in terms of brain drain with many highly skilled professionals and businesses moving to other neighbouring countries in Africa.
