Prince Billy Gillis-Harry is the Chairman, Oil and Gas subsector group of National Association of Chambers of Commerce Industry, Mines and Agriculture (NACCIMA). He is also the President/Chief Executive Officer, Bilview Energy Group and the President, Forum of South South Chambers of Commerce, Industry, Mines and Agriculture (FOSSCCIMA). In this interview with ROSELINE OKERE, Gillis-Harry beleived that government should engage the private sector in policy formulation, jus as he emphasised the collaboration of public and private sector in the provision of sustainable infrastructure needed for economic growth. Excerpts.THE Nigerian business environment has gone through numerous challenges since independence. What is your assessment of the present business environment'Well, from the point of view of organised private sector, the entire business environment is low and activities that supposed to kick start the growth of business in 2012 are not really put in place.Our governmenttoday is the biggest spender in our economy and this is not supposed to be. Private sector is supposed to be biggest spender, to guarantee consistent growth and source of employment in order to deplete the rate of unemployment. But government today in Nigeria is still the biggest spender. All the major big projects, i.e construction of roads, airport, repairs, are all handled by the government.Banks of course, are still very slow in supporting business. Nigerian banks only know how to keep money and charging cost of transaction and this is discouraging because shareholders invested in the business to make profit, and the profit must be proactive and its must be protected to protect new entrance, new idea, innovation. These are the things that are consistent.In economy like Nigeria, manufacturing and industrial sector have to compete with imported products. Nigeria is import dependent. It depends on products that are dumped by foreign trade partners and this is hindering our economic growth.So, the business environment is nothing to write home about. We heard that our economy is growing. We need to know the indicator. Are they using infrastructural development, housing development, or provision of power' Look, there is need to reduce the cost of doing business in Nigeria.Alternatively, what we should do now is that, for my thinking, every economy growth is measured by the level of unemployment.In Nigeria, we are more than 150 million people, which is a very big economy by itself. Within Nigeria, we can manufacture and sell. We can do business among ourselves not to talk about the business potential with our neighbouring countries, the Asian market, and the European market. The government has to come up with strategies to develop the agricultural sector and make it contribute significantly to the nation's Gross Domestic Products.Certainly, the organised private sector is ready to contribute to the nation's development in whatever ways possible. I want a situation whereby the private sector is able to come up with strategies aimed at overcoming the nation's challenges.Let me just take you from there. You said private sector should come up with a solution, how'Yes, first and foremost the private sector knows where the market is. They know the problems. They know where the difficulties are. Government is far away from the reality on ground. Government is busy pursuing valuesthat enhance their political will, which does not improve the economy and I have said a number of times that if there is no deliberate attempt to develop the economy, we will never get out of these problem in Nigeria.Even our political and security stability are determined by economic stability. The major factors like power, manufacturing and agriculture have to be critically looked into.We must deliberately develop our economic policies. Look for a plan, which will make us know what Nigeria wants. People that can focus on these issues are from the private sector and among politicians, as well as, those, who are daily dealing with the grassroot. The high and mighty, the elite, multinational and Nigerian business community must sit down and brainstorm how we can motivate the private and manufacturing sector, then of course, every other thing will follow.Whether it is trade, whether is tourism, entertainment, sport, all of these things will follow. Why can't we produce our own football boot today' Why can't we produce our Super Eagle Jersey in Nigeria' Nigerians should come up with solutions, not only government. Even people in government are also doing business. So we have to look at all these things and move Nigeria forward.You said earlier that banks are not forthcoming when it comes to provision of facility. But the Bank of Industry claimed to have given out loans to some private sector operators.We will be more than happy to partner with the Managing Director of the Bank of Industry. She is doing a good job. Indeed we want her to continue with her good job. But the truth is that many businessmen, who actually need this loan are not even aware of the existence.The chambers of commerce, for instance, in our country, are broad based organisation that have private sector practitioners. These are very good ways to disseminate information, but if we don't have the information, how do you assess it' We have to be informed.For instance, Bank of Industry collaborated with National Association of Chambers of Commerce, Industry, Mines and Agriculture (NACCIMA) to educate us on what type of funds that are available. I do think that Bank of Industry needs to interface with the organised private sector, especially the Nigerian Association of Chambers of Commerce to be able to reach out to 36 states, including Abuja. We don't have to struggle for information before we get them.Of course, Bank of Industry is doing something. What about the commercial banks' Are they willing to spend time to educate the business community on how to run programme, the type of funding that are available and how to access them' They are only interested in giving out loans to businessmen like the Dangotes, Femi Otedolas.How can the government or Central Bank assist industrialists to access loans from the commercial banks'The thing is that the financial policy from Central Bank should be made to favour the business community. You cannot expect solution in an organisation that is not part of the solution. The Central Bank governor sits down and give out the financial policy that can inhibit the growth of one million business. He has not done well, because some of us started our business with a thousand naira,so those small businesses have future to grow like a mustard seed, growing faster, so it is important that this policy that has been made by the government should always include the private sector and create room for development of the private sector.The Federal Government just released the 2012 budget. What is your assessment of the budget'You can see again that our budget is always having a high figure for re-current expenditure.Re-current expenditure as you know, have no value to keep or to save than just putting food on the table for the employed. So we need to deliberately work our budget in a way that our capital expenditure send government to a higher standard in infrastructural development.Today, we must begin to grow that sector so that we can guarantee other business. For instance, if we are talking about housing, the government must work out the policy. It must make provision for roads that would be put in place in next 100 years. I think our budget should be looking more into the future and develop capital investment that will guarantee sound infrastructural vehicle than just focusing on re-current expenditure that is talking about feeding, fueling and all these are not the things that grow the economy.Recently, the Federal Government came up with its transformation agenda. Do you think this initiative will not end exactly the way previous government's initiatives ended without result'Well, it is just about eight months into this administration and again anything that is worth doing in Nigeria, let us do it well. We should be able to look at the document to see if it is good' After which we can start to work it in a way to feel the result in five years, 15 years, in 20 years, in 40 years, in 50 years. So let us start the foundation now, just eight months, we still have four more months to re-evaluate the Agenda.The Federal Government has to embrace public-private sector partnership as a channel for quick technology transfer, trade facilitation and investment and research.To make this possible, we need mutual co-operation and very warm relationship between the government and the private sector on one hand, and the development of effective policy, regulatory, and institutional frameworks that can help the private sector perform unhindered on the other. We believe that these, in turn, will lead to economic boom and contribute immensely to increased prosperity and business growth.FOSSCCIMA is ready to partner with the Federal Government in the areas of power, energy, oil and gas, reworking of the Niger Delta amnesty programme, local content development, infrastructural development and Job creation.How can we stop this country from being import-dependent'Deliberate infrastructure development, mostly power. After power, we have to develop housing estates. If roads are constructed, electricity is there, water is there, that is enough. If the environment is conducive, manufacturers will begin to manufacture those things, which the country is presently importing. We can develop if we encourage the Bank of Industry to focus on how to develop this country. We don't need foreign consultants. Bank of Industry is a government bank, so they have government policy to follow. They should deliberately be working toward developing the capacity of local companies.One of the major problems facing local manufacturing in the country is the importation of fake products, especially from the Asian countries. How can we stop this'It's very easy to stop, if every importation is made to go through the Ministry of Trade and Ministry of Finance through the Customs at the boarder.Now we also have National Agency For Food, Drugs, Administration and Control (NAFDAC). We also have Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON). These organisations, particularly work for the benefit of Nigerians.There should be a mechanism to ensure the quality of the products coming in and those manufacture locally. There should be a deliberate trade policy to favour the local manufacturers.We all know that it is hard to produce anything where there is no power. The Nigerian industrialists are spending so much on power generation and the provision of security, because everybody has his security guard. The minister of Trade should play a key role.In the past, we banned lace materials from coming into the country. But we still see these products in the country. Our government needs to be strict and sincere. I want everybody turn off their generating set from only 14 days including the president and let us see if we will not be ready to produce power for 24 hours. The reason why we are still in darkness is because we are bringing in generators. We cannot grow our economy by that. We cannot grow the economy by using generating set.
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