YNaija Analysis: This is the worst thing about the Senate’s entrepreneurship bill

Earlier today, a bill to establish the Chartered Institute of Entrepreneurs of Nigeria, charged with ‘the Responsibility of Advancing the Study, Training and Practice of Entrepreneurship and Determining the Standards of Knowledge and Skill to be attained by Persons Seeking to Become Registered Members of the Institute and for Other Matters Connected Therewith’ passed its second reading today in the Senate.

You can download the proposed bill here.

Listed as the sponsor of the bill is Ganiyu Olarenwaju Solomon, representing the Lagos West senatorial district. He has since been replaced by Yayi Adeola, but clearly, this bill has outlived him.

First of, the bill doesn’t seek to regulate entrepreneurship. It is the creation of an institute of entrepreneurship that is backed by law. If you want to enter that club, you have to do certain things depending on the level of entry.

Let’s say you wanted to be a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Entrepreneurship of Nigeria (FCIEN), for example. You would have to have the following:

  1. Be at least 28 years of age
  2. Eight years relevant working experience in the office of one or
    more organisations
  3. Have held a relevant  senior appointment in one or more organizations for at least three years in the past ten years
  4. Be a holder of the certificate of the final examinations of the Institute
    and approved academic professional qualifications; and
  5. at the discretion of the Council, be determined to be a fit and proper person to be
    so enrolled.

There are similar conditions for Associate members, Graduate members, and so on. The rest of it is pretty tame: roles and functions of the various officers of the institute, objectives of the institute, its structure, funding, etc.

The first hint of trouble starts in Section 16:

A person shall be deemed to practice as such if, in consideration of remuneration received or to
be received, and whether by himself or in partnership with any other person,
he—
(a) Engages himself in the practice as a chartered entrepreneur or holds
himself out to the public as a chartered entrepreneur.
(b) Renders professional service or assistance in or about matters of
principle or details relating to entrepreneurship.
(c) Renders any other service which may by regulations made by the
Council, be designated as service constituting practice as chartered
entrepreneur or any of them.

So basically this section is just lying there, waiting to be used should this law be passed. The CIEN will get to determine what constitutes the ‘practice’ of a ‘chartered entrepreneur’ and will then use that as a means of extortion whenever they see fit.

Here endeth the lesson.

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