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By Zika Bobby
The federal and state governments have been called upon to put all necessary measures in place towards improving the business environment in Nigeria.
Managing Director of FEDAN Investment Limited, Stephen Amaechi Chinemelem, gave the challenge during the FEDAN special day at the 2021 Lagos International Trade Fair (LITF).
Chinemelem, who was represented by the General Manager (Administration), Joel Agba, said apart from infrastructural challenges, business operators in the country are currently bedevilled with policy instability, multiplicity of taxes, problems of touts who pose as government officials to milk business organisations dry and other general security challenges that are affecting business operations negatively.
The FEDAN boss, whose company is the official electrical partner of the 2021 LITF, also added that business owners were seriously bothered about the bottlenecks created by officers and men of the Nigerian Customs Service, who have made clearing of goods at the port a hard nut to crack.
“As businessmen, we are worried about the absence of reliable and credible dispute resolution system between Nigerian business community and the Customs authority.
“We cannot but lament over the challenges around classification and valuation with profound implications for variation in costs of imports. We urge the authorities concerned to wade into this quagmire which often makes us to bend over backwards inadvertently. We call on the Federal Government to begin to put in place the process of modernising our port management systems, which some countries in Africa have done so that they can make doing business easy for those of us who cannot invest in ballot boxes.”
On the roads leading to Alaba International Market, the FEDAN boss urged both federal and state governments to speed up the construction along the axis to enable business operations thrive.
Chinemelem decried the slow speed of road construction, describing Alaba area as the headquarters of gridlock in Lagos.
He called on the Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry to continue to take up government on the challenges being an organisation whose core mandate is business advocacy.
Chinemelem said the company decided to partner the organiser because of the unbeatable records of hosting amazing international exhibition the Chamber is reputed for.
