He holds a PhD in Energy Law from the prestigious University of Ibadan. He earned LLM from the amazing University of Lagos. But it all began in the land of lions and lionesses, the enviable University of Nigeria Nsukka, where he graduated in Law.

Today, he is a partner in one of the nation’s top law firms, Hermon Legal Practitioners, where he leads the firm’s tax law and energy tax business, among others. Dr. Jerome Okoro PhD, a Tekedia Institute Faculty, will teach Tax Law during the next edition of Tekedia Mini-MBA.

Taxation is a big area in our Institute. We already have a manager in the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) developing a course on Global Tax Treaties. Essentially, I want our members to get comfortable with tax and use the available tax laws to advance their missions. 

To join the next edition of Tekedia Mini-MBA, click here.

The Jollof Rice Index shows that food prices have risen in Nigeria. With the main ingredient, rice, becoming a luxury product, I do think this is the time to consider if we can do something at the supply side. Basic economics tells us that price will rise if supply is frozen even as demand rises. Covid-19 was an xfactor for most subsistence Nigerian farmers, and because growing rice is not like a factory process where you can add shifts to meet new demand, the recalibration cannot be instantaneous. 

Yes, for rice, you have to wait for months for the farming gestation cycle to happen. If that is the case, can Nigeria open a 2-month window to equilibrate price by increasing supply, via imports, temporarily, and once the farmers have normalized production, close the imports?

There is no reason for us to allow the suffering even though we want to do import substitution. I do think our policy must be nuanced with flexibility to accommodate moving variables. Our main challenge today is that supply is out of phase with demand, due to many perturbations from the coronavirus pandemic, and I do think that Nigeria needs to account for that in our policy playbooks.

This is the reason I am calling the  government and the central bank to open the ports, and support importers with forex (strictly for food) to import food since, technically, we did not plant enough to generate the necessary supply to handle the huge demand in the nation. Without that import, prices of food items will continue to rise since demand has well outstripped by supply.

Without addressing the supply via short-window food imports, prices will continue to go high as farmers cannot magically produce and grow the crops overnight. A 60-day import window, starting immediately, will go a long way to normalize food prices before the peak of the Christmas season.

I vote for the Central Bank of Nigeria to make it easier for rice to be brought into the nation now, and later, as we move towards harvest season, freeze the policy. This will ensure families do not suffer more on this staple food in Naija. Yes, the impact could be more than a tax waiver for minimum wage earners.

“We are proposing in the new Finance Act that those who earn minimum wage should be exempted from paying income tax.” — President @MBuhari

— Presidency Nigeria (@NGRPresident) November 23, 2020

Nigeria Needs To Reconsider Its Food Import Restrictions on Forex

Segun Olaye built Ayoola Foods “to process indigenous high quality food products that meet national and international standards, both in production and packaging methods, for the satisfaction of our highly esteemed customers in the diaspora”. Tekedia Institute has written a case study on this company. Tekedia Institute Fellow, Oluwatobi Bamidele, researched this firm and drafted the piece; I finalized the case. Our goal is to bring empirical learning in our program through cases biased for African- and Africa-operating entities.

Case available at the Institute – https://school.tekedia.com/

This week, this is our Tekedia Mini-MBA Live Schedule. I am going to make a presentation on what businesses and professionals can do during this recession. That session will come on Saturday. But before then, we will discuss Cloud Computing Strategy for SMEs and Startups,  and Sustainability Innovation; Oyaye Idoko leads the former while Temitayo Ade-Peters does the latter.

• Wed | 7pm – 8pm | Cloud Computing Strategy for SMEs, Startups – Oyaje Idoko, CEO, Layer3
• Thur | 12noon – 1pm | Sustainability Innovation – Temitayo Ade-Peters, CEO, We For Good
• Sat | 7pm – 8pm | Recession Playbook, Closure*, General – Ndubuisi Ekekwe | Zoom Link

*One company is passing out this weekend. They will join us and we will wish them the best as they graduate from Tekedia Institute https://lnkd.in/eKzQQgB