The Centre for the Promotion of Private Enterprise has called for an urgent review of the rules governing foreign participation in Nigeria’s retail and distributive trade, warning that growing competition from foreign nationals could displace local businesses and weaken employment in sectors where Nigerians already possess substantial capacity.
In a statement on what it described as increasing foreign incursion into the retail market, CPPE Chief Executive Officer, Dr Muda Yusuf, said concerns were emerging particularly around the activities of some Chinese traders and suppliers operating further down the distribution chain.
The organisation stressed that its position was not directed against Chinese investment or Nigeria’s wider economic relationship with China. Rather, it said the issue was the movement of some overseas manufacturers and major suppliers into retail segments traditionally occupied by Nigerian importers, distributors and small businesses.
CPPE said the distributive trade sector is a major employer, supporting millions of livelihoods across textiles and fabrics, ICT products and accessories, automobile spare parts and tyres, electrical goods, plumbing materials and other consumer and industrial products.
It estimated that the sector accounts for about 27.5 per cent of Nigeria’s workforce and argued that policy should be sensitive to developments capable of displacing domestic enterprises at a time of high financing costs, weak consumer purchasing power, unemployment and poverty.
Yusuf said reports from market operators pointed to growing concern in textiles, computer and telephone accessories, vehicle parts, tyres and plumbing materials, among other segments. He said protests and complaints by traders in some large commercial markets should receive policy attention.
The organisation called for a comprehensive review of business permits, expatriate quotas and other regulatory instruments governing foreign participation in the retail economy.
According to CPPE, expatriate quotas should primarily facilitate the entry of skills and expertise not readily available in Nigeria and should not become a route for displacing Nigerians from activities in which local competence is already abundant.
The group said Nigeria should remain open to foreign investment but establish clearer boundaries between investment that brings productive capacity and participation in basic retail activities where domestic businesses are already strong.
It identified manufacturing, infrastructure, technology, agro-processing, mining and energy as sectors in which foreign capital and technical capability should be particularly encouraged.
CPPE said the objective should not be arbitrary protectionism but fair competition, employment protection, regulatory integrity and a strategic investment policy aligned with Nigeria’s industrialization and enterprise-development priorities.
The organisation therefore urged government agencies to review the enforcement of business permits, immigration approvals and expatriate quotas and ensure that foreign participation in the economy remains consistent with the purpose for which approvals were granted.
