Dear Nigerians, Please let your agitations be properly guided!

“Nigeria has taken too long to get to this point and any further delay will be detrimental to the economy, healthy living of Nigerians, the economy and the total environment. We urge the president to do the needful and immediately assent to this draft law.”

- The Centre for Social Change and Citizenship Education

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I stumbled on a media report titled “Group urges Buhari to sign Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Bill.” The Group is of the opinion that when the Bill is signed into law, it “would boost human rights, and the anti- corruption fight of the Federal Government, as well as help the economy” comments are reserved on the first two points.

Upon conclusion of the harmonization of the different versions of the Competition Bill by the Nigerian Parliament, a copy of the Bill was forwarded to the President for assent in December 2017. The Group wants President Buhari to assent to the Bill without further delay, but would assenting to the Bill as submitted to the President truly be in the best interest of the Nigerian Economy?

Clause 23(2) (g) of the Bill requires every company operating in Nigeria to remit 0.5% of its profit after tax to the Commission to be established by the Bill. This percentage is payable upon the conclusion of each company’s fiscal and accounting year and in any case should be paid not more than 30days after such conclusion.

It should be noted that this ‘tax’ is not a regulatory fee attached to a transaction or a violation, it is a fixed fee payable by all companies just for operating in Nigeria.

If the President signs the Competition Bill into law, this may become the trend for funding government agencies and it is doubtful if this will help the economy as agitated or improve the ease of doing business in Nigeria.

In South Africa, the Competition Commission is financed from money that is appropriated by Parliament for the Commission, fees payable to the Commission in terms of the Competition Act, income derived by the Commission from its investment and deposit of surplus money and money received from any other source. Interestingly, the Nigerian Competition Bill also has similar provisions for funding the proposed Commission which makes the inclusion of the proposed (g) come across as a desperate attempt to secure unearned revenue.

Unfortunately, the blame for the existence of Clause 23 (2) (g) does not lie with the Nigerian Parliament. A review of the Votes and Proceedings of the Senate on the 6^th of June 2017 reveals that the Senate agreed to delete the provisions of Clause 23 (2) (g) of the Bill.

It therefore remains unclear if this was a deliberate or erroneous retention of a clause which has the potential to further reduce Nigeria’s ranking with respect to its ease of doing business as well as a potential to discourage foreign direct investments in Nigeria.

I may have been able to attempt a very weak argument in favour of this clause, if the proposed Commission were to carry on a developmental function of sort, perhaps as an infrastructure development Commission. But even at that, nothing justifies the attempt to fund the activities of an agency of the government from the profits of companies which have already paid taxes to the government.

It is not in doubt that when the Bill is signed into law, it will promote consumer interests and more importantly, establish a substantive competition regime for Nigeria. But there are unintended consequences of the Bill in its current form which may far outweigh the intended benefits for doing business in and for companies operating in Nigeria in the long run.