As the new service chiefs chart a new course on counter-terrorism in the fight against insurgency, banditry, kidnapping and other forms of criminality in Nigeria, hope appears to have risen for businesses in the Northern part of the country.
The service chiefs and acting Inspector General of Police (IGP) took over from their predecessors at the weekend, with a vow to take decisive counter measures against terror groups and oil thieves across the country.
They are Chief of Defence Staff (CDS), Maj Gen Christopher Musa; Chief of Army Staff, Maj Gen Abiodun Lagbaja; Chief of Air Staff, Air Vice Marshall H.B Abubakar; Chief of Naval Staff, Rear Admiral Ikechukwu Ogalla, and Acting IGP Kayode Egbetokun.
The once boisterous businesses in most parts of the North had hitherto been crippled by insurgency, banditry and kidnapping, with series of gory attacks on communities culminating in increased social risks, discouraged investment and triggered economic crisis.
Besides, the security challenge had also led to drastic reduction of patronage and movement of agricultural produce from the North to the Southern part of the country.
But with the new security chiefs on board, most Northerners who spoke with LEADERSHIP at the weekend expressed hope that they may finally be protected from attacks by kidnappers, bandits, Boko Haram insurgents and criminal herders, among others, which they felt the former service chiefs could not guarantee.
In Niger State, businessmen and organise private sector attributed the delay in the take-off of some businesses and closure of existing ones to incessant bandits’ attacks.
They listed some of the businesses to include the mega grazing reserve project at Bobi that would have housed many milk factories, Gurara water fall tourism concept, the completion of Zungeru Dams among others.
A manufacturer who also deals in raw milk for processing, Mohammed Abdullahi, said but for insecurity that made Bobi Grazing reserve a major target, their businesses would have expanded through the over N30 billion investment target in the reserve as conceptualised.
On what is expected, he said, “The government should continue with the same zeal, get to the bottom of insecurity and attack it from the root. Banditry has killed our business”
The director general of Niger State Chamber of Commerce, Industry, Mines and Agriculture, Adamu Salihum, corroborated Abdullahi’s position on the effect of insecurity on businesses in the state.
He said, “With restriction of movement, raw materials and finished goods are not delivered at all or not timely. Sometimes this leads to total shut down of factories”.
He notes that loss of staff, man hours and production time as a result of actual kidnap or fear of kidnap of key staff in the production line were witnessed, thereby increasing the cost of production which ultimately increased the market prices of goods and services.
Adamu said government use developmental resources to curtail insecurity, making infrastructural facilities to be left unattended which invariably affect the ease of doing business
He expressed hope that the new government will use community intelligence gathering to tackle the menace that has brought the ease of doing business to its lowest ebb.
According to him, the organised private sector (OPS) should be engaged to create employment for youths, such as patronising businesses in the region to produce all security uniforms, hardwares and other consumables.
Also speaking, the sole administrator, Borno State Chamber of Commerce, Industries and Mines (BOCCIMA), Alhaji Ahmed Ashemi, called for special grants and soft loans to businessmen and women.
Ashemi called on President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to do more on security to ensure free flow of businesses in Borno and environs.
He decried the current situation whereby many businessmen have lost their lives and property to insecurity in the state.
He commended President Tinubu for appointing the new service chiefs, urging them to do everything necessary to ensure that the decade long Boko Haram insurgency is brought to an end soon.
Ashemi stated: “You can even say that what was given with the right hand is going to be collected with the left hand. That is not even my problem; my problem is with my constituency which is a business community. Now they will need more money to be able to stock their shops, supermarkets and others in order for them to survive in business.
“If you increase the minimum wage for workers who are less than 5 percent of the population, how do you also ameliorate the effect of subsidy removal on not only businesses, but every person that is not earning a regular salary. I will call on President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to initiate a programme whereby his administration and government agencies will provide succor for everyone in Nigeria.
“Workers are being assisted because they have a voice, but there are millions of Nigerians who have no voice. So, I am calling on the government to initiate soft loans and upright grants and identity registered and genuine business men and women including artisans, and the voiceless in order for them to also survive the removal of fuel subsidy”.
Also, a key player in the Nigeria’s steel industry and group managing director of KAM Holding Limited, Ilorin, Kwara State, Alhaji Kamoru Yusuf, called on the Tinubu administration to create platforms for credit insurance underwriters in order to reduce the huge risks involved in capital projects execution in the country.
Yusuf who spoke with LEADERSHIP in Ilorin also stressed the need for Tinubu’s administration to create more funding windows and other support infrastructure to elicit rapid industrial development in the country.
The industrialist opined that the only way Nigeria can participate successfully in the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) and successfully compete among countries in the continent is by developing its giant industries.
“We can look at China, which always underwrites their capital projects under Sinosure (China Credit Insurance Corporation),” he added.
Specifically, Yusuf said that there cannot be significant growth in the sector without the intervention of the federal government where and when necessary.
Government should be the driving force behind the steel industry, which has the capacity and potential to resolve part of our social unrest by getting thousands of unemployed youths off the streets through direct and indirect job opportunities.
“Developed nations of the world are always at the forefront of periodic review and monitoring of progress and challenges facing the iron and steel sector by mandating their financial institutions to provide adequate support to the industry”.
For traders in Bauchi State, President Ahmed Tinubu should provide a customs waiver to encourage them to export commodities to international markets.
Speaking with our correspondent in Bauchi, the vice chairman (Import and Export), Bauchi State Chamber of Commerce, Industry, Mines and Agriculture, Munnir Umar, said the waiver, if granted, can reduce the burden of export tax exporters from the state pay which is denting their capacity.
“There should be a subsidy on export in the form of custom waiver to encourage investors in the mining sector as well as other sectors. It could be for three years for instance,” he appealed.
Umar explained that improved security will attract more foreign direct investment into different sectors of the economy of the state.
He said at a time when oil exploration kick-off in Bauchi, there is always room for investment, adding that the peaceful atmosphere for which Bauchi State is known must be replicated in other parts of the country to attract investors.
Similarly, some private business holders in Katsina State expressed worry over the daily experience of low patronage since the removal of subsidy on fuel by the federal government.
Investigation revealed that many renowned business holders in Katsina State are struggling to adjust their prices especially since the situation is also affecting their customers who cut down their expenses to also cope with the situation.
A manager of Ahuta Hotel, Katsina, Henry Chimeze, said business has been so difficult to run since the removal of the fuel subsidy.
“We are experiencing a serious drop in patronage. Some customers have stopped coming, and when you ask them, they tell you there’s no money, they are having challenges with their cars and they are cutting down their luxuries. It’s seriously affecting us,” he said.
He added that the management is only manoeuvring to survive and has not increased its price, hoping that things will improve as the days go by.
Responding to the proposed plan to increase of salary for public servants, Chimeze said that private business owners should also be considered for soft loans or other support otherwise the decision may cause serious inflation in the country.
Benedicta Idova, manager of S-Cafe Fast Food and Restaurant in Katsina, also decried the situation, saying the first thing she did to cope with the situation is increase the salary of the workers to keep the business going, adding that she intends to review the prices soon, but is still monitoring the business which she noticed has been dropping daily.
In Jigawa, the state chapter chairman, Nigerian Association of Chambers of Commerce, Industry, Mines and Agriculture (NACCIMA), Hon Mukhatari Muhammad Birniwa, said there are over 120 identified commodities in the state that can be exported to different parts of the world if properly processed and packaged.
According him, what the businessmen need from the government of President Tinubu is to create a window in the Central Bank of Nigeria and other commercial banks for soft and zero interest loans to small and medium entrepreneurs to enable them develop these commodities to local and international market standard.
Birniwa maintained that provision of such loans and other related interventions would encourage local and foreign investors to come and invest in different areas of economic interest for jobs creation growth and development in Jigawa State and Nigeria at large.
He noted that, President Tinubu is an entrepreneur with a lot of business experience who has used his wealth of experience to make Lagos the only state that can stand on its feet in Nigeria, with or without federal allocation.
Hoping that Tinubu would replicate the same expertise across the nation, he said, “Our appeal to President Bola Tinubu is to came up with programmes in which a soft and zero interest loan will be given to small and medium entrepreneurs across the country. This will pave way for developing local and grassroots economy which will in turn improve our people;s purchasing power.
“The improvement of small and medium businesses will support the growth of large industries particularly with provision of available rawmaterials and community purchasing power.
“The soft loan and any other intervention should be channeled to the prospective beneficiaries through business associations such as Nigerian Association of Chambers of Commerce, Industry, Mines and Agriculture (NACCIMA), Association of Medium and Small Scales Business and other related recognised groups for easy recovery and achieving the desired goal.”
Credit: Leadership