WorldStage Newsonline– The Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI) has called for government support through electricity subsidies, proper refund mechanisms and regulatory clarity to protect Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs).
The President of LCCI, Mr Gabriel Idahosa who made the call at the chamber’s Quarterly State of the Economy news briefing said that MSMEs were the backbone of Nigeria’s economy but had faced severe operational challenges, including insecurity and unreliable power supply.
According to Idahosa, the issues are compounded by unresolved meter-related issues, including non-refunded payments for meters which, he said, were supposed to be free.
He also listed uncredited balances during meter transitions among the issues.
“LCCI is calling on relevant authorities for immediate government intervention – through electricity subsidies, proper refund mechanisms, and regulatory clarity on energy billing – to protect the backbone of Nigeria’s economy,” he said.
Idahosa said that there was the need for Nigeria to take necessary steps to explore emerging opportunities in the current era, noting that technological advancement was dictating the pace of global development.
He said that the telecommunications sub-sector reported huge losses from fiber optic cable cuts in major cities across the country.
These disruptions, he said, were often caused by road expansions and private developments and had led to significant service interruptions.
Idahosa urged the Federal Government to provide a better regulatory and investment environment to support telecoms operators.
He urged that the private sector should be involved in developing technology sector.
On real estate, he said that developers were facing a multi-faceted crisis, including high costs of construction materials, bureaucratic bottlenecks in land titling, and exorbitant approval fees.
He called for a better policy and regulatory environment that would attract and sustain investments in the sector to drive jobs and revenues.
Idahosa added that maritime operators and freight forwarders had raised significant concerns about the cost of operations at the ports.
He said that it hindered trade facilitation and increased burdens on businesses.
Idahosa raised concerns about the electronic truck call-up system, alleging that higher-paying trucks were given priority attention.
He said that the situation increased haulage costs and created an undesirable competition.
He also said that there was an urgent need to deploy more containers and cargo scanners at the ports to be managed by terminal operators and integrated into real-time offloading procedures.
“Most importantly, only containers flagged during scanning would undergo a physical examination to reduce human interference and curb corruption.
“We strongly advocate expedited implementation of the National Single Window Project which, if executed effectively, promises to streamline port operations and facilitate the ease of doing business across the port value chain,” he said.
The LCCI president called on the government to continue supporting terminal operators in attracting foreign direct investment for critical infrastructure upgrades.
He said that efforts to enhance rail connectivity to the ports must be sustained to reduce over-reliance on road haulage, lower logistics costs and improve cargo evacuation efficiency.
