Area Corporate and Regulatory Affairs Director, British American Tobacco (BAT) West Africa, Bassem Bekdache, in this interview with CHIJIOKE IREMEKA, speaks on the controversy trailing the Nigerian Tobacco Control Bill (TCB), the proposed cashless economy, as well as the operational challenges facing the country's private sector. Excerpts:WHAT are your thoughts on the Central Bank-driven cashless economy, especially now that the CBN wants to take it to the rural areas'The cashless policy started very recently, and I haven't had any feedback that we have encountered problems. We would continue to assess it and see if there is any need to give input when necessary. At the moment, we have no issues with it.Following the new wave of reforms in the Agriculture sector, is the BAT looking to make a significant input'Agriculture is core to our operations and we have good operation framework in tobacco farming, which we believe should be replicated in agro-based industries. Apart from this, one of the Foundation's key activities is Agriculture; we have been supporting government initiatives in several areas, and will continue to do so.Recently, we established an Agriculture training school in Oyo State, in addition to the scholarships we have been giving in the area of Agriculture. So, there are quite a number of things that we have been doing. We also encourage Tobacco farmers to rotate their farming and plant other food crops.We support them with fertilizers. Don't forget that even the other three focus areas of our corporate social investments also work closely with Agriculture. Vocational skill could also be in agriculture, provision of water, if you talk about planting, is also agriculture. Environmental protection also has a lot to do with agriculture.So, as you can see, we focus very much on agriculture ' we have competence in this area and we believe it's important for the country.Does BAT own any tobacco farm in Nigeria'No. We deal with tobacco farmers; we don't own any farm. We provide them with expertise, seed, training and other resources.What has been your challenges operating in the Nigerian business environment'I am not going to say anything new. The two major challenges ' infrastructure and power ' are still there. It makes cost of doing business in Nigeria higher than doing it somewhere else.On these age-long problems plaguing the country, what are your recommendations for government'We hope the government will keep working on it to get it right.Would you share your thoughts on the Tobacco Control Bill (TCB) currently passed by the National Assembly and awaiting Mr. President's assent'The TCB, as a Bill, was drafted for the county's tobacco industry. It has been passed by the National Assembly (NASS) and has been waiting for Presidential Assent for couple of months now.Why the Bill is still pending, I can't say; but it should be balanced, evidence-based, free of ambiguities, inconsistencies and enforceable so that it will not encourage illegal trade.If things are not done to tone down the rate of ambiguity in Bill, it will become very difficult to enforce. The Law should be clear in order to meet its intended aim.But what do you see as benefits of the Bill if assented to by Mr. President'We believe the intended objective of this law is to reduce the impact of tobacco use. As it is, the impact will be on the legal businesses, leaving room for illegal business to fill the void and thereby, impacting on the use of tobacco will not be achieved.The unintended consequences of an ill thought-out regulation will increase black market activities in the industry. It has been estimated that smuggled and counterfeited products or tax-evaded products currently represent about 12 per cent of global cigarette sales, on a level with the third-largest multinational tobacco company.Aside from negatively affecting the legitimate industry, it means loss of revenue to the government as a result of unpaid taxes and consumers will be more exposed to counterfeit products sold by illegal sellers.If the black market takes over the business in Nigeria, which agency will give instructions to the marketers on whom to sell to' whether to young persons or not' Who will check their products to see if they are in compliance with the standard' Illegal operators do not comply by any standard or adhere to any law. And these are likely to be the outcome of a negatively passed Bill.The question we would ask ourselves is whom are we going to be dealing with, the legitimate and responsible companies or the smugglers' It is important to take this into account so that we will take actions that will not undermine the positive outcome of the intended goal.Is this the official position of BAT on the Bill'We have always said that we support regulation and, by this, we mean a balanced and evidence-based regulation, which helps to achieve the objectives of health advocates. We, therefore, believe that the Nigerian Tobacco industry must have a balanced regulation in place. We support every good actions and policy of government.We are not in the business of promoting smoking; therefore, we do not encourage people to take up smoking. We offer quality products to adults, who have made an informed decision to smoke. We also seek to legally compete with other brands and gain market share by doing this.We fully comply with the law in all aspects, and in instances where we have found out that there are no laws or that the laws are weaker than our own internal standards, we always apply these standards. We have internal compliance processes to ensure that we comply.For instance, our Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) committees and audits are periodically carried out to check on what we are doing. We have in various ways voluntarily restricted our product communication. This is in line with our principle of responsible marketing.The objective for responsible marketing at all times is to do the right thing for a legal product in the marketplace. We have seen that in many other places despite regulations, many people continue to smoke and use tobacco products. This is why it is vitally important to get regulation right and make sure that a void created is not filled by illegal market.What would you consider the impact of BAT in Nigeria's economy since inception'Our impact has been felt in several ways. When we came into the country, illicit tobacco trade was 80 percent and today, after working with different government agencies, the situation has reduced to between 12 and 15 percent.What this means is that, government revenue from the sector has increased and we now have products that comply with standards and regulations marketed in a responsible manner. Then, tobacco products were also imported into the country, but today, we have invested in local manufacture by building a factory here in Nigeria.We also export from two of our factories into West Africa. There is also the people development aspect of our operations, providing employment through our investment. Then, there is the charitable organisation, the BATN Foundation, which attends to requests from many communities.For example, in a place where there is no portable drinking water, we have helped to construct one. Sometimes, it is environment and agriculture. Also, helping people develop vocational skills to get employment.We had established cassava processing cottage industries, Palm oil processing industries, maize farms, rice plantations, potable water supply, vocational skills training centers and others.We have a number that we are proud of and it cuts across all the focus areas. This includes our desert encroachment tree plantations and our cottage processing industries.Our CSR covers the entire aspect of our operations, but looking specifically at the investments we have made in the communities. We have established 108 projects in all the 36 States of the Federation, including the Federal Capital Territory. Though there are challenges, but the assessment of the impact we have made is positive.In which states are these projects located'Well, BAT Nigeria Foundation was established as an independent charitable organisation in November 2002. It focuses on sustainable poverty reduction, sustainable agricultural development, sustainable provision of potable water and sustainable environmental protection.They have consistentlydelivered on their support of the Federal Government's initiatives and the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals. It has embarked on several projects, which include100 completed projects in 36 states and the FCT, skills transfer in mechanised farming and food processing at Ago-Are Model Farm, Oyo state, in partnership with International Institute for Tropical Agriculture.Others are various cottage industries in Nigeria ' Amokwe-Item in Abia State and Ilugun in Ogun State; dry season vegetable and rice farming through irrigation in Jima in Niger State, hectares of planted economically-valued neem plants in Kastina, Zamfara among other states across Nigeria.There is also, fish farm in Epe; Lagos State with a workshop to educate on maintenance and management of the farm Solar powered boreholes in communities across the country.What is your advice to tobacco smokers and intending smokers'We believe that adult smokers must make an informed choice. As a company, we acknowledge the fact that, there are health risks associated with smoking and we believe in offering consumers information about this. Adults must make informed choices about every decision they make in life but cigarettes should not be sold to an under added child.
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