From Uche Usim, Abuja
Vice President, Prof Yemi Osinbajo has declared that the ongoing 7th edition of the 60-day National Action Plan (NAP 7.0) on Ease of Doing Business by the Presidential Enabling Business Environment Council (PEBEC) would further cement the Federal Government’s efforts towards improving Nigeria’s business environment.
He also maintained that prosperity and job creation were at the core of the objectives of the PEBEC.
Osinbajo stated these recently at the official commissioning of a diapers manufacturing plant in Lagos State.
According to the Vice President, some core economic objectives of the Nigerian government include facilitating private sector collaboration, and adding value through diversification and growth of the country’s non-oil sectors so as to boost rapid economic growth, with jobs and prosperity.
The VP stated that the NAP 7.0, which commenced on 7th February and will last till 7th April, 2022, “aims to deepen the reforms delivered over the past five years, with a focus on agro-exports, process automation, improvement in regulatory practices, judicial reforms and Executive Order 01/ReportGov.NG compliance.”
He further noted that the Buhari administration has “highlighted key action items in all of the focus areas to ensure that they do not unravel and to ensure we drive sustainability.”
“Some of the targets include removal of regulatory constraints around agro-exports, driving electronic filing of taxes and publication of insolvency regulations pursuant to the Companies and Allied Matters Act, 2020,” he added.
In the same vein, the PEBEC Secretary and Special Adviser to the President on Ease of Doing Business, Dr. Jumoke Oduwole, highlighted the achievement of the PEBEC to promote the ease of doing business in Nigeria, noting that “institutional reforms in the public sector were major factors in jump-starting and sustaining economic growth and development.
“While the reform journey has yielded marked improvement in particular areas, particularly in the initial years of the PEBEC’s intervention, it has not been an easy one. As we are all aware, several bureaucratic and regulatory challenges remain at all arms and levels of government, which continue to affect the speed, cost and transparency of doing business in Nigeria.
“Therefore, the 7th National Action Plan (NAP 7.0) is especially designed to break away from the lacklustre performance of our last two outings, NAP 5.0 and NAP 6.0, held in Q1 of 2020 and 2021, which saw the relevant ministries, departments and agencies perform below par at 44% and 43% respectively for a variety of reasons.”
The National Action Plans (NAPs) – 60-day accelerators, which is part of the Federal Government’s efforts towards improving the business climate, is designed to coordinate the effective delivery of priority reforms of select Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) annually.
Furthermore, NAP 7.0 seeks to intensify efforts at improving travel experience at our airports and to strengthen the automation of the business incorporation process of the Corporate Affairs Commission. Other reforms include the establishment of a Small Claims Court across more States of the Federation, as well as to drive adoption of electronic filing of taxes by tax payers.
At the end of the NAP 7.0 60-day window, it is expected that MSMEs will experience an enhanced trademark registration process, with vast improvements in the tracking and evaluation of MDAs’ compliance with the directives of the Executive Order 01 (EO1). EO1 implementation will be supported with improved complaint resolution on the ReportGov.NG platform, with the enlisting of more MDAs listed on the platform.
At the federal level, the PEBEC secretariat also actively supports 15 priority public facing agencies and tracks 55 MDAs on the implementation of Executive Order 001 on Transparency and Efficiency of Public Service Delivery and the Council’s feedback mechanism – ReportGov.NG.”
The reforms include the streamlining and simplification of ago-export regulatory practices with a view to boosting the competitiveness of Nigeria’s agro-exports while enhancing Nigeria’s foreign exchange earnings as stated in the Agro-Export Plan.