The Managing Director of FAE Limited and Vice-President, Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI), Princess Layo-Bakare Okeowo, has said that manufacturers are still being made to pay the 4 per cent Free on Board (FoB) levy, despite assurances of policy suspension by the federal government.
Responding to a question from the media on the controversial levy on Thursday, at the Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry’s (LCCI) Fourth Quarter Press Conference held in Lagos, the industrialist added that attempts, including a recent meeting between the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN) and men of the Nigerian Customs Service (NCS), to make the government see the harm in imposing such a levy, had not yielded the desired results.
Okeowo, who is also the Chairperson of BEST Board, argued that rather than suspend, the government should eradicate the policy since its implementation would go a long way in hiking operational costs, with such costs being passed on to the final consumers eventually.
‘Manufacturing is presently bleeding. Introducing such a policy at this time is a way of eating us up. It will, without doubt, add to the costs of operations, which will, at the end of the day, be passed on to the final consumer, because we won’t swallow it, we’ll pass it down,’ she stated.
She also expressed concerns that the introduction of the levy would put the nation’s manufacturers at a disadvantage on the global market, especially with the country being a member of the African Continental Free Trade Agreement (AfCFTA).
Speaking on the present state of the nation’s economy and the business community’s expectations of the last quarter of the year, President of LCCI, Gabriel Idahosa, expressed optimism that the stability in the forex market and the disinflationary trend being witnessed in the economy in the past few months would go a long way in boosting investor confidence.
The LCCI boss argued that a stable currency would go a long way in driving investment flow, since the average investor wants to invest in a stable environment.
‘The fact that the nation’s currency has been stable for some time now, for the first time in so many years, gives us hope. It gives the hope that the nation’s economy is gradually finding its footing and will continue to do so if some of those fiscal and monetary policies are sustained,’ he stated.
Idahosa, who also used the opportunity to unveil the Chamber’s new journal, Business Environment Journal, explained that the publication was to reinforce the Chamber’s belief that improving the nation’s business environment requires a collaborative effort among policymakers, private sector leaders, investors, and development partners.
‘Our goal with this journal is to inform that conversation with credible evidence, constructive analysis, and forward-looking recommendations,’ he added.