Stagflation: Health stakeholders advise FG on way forward
By Doris Obinna & Henry Uche
Stakeholders in the healthcare sector have advised the federal government of Nigeria to give small taxpayers with businesses of annual turnover of less than N1billion a tax holiday for one year, as well as provide grants, not loans, to businesses.
In a communiqué issued at the end of the 13th Annual Symposium & Award Ceremony of Health Writers Association of Nigeria (HEWAN) in Lagos, the group recommended that government should fund the pharmaceutical industry just as it has funded Dangote refinery, saying that both are very important to overall economic viability.
With the theme “Dwindling Local Drug Production and High Cost of Essential Medicines: Rethinking Strategies for Growth,” they called for the reduction of corporate income tax (CIT) for medium to large taxpayers, from 30 per cent to 20 per cent, to help cushion the shock of the operating environment; while import duty should be deleted to enhance the survival of the pharmaceutical sector.
“We recommend that the Nigerian government should manage the float of the currency. The current N1,500 to 1 USD exchange rate is not sustainable in the long term. We also recommend that the federal government should recall and deploy retired security personnel (police, DSS and military) to the wards in local government areas to assist in curtailing insecurity. This will help food production.”
They called on the government to fund pharmaceutical grade starch, make ‘made in Nigeria’ pharmaceutical products generic, and make health insurance compulsory.
“Government should close down open drug markets because they give room for fake products and cheat the supply chain. Government should also stop chasing inflation, rather it should chase growth. The current 26.25 per cent magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MPR) is too high”
HEWAN, with other stakeholders in the healthcare sector, recommended that the government should consider selling non-performing assets to generate foreign exchange. (E.g. Federal Secretariat and Nitel buildings in Lagos), while Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) should channel its energy in only eight tax types, accounting for 90 per cent of tax revenue and delete 54 tax types that are ‘impediments to business growth.’
“Businesses should diversify their offerings, chase government contracts, outsource non-essential services, and consider solar panels to reduce energy costs,” they added.
Meanwhile, Mr Akinjide Adeosun, chairman/CEO, Rachael’s Pharma, who led the symposium, advised Nigerians to adjust in the face of an excruciating economy.
Adeosun spoke on “Stagflation: The Road to Prosperity,” positing that it is difficult to market a product to new customers if existing customers are dissatisfied with the product; thus, businesses should segment their offerings into mass and premium customers and position their products and services to meet the needs of their target market. “Chase goods and services contracts in the national and sub-national governments and the banks,” he advised.
To weather the economic storm ravaging citizens, he suggested that people should plant vegetables at home; imbibe the habit of maintenance and repair; buy shares in banks; invest in land and take advantage of the Lagos-Calabar highway corridor and invest in government treasury bills and bonds with yields of 20 per cent per annum.
