Presidency, NASS collaborate on ease of doing business

From Juliana Taiwo-Obalonye, Abuja

Vice President Yemi Osinbajo has disclosed that the Executive and the Legislature are collaborating on efforts that will eliminate bureaucracy in Nigeria, towards establishing new businesses and giving them support is changing.

This was just as he said Nigeria has demonstrated through its rapid rise in the recent World Bank ranking what could be achieved by working together, towards achieving any goal.

The vice president said these on Monday evening, at an Impact Award held at the Banquet Hall of the Presidential Villa, Abuja. It was organised by the Presidential Enabling Business Environment Council (PEBEC).

The event was meant  to recognise individuals, ministries, departments and agencies  that contributed in making Nigeria rise to 145, in the World Bank Ease of Doing Business ranking.

“We are working hard on the attitudes of bureaucrats and persons who have been charged with the responsibility of making things easy,” adding that the “whole business of processing pre-investment approvals and all of that should be with the view to making things easy not with a view to becoming an obstacle of sort.”

Speaker of the House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara, told State House Correspondents after the event that the National Assembly followed what he called the Delaware Principle in passing two bills aimed at facilitating ease of doing business in the country.

“It was contingent upon the National Assembly to do all we could, within the shortest possible time we had, to support government initiative in order to improve the ease of doing business in this country,” he said. The speaker said the National Assembly owe it a duty to ensure a conducive environment was improve the business environment to attract more businesses and more foreign direct investments into Nigeria.

Among other agencies that received the awards were the Corporate Affairs Commission, the Nigeria Immigration Service, the Central Bank of Nigeria and the Federal Inland Revenue Services. Lagos State was given Impact Award: Construction Permit, while Kano State got Impact Award: Registering Business.