POSITIVELY reinforced by its numerous achievements in the past 24 months, the Presidential Enabling Business Environment Council, PEBEC, has continued to accelerate its efforts to ensure even better public service delivery and an improved business environment for MSMEs.

“Nigeria must improve its ranking by 45 places in the World Bank Ease of Doing Business Index over the next two years to achieve its goal of attaining the top 100 by 2020,” Jumoke Oduwole, the PEBEC secretary and senior special assistant to the president on Industry, Trade and Investment, said after the presentation of the “2018 Making Business Work Report” of PEBEC, at a meeting of the council.

“Such an ambitious goal requires accelerated and focused execution of Government Executive Order and National Action Plans, NAP,” she added.

“It is clear that Nigeria must now intensifyits reform efforts; and the PEBEC will continue to work closely with the public and private sectors to institutionalise its reforms, cascade them to state level, and refine and improve the business environment,” she added.

According to the “2018 Making Business Work Report,” the current reform cycle is focused on three pillars to accelerate and expand the impact of completed reforms. They are:        Deepening  existing reforms; through the completion of pending initiatives and ensuring implementation of completed reforms launched in 2017, including communication and consequence management;  Making the reforms sustainable; through several measures being put in place to ensure progress is sustainable; and  providing support reforms with a robust operating model to accelerate change and build capacity within MDAs.

Oduwole said: “Nigeria has come a long way over the past two years, bouncing back from significant macroeconomic distress, and is on the way to becoming a textbook example of how an African country can turn its business.”

As part of its implementation strategy, PEBEC is building the capacity of the MDAs to deliver; strengthening the capabilities of the MDAs for the long-term, to sustain the improvements on an on-going basis; and garnering strong political will and determination by the government to effect changes and improvement.

The council is also fostering cooperation between the MDAs and across states, National Assembly and the private sector; ensuring effective coordination between all the relevant agencies to provide a unified view of implications and improvements; and ensuring proper planning to eliminate the critical binding constraints.

Oduwole stated that “in the second half of 2018 and into 2019, the PEBEC will focus primarily on regulators, an Omnibus Bill on business facilitation, and consolidating gains for the economy through the deepening of the subnational Ease of Doing Business project.”

The PEBEC, chaired by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, was inaugurated in July 2016 as the administration’s flagship initiative to reform the business environment, attract investment and diversify the economy to reduce the nation’s reliance on oil.

The PEBEC’s principal goal is to make it easier for MSMEs to do business, grow and contribute to sustainable economic activity, and provide the jobs that are essential to improve social inclusion.

One of the key indicators of success will be Nigeria’s performance on the World Bank’s Ease of Doing Business indicators, which provide a global snapshot of a country’s business environment in comparison to its peers.

A report on an independent impact assessment of PEBEC Reforms from January 2017 to May 2018 released by Financial Derivative Company Limited in May 2018 shows the impact of some of the Council’s reforms. It highlighted, among others, that: Starting a Business (CAC): There has been 26% reduction in cost of registering a business from N19,500 to N15, 500; Time savings of over 288 hours (12days) to register a business, from 14 days to a maximum of 2 days; and  reduction in time taken to make payment from an average of 7 days to less than a day (about 2 hours).

• Entry and Exit of People: Speedy visa approvals for foreign travellers – 48 hour visa processing timeline across missions abroad; Harmonization of four forms on arrival into one by the Nigerian Immigration Service; 200% reduction in average airport  clearance time for visitors from 2 hours to about 40 mins.
• Paying Taxes: 360% reduction in time for filing Corporate Income Taxes from 14 days to 72hrs.
• Getting Credit: 530 financial institutions on the National Collateral Registry as of June 2018, with over 30,000 financing statements valued at over N620 billion.
• Getting Electricity: 29% reduction in the procedures for new connections to the grid from 9 to 7; Reduction in the timeline for new connections by 147% to an average of 30 days from 74 days for Maximum Demand Customers.
• Trading Within Nigeria: Over 5,000 outstanding NAFDAC applications cleared as at December 2017.
• Trading Across Borders: Elimination of 48 hours dead time in the clearance of import cargoes at the Apapa seaport; 48 hours reduction in the overall border compliance time on import.

According to the “2018 Making Business Work Report,” in 2017 the PEBEC implemented the first 60-day NAP that contained reforms across seven World Bank indicators and one home-grown indicator. The indicators include Starting a Business; Registering Property; Dealing with Construction Permits; Getting Credit; Getting Electricity; Paying Taxes; Trading Across Borders; and Entry and Exit of People.

Some of the reforms included moving some services online, reducing the time for certain processes to be completed, eliminating paperwork and increasing transparency.

Due to a combination of PEBEC’s accelerator programmes and the signing of the Executive Order, EO1, in 2017, the tide turned for Nigeria. The country rose 24 places from 169 to 145 in the World Bank’s 2018 Ease of Doing Business Index, its highest jump in the history of the rankings.

“All of the reforms introduced over the past 24 months are reversing decades of neglect and internal governance roadblocks, and improving Nigeria’s business environment,” Oduwole said, noting however that there is still work to do to achieve the PEBEC’s aspiration of achieving a top 100 place on the World Bank’s Ease of Doing Business Index by 2020.

– Aug. 7, 2018 @ 18:22 GMT |