The Centre for the Promotion of Private Enterprise (CPPE) has called for a review of business permits, expatriate quotas and immigration approvals for foreign nationals operating in Nigeria’s retail and distributive trade sectors.
CPPE Chief Executive Officer, Muda Yusuf, said the growing presence of foreign traders, particularly Chinese nationals, in retail was increasing competitive pressure on Nigerian businesses in sectors where local capacity was already substantial.
In a statement on Sunday, Yusuf cited foreign participation in textiles and fabrics, ICT products and accessories, automobile spare parts and tyres, electrical and plumbing materials, household goods and other consumer and industrial products.
“The increasing penetration of foreign traders into the retail segment therefore deserves urgent policy attention,” he said.
Yusuf said distributive trade accounted for an estimated 27.5 per cent of Nigeria’s workforce, making it a major source of employment and livelihood, particularly for micro, small and medium-sized enterprises.
He said the development was occurring as businesses grappled with unemployment, poverty, weak consumer purchasing power and high financing costs, while protests and complaints by traders had emerged in some major commercial markets.
Yusuf stressed that CPPE’s concerns were not directed at Chinese investment or Nigeria’s broader economic relationship with China.
“China remains one of Nigeria’s most important trading partners and the leading source of the country’s imports,” he said, noting that Nigerian businesses had longstanding relationships with Chinese manufacturers, exporters and distributors.
Rather, he said, the concern was the movement of some foreign suppliers and traders downstream into retail segments where Nigerians already had significant capacity.
“A situation where overseas manufacturers or major suppliers sell products to Nigerian importers and distributors, and subsequently establish operations that compete directly with those same businesses at the retail end of the market, creates legitimate concerns about market structure and fair competition,” Yusuf said.
Review expatriate quotas
Yusuf urged the government to review business permits, expatriate quotas, immigration approvals and other authorisations for foreign nationals operating in the retail and distributive trade.
He said expatriate quotas should primarily facilitate the entry of skills, expertise and capabilities that were scarce or unavailable locally, rather than displace Nigerians from economic activities where domestic competence already existed.
According to Yusuf, retail trading was generally not a specialised activity requiring scarce foreign expertise, raising questions about the effectiveness of existing regulatory and immigration controls.
He called for stronger enforcement of investment and immigration rules, investigation of complaints from Nigerian traders and clearer guidelines governing foreign participation across the distributive trade value chain.
He also urged better coordination among immigration, investment, trade and labour authorities, with expatriate quotas tied to demonstrable skills gaps and specialised competencies.
“For clarity, the CPPE is not calling for arbitrary restrictions or hostility towards foreign investors but a consistent and credible enforcement of existing laws, transparent rules and a clearly defined investment policy,” he said.
Yusuf urged the government to channel foreign investment towards manufacturing, infrastructure, technology, agro-processing, mining, energy and logistics, where he said Nigeria needed additional capital and technical expertise.
He said investment policy should remain open to foreign capital while taking into account the country’s employment, enterprise-development and industrialisation priorities.
