Group Managing Director of uac of Nigeria Plc (uacn plc), Mr. Larry Ettah, in this interview, examines this harsh situation, especially in the light of the one-year already spent by the incumbent administration and recommends that the time is rife for the Yar’Adua-led administration to leave the level of rhetoric and begin to face reality by delivering on its promises.  In proffering lasting solution to the lingering crises, Ettah makes valuable recommendations to move the nation forward in areas  of infrastructure, capital market and property business.  He also re-defined the essence of Corporate Social Responsibility and calls for public/private partnership to address the issues that currently impede our socio-economic progress.  He spoke with Correspondent, Aramide Oikelome

Looking at our ‘nascent’ democracy, could you analyse what growths and benefits have accrued to the economy in Nigeria, especially as an operator in the real sector?
Well, I think it has been mixed blessings of some sort.  The simple fact is that we have a government that can listen.  At least, now we can ventilate, we can articulate things and government can listen to us.  Given the platform of democracy, we have good representation at various tiers of government, be it at the local government, state and national level.  Then, to that extent, we would say that this is a kind of government that guarantees us a voice.  However, I must say that if we want to contest it in terms of how we have faired between 1999 and today, I think there are a lot of things that need to be addressed in this country.  In terms of security, there is a big problem; in terms of the deficit in infrastructure, we have witnessed significant degradation and things need to be done in that regard. In all, I think that for businesses, at least we have had improvement in terms of institutional capacity, in terms of judicial reforms that we are beginning to see and in terms of improvement in bureaucracy.  To that extend, there is hope.  But I think, like they say, hope is good breakfast but a poor dinner.  There are a lot of things that need to be done.  Government needs to move from rhetoric to issues of reality.  We need to now begin to see delivery over pronouncements.  For manufacturing, it has been a very tough challenge.  Information system and Computing (ISC) has said that it is like five to six times more expensive to do business in this country.  So we have a lot of inefficiency; inefficiency on account of poor infrastructure, on account of the fact that every manufacturing establishment is more or less a government of its own.  You have to provide your own power, security, water and virtually all the resources, which in some other environment is taken for granted.  And with the weak currency, there  is tendency that if you are not careful, you start having people dumping manufactured goods into this country, which is actually coming from a better platform and efficient manufacturers.

You will agree with me that in recent times, the capital market has recorded unprecedented growth with share prices going up to enviable heights, as the oldest conglomerate in Nigeria, what does these indices portend for the capital market?
I think we just have to be a bit cautious about the exuberance we have seen in the capital market.  I think too that in the centre of the huge increases we have seen, certain equities have had undesired applications.  I also think that largely, some shares are having their car wheels running ahead of their fundamentals.  It is important that we as a country begin to ask – ‘do we have the right regulation framework to mange this huge investments in the capital market?’ Somehow, there is no circular flow between the huge money we have in the financial sector coming back as margin trading.  We need to be cautious; else we would end up having this kind of very spurious and sometimes scandalous foundations that are currently taking place.  For such profits to be sustainable, price of shares must reflect the earning potentials of the shares.

Again, there is an upsurge in the development of private estates in the country with the option of installmental payments.  Your group has a property section. With your wealth of experience as the Group Managing Director or UAC, do you consider this a healthy development in property business?

I think part of the benefits of the banking consolidation is that the equity raising activities of the bank has left them with so much capital to lend out and a lot of this capital is going into what I called previously credit constrained sectors like mortgage.  So, you have capital going towards mortgage, life goods, cars and stuffs like that, which is healthy.  I guess too that it is very difficult for a young person in the middle class, given his earnings and the inflation in the economy to earn enough money and still be able to buy a house.  So, it is only mortgage that can guarantee him that.  You don’t really have that kind of outlet like property unless you inherited your father’s own and some of us are not so lucky.  So, I just think that mortgage is a new phenomenon that would really help people to be able to get one of the basic necessities of life, which is shelter.

In recent times, we have had several probe panels come on board, especially focus is on the Hon. Ndudi Elumelu-led panel that investigated contract management in the power sector during the last administration.  Many Nigerians believe that this service has no future, considering that several of such panels have come and gone without yielding results.  What is your take on this?

For me, I believe that accountability is the first step to clarity.  But we must be careful that we do not get ourselves into this grandeur political gesture that at the end of the day, what we end up getting is some emotional gratification out of the comedy that we see happening.  Nigeria is a country that excels in writing lots of reports and also ignoring them.  So, I think that significantly, we will end up with charges without convictions.  Whatever it is, I think government has to realise that it exist to mange; to use what it has  inherited to improve the lot of the citizenry and move the nation forward.  We cannot approach the future without ironing out the past.  We must also be mindful of the fact that this government, after doing one year in the saddle, would be judged not by its plans but by its records.  And I guess that after 365 days, the welcome match should be rolled out and we should begin to ask this government to start delivering.  So, it is useful if the probe was to let us know whether it was a fault of strategy or a fault of execution.  Based on this, they should move forward.  We want to see the results.  It is a tragedy what has happened in the power sector, but it would be comedy if we think that the probe is sufficient explanation.

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