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 Daily
Independent Online.
* Wednesday, June 30, 2004.
It’s difficult doing business in Nigeria, says Startech boss
By Tom Chiahemen
Senior correspondent, Abuja
American-born Managing
Director and Chief Executive of Abuja-based Startech Connections Limited,
Nigeria’s first fixed wireless operator, Ms. Anne Bresnahan, has
described Nigeria as a very difficult country to do business with. She
also advanced reasons why many foreigners were reluctant to bring their
money to invest in the country.
Speaking in an exclusive interview with Daily
Independent in Abuja, Ms. Bresnahan, who has spent about five years
in the country, regretted that the government had failed to go beyond
mouthing the slogan of creating “a conducive atmosphere for foreign
investment,” noting that contrary to its constant recourse to the slogan,
the government had not provided the needed environment for investors,
particularly in the telecommunications sector.
“I think Nigeria has many things, or few
things, going against it - meaning that it’s difficult to do business
here and it’s difficult because, number one, the power and utility issue
is how much you have to add, 60 per cent to 70 percent, on to your cost
of operation,” she lamented.
According to her, one of the reasons why Startech Connections was
yet to expand as much as it intended was because, as she put it, “to
maintain the operations that we have is extremely, extremely expensive.”
The American, who said “the government
hasn’t done enough,” wondered what the officials of the Nigerian
government meant when they always talked about providing the needed
support to investors. “I
always say that we (foreign investors) don’t see the support and when I
say that to the (telecom) regulators, what do you mean by support to the
fixed wireless operators, I think, in my opinion, there’s still much need
in that area and no one is willing to say that,” she stated.
She identified the second major problem to investors,
as the duty reduction that the Finance Ministry was unwilling to comply
with. She was referring to
the five per cent duty
reduction on telecommunications equipment that expired since August, last
year, but which the ministry was yet to renew. “To talk about expansion,
if you’re looking at importing equipment, that is quite a bit of money,
that has not helped matters,” she noted.
The third problem, according to Ms
Bresnahan, had to do with security and safety. “In order for us to maintain more base stations, we
got to involve the police, we got to pay for their vehicles, we’ve got
the local communities, the chiefs, the townships, everything. So, those costs have all added up
to the cost of doing business. That’s why I want to know what is the
definition of ‘providing an enabling environment.’ Is it allowing us to do business
and pay a lot of money?” she queried.
Ms. Bresnahan, who acknowledged the fact
that there are enormous opportunities in Nigeria, however, said the
environment was not inviting.
“I’ve been here for five years and we went to Cairo recently with
the Nigerian delegation. I
came twice to Lagos and the minute I met the first government employee, I
was confronted with harassment. And if they don’t put up all that …you
will get it when you go to the immigration.
“And when you go down to the trolleys and these boys hissing at
you, someone pushes you, you know. And that was all in 154 minutes. No one is going to come here with
that terrible welcome,” she lamented.
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