Shettima Pushes Economic Reforms, Says Government Must Work Closely With Businesses

(Senator Kashim Shettima. Photo Credit; Leadership News)

The Vice President, Senator Kashim Shettima, said yesterday that the Federal Government must keep engagement with the business sector open.

According to him, any government that ignores employers cannot fully understand the economy.

Consequently, he said the federal government remained committed to reducing bottlenecks and digitising government processes, so that reforms announced in Abuja are experienced by businesses in Lagos, Kano, Aba and every part of the country without delay.

Speaking at the 5th Nigerian Employers’ Summit in Abuja, the vice president, who was represented by former Minister of the Federal Capital Territory and Special Adviser to the President on General Duties, Dr Aliyu Modibbo Umar, said the summit was timely because Nigeria stood at a decisive moment.

He explained that the conversation was an honest one because reform demands difficult discussions about production costs, access to credit, exchange rates, taxation and investment, and a necessary one because the private sector cannot compete on sentiment but on functional infrastructure, predictable policies, fair taxation and reliable energy.

Commending President Bola Tinubu for the hard decisions he had taken, Shettima said the economies flourishing today did not stumble into prosperity, but summoned the foresight to imagine a different future and the courage to implement the reforms that brought that future within reach.

He argued that foresight without courage produces fine speeches and empty outcomes, while courage without foresight produces motion without progress, stressing that what a nation requires is the marriage of both, the vision to see what must change and the resolve to change it even when the path is steep, describing this as the burden of responsible leadership.

While welcoming participants to the 5th Nigerian Employers’ Summit, a leading private sector platform for conversations on enterprise sustainability, job creation, placement facilitation and inclusive growth, the vice president commended the Nigeria Employers’ Consultative Association, NECA, for remaining a credible voice of employers for nearly seven decades, building bridges between government, labour, development partners and the business community.

He explained that when President Bola Ahmed Tinubu assumed office, the economy carried deep structural burdens, with fuel subsidy having become fiscally unsustainable, the foreign exchange market fragmented, government revenue weak and investor confidence in need of rebuilding.

He noted that the easy option at the time would have been to postpone difficult decisions, but stressed that leadership is tested when the right decision is also the difficult one.

He said the Renewed Hope Agenda was designed to confront these realities, arguing that prosperity cannot be built on distortions, that investment cannot be attracted when foreign exchange remains uncertain, and that jobs cannot be created when enterprises are suffocated by multiple taxation, poor logistics and insecurity.

He maintained that although the reforms have been difficult, their purpose is to correct the foundations so that growth becomes real, durable and inclusive, adding that restoring macroeconomic stability was the first task since a stable economy is the first infrastructure of business, with businesses needing confidence to plan and invest even before roads, railways and ports.

He said this was why removing the fuel subsidy and reforming the foreign exchange market remain central to the reforms, explaining that the subsidy had crowded out investment while encouraging inefficiency and rent-seeking, whereas the foreign exchange reforms are delivering a more transparent and market-reflective system.

He added that the fiscal and tax reforms follow the same logic, noting that businesses do not reject taxation but reject multiple taxation, harassment and systems that punish compliance while rewarding informality.

He explained that the agenda reduces the number of taxes, harmonises administration, protects the vulnerable, supports small businesses and encourages compliance by lowering rates while widening the tax base needed to fund infrastructure.

He said the private sector asks only that government should not make doing business unnecessarily difficult, noting that every delayed approval and unclear regulation imposes additional costs on enterprise, which is why the government remains committed to reducing bottlenecks and digitising processes so that reforms announced in Abuja are experienced by businesses across the country without delay.

In his welcome address, the Director-General of NECA, Mr Adewale Oyerinde, said five years after the summit was established, it had consistently produced practical policy recommendations that successive governments had found useful, noting that from its inaugural edition at Transcorp Hilton Abuja to the fifth edition at Abuja Continental Hotel, the summit has shaped national conversations and strengthened confidence between government and the organised private sector.