Tax regime encouraging entrepreneurs best ease of doing business—Commonwealth
Fresh colouration has been given to the ongoing policies by the federal Government to deepen ease of doing business in Nigeria.
In an interactive session with select media executives, the Chairman of the Commonwealth Enterprise and Investment Council (CWEIC), Lord Marland, said issues bordering on improving the Nigeria’s ranking on the Ease of Doing Business is “Entirely up to the government how it runs the country, but an environment for generating entrepreneurial activity is really one way you can incorporate an off-the-shelve legal process and get going”.
“Again, those are not always easy to achieve. One of the things I achieve as a minister in the UK was speeding up that process when we had good programmes of companies starting up and the other thing was to have a tax regime that promotes entrepreneurship.
“I remember the Margaret Thatcher days where she started the BIS scheme which is now Enterprise Investment Scheme (EIS), which involves a seed fund from investor and in return he/she will get a tax relief on his investment which will be free from capital gains.
Marland averred that “Those are compelling and attractive initiatives that allow people to think about taking a risk of investing in a new company and it is been transformation all the way in the UK and I am sure it will be like that in other countries too”.
On what CWEIC is doing to encourage more organisations and individuals in joining the Council, he said “Our activity is enabling communication between corporates and government in a number of countries and our job is to present opportunities and to allow our business members to take advantage of it”.
“Not everyone takes advantage of opportunities for variety of reasons, but that does not mean we would not do that and the commonwealth is a remarkable space as it has the benefit of all countries speaking English. There has been this certain constant flow between Nigeria and the UK and other English-speaking countries.
Business Hilights recalls that CWEIC was established in July 2014, with the support of the Commonwealth Secretariat.
It is a not-for-profit organisation that focuses on business practices, governance, supporting businesses to create trading opportunities in commonwealth countries
