Leye Kupoluyi was recently elected the 44th President and Chairman of the Council of Nigeria’s foremost chamber of commerce, the Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI). In an interview with TOBI AWODIPE, he shares his plans for the chamber. He spoke on other issues, including businesses’ demise, the Africa Continental Free Trade Agreement AfCFTA benefits, as well as how Nigeria can make the best out of the tax reform.
As the new President of the Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI), what changes are you planning to bring on board to reposition the chamber?
First, I will continue to focus on what we are, which is an organisation that advocates for a better business environment, a better economy and a better future, both for businesses and citizens. Our mandate is clear; we need to elevate the LCCI into a strategic and influential institution and steer conversation towards achieving national economic progress.
Beyond this, we will advocate for more development of the micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs), robust membership welfare and I will push for more women and youths, because they are the support system of the business growth and prosperity of any nation. By including more youths, more data-driven advocacy will happen and we will structure our leadership to encompass more activities that will guide us to the next level. I aim to empower more youths into leadership positions and guide them into business. I want to empower businesses to conquer our environment (Nigeria), as a marketplace, as a place of manufacturing; then West Africa and finally, the whole of Africa, exploiting the opportunities the Africa Continental Free Trade Agreement (AfCFTA) will give us.
You mentioned that the focus of your presidency is building a future of inclusion, excellence and influence, which will centre on women and youths as well as business advocacy. How will you go about achieving this?
When we talk about inclusion, we want to unlock the economic potential of this segment of people that you have mentioned. Our youths have great economic potential and some of them have already turned this potential into something we can all see, especially in the area of fintech. We have all seen what young people are doing in this area. Because of the growth and many opportunities in the banking industry, it gave them the room to further innovate in that area. I know if young people can shift their focus to agriculture, education and other areas, they will excel in those areas as well.
This is why we want to focus on building our young people, work on our advocacy and make it more research-based and innovative, improve capacity-building for our staff to deliver all these services to our members and to the nation in general.
While banks are doing well in Nigeria today, the manufacturing sector is still struggling. Why this disconnect? And why do you think we are not paying attention to the growth of the real sector?
I strongly believe that the Nigeria First policy and 30 per cent procurement from local manufacturers is a step in the right direction. There are so many things needed to improve the sector: power, access to credit and protecting the local market. If we allow the market to continue to be flooded with foreign goods the way it is now, we will continue to weaken our local manufacturing sector. Government must provide better access to funding and at single-digit interest rates to help manufacturers. What is the difference between a developed country and a developing one? It is simply each country’s manufacturing base. It has nothing to do with the mineral resources in that country.
If you look at the list of developed countries all over the world, their manufacturing sector is very strong.
Take China and India, for instance, look at their industrial base and compare it with ours. Most drugs we use in Nigeria now are from India. Why can’t we develop our own and start exporting to others? If a country wants to be developed, manufacturing is a major area of interest for that country.
Our youths have shown that they have the skills. Many of our youths who have left Nigeria and are all over the world, providing the services they are unable to provide back home. What this means is that we must give our youths the necessary environment needed for them to excel within Nigeria. We must make our environment conducive for young people to innovate and the government must live up to its expectations before we can talk about industrialisation.
The business and economic landscape is currently marred by policy reforms, global disruptions and geopolitical tensions, some of which are affecting Nigeria. How are you going to guide businesses and manufacturers through these tough times?
Tough times always present opportunities. It may be tough, but there are opportunities. We will increase our research and advocacy to keep our members abreast of opportunities available to them, even within these tough times. Yes, there are so many things happening around the world, but I can tell you Nigeria is better off now than it was two years ago because of some of the hard reforms that the government carried out. It might not look like that now, but we will reap the benefits soon.
We must increase oil production because we still need that money and increase our non-oil exports. This can only be done by improving local manufacturing, especially on the agriculture side. However, improving agricultural production means there must be improved security for them to go to the farm. If we actually check what is driving inflation, a good part of it is food-related. If our agricultural production can improve, then we can feed both humans and our factories. All in all, I believe 2026 will be a year of appreciable growth as a nation.
How are you looking at supporting businesses to navigate the high cost of doing business?
The high cost of doing business in Nigeria is driven by two major factors – power and our regulatory environment. Power has been a major challenge for businesses. I believe that by decentralising power control, this will encourage some of our sub-nationals to look at cooperating with the private sector in providing power for their own sub-nationals and some of the states. Most businesses that left Nigeria in the last few years left partly because of our regulatory environment, which is very unstable. Hopefully, the tax reforms will take care of this.
Our members suffer from multiple taxation, with some paying taxes in 16 different forms – a good number of them duplicated and unnecessary. If this can be harmonised in January, it will be a great help for businesses.
What reforms do you think are most urgently needed right now to improve the business environment?
First and foremost, we must sort out our regulatory issues and harmonise our regulatory environment. We must coordinate our fiscal and monetary policies and revamp infrastructure. Infrastructure doesn’t mean just roads alone, though good, safe roads are very important to the growth of businesses. It also includes power and better broadband penetration.
Power, as we know, is extremely important to every business and industrialisation and if we don’t tackle the power situation, our industrialisation efforts will remain stagnant. Also, we must develop our agro-industrial sector, as that is where the raw materials needed for industrialisation will come from. Cassava, for instance, has a lot of value beyond garri that we know and eat. Why are we not exploiting its numerous uses like the Chinese do?
The real sector has been badly hit in the last few years, with its contribution to the national gross domestic product (GDP) dropping every year; what can we do to turn this around?
Part of our advocacy will be to draft a new national policy. Working with the government, we will put together an industrialisation blueprint. There is nothing we want to do in Nigeria or Africa that others are not doing. As I said earlier, when you look at developed countries around the world, one thing they have in common is a strong manufacturing sector. I don’t think any country can become developed or industrialised simply by its natural resources alone. Having natural resources is not part of the indices used to measure development. If we want to get ourselves on the list of developed nations, we don’t have any other choice but to start manufacturing.
Increasing our fuel or oil production will not take us there. Increasing our oil production can give us the resources needed for industrialisation, however. We realise that young people are the ones who can drive Nigeria’s industrialisation and this is why I am involving them heavily in the chamber’s activities so they can prepare their tomorrow now. Don’t sit and blame those in government. Come and let us look for a solution together.
I’m sure the government has some people who are part of the industry who are in government right now, who understand the importance of industries and who know that they will still leave government and come back to the industry. I don’t want to say our people are not employable because the people we say are not employable leave the country and suddenly become employed when they get abroad. This means we must look inwards. Our innovation hub here trains people who will drive industrialisation. We need more people to join.
How can businesses be better protected with the tax reforms?
This is where the transparency comes in, as well as education. We need to educate businesses and citizens. The tax laws are explicit enough. We know some government agencies will want to interpret what is not stated in the tax law. I think all of us must try to familiarise ourselves with what the tax law says so that we know our rights.
However, the government and the law must be very transparent and straightforward. We don’t want someone coming back a few months or years later, asking for one more payment or another. We have had enough of that and that breeds tax evasion and resentment.
How do you intend to deepen participation and strengthen Nigerian business representation in the ECOWAS region?
When I talked about helping MSMEs scale up, have better access to funding and documentation for export, it is because I want our businesses to begin to take better advantage of the agreement. About two years ago, intra-African trade used to be less than 11 per cent. Now, it is about 14 per cent. If in the next two years, we can move it to 25 -30 per cent, it will reflect positively on many of our businesses. When I said I intend to focus on youth and women, it is because many of these export businesses are being led by youths and women. If we can invest in them, we will not just conquer our immediate environment, but also maximise AfCFTA.
Take our creative industry for example, if we standardise it properly, we can take over the world with it. Our fashion, music, arts and so on are doing well and if properly structured and exported, can dominate the market effortlessly. Our fintech is borderless; it is being used for e-commerce, for payments and so on. To thrive within AfCFTA, we must harmonise all the documentation and regulations hindering free market trade. We must remove all the obstacles that prevent and discourage people from exporting. We may not have to have a single entity like the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) entity for the whole of Africa, but we can put a barcode on a product, for instance and when it is scanned in let us say, Ghana, it shows it has met all required documentation.
Regarding intra-African trade, a major obstacle that has been identified is the different issues with customs and certification. As we are complaining about it in Nigeria, so also are they complaining about it in Ghana, Sierra Leone and so on. If we have a uniform standard for ECOWAS, for instance, if a product has been certified as okay in Ghana, it doesn’t need to undergo extra certification to enter Nigeria again and vice versa.
Under the European Union (EU), for example, if a product is certified in one country, it doesn’t need to undergo extra certifications in another EU country. We have so many regional trading blocs already in existence; it is now left to us to maximise these blocs and break down these barriers.
What are your expectations for the new fiscal year, given what happened this year?
I have high expectations and remain very positive. I believe by the end of 2026, the fruits of the government’s reforms will begin to show and we will move forward. I’m very positive about business growth in the new year.
We will champion efficiency, be more data and evidence-based and deliver on expectations.
