KPMG Boss Calls for Increased Private Sector Participation in Economy

The National Senior Partner (NSP), KPMG in Nigeria and Chairman, KPMG West Africa, Mr. Kunle Elebute has called for increased private sector participation in economic activities.

This, according to Elebute, who spoke in an interview, would help stimulate growth and bring about efficiency in service delivery in sectors across the country.

While speaking about the theme of the recently completed World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, which was: “Responsive and Responsible Leadership,” the KPMG CEO, noted that wherever there are leaders that are not responsible, coupled with the fact that government controls too many things, that makes it even much more difficult for the environment to develop and evolve.

Commenting on the situation in Nigeria, he said: “My own philosophy is that government should stop doing what government cannot do. Government cannot run airports, they should just concession the airports to those who can run the airports, government cannot run refineries, they can’t run petrochemical plants, pipelines or even pipelines.

“They should just hand them over to the private sector. Whether they privatise them or concession them. If a business is ran efficiently and profitably, it would make profit. Before the business can pay dividends to its shareholders, it must pay tax. So, the very first outcome of a profitable company is tax.

“That tax goes to government. It is only after you have paid tax, with what is left over after tax, is what you can declare dividends from. In many cases, the tax that government would get, would be much more than the dividend that government can get from that business. So, government’s return on any business enterprise is tax.

“So, government should hands off and give it to those that can run it properly and profitably and government gets tax revenue in return. If you look at the banking industry, go back 20 -30 years when government owned so many different banks, all the government banks that I know have collapsed. Whether it is New Nigeria Bank, ACB, National Bank, or whatever, they all collapsed.