The Managing Director of Coleman Wires and Cables, Mr. George Onafowokan has said that the best way to improve business environment in Nigeria is to remove fuel subsidy.
He stated this in an interview with newsmen while reacting to the proposed removal of fuel subsidy by the Federal Government.
Onafowokan argued that the removal of fuel subsidy would make Nigeria have stable economy, adding that it might be difficult at the early stage but that when things are stable there willl be more money for the government to spend on infrastructure.
According to him, we have to look at it critically and without setiments, Nigeria cannot continue to afford subsidy. There is no history of a country that has maintained subsidy in petroleum that is able to survive the test of time.
“Venezuela is a good example, the country has the biggest oil reserve in the world and today it is the worse in terms of poverty and inflation all because of this subsidy that did not allow businesses to run properly.
“At a time, they were in a better position than we are. Personally for me, subsidy is not in the best interest of Nigeria because it’s only the few that benefit from it.
“Majority do not benefit from it, and the government has continued to put trillions of naira into subsidy, and this is tantamount to killing our future.
“I believe that it is better to spend that money on infrastructure and on enabling factors that will put businesses in the right frame than spending it on subsidy,” he added.
The Coleman MD stressed that removal of subsidy will berth a well empowered economy and people.
He continued, “jobs will be available for people. If we focus more on that, the setback might be there at the initial stage, but we need to take our eyes away from subsidy because this will encourage investors into the downstream and mainstream of the economy.
When asked if subsidy removal would affect businesses, he said,”I think it’s only short term effect. Yes it might cause more inflation, but when everything stabilizes, I think it will find its level of efficiency, and the economy will have its balance and invariably the country will have more money to spend.”
Onafowokan posited that rather than for Nigeria to continue borrowing money, the better way to improve infrastructure and ensure competitiveness, funding, liquidy and viability, more foreign direct investment and local expansion is to remove subsidy.
“That to me is more important than short term gains of subsidy. In between the time when there was no subsidy, when naira was N164, I think we had more stable economy, immediately subsidy started coming into play, see what happened to the naira, eventually everything started going up till we are at this current situation,” he said.
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