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09 June 2012
By
Abdul-Warees Solanke
Recently, the minister of labour and productivity gave
cheering news from the Federal Executive Council, with
the announcement of the introduction of a National
productivity policy to drive productivity in our
public life. The policy which had been in the works
for some time according to the minister, had inputs
from various stakeholders including the labour
movement. Ultimately, with the crafting of the
productivity policy and its successful implementation,
pride of service will be restored in the country.
Productivity, even from the layman's definition or
point of view, is an effort that produces result. In
the larger context and qualitatively, productivity
entails the efficiency, the effectiveness, the economy
of cost, the quality and quantum of output, the medium
term result and the longer term impact of an effort.
In essence, productivity is the totality of value an
effort produces in meeting the national goals and
aspirations on development. The valid question here
is: what value deserves recognition or celebration
(after all, part of the programmes of the productivity
policy is the offer of recognition and awards to
deserving individuals and corporate citizens for
their contributions to the growth of the national
economy and improvement in other indices of
development.
Secondly, we ought to ast: what criteria should be
used to determine productivity in our milieu? In
answering these questions, we must also look at the
enabling environment that will stimulate productivity
and excellence which are related to the performances
indicators and the standards in place as well the best
practices on which they are benchmarked.
In implementing the productivity policy therefore, a
number of sectoral assessments have to be considered:
First, is the state of our informal sector. There is
no doubt that the informal sector in Nigeria today is
wider than the public and the organized private
sectors. But the sector is not fully captured in the
productivity indices or the GNP of the country. It is
therefore difficult to measure the value or quantum of
efforts in that sector, nor for the country to
maximize the earnings from it. How do we capture these
free fliers or riders and set measurable performance
standards which can be monitored, not only for rewards
but also for the benefit of the overall economy? How
can we checkmate the free riders who contribute little
or nothing to the economy?
There is also the challenge of coordination in the
private sector. Although the various players in that
sector are wont to declare themselves as organized,
hence the acronym of OPS, but we are yet to really see
the impact of organization in a sector where the law
of the jungle seem to prevail. Free entry and exit,
compromised processes and requirements for
registration, and slack in regulatory activities give
room for charlatans and ordinary traders and marketers
to masquerade as industrialists engaged in productive
enterprises without creating real value in the
country. But their impact is in the noise they make
through deceptive advertisements, the musical
orchestras they promote and the tokenisms of CSR
activities they engage in to pull wool over our eyes.
In truth, most of them engage in round tripping and
foreign exchange and import licence frauds, as they
are responsible for capital flight or profit transfer
from Nigeria to their home countries to create more
wealth and jobs for their people. In a world that
thrives on knowledge and innovation, the real
beneficiaries of their investment are the expatriates
who may even hold lower qualifications compared to
their local counterparts. Check the local content of
their inputs, and we find that the imported items
weigh disastrously higher than what they source from
Nigeria when they should have invested in the
discovery of local alternatives which in many cases
are of superior quality.
In the public sector, productivity is easier to define
and measure. It is in the visible services provided by
the state and its agents; it is in the quality and
impact of policies made to translate the social
contract between the elected and the electorate; in
the outcome of the implementation strategies for the
realization of the fundamental objectives and the
directive principles of state policies as contained in
the constitution. Those who are opportune to serve in
government and are able to meet the benchmarks of
development agenda within their terms or tenure to the
satisfaction of the citizens are of course eligible
for productivity excellence award.
Unfortunately, our political culture still needs more
refinement to produce public servants who will truly
serve in public interest; our public sector still
needs to be smarter and more nimble to drive
productivity and development. We still need to see the
utility of SERVICOM, the application of the code of
conducts in the public sector and the efficacy of
other reform tools for alignment and coordination
public sector organizations to reduce or cut waste,
redundancy, duplication and overlaps and convert the
savings derived from such reforms to tangible
investment in the real sector to create new jobs and
more wealth.
One other crucial factor that can promote
productivity is the friendliness, effectiveness and
efficiency of our system of taxation in order to block
all loopholes but guarantee compliance with the
various tax regimes, including custom and excise
duties. Many industries are known to have closed shops
or relocated to other countries in the sub-region
because of multiple taxation or high incidences of
taxation. On the other hand too, our tax system is
open to abuses arising from evasion, non-disclosure of
all sources of income declaration of true state of
finance of the productive enterprises, undervaluation
to escape taxation and compromises on the part of tax
officials. In this scenario, the nation loses a great
deal as productivity in the real sector dwindles while
trading and marketing take centre stage in our
economic life.
When we talk of productivity, we are conscious that
foreign direct investment plays crucial role in
building national wealth. But we must provide the
right incentives, give encouraging tax reliefs, create
the enabling environment and institute the effective
legal and regulatory frameworks necessary for genuine
foreign investors to have confidence in our system and
roll in their capital. Therefore, the beauty in any
productivity policy is that it must seek to identify
and reward wealth builders and pace setters in
development facilitation. It must seek to instil
competition in productive endeavours and service
provision
to benefit the vast majority of the citizens.
Productivity policy must also seek to identify assist
underperformers and discover their weak points with a
view to working diligently on them to push them into
the league of national wealth creators.
Hopefully, the productivity policy document will hold
all the stakeholders in the public, private and third
party (NGOs and civil society groups) sectors
committed to stimulating economic growth in the
country, rewarding creators of job opportunities and
wealth and encouraging starters with potentials for
growth.
Abdul-Warees Solanke, Head, Voice of Nigeria Training
Centre, Broadcasting House, Ikoyi Lagos studied Mass
Communication and Public Policy and writes via
korewarith@yahoo.com |
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