By Miriam Humbe
The Executive Secretary, Nigerian Investment Promotion Commission (NIPC), Aisha Rimi has said that the Commission was working assiduously to facilitate and assist investors to gain inroad into the country.
The Executive Secretary said this while addressing an interactive session between the NIPC management team and the media in Abuja on Friday.
Aisha Rimi said that the NIPC was aligning its areas of focus to key into the Renewed Hope Agenda of the President Bola Ahmed Tinubu administration.
She was grateful for the Commission’s collaboration with the Press over the years and urged the Press to continue to promote the activities of the Commission.
Some of the management staff of the Commission spoke on the various areas of the NIPC’s operation.
Head of Incentives Administration, NIPC, Mrs Lovina Kayode said that the NIPC had granted three years tax exemption to 34 companies in the out-going year, 2023.
Kayode said that the exemption aimed to promote the company’s investments drive towards developing the nation’s economy.
The NIPC’s Head of Incentives Administration said that not all companies were granted incentives due to the stringent procedures followed by the Commission on waiver awards.
She therefore, acknowledged the high amount of revenue lost to waivers granted every year, saying that mattered was the bigger picture, amount of forex brought into the country.
She said: “This tax exemption known as Pioneer Status Incentives (PSI) is executed under the Investors Relations Department of the NIPC and allows a company three years of not paying Corporate Income Tax.
“The Federal Inland Revenue Service, (FIRS) and our parent ministry, the Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment, is also part of this process to ensure that right investors get this incentive.
“So far 34 applications have been approved, and one of the things we intend to do was to ensure that we were not just giving incentives to undeserving companies.
“Meanwhile, there is already a notion that Nigeria gives out too many waivers, incentives, and concessions.
“However, tax expenditure means what the government has lost by granting PSI, was just a small amount compared to the gains made by granting these incentives to qualified companies.”
She said that the Commission planned to publish Impact Assessment Reports on the effectiveness of the Pioneer Status Report on job creation and other economic activities to promote investments.
Kayode said: “On impact, that is one thing NIPC is planning on, next year, it is one of our biggest tasks to do an impact assessment.
“These incentives we gave out, how have they impacted the country in terms of job creation and what kind of import substitution has come about because we granted these incentives.
“And how much will the government gain after the three years of them (the companies defaulting paying these taxes?).”
The NIPC’s Head, Policy and Advocacy, Mr. Salami Abayomi, frowned at the rate at which foreign companies/investors were leaving the country.
Abayomi attributed some challenges to this development, but assured that the Commission was working in collaboration with relevant agencies to address the issue.
He was confident that by the New Year, 2024, the efforts of the agencies would yield positive results in that regard.
