WEBVTT

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I books are welcome to my podcast
the way I say it. My name

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is Kalu Aja and on my podcast
I'm talking money, the economy and finance.

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This episode, I'd like to talk
about the ease of doing business in

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Nigeria, or should I say the
unease of doing business in Nigeria as a

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topic. I'm looking at the Handbook
on Expatriate Quota Administration in Nigeria. It's

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issued by the Ministry of Interior revised
twenty twenty two in summery. Let me

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give you some background. If you
want to do business in Nigeria and you're

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a foreigner or you're a Nigerian that's
going to have a joint venture with foreigners,

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then that business needs to be registered
with the Nigerian Ministry of Interior.

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To get that registration or the business
permit, the missure of material requires this

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is not requires that you have a
paid up share capital of one hundred million

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nira. Now this is paid or
not authorized, which means you've got to

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invest a hundred million naira into that
company that you would like to use to

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do business in Nigeria. Now,
the value of equipment or machinery you import

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into Nigeria for the purpose of this
business could also form a part of the

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paid up capital for your business.
That's the rule. In addition, the

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Ministry also requires that you should prove
that you have a permanent owner operating premise

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in Nigeria. So first of all, you've got to get a hundred million

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ERA. Then you've got to bring
that one hundred milliaris into the country with

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certificate of capital importation. A bank
has got to issue or letter confirming that

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those funds actually came to Nigeria.
Then you have to go get a permanent

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operating premise. This is to do
business in Nigeria. So the question really

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is why do I need a hundred
million ERA or why does every business that

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wants to do business in Nigeria need
a hundred millionaire paydoff. What if I

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was an internet servicing company or a
small firm for instance, What if I

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want to do online education and I
hooked up with say the New York instead

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of Finance and together we want to
set up this online training portal to train

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Nigerian bankers in Nigeria. Do we
need one hundred million for that? Even

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if we're online? Do we need
that? So you can see that the

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requirements are very not just stringent,
they are unnecessary and most importantly, they

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cause Nigeria not to compete favorably with
other jurisdictions that are also seeking capital as

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foreign direct investments. Now, what
if I don't have a hundred millionaire,

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what would I do? Well,
it's very easy. I'll go to the

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US or even Rwanda and set up
a company there. The US does not

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require one hundred million Ira to set
up a company in Delaware. They don't.

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Rwanda also also require one hundred million. As a matter of fact,

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eighty percent of Nigerian startups are now
incorporated in the US's According to the US

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government's official eighty percent of Nigeria startups
incorporated in the US. Alarm bells should

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be bring in the y a Nigerian
youths of Nigerian companies leave in Nigeria to

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go to the US to incorporate.
But rather than alarm bells, we are

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seeing bells or we're seeing eightym signs
flashing as the measure of Interior wants to

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make internal gentle revenue instead of worrying
about foreign direct investments and guys, that's

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where this is all going to This
looks to me like a push for revenues,

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intelligent revenues rather than foreign direct investments, which are more long term and

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would be more beneful to Nigian economy
in the long term. Why is Nigeria

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doing this? Do we not know
that we are competing not just with Ghana

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and Ivory Coast and Rwanda, but
where the US when our global village tried.

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So capital is mobile and it can
move to require a hundred million before

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you set up in Nigeria if you
are foreign participation is a big, big,

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big hurdle and many Nigerians, as
they are already indicating where they incorporate

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their businesses, will simply not do
it. So I think we need to

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reave to go go back and look
at this guideline. You should buy the

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nijerm niush of interior and perhaps rescind
or rework or perhaps make the capaid of

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capital more attuned to the type of
business you'd like to do in Nigeria and

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not to blanket one hundred million.
All right, guys, that's my take

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for this episode. I hope you
guys to join me next time when we

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come on a podcast again. My
name is Kalu and this is the way

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I see it. Thank you so
much for listening thake Care and by