‘Punish economic crimes’ — Adewole Adebayo advises FG on ease of doing business

Adewole Adebayo, presidential candidate of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) in the 2023 elections, has asked the federal government to punish economic crimes and strengthen regulatory framework to facilitate the ease of doing business in the country.

Speaking on Thursday at the 13th anniversary lecture of the January 9 Collective (J9C), Adebayo said economic crimes should not be limited to activities like fraud, but also include the misuse of government policies for personal gains.

According to the politician, one of the key components for improving the ease of doing business is the separation of regulatory bodies from the sectors they regulate.

“Economic crimes do not allow businesses to reach their full potential. Therefore, if you must make reforms for ease of doing business, in addition to separating the regulator from the regulated, you must make economic crimes quite punishable. And I can tell you, economic crime doesn’t mean yahoo being arrested and put on the floor for TV to see,” Adebayo said.

“Economic crime means that when government policies are made, those who have the political capital to invest in people’s politics and capture sectors and industry for themselves are severely punished.

“That way, everybody will go back to their drawing board and use fundamental business principles to plan their business.

“Many of us who are regulars at board meetings know that after we’ve done all the cash flow analysis and everything, towards the end, that question we always ask, do you know anybody in that office? Many people you see on the board of companies don’t know what the company does, but they know the person the company is writing letters to.

“Some of it truly is not bad, but having a lot of it is a tragedy for an economy that wants to do ease of doing business.

“For many reasons, apart from the fact that it’s an act of injustice for those who have talent and don’t know people, it’s also a demarketing of the country for people whose corporate culture does not allow that.”

‘MAKE BUSINESS REGULATIONS CLEAR TO EVERYBODY’

Beyond regulation, Adebayo called for comprehensive reforms across several areas including land, labour, capital, and entrepreneurship.

“Anything that will affect the ease of doing business must affect the factors of production,” he said.

“If you want ease of doing business, have a regulatory framework, which means you must make the rules very clear, you must make them apply to everybody, and you must advertise this rule ahead of time, so that everybody knows that this is what I have to comply with.

Regarding the labour force, the politician underscored the importance of investing in quality education and training, stressing that companies are now forced to “act as schools to equip their employees with basic skills”.

“You must reform entrepreneurship rules in the country. How businesses are formed, you must be able to incorporate the company within five minutes and get going. You must do tax reform. What they have now is not tax reform,” he added.

“What they are currently about now is about the custody, especially of revenue received, custody of VAT, whether it should be received here or there.”

Adebayo recommended substantial infrastructure reforms to help businesses compete more effectively and called for a shift toward a broad-based, system-wide reform rather than changes targeting individuals for political gain.

He advised that while reforms are necessary, they should not be excessive, as this could hinder progress and create “unnecessary” obstacles for businesses.