By Thompson ABISOLA
A Director with Enhancing Financial Innovation & Access (EFinA), a Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO) Mrs Bunmi Lawson, promoting financial inclusion in Nigeria, has called for tax reform in the Nigerian business environment.
Lawson made the call in Lagos on the sidelines of a book launch organised by Mrs Bukkie Yoloye on Saturday.
The book was titled, “The Blessed Holy Spirit’’.
Lawson, a Financial Expert and Chairperson of the book launch, said that tax reform was necessary if government really wanted businesses to thrive in the country.
“Do they really want businesses to thrive; so what are the incentives that are being put in place?
“In other countries, you want to promote entrepreneurship, you give businesses, tax rebates, tax incentives, make things easier to do.
“I do think we need total reform and people who understand the business environment to operate it,” she said.
Lawson said that the education sector also needed to be overhauled to produce graduates, who were prepared and qualified for the present job market.
She said that apart from the obvious lack of jobs, unemployment and underemployment also stemmed from under-education or people being under-skilled.
According to the financial expert, curriculum of schools in the country need to be looked at with a view to examining what is being taught, how it is being taught, how graduates are being made to become useful people in the society and how youths are being enabled to create jobs through entrepreneurship.
“I’m presently trying to set up a bank in the Microfinance sector and I can tell you how difficult it is to employ today’s graduates. They are under-educated and under-skilled for the jobs.
“They can’t do presentations and so many other things. While I am not knocking commercial drivers but it is due to this, you see graduates being cab drivers.
“Underemployment stems from under-education and because we don’t have enough jobs that people can really be engaged in. We need to create an environment that fosters creation of jobs,’’ Lawson said.
Also speaking with NAN, Yoloye, who was the Author and Organiser of the book launch, urged Nigerians to trust in the Lord, adding that there was no better place to start from than the choice of leaders in the country’s forthcoming elections in 2019.
She said that: “ If we trust in the Lord in the choice we make and the things we do, it will be the turning point for Nigerians generally and the nation as a whole.
“Proverbs 3:5-7 says we should trust in the Lord with all our hearts and lean not on our understanding.
“The tendency for people to judge by facial expressions, appearances or utterances can be easy but we must cease from talking and judging people by their qualifications or the experience they have but by what God thinks.’’
Yoloye said that there was more to life than what we see or have presently; So, Nigerians, especially the youth should not be moved by what they see and the desire to have what the world had to offer.
On her book, “The Blessed Holy Spirit’’, she said it was an outflow of 25 years of walking with God, saying that though this was not her first book, it was, however, the first book she had launched publicly.
She said she had shared her rich encounter with the Holy Spirit in the book, noting that it was meant to foster and encourage Christians into deeper, richer and more fulfilling walk with their maker.
The Book Reviewer and Editor, Miss Oluyinka Fadare, commended the author on her originality and integrity manifested in the course of preparing the manuscript.
She said that the book was timely, coming at a time when so many people were confused, discouraged and weighed down with challenges in the country.
Fadare said that there was no better time to get to know the personality of the Holy Spirit to get seemingly elusive and long-searched for answers.
The reviewer said the book was a rich resource, which could benefit all who looked between its covers.