Director-General of the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN), Segun Ajayi-Kadir, has expressed concern over the decision of the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) to tax illicit trade, which will reflect in the Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
According to him, such a move could give the impression that the government is legitimising financial crimes.
Ajayi-Kadir, who stated this at a press briefing in Lagos, backed the decision of the government to rebase the country’s GDP but warned that it should not be used to downplay the country’s economic challenges.
The NBS recently revised the country’s GDP calculation by adopting 2019 as the base year, replacing the previous base year of 2010, implying that constant prices previously based on 2010 will now be based on 2019.
Ajayi-Kadir who was responding to questions on how the new calculation may impact the manufacturing sector’s performance, said: “The Nigerian rebasing, some people have started to question the basis for rebasing. We are even told the government will begin to assess the informal areas, the illegal, the illicit – Smuggling, kidnapping, and so on.
“Well, I know that it’s a form of terrible economic activity, and money is expended, but how you are going to correctly adopt it, whether you are not legitimizing illegality and whether you’re not recognizing them becomes another issue. But I think there’s wisdom behind rebasing.”
The MAN DG said: “The only thing you need to do is do it correctly and don’t weaponise it, don’t use it as a political tool to water down the enormity of the challenge of the country.”
He said the association will collaborate with the NBS to get sufficient data for better assessment of the GDP.
“For us, we are disposed to the correct assessment of the GDP. We will, of course, respect NBS, whatever they come up with, and if we have issues, we are going to engage them, because we are already having some collaboration with them. There is a need for us to have data to better assess things,” he added.
