African countries lobbying companies out of Nigeria, says Industry Minister

Jonas Ezieke, Abuja

The Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment, Otumba Niyi Adebayo on Thursday told the House of Representatives Committee on Public Accounts that several African countries were lobbying companies registered and operating in Nigeria to leave and relocate to such countries.

The Minister who led other agencies under the Ministry to appear before the committee to respond to queries from the Auditor General for the Federation said the Nigerian government was doing everything possible to ensure that such companies don’t leave the country.

He said many of these countries, including Ghana has increased their capital allowances to companies and has already taken away lots of investment from the country, adding that what is keeping some companies in the country today is it’s population.

He said the government was looking for ways of increasing the level of new investment in the country and sustaining existing ones, saying “our duty is to support investment growth In Nigeria. It is public knowledge that getting these investment is increasingly becoming difficult today”.

Earlier in his remarks,  Chairman of the House Committee on Public Account, Hon Oluwole Oke said several companies operating in the country were in the habit of not paying the required revenue to government leading to lack of revenue for the operation of the government services.

Oke said “Nigeria is bleeding. We are borrowing daily to finance our budget and the Minister of Finance has said the reason we are borrowing is because we are not collecting the revenue we are supposed to collect.

“The Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment has issued some instruments which earned companies tax breaks and tax holiday. But this scheme has been abused by the companies.

“When some of these companies appeared before this committee, we noticed from their presentation elements of tax invasion. For example, China Habour got a waiver of N5 billion to import nails and wire nets. In my village, we have a company that manufactures nails, but cost of manufacturing nails locally is higher than those imported. So, how do we encourage local production?

The same company invaded some of the schemes of government and they are seeking to have Pioneer status. We also have a company that has been existing in Nigeria since 1979 and has never paid one Kobo to the government. ALSCON has been in operation and has not paid a single Kobo to government coffer.

“There is a company that put up a show and ursurp the fuction of NEPZA who are supposed to remit it’s operating surplus. But it’s licensees have undermined the agency.

Millions of dollars that are supposed to go into NEPZA’a coffee are going into private pockets. That is why we are trying to find out if there is the need to review existing laws because the Parliament will not allow the country to continue to bleed.

“MTN gave us certificate if acceptance worth N2.6 trillion and claimed to be the highest tax payers in the country. We are asking them to provide us evidence of how they got those certificates. That is where we are right now.

“Globacom, Airtel and 9 Mobile are running away. But the law will catch up with them. We are aware that they have spent so much on their investment and so don’t want to be party to dragging their names in the mud. But they must come before parliament to defend the capital allowances they have collected”.

Speaking on the operations of the Oil and Gas Free Zone Authority, Oke said “some licensees claimed to have made payment to you which we cannot see. For example, AGIP claimed have paid millions of dollars to you. I checked the records of your submission and cannot find even one million dollars tracable to a single company.

“They also filed for capital allowance with FIRS and FIRS has given effect to that without tye certificate of acceptance issued by the Ministry of Industry. We have asked for evidence of exception and there is none. We have also asked for a list if the assets they imported that qualified and inspected which the FIRS acted on.”