Dipo Olowookere
By Dipo Olowookere
Despite its improvement in the ease of doing business, businesses in Nigeria continue to face a dire of challenges, the American Business Council (ABC) has disclosed.
Recently, the council, in collaboration with Accenture, KPMG, PwC and the US Embassy, conducted a survey to assess the overall economic impact of US companies in Nigeria.
The survey reflected the contribution of 74 United States companies operating in Nigeria and their responses reinforce the role the US plays in the economic health of Nigeria in the areas of job creation, investments in training and development, tax contribution, and corporate social responsibility, among others.
While presenting its findings to the media, ABC said in spite of the challenges, the survey showed renewed focus of US companies operating in Nigeria committing in human capacity as well as financial investment.
It was revealed that in 2017, the firms generated revenue of over N2 trillion, contributing over N111 billion as tax contribution to the nation’s economy.
ABC said US companies are generally compliant with federal and state government taxes, creating approximately 11,200 indirect jobs and over of 9000 full time jobs in 2017. The survey said this represents a 72 percent and 70 percent growth respectively from 2016.
During the period under review, the foreign direct investment inflows in 2017 from the US into Nigeria stood at $1billion, while the surveyed companies spent over N1.6 billion on training and development in 2017 from N340 million in 2016. This shows US companies commitment in capacity building in order to correct the deficit in labour skills.
A total of N1.5 billion was spent by the firms on Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) from N217 million in 2016. The focus areas are Education, Health, Infrastructure and Social intervention.
About 52 percent of these companies identified Nigeria as a regional hub for their operations in West Africa. Most companies are inclined to consider Nigeria as a regional hub if specific industry regulatory challenges and business environment challenges are addressed.
The survey showed that 64 percent of US companies have a local content target reflecting an inclination towards localization in areas such as products, people and supply chain, while the critical issues that impact the business operations of surveyed US companies in Nigeria today include.
