Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Mallam  Sanusi Lamido Sanusi Wednesday   called for a legislation that would compel multi-national companies operating in the country to list on the floor of the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE).

Sanusi said there was no reason why such firms, including MTN, GLO and Shell, among others, would continue to own 100 per cent of their equities without allowing Nigerians to be part owners.

Sanusi, who was responding to a question  on why multinational companies would come and make money in the country but refuse to be listed on the capital market, said: “The question for me is: why can’t we have a law that compels companies like MTN , Glo and Shell to list?”

The CBN governor who was a panel discussant on the last day of the 17th Nigerian Economic Summit (NES) in Abuja, said: “There’s certainly no reason-they don’t need to own 100 per cent of their company…we have a capital market; any company that generates revenue beyond a certain amount in this market should be compelled to list.”

Continuing, he observed: “They bring in their capital, they can take all their dividends, no problem; they can bring in their investments; they pay their taxes-no problem but they should list on the capital market.
“You can’t have a capital market that has such a narrow range of products-and it’s not to the companies to decide when they want to list- we must compel them to list.

“There an egg and a chicken situation- have we ever thought of the fact that perhaps the reasons we don’t have these products, the reasons we have poor governance is because these companies are not listed-and that if you actually got them listed the market would develop.”

Sanusi added that the country must desist from being apologetic to multi-national companies.

“I’ll give you a few example: take a company like Michelin, Michelin was in Nigeria, it closed down its factory because we don’t have power and infrastructure and move to a neighbouring country to produce tyres…but Michelin still maintains ownership of 30,000 hectres of prime land in Ondo State, producing rubber and exporting to a neighbouring country. Take away the land and let them  go and get 30, 000 hectares of land wherever they went.”

He said: “We want Foreign direct investment,  but it has to be investment that is committed to the growth of the economy.
But the moderator had argued that such move could amount to nationalising the companies.

But Sanusi, in a quick defense said: “No, you cant turn  Nigeria into a banana republic where everybody come and take rubber and go and produce manufactured goods and then export back to us. If you run a
way from Nigeria, throw away Nigerians from jobs because we don’t have power to a neighboring country then let that country give you the land to produce your raw materials.”

In his closing speech at the summit, President Goodluck Jonathan, who was represented by the Minister of National Planning, Dr. Shamsudeen Usman, said the Federal Government was committed to working closely with the private sector in moving and attracting foreign direct investment towards moving the country to the next level.

“Government is talking in the same mode as the private sector by emphasizing the need to divest itself from businesses that can best be undertaken by the private sector,” he said.

On security, the president said: “What people are trying to play up as disincentive should not discourage any serious investor.

As remarked by one of the Guest speakers at the Presidential Dialogue, his company undertakes business activities in Iraq and Afghanistan, countries which are experiencing more security concern,” adding that ” the Nigerian situation should not be too much of a disincentive to investors.”

“In concluding, I note the key findings and recommendations arising from this Summit, in particular the areas that needed to be addressed within the next twelve months, such as long term visa for investors, the deregulation of the petroleum sector etc.

”The govt is committed to implementing the key aspects of the recommendations of the Summit. In this regard, the Minister of NPC is expected to forward a Memo to the FEC at the earliest possible time,” Jonathan said..

Meanwhile, the Nigerian Economic Summit Group (NESG) has said that it would publish the scorecard of the National Assembly soon as part of  the group’s overall measures to hold all arms of government accountable to the people.

Speaking at a media session heralding the end of the summit, the Director General  of the NESG, Mr. Frank Nweke Jnr. said NESG had assessed the executive arm of the government as well as the judiciary and on the verge of doing so on the legislature.

Nweke, who was responding to a question on how the NESG and government would ensue the prompt passage of legislations that would encourage Foreign Direct Investment(FDI), engender economic growth and sustainability, he stated that the business of the National Assembly was not to be confrontational with the executive or to slow down governance but to compliment the executive and judiciary in national development.

He assured that the NESG would partner effectively with the National Assembly towards making the recommendations of the economic summit meet national aspirations.

Source: ThisDay/Ndubuisi Francis and James Emejo