Nigeria s ease of doing business rating recently fell like the Philistines’ god, Dagon, with legs, hands, head and limbs shattered and unfixable.

Instead of generating refreshing transformations and opportunities, Nigeria’s ease of doing business environment gave birth to earth worms with the most stunning ability to frustrate businesses,  particularly small-scale enterprises in transportation, hospitality, catering and tourism. 

Even medical tourism enterprises are circled by mutant taxes and levies, with rising preventable deaths. 

No doubt, multiplicity of taxes and levies have continued to fuel the poor return on investment in tourism trade activities, nipping the employment and growth potential of the sector, with  industry players across the entire gamut of economic ecosystem shouting and praying on Mount Carmel for fire to fall on their oppressors.

Sadly, those who should protect and help with tax rebates and other palliatives cleverly chose to wash their hands off the impending doom, asking those burdened by the tax and levies regimes to go to court.

A few weeks ago,  president of the Federation of Tourism Associations of Nigeria (FTAN), Mr. Nkereweum Onung, in response to back-door enactments of Nigeria Tourism Development Authority (NTDA) and National Institute for Hospitality and Tourism Studies acts,   constituted a legal review committee to go through the provisions of those  instruments and advice how it affects the growth and survival of the industry and practitioners in particular.

The FTAN boss may be on the drive  to ambush or work around the sections of the two regulations, which, from all indications, target the private sector, using strings of registration, classification and grading to chop off the necks of struggling and strangulated operators.

Indeed, in Nigeria, every entrepreneur goes through various tax circles such as company income tax, stamp duty tax, value added tax, personal income tax, TV and radio licences, Pencom tax and many more. The fear, however, of about 17 other bills on levies pending plenery approvals at the National Assembly seem to precipitate goose pimples among industry players. 

Today, it is no longer news that most eateries, holiday or recreation apartments and hotels are blind on Google location applications because of rising signage fees.

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In Lagos, Abuja, Owerri, Aba and in  most state capitals across Nigeria, industry players are made to cough up very ridiculous amounts of money as levies such as underground water tax, environmental pollution fees, property fencing fees, generator usage fees, land use charge, building renovation permits, liquor licence fees and parking fees.

Instead of creating an atmosphere for investment growth and employment generation opportunities, the multiplicity of taxes and levies have sent most operators and their businesses to the intensive care unit of unbridled government poor ease of doing business environment cemeteries.

While the federal government and state government agencies and ministeries blossom and live big off the pains of the taxes and levies on the private sector, business owners in Nigeria live on drips and malaria drugs with no sign of coming out of depression alive.

Significantly, statistics on impact assessment of these unfriendly and obnoxious levies are scarce to come by, ditto well informed economic growth potential ratings that could encourage and attract local and international investors.

Like blind Bartimaeus, operators’ daily lamentations hardly ever attract the attention of the oppressive government regulatory agencies, and, in most cases, their hired thugs passed off as tax consultants cheekily force helpless business owners to fast and pray.

While hospitality and catering businesses cannot afford customs duties imposed on the imported foreign trade equipment, with most resorting to local fabrications to remain in business, that road to Damascus is also being riddled with levies as cost of production, rising electricity bills and cost standardisation may close down the local fabrication market.

Taxis, car hire and logistics companies are daily confronted by government-licensed thugs in uniform arm-twisting them and sometimes taking the law into their hands in the execution of tax and levies targets, usually by the roadside, junctions and highways. 

Government ombudsman agencies pretend when the high-handedness and excesses of regulatory agencies are brought to their notice, justifying the saying that the fetish priest cannot cure the diseases imposed by his master, the Devil.

Honestly, it is an understatement to say taxes and levies have continued to undermine business growth in the industry but also have led to the abortion of dreams of Nigeria as a prime tourism destination.

Funny enough, Nigeria and its federating states have done nothing sustainably to aid development and job creation openings with the huge money realised from the multiplicity of taxes and levies generated year by year, except growing fat on the corruption and stealing of the same unholy resources.

Like the sign of Jonah, there are no signs of rainbow in the sky for industry players as this government drops off the crown of leadership on May 29, 2023.