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‘Government must deepen engagement with OPS to tackle economic challenges’

By Gloria Nwafor
06 September 2022   |   4:53 am
The economy has never had it this bad. Nine out of 10 jobs are created by the private sector. Rather than supporting the companies to reduce high rate of unemployment, government is creating bottlenecks for organisations not to operate optimally.

Director-General of NECA, Wale Oyerinde

Wale-Smatt Oyerinde is the new Director-General of the Nigeria Employers’ Consultative Association (NECA). In this interview with GLORIA NWAFOR, he talks about how government must support businesses and citizens to cushion economic hardship, among others.

What are the roadmaps to address nation’s economic challenges?
The economy has never had it this bad. Nine out of 10 jobs are created by the private sector. Rather than supporting the companies to reduce high rate of unemployment, government is creating bottlenecks for organisations not to operate optimally. Those contradictions are what we need to focus on so that we allow those than can power economic growth do so peacefully. With challenges bedevilling the country, government needs to support the citizens through schemes and road maps to cushion the hardship in the country. It is not enough to say the plans are in the pipeline. Government should reach out to organised businesses for us to share our perspective on how those issues can be solved. That is the direction we must go consistently through collaboration and the need to create structures that will encourage engagements. Challenges are on because there haven’t been strong engagements with organised private sector (OPS).

On crude oil theft, even as we commend government on recent steps taken to curtail crude oil theft, we want government to deepen efforts to block leakages to save the country from losing revenue.
Government should also focus on insecurity. It is taking a huge toll on the economy.

What are the long-term effects of government’s uncontrollable borrowing habits in meeting national aspirations and way out of the quagmire?
Even if our debt to Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is okay, our focus should be debt to revenue ratio, it calls for serious concern. Our revenue is sufficient enough to pay our debt. Nigeria is a consumption country, remittance coming into the country is basically for consumption. There is no productive activity that comes with it. The N3 trillion we borrow to pay subsidy is unnecessary.

Are you of the opinion that subsidy should be scrapped as it will lead to increase in fuel pump price?
Every year, NNPC have overhead on refineries that are not working. We should have a clear roadmap how we will address the issue of subsidy. Subsidy is something that should go because of the inefficiency we are paying for. Government should come up with the active participation of stakeholders in the implementation of oil subsidy. With government commiting about N6 trillion yearly into subsidy, if we calculate it for four years, it runs into N24 trillion, which can be fixed into genuine infrastructure development. It is only fuel that is being subsidised. With genuine political will, we can turnaround the country economically. To achieve this, government must deal with oil theft decisively, prosecute those involved and engage stakeholders in addressing subsidy matters. To also remove subsidy, we must make the refineries work. Not stopping it by fiat, but government, labour and employers must agree on modalities in which to address it. We must engage in some deliberate to stop oil theft and making the country more productive. There is lot of sabotage going on within the system. It is an enterprise of sabotaging the economy.

We have over 5,000 refineries workers receiving salaries, yet idle. Should government rationalise them?
One of the responsibilities of the employer is to provide jobs. If I come to work and you don’t provide work, it is not my fault, except in cases where the employee will raise cases that the work provided has consequential issues in his skills development. For the idle refineries workers, it is not their fault. It is all about inefficiencies that the system brings. We are not saying the NNPCL should rationalise, but government should make the NNPCL more productive and fulfil its role within the context of national development. We cannot be spending billions on turnaround maintenance and nothing is happening.

Unavailability of forex has forced most businesses to shut down operations. How should government address this to keep businesses and workers in jobs?
The moment the demand for forex is higher than supply, it causes scarcity and because the environment is not conducive enough for investors, they would prefer to invest in other countries. Presently, Nigeria is not taking steps towards diversification. We are not exporting enough. Priority must change. The real and manufacturing sector will help to increase production capacity, create jobs and reduce the level of over dependence on foreign products. The real sector has potential to drag the economy out of the woods. Government should give priority to manufacturing and real sector to drive the economy out of the woods.

Due to harsh operating business environment, most employers are capitalising on it to sack workers. As employers’ body, what are you doing to cushion the effect on your members?
We are not aware of any employer sacking. What we have now is the ‘Japa syndrome’, Nigerians are leaving in droves. We are not asking workers to leave, they are the ones leaving. It is no more the employers’ market to a large extent but the employees. The mass migration is everywhere. Someone said if you know anyone good in IT, just go to the bank, you can even start that day. Most of the IT guys either they have started their own app businesses or employers in Europe and America have taken them. The challenge on the context of leaving is now stronger. The problem is if most of the employees are leaving, it raises concern for the employers. We and organised labour will meet to find a way out.

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