A professor of political economy and management expert, Pat Utomi has said industry regulators remain the biggest risk of doing business in Nigeria, describing them as bullies who are responsible for failure of most businesses in the country.
Pat Utomi, a professor at Lagos Business School who disclosed this during an interview said it was why Forbes labelled Nigeria as Africa’s money losing machine during the first tenure of President Muhammadu Buhari.
According to him, the federal government through regulators was preventing capital from being made at home, rather than facilitating domestic growth.
Regulators are ignorant, lagging behind innovators
“The biggest risk of doing business in Nigeria is regulatory risk. Regulators are dangerous in Nigeria. This is because there’s a cultural problem. If you are given a uniform in Nigeria, you are defined as a bully,” he said.
Utomi added that, “How can we change mindsets of authority to realise that there are businesses to facilitate, not to bully. The Nigerian government is the reason business fails in Nigeria.
He was critical of how government regulators clampdown on innovations, admitting that the agencies are hostile to businesses due to ignorance, and not out of wickedness.
Utomi explained that to progress, the country needs innovations, but the innovators are ten steps ahead of the regulators who act out of ignorance to stop the “rascals”.
