President Muhammadu Buhari, the man who
made history as the first leader to oust a
sitting Nigerian president via democratic
means, has seen what it means to lead a
peculiar nation.
In his own little way, the president of
Africa’s biggest economy, who rode to
power on the wings of change, has
transformed the face of business in
Nigeria.

Here are five ways Buhari has changed
doing business in Nigeria:


WORLD BANK’S BITTERSWEET INDEX
In Buhari’s one year in office, the World
Bank has released just one “ease of doing
business” report, and it’s bittersweet.
Its sweet in the sense that Nigeria took a
leap of change from 170 to 169, moving
one spot up the ease doing business
ladder.
Though Nigeria overtook one country on
the ladder, it actually became harder to do
business in Nigeria. The ease of doing
business index fell from 47.33 in 2015 to
44.69 in 2016 .
The world bank stated epileptic power
supply and lack of clear rules and
enforcement as the major reasons why
Nigeria lost some points in its ease of
doing business.
The bank said power “is a core sector for
the generation of national wealth and
employment in Nigeria, but faced with an
electricity sector hampered by poorly
utilized generation capacity, high
transmission losses and frequent outages,
companies turn to self-provision of
electricity”.
“This raises their production costs,
reducing their competitiveness and thus
their demand for labour. The erratic and
inadequate power supply in Nigeria has
often been cited as the main reason
forcing multinationals to relocate
production lines to other countries.”
The president and Vice President Yemi
Osinbajo have promised to deliver 7,000
megawatts of electricity before the end of
2016. Nigeria is keeping hope alive.


RIDING THE SYSTEM OF CORRUPTION; NO
MORE TAX EVASION
As a general who fought for Nigeria during
the civil war, Buhari promised that he
would not just be remembered as one who
fought the war, but a patriot who fought
corruption to its knees.
Speaking in India, in October, 2015, Buhari
said: “I want to be remembered by
Nigerians as a genuine patriot who not
only fought the civil war but also fought
corruption to standstill”.
The battle against corruption has recorded
some feat, as the business environment
now knows that things have taken a new
dimension.
In the past, tax waivers were the order
of the day. Saratu Umar was fired as the
executive secretary of the Nigerian
Investment Promotion Commission (NIPC)
on the suspicion that she leaked
information on the granting of
questionable tax waivers estimated to be
worth $20 billion.
The senate, during the past week,
revealed that Nigeria lost N106 billion to
import duty waivers in 2015 alone . That
has begun to change as the president
remains strict on revenue generation via
duties and taxes.
The Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS)
has never been more active. FIRS led by
Babatunde Fowler has taken the tax
enforcement to the doors of the high and
mighty. Evasion is becoming history.


WIN-WIN TAX INCENTIVES
Bright ideas have seen the light of the
day in the past 12 months. Every bright
business environment encourages
incentives, and Nigeria under Buhari has
found a good way to do that.
According to Babatunde Fashola, minister
of works, power and housing, private
companies can fix public facilities and get
tax incentives (tax remission) in return.
“Council approved Memo for Dangote
subsidiary to fund and build Obajana-Kabba
road using cement, in exchange for tax
incentives,” Fashola said at a federal
executive council meeting.
“This is not a Dangote-only issue. There’s
an existing tax policy that states that any
individual or investments in publicly-owned
infrastructure is entitled to make claims
on remission of income tax obligations.
“It is like a credit advance to the
government, the road or infrastructure
ultimately belongs to the government.”
Private companies can now fix government
road, and get tax incentives. That’s good
business for the people, the government,
and the private sector. Win-win!


THE FOREIGN EXCHANGE QUAGMIRE
President Buhari will not be the one who
will kill the naira. Resolved! But he may be
the president who would distort economic
activities in the private sector.
Since Buhari came into office, the naira
has gone from about N218 to the dollar to
N350 on the average, but the official price
has remained at 197 to the dollar. With
dwindling oil prices and plunging reserves,
there has been a lot of pressure on the
naira, pushing it to new lows. A yuan-
deal signed in China was meant to ease the
pressure on the naira, but the deal, as
we understand, is still incubating its way
to reality.
Getting foreign exchange for importation
of goods at competitive prices has become
increasingly difficult, as the Central Bank
of Nigeria (CBN) is focused on growing
local industries.
After 11 months of maintaining a
seemingly rigid forex policy, the CBN
monetary policy committee (MPC) has
agreed to employ a flexible exchange rate
system, with little or no details on the
policy.
The current forex policy has seen a
number of companies leave the country,
while some others are coming in.


BUHARI’S INFLATION?
Inflation is here with us. With 12 months
in office, businesses under Buhari and the
masses have had to deal rising inflation.
Of the 12 months spent so far, inflation
has risen every month but one, moving
from nine percent in May, 2015 to 13.7
percent in April. A bag of rice which sold
for about N9,000 in May 2015 has gone up
to over N15,000 in May 2016.
Buhari’s second year starts in a few
hours. The question remains’ Will the
president stem inflation or make Nigerians
sleep in their country and wake up in
Zimbabwe?
https://www.thecable.ng/business-5-ways-buhari-has-changed-doing-business-in-nigeria-in-1-year