FG Urged To Adopt Measures To Check Exodus Of Multinational Companies

The Federal Government has been urged to initiate policies and programmes to curtail the increasing mass exodus of multinational companies in the country.

A former Director, National Orientation Agency, Enugu State, Dr Augustine Okolie, stated this while speaking with newsmen weekend. He described it as an ugly trend, regretting that ‘even indigenous companies are also leaving’.

Okolie said it was ironical that President Bola Tinubu “is wooing investors to invest in Nigeria while those already established in the country are exiting.”

He identified lack of ease of doing business, harsh economic environment, and insecurity among the factors militating against smooth business operations in Nigeria.

According to him, “The harsh business and economic environment is real. Things that enable businesses are lacking in the country. It is reflected in job losses and migration of the nation’s professionals for greener pastures. Some of these factors are multiple taxations, epileptic power supply and insecurity.

“Nigeria’s golden years were in the 80’s when we had multinational companies, such as Bata, Volkswagen producing within the country. The reverse is what we face today, worsened by the dwindling fortunes of the naira caused by the fact that we are a consuming nation.”

He called for measures to ameliorate the trend, noting that, “We need to do a lot more to reduce the hardship currently facing Nigerians. We need to have more seaports, especially outside Lagos to reduce the cost of goods around the country. Let’s our various chambers of commerce put heads together to save this situation. Our governors need also to make laws and policies to enable ease of doing business.”

THE WHISTLER reports that some of the manufacturing giants that have exited Nigeria are Unilever Nig (home care and skin cleansing division), GlaxoSmithKline, Sanofi and Bolt Foods, resulting in over 6, 000 job losses.