By Seun Adams
The National Agency for Science and Engineering Infrastructure (NASENI) has explained why its statutory levy of ¼ percent on income or turn-over of commercial companies and firms as stipulated in the Act establishing it should be implemented.
The agency while justifying the implementation of the levy as directed by President Muhammadu Buhari, said NASENI holds the keys to national development, employment and wealth creation for the country.
Meanwhile, Olusegun Ayeoyenikan, Deputy Director, Information of the agency, Mr. Olusegun Ayeoyenikan, has said Mr. Wole Obayomi, a senior staff of KPMG needs to be educated on the roles of NASENI in preserving Nigerian national interest.
In a statement, Ayeoyenikan, averred that the agency has put up a retraction to the write up authored by Obayomi, Partner and Head, Tax, Regulatory and People Services to the international financial & business advisory firm, Klynveld Peat Marwick Goerdeler (KPMG Nigeria & Africa), who also was quoted extensively in an article credited to Price Waterhouse Coopers (PWC) by the National Economy Newspaper titled: “Activating NASENI Levy is Bad for Business, says PWC”
He said: “In a current online piece which also was published in the National Economy Newspaper, Obayomi queried the timing for enforcement of NASENI’s Levy which was a directive to the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) by President Muhammadu Buhari who also doubles as Chairman of NASENI Governing Board.
“The management of the Agency has come out with a rebuttal saying that Mr. Obayomi needed to be educated on the importance of the Levy to NASENI and the significance the Agency’s activities to Nigeria national interest or development.”
The NASENI’S Retraction Reads: “In Economics, it is widely accepted that technology is the key driver of economic growth of countries, regions and cities. Technological progress allows for the more efficient production of more and better goods and services, which is what prosperity depends on” – Prof. Ricardo Hausmann (Director, Center for International Development and Professor of the Practice of Economic Development, Harvard Kennedy School of Government).
“No one can ignore the vital role of science, technology and innovation for Sustainable Development” – Marie Chatardova, President of the United Nations Economic and Social Council.
These two quotations are from two of the world’s renowned economists. However a piece of supposedly professional advice to Nigeria by Mr. Wole Obayomi, Partner and Head, Tax, Regulatory and People Services to an international financial & business advisory firm, Klynveld Peat Marwick Goerdeler (KPMG Nigeria & Africa), who also was quoted extensively in an article credited to Price Waterhouse Coopers (PWC) by the National Economy Newspaper titled: “Activating NASENI Levy Bad for Business, says PWC” came as a shock to us at the National Agency for Science and Engineering Infrastructure(NASENI) in the Presidency. We were stunned by the misleading information dished out to the public by such articles authored by a man who should know better. We had expected KPMG and PWC’s Wole Obayomi to know the critical role technology plays in the upward curve of economic development for any nation. But unfortunately, his articles which have gained prominence currently in online media and conventional newspapers seek to mislead Nigerians otherwise with comments and publications on their websites and the daily newspapers.
In one of such articles titled “The NASENI Levy-Why is it Being Pursued at This Time”, Obayomi, who is also a consultant to the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS), questioned the decision of President Muhammadu Buhari, GCFR, who doubles as the Chairman NASENI Governing Board, on why a misdeed and injustice of 29 years is being corrected. NASENI’s establishment Act of 1992, which was reconfirmed as the NASENI Establishment Act 2004 CAP N3, Laws of the Federation of Nigeria, provides for the NASENI Statutory Fund in Part VI, Section 20, Sub-sections (1), (2a), & (2b) of the Act and it states as follows:
(1): The Agency shall establish a fund from which shall be defrayed all expenditure incurred by the Agency for the purpose of this Act, (2) There shall be paid and credited to the fund – (a) 1 percent of the Federation Account in the first instance, to be increased to 2 percent by the year 2000. (b) Levy on income or turn-over of commercial companies and firms with turn-over of N 4 million and above, which shall be – (i) At the rate of ¼ percent in the first instance, (ii) Collected by the Federal Board of Inland Revenue or by any other suitable means as may be specified by the agency; and (iii) Credited to the account of the Agency.
According to him, this provision of the laws of the Federation of Nigeria has been flouted for 29 years. It is yet to be implemented after 29 years of the establishment of NASENI. This maladministration, which Mr. President seeks to correct, through his directive, on 26th January 2021, to the Ministry of Finance, Budget and National Planning, and other relevant Agencies of Government, including FIRS, for the immediate implementation of NASENI Statutory Fund, is currently being questioned by KPMG and PWC.
He said this directive by the President curiously was preceded by a similar directive of the National Assembly in the year 2020 which also directed the Agencies of Government concerned to commence the implementation of the NASENI Statutory fund.
We ask Obayomi how could two most powerful arms of the Federal Government (executive and legislature) be wrong in their independent perceptions of the same issue and its importance at two different breaths without formal communication between them, which is the case in this matter. Obayomi apparently was not seeing the hands of providence upon Nigeria, he added.
The Spokesperson, accused the 2 international corporations, KPMG and PWC both operating in Nigeria, for a while now have engaged in unwarranted meddling with the critical policy directions of the Federal Government concerning the funding of NASENI.
The actions of these two corporations may be summarised as deliberate campaigns of calumny and sabotage of Nigeria’s national interest as the nation today is making concerted efforts to come out of its present economic woods occasioned by long-years absence of such critical productive economic catalysts like the Science, Technology, and Innovation factor which every developed economy had deployed to get themselves ahead of others in the comity of nations. The engineering, research, science and technology innovations and the positive impacts of such investments on modern economies cannot be overemphasised except those who want our dear nation Nigeria to remain a perpetual consumer of foreign products, goods and services, making the economy of our country to depend on other nations forever.
KPMG and PWC surreptitiously are querying the rationale of the Federal Government, under the guise of offering professional counsel, on the implementation of NASENI Levy as stipulated in its Act, saying it is not the right time to pursue it considering the impacts of COVID-19 on the economy of Nigeria.
He said: “We ask KPMG and PWC to tell Nigerians when it is most appropriate than now when all measures and solutions to rescue the nation point at the need to look inward to salvage the country’s political economy. We ask KPMG to tell Nigerians how it is advising the Anglo-Dutch nation, Germany, its own home Government how not to spend on research and development at this time because of COVID-19. If KPMG is not doing the same thing to its home government, then the professional firm, to say the least, is hypocritical. We will give example below to show that KPMG is not advising its own government not to spend on research and development.
“Growth in research and development (R&D) intensity was widespread across most Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) countries in 2019 during the peak of the COVID-19 and even till date, with the United States, Germany and Korea accounting for much of the increase. Israel and Korea continued to display the highest levels of R&D intensity among OECD countries, at 4.9% and 4.6% of GDP, respectively. In the United States, R&D intensity surpassed the 3% milestone for the first time, while the R&D intensity of China grew from 2.1% to 2.2%. In contrast, the EU27 area experienced a more modest increase to 2.1%.
“The United States of America and China account for a greater share of total R&D investment in 2019. The United States, Japan, Germany, Korea and France were the largest R&D performers in the OECD area. In comparative purchasing power terms, China is the world’s second largest R&D player, with total R&D expenditure reaching 80% of that of the United States in 2019, up from 26% in 2005. Growth in R&D investments in the EU 27 area has been on a faster trajectory since 2016, mostly driven by Germany, though it remains lower than growth in China and the United States over the same period.
“If Wole Obayomi of KPMG and his cohorts must be educated, Nigeria at this time needs not only NASENI to be funded but all other government research and development related Agencies for the development of Science, Technology, and Innovation (STI) and if Obayomi of KPMG who was quoted by PWC (both International firms) will be adding their voices negatively in the matter that has to do with the future of a nation with the level of unemployment, under-industrialization, then he is carrying out an espionage assignment and also a saboteur of Nigeria’s national interest.”
According to Ayeoyenikan, NASENI its mandate is the sole agency of the Federal Government with its mandate to conduct developmental work in the manufacturing of capital goods, equipment and machines thereby preventing the influx of foreign goods into Nigeria which causes capital flights. That way the Agency is capable of coordinating the proliferation of technologies developed either within or outside of its Development Institutes for the much-needed industrialization of the nation.
KPMG and PWC in their publications which are being syndicated in online and national dailies nationwide are asking, “Why is NASENI pursuing the implementation of its Levy now?” And we respond, why not now? Why must NASENI take permission from Mr. Obayomi of KPMG and PWC to implement the Laws of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and the Acts of Nigeria’s National Assembly?
