TheCable

Ade Adefeko, Olam Nigeria’s vice president for corporate & government relations, says companies operating in the country will plan better and excel with consistent policies.

Speaking to TheCable on the sidelines of the recently concluded conference of the Nigerian Economic Summit Group (NESG), Adefeko said the country has to act fast so that its large population does not become a liability.

“In the agro-business space, we are doing our bit and without businesses like us and small and medium scale enterprises as well upscaling, we can’t get there,” Adefeko said.

“The world has left us behind; the train has left the station, but the train is still coming back to pick a few people who have been left behind. So we need to jump into that train otherwise, our population which is supposed to be an asset might, in the long run, be a liability.

“For me, I have always been a believer in policy consistency and no flip-flops. You recall in one of the sessions where the chairperson of First Bank, Ibukun Awosika, spoke about the fact that we don’t want policy flip-flops, we want policies that are continuous and that people can plan with.

“I mean we are one of the largest agro-business companies in Nigeria, playing upstream, downstream, midstream. For us, consistency is important and the enabling environment is always something we talk about.”

Adefeko listed security and multiple taxations as some of the other challenges businesses operating in Nigeria have

“You cannot be taxing me at the federal level and be taxing me seriously at the sub-national and local government levels. So we can have harmonization of taxes and have a one-stop-shop where taxes are paid,” he said.

The Olam executive advised the federal government to broaden the tax net instead of adding to the burden of existing taxpayers.