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The Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment, Dr Okechukwu Enelamah, has said that the government has over 100 reforms to implement between November and December as part of its efforts to make Nigeria an investment haven.
Speaking at the weekend, Enelamah enjoined Nigerians to work closely with the government in the urgent task of revamping the nation’s economy, especially now that such efforts were being appreciated by World Bank whose latest report on ease of doing business shows that Nigeria has moved up 24 places from 169th position to 145th out of 190 countries.
He said: “You remember we had a 60-day National Action Plan earlier in the year, tagged, NAP 60. We had about fifty something reforms and we scored ourselves 70 per cent.
“We are now going to a second wheel of reforms this November to December and the number of reforms are even more than 100. Some of them are small, some of them are big but are all around this area of helping people do their businesses and the whole idea is that as we make those reforms, we will share it with the World Bank when they start doing their work and they will reflect them.
“Let me also say that these moves will continue. We are not saying that ease of doing business can be solved in one year. I expect that this journey will continue for many years. We need to keep getting better and better because we are dealing with a moving target. The other countries are not standing still”, the Minister explained.
Enelamah also explained that there are a number of steps the Federal Government is taking to ensure that the reforms will be sustained by codifying the new rules and directives.
“First, one of the things that helped us is that we worked closely with the National Assembly and they passed a number of bills, at least two bills – the Credit Bureau as well as the Mobile Access for Collateral Bills.
“One of the things we are working with them now is what we call the Omnibus Bill, which will capture all the reforms we we are making and codify them so that they become law and insulate them from unnecessary changes.
“But you also know that the executive orders are also some kind of laws. So, we hope that the requirements will become more and more entrenched and change the way people work. So, they become a new way of working because the same way we got into habits is the same way we need to get out of them.
“So, we are working on codifying these things into law and we are working with the National Assembly on that”, he added.
On the hellish port clearance procedures at the seaports and airports across the country, the Minister said the ports remain areas of great interest and focus for the Federal Government.
He regretted that the ports lacked basic serviceable infrastructure, but assured that the Federal Government was tackling the challenge headlong. “As you know, the Lagos ports are the busiest ports in the country. There is so much congestion because the ports are probably handling more cargo than they were meant for. There is a lot of challenge with the roads and exiting the ports, which you know, is receiving attention now. But it is also coming at some more considerable pain because it means that while the the roads are being built, there is even more congestion.
“There is also the whole idea of leveraging technology through a single window, which means that you are using technology to do all the processes and then all those people at the ports can then be at the back end of that electronic window. That is something that is receiving a lot of attention. We are not there yet, but I think it is something between the Ministry of Finance, Customs, Nigerian Ports Authority, Ministry of Transportation and of cause Trade. We are working together under the umbrella of the Presidential Enabling Business Environment Council to ensure that make it easier and we use this single window to decongest our ports. Let me also say that in terms of the executive council you are right.
“The executive order tries to streamline who should be in the ports and who should be out and that work is ongoing. Of course, some people might say we can’t leave until the automation is there because I don’t have the tools, so I cannot just leave yet. So there was a transition process that was meant to be shorter that has not been completed because we need to make the investments in technology”, he noted.
