That the relevant authorities in
Nigeria have begun the processes of dealing decisively with factors that have
always made doing business in Nigeria difficult is quite inspiring.
Specifically, recent steps taken by Acting President Yemi Osinbajo to run
faster with the mission of the government and activate the Presidential
Enabling Business Environment Council which it set up last year is a comforting
indication of seriousness. The hope is that this new spirit would endure and
the annual reproach that comes with World Bank’s release of “Doing Business
Index” in which Nigeria always performs woefully would be removed.
In the current ranking (2017)
Nigeria is rated 169 among 190 economies in ease of doing business. In 2016,
the country was ranked 170. For policy makers trying to improve an economy’s
regulatory environment for business, a good place to start is to find out how
it compares with the regulatory environment of other countries. Doing Business
provides an aggregate e-ranking on the ease of doing business based on
indicator sets that measure and benchmark regulations applying to domestic
small to medium-size businesses through their life cycle. The ease of doing
business ranking compares economies with one another; it benchmarks economies
with respect to regulatory best practice, showing the absolute distance to the
best performance on each Doing Business indicator. When compared across years,
the distance frontier score shows how much the regulatory environment for local
entrepreneurs in an economy has changed over time in absolute terms, while the
ease of doing business ranking can show only how much the regulatory
environment has changed relative to that in other economies. Until 2017, there
are ten critical factors that define healthy environment for business in this
global context: they include starting a business, dealing with construction
permits, getting electricity, registering property, getting credit, protecting
minority investors, paying taxes, trading across borders, enforcing contracts
and resolving insolvency. Business journals have constantly reported that
economies in Asia Pacific and Australia have not been feeling the recession and
even depression heats that have beset the West since 2008 and the annual
rankings have always shown why countries in the contiguous regions have been
thriving: the ease of doing business there is real.
It is clear that Nigeria’s Acting
President, a Law professor, is well aware of why Nigeria has not fared well in
the regulatory environment category of ease of doing business measures. And the
fervency with which he has been pursuing the new policy thrust to meet most of
the global standards shows that there is a glimmer of hope.
For instance, the
Presidential Enabling Business Environment Council at its expanded meeting
chaired by Acting President Yemi Osinbajo approved a 60-day national action
plan for ease of doing business. The plan is to be implemented in three
priority areas: entry and exit of goods, entry and exit of people as well as
government transparency and procurement.
To show how serious the government is, the expanded meeting was
attended by the leaders of the legislative arm of government, President of the
Senate, Dr. Bukola Saraki and House of Representatives Speaker, Yakubu Dogara.
It was thus resolved at the parley that the number of agencies operating at the
nation’s ports be streamlined to six, a monster that had been difficult to
confront.
Fittingly, the Acting President took the business-unusual spirit
to the Nigeria’s main international airport on 23 February where he reiterated
that the government would ensure ease of doing business in Nigeria.
At the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos, Osinbajo
noted: “As part of our work on the Ease of Doing Business, on making the
environment friendly, not just for local businesses but also for those who want
to come and do business in Nigeria, the airport obviously is one of the major
places where we need to ensure that facilities are working and that things are
being run properly…”
Accordingly, the reforms
expected to improve Nigeria’s ranking in the World Bank Doing Business Index
2018, are to be implemented by the Enabling Business Environment Secretariat
without fail.
Besides, the reforms will also upgrade the Corporate Affairs
Commission (CAC’s) online portal to ensure document upload capabilities for new
businesses to be registered online.
On entry and exit of people, the Council had observed that the
visa on arrival and 48-hour visa processing procedures of the Nigerian
Immigration Service (NIS) were already operational with various levels of
compliance.
Meanwhile, the Council agreed to collaborate with Lagos and Kano
State governments to make processes for obtaining construction permits and
registering properties faster, cheaper and easier. This is a step in the right
direction as Lagos and Kano are Nigeria’s commercial capitals.
It is also hoped that the National Assembly would quickly pass the
National Collateral Registry Bill and the Credit Bureau Services Bill to ease
access to credit for SMEs.
It is, indeed, important to underscore the legislative support the
Senate President pledged when he noted at the meeting that the fact that the
Presidential Enabling Business Environment Council wanted the bills passed
within 60 days did not infringe on the independence of the legislature.
This immediate migration from rhetoric to action by both arms of
government over ease of doing business in Nigeria is how democratic engagement
for development should be.
Hi. I’m Sana ur Rehman Designer of This Blog. I’m CEO/Founder of Pak Zest. I’m Creative Art Director, Web Designer, UI/UX Designer, Interaction Designer, Industrial Designer, Web Developer, Business Enthusiast, StartUp Enthusiast, Speaker, Writer and Photographer. Inspired to make things looks better.
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