Founder and Chairman of Phillips Consulting, Mr. Foluso Phillips, at the weekend suggested that Nigeria should begin to tax countries extracting Nigeria’s human assets abroad.
He said income tax received by these countries should be shared with Nigeria “because of the investment we have made in training our people.”
According to him, “even for those who were trained abroad, each one was funded by Nigerian parents. I know that would be a hard sell, but it’s such a loss to this country for now.”
He spoke in Lagos while delivering a lecture on “Nigeria American Trade Relations – Back to the Drawing Board” at the inauguration of the 19th National President of the Nigerian-American Chamber of Commerce (NACC), Dame Adebola Williams.
The foremost business and management consultant who stated that the essence of trade to any country was to always promote made-in-Nigerian goods however lamented that Nigeria has failed to develop competence in its natural resources to be able to export raw materials.
According to him, it would be counterproductive to export the nation’s raw materials without adding any value to them.
He said this is what made South Africa to stand out as it produces goods for exports and added a lot of value to them.
He however said the only areas where Nigeria is doing well in the global area are areas such as Fashion, Art, the entertainment industry, Digital technology, Design and Intellectual engagement “in which the government has nothing to do with.”
“No need for licenses, permission, regulation, or institutional roadblocks,” he stated.
Quoting data credited to The Federation of State Medical Boards, he observed that there are 3,895 Nigerian-educated doctors licensed to practice medicine in the US.
Specifically, he added that Nigerians accounted for 1.7% of all licensed physicians who were international medical graduates.
“It was further disclosed that 6,536 licenses were held by these 3,895 doctors, with the greatest number of licenses issued by the states of Texas (11%), Georgia (7%) and New York (6%).
“It’s not about us facilitating access to our markets for the USA, it should be about what we can sell and ship to them as products or services from Nigeria, appreciating that the range of such products and services have expanded and coming from new sources within the economy.
“The job of the Chamber is to boost trade – our trade to the USA. The USA already knows how to access our market, we need to know how to access theirs for the nature of products and service we provide.
“The United Kingdom and especially Canada have asked our young talented people to emigrate to their countries. Of course, they are picking on our best talents, and we are all without exception feeling the pinch.
“SMEs have become important to our economy in an extremely rapid way and the areas in which SMEs are dominating are being ignored because they are not traditional.
“Maybe it’s time for us to not only accept this situation but begin to trade these skills as an asset of the country.”
The industrialist tasked the chambers of commerce to “change the paradigm of Nigeria’s trading policy, which has hitherto been challenged because of our industrial inabilities.”
“This is my proposition to all chambers and organisations which have taken upon themselves the responsibilities for driving trade, industry and commerce between our country and others. No need for help from state or national civil servants.
“I am not here to bash the USA – God forbid, I love the US, but I do want to highlight the key essence of trade to any country and that is to always promote your own products and in all circumstances without any apology, and that is my first lesson or advice to the Nigeria America Chamber of commerce. It’s about being proudly Nigerian. It’s about “Made in Nigeria”.
“Our starting point is to understand, appreciate and act on the concept of comparative advantage. Most countries have obvious comparative advantages, which is usually driven by that which nature provides in abundance and to which value must be added to create wealth for the nation. What is more important is the concept of building core competence, which add value to the comparative advantage you have. Competences are continually enhanced through the process of adding value to your natural resources in one shape or another.”
The President of NACC in her acceptance speech promised that the chamber would not relent in its activities to facilitate trade between Nigeria and the US.
She however regretted that the insecurity, corruption, bad roads and high inflation had frustrated doing business in Nigeria and average Nigerians.
“Putting food on the table has become so tough. The rich are truly crying,” she added.
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