Act. President. Yemi Osinbajo
The Nigerian Government has approved a 60-day national action plan to
help ease doing business Nigeria. The Council approved a national action
plan to be implemented across its three priority areas – Entry and Exit
of goods; Entry and Exit of people and Government Transparency and
Procurement – over the next 60 days to deliver tangible changes for SMEs
in Nigeria.
The Acting President, His Excellency, Professor Yemi Osinbajo, SAN,
on Tuesday presided over the sixth meeting of the Presidential Enabling
Business Environment Council (PEBEC) at the State House in Abuja.
The Council approved a national action plan to be implemented across
its three priority areas – Entry and Exit of goods; Entry and Exit of
people and Government Transparency and Procurement – over the next 60
days to deliver tangible changes for SMEs in Nigeria.
The reforms will
also help improve Nigeria’s rankings in the World Bank Doing Business
Index 2018.
The reforms are to be implemented by the Enabling Business
Environment Secretariat (EBES) which became operational in October 2016
and has Dr. Jumoke Oduwole, the Senior Special Assistant to the
President on Industry, Trade and Investment (OVP) as its coordinator.
The Council was also briefed on the forthcoming EBES Stakeholders
Engagement Forum scheduled for Kano and Lagos on February 23rd and 24th
respectively.
The forums are part of steps being taken to receive
feedback and ensure widespread adoption of the PEBEC reforms.
One of the reforms to be implemented to ease the process of starting a
business is the upgrade of the CAC online portal to ensure document
upload capabilities that will make it possible for new businesses to be
registered online from start to finish without having to visit the CAC
office.
Also, work is ongoing to streamline the number of agencies operating
at the nation’s ports to just six.
Council also listened to updates on
the proposed Single Window Initiative at the ports which is expected to
become operational by Q4 2017.
On entry and exit of people, PEBEC observed that the Visa on Arrival
and 48-hour Visa processing procedures of the Nigeria Immigration
Service (NIS) are already operational with various levels of compliance.
PEBEC is also collaborating with state governments like Lagos and
Kano to make processes for obtaining construction permits and
registering properties faster, cheaper and easier.
In addition, PEBEC will work with the national assembly to pass
important bills like the National Collateral Registry Bill and the
Credit Bureau Services Bill which would ease access to credit for SMEs.
To show their commitment to PEBEC’s reform agenda, the Senate President,
Bukola Saraki; and the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Yakubu
Dogara attended Tuesday’s meeting.
The Council observed that the websites of several MDAs are now
upgraded and have their process and documentation requirements clearly
spelt out.
It also observed that work to improve the ambience of the
Abuja International Airport by the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria
(FAAN) has reached an advanced stage with the repairs of elevators,
carousels, cooling systems, among others.
Similar work has begun at the
Lagos International Airport.
Four ministers – Industry, Trade and Investment; Justice; Power,
Works and Housing and Information and Culture – attended the meeting.
Also present were the Comptroller General of Immigration, the
Comptroller General of Customs, the MD of the Nigeria Ports Authority,
amongst others.
PEBEC was established in July 2016 by President Muhammadu Buhari to
remove critical bottlenecks and bureaucratic constraints to doing
business in Nigeria.
Vice President Yemi Osinbajo SAN is the chair of
the council with the Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment,
Okechukwu Enelamah, serving as vice chair.
Nine other ministers, the
Head of the Civil Service of the Federation, Governor of the Central
Bank of Nigeria and representatives of the National Assembly and private
sector are members of the Council.
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