By Racheal Ishaya
Abuja – The ActionAid Nigeria has flayed the Federal Government’s offer of waivers and tax holidays to foreign investors as incentives.
This is contained in a statement by its Communications Coordinator, Mrs Onyinyechi Okechukwu on Wednesday in Abuja.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) recalls that the Minister of Mines and Steel development, Dr Kayode Fayemi recently announced the offer of tax holidays at a mining conference in Australia.
He said it would serve as incentives to improve activity in the country’s vastly under-active mining sector.
The Governor, Central Bank of Nigeria, Mr Godwin Emefiele, also expressed support for the minister’s view when he advised fiscal policy authorities to consider tax incentives to stimulate economic activities.
ActionAid, however, described the minister’s offer as “unnecessary and a reversal of a recent progressive decision that saw the withdrawal of Pioneer Status tax incentives previously granted to foreign companies”.
The statement reported the Country Director of the agency, Mrs Ojobo Atuluku, as saying that tax incentives as a means of attracting foreign investors was old-fashioned.
According to the statement, the study has proved that tax incentives are no longer considered a major reason for investors looking to invest, especially in a vast country like Nigeria as an investment destination.
“Nigeria with its abundant resources, a vast and available market, a free-market economy, indiscriminate access to banking and financial services, investors need no further incentives.”
The statement stated that ActionAid, in its recent study on incentives in West Africa, found that the region lost an estimated 6.9 billion dollars annually to tax incentives and give-away.
It said Nigeria was losing the largest chunk, with a loss estimated at 2.9 billion dollars annually.
“It is unacceptable that in spite of this and other revelations we made about the country’s loss to excessive incentives, such unproductive and wasteful offers are still considered.
“What is urgently needed now is an audit of existing incentives to determine the cost and benefit to the nation, not another series of Santa gifts to foreign investors who do not need it,” he said.
