From Adanna Nnamani, Abuja
The Nigeria Employers’ Consultative Association (NECA) has expressed support for the signing of the tax reform bills by President Bola Tinubu, describing the development as long overdue and crucial to enhancing business sustainability in the country.
Speaking at the Employers’ Summit held in Abuja with the theme “Enabling Sustainable Enterprise in a Transitioning Economy,”* the Director-General of NECA, Mr. Adewale-Smatt Oyerinde, welcomed the tax harmonisation efforts, but warned that the real challenge lies in effective implementation.
Oyerinde noted that the issue of multiple taxation had hindered enterprise growth for over a decade.
According to him, “My immediate response is, thank God, because we have canvassed for this for a long time. The challenges of taxes, levies and fees have been an issue for the OPS for over 10 years.
“Efficiency of tax collection has been an issue for every rational stakeholder for a long time. And when the Excellency came up with the Presidential Committee, we think it was a step in the right direction. And the committee did a very humane job coming up with that bill, with the many controversies and unnecessary distractions that came up. At the long last, the bill is to be signed today, which we believe is the beginning of the reform.
“Because it is one thing for you to come up with the bill, the main work will start when the implementation starts, because implementation will always come with its own challenges that we are all not aware of for now. But we are happy that he is signing it today, we are happy that the reality for organised businesses in the context of harmonized tax, harmonised levies and harmonised fees have started. So for us, it is good news.”
On which of the four bills will open up the economy, Oyerinde said: “All of them. They are intertwined. There is no one that is standing, that is exclusive of its own.
“So all the four bills play their complementary roles in promoting and driving organic growth. You do not grow from the top; you grow from promoting businesses, some that affect MSMEs, some that affect SMEs, some that affect big businesses, and some that affect individuals. It’s a chain reaction that we expect to affect the whole economy together.
He added that the private sector is actively involved in the reform process and implementation through representation on the presidential committee.
“The private sector is represented in the presidential committee. We have a representative as organised private sector. And we’re also working with the presidential committee itself. Throughout the work, we made our inputs readily available. And I can rest assured that we are much more interested in the implementation.
“But that is the next phase of this engagement. And yesterday, during the first session of the summit, I mentioned that we were going to deepen our engagement with the FIRS, because the FIRS is the principal agency to drive this conversation. I think the FIRS is open to that engagement. So we will work together, we will be the conscience of the bill, as it were, or the Act that it will become after the president has signed them, and make sure that all the areas we did not anticipate are addressed. But definitely, we are open to working with the government to make sure that the bills, succeed eventually after they are signed,” he stated.
Responding to questions on the minimum wage debate, Oyerinde dismissed sweeping claims of private sector non-compliance.
“For one year now, there are concerns at a high level. It is a generalization game. If there is a private sector player that is not paying, then let’s name him. Let us name the company. So this generalization of some people are not paying, we think it is just an unnecessary distraction for us.
“While it is possible that you have some that are not paying, and predominantly those that are out of our space, but the reality still remains, almost all the private sector organisations, are already above N70,000. Although you may have one or two that are circumstantially not paying. So the issue is that let us interrogate why they are not paying.
“Here’s a shortened and corrected version suitable for use as a quote:
“In the real sense, the economy this administration inherited wasn’t business-friendly. When hundreds of businesses have closed in the last decade, how do you expect someone struggling to stay afloat to pay minimum wage? Sustainability comes first, then competitiveness, before we can have serious conversations.
We believe in the concept of minimum wage and encourage our members to pay it. But some informal and SME players, challenged beyond their capacity, may not currently be able to. The minimum wage is not an end on its own, it rests on a thriving, sustainable economy. Without that, a living wage becomes a mirage,” he added.
On whether NECA is requesting a bailout for struggling businesses, he said: “Bailout is one thing, but if you do not address the contradictions in the economic space, it will bail anyone out. Government may give N10 million in grants, but by the time multiple regulators and revenue collectors show up with levies and high tariffs, the money is gone.
“What we need is for government to fix the regulatory and legislative contradictions. Regulators are meant to enable businesses, but that is not what many are doing today.”
President Bola Tinubu signed into law four key tax reform bills aimed at overhauling Nigeria’s fiscal and revenue framework.
The bills, signed at the Aso Rock Presidential Villa on Thursday, include the Nigeria Tax Bill, the Nigeria Tax Administration Bill, the Nigeria Revenue Service (Establishment) Bill, and the Joint Revenue Board (Establishment) Bill.
The new laws seek to harmonise tax administration across all levels of government, reduce duplication, and simplify tax compliance for businesses. They also establish a more autonomous national revenue agency and introduce governance structures to promote coordination between tax authorities. The reforms are expected to improve revenue collection, enhance the ease of doing business, and create a more stable and transparent fiscal environment