James Emejo writes that although the federal government’s efforts at de-risking the investment climate have recorded remarkable progress, the political will and commitment by public agencies are key to achieving desirable outcomes
Worried by the increasing risk environment which created apathy on the part of both local and foreign investors to invest in the economy, coupled with the poor ranking outcomes on the World Bank’s Ease of Doing Business (EDB) in the country, President Muhammadu Buhari in July 2016, launched the Presidential Enabling Business Environment Council (PEBEC).
The council was saddled with the task of working to eliminate bureaucratic constraints to doing business in Nigeria and make the country a progressively easier place to start and grow a business.
By nature, the council is an inter-governmental and inter-ministerial body that is chaired by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, and comprises 10 ministers, the Head of Civil Service of the Federation, Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), representatives of Lagos and Kano State governments, the National Assembly and the private sector.
The Enabling Business Environment Secretariat (EBES) is the operational arm of PEBEC, assisting the MDAs to implement the reform agenda of the PEBEC.
Improvement in Ranking Profile
Perhaps one of the earliest fruits which had been constantly attributed to the setting up of the PEBEC was the remarkable improvement in the country’s position in the global doing business assessment.
In the 2020 EDB evaluation, Nigeria was ranked 131st among 190 economies from 145th position in 2019 and 146th in 2018. This was no mean feat considering that its was ranked 170th in 2014 and 169th in 2015.
However, in 2021, the World Bank announced that it had discontinued further publication of its “Doing Business” report series for 2018 and 2020 following data irregularities uncovered by both internal and independent investigations.
The bank said data irregularities uncovered by an internal probe on both reports in June 2020, the bank management had resolved to pause the next edition and initiated a series of reviews and audits of the report and its methodology.
PEBEC’s Other Achievements
Even though the publication of the World Bank report which should ordinarily serve as an incentive for governments to hasten their ease of doing business reforms had since been suspended, the PEBEC had nonetheless continued to facilitate reforms that if implemented could fast-tract the country’s economic aspirations.
Essentially, the drive to provide a conducive environment for businesses seemed to have gained traction but at a slower pace. While some of the reforms had been completed and are currently being implemented, some others are still at various stages of progress.
Special Adviser to the President on Ease of Doing Business/Secretary, PEBEC, Dr. Jumoke Oduwole, had assured that the reforms initiative would “further reduce the challenges faced by micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) across
four areas – Agro-Export Implementation Action Plan, Automation Reforms, Regulatory Reforms, and Executive
Order 01/ReportGov.NG compliance reforms.
“The reforms include the streamlining and simplification of agro-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.”
According to Oduwole, the reform when completed will “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 a drive for increased adoption of electronic filling of taxes by taxpayers.”
She further assured that a number of reforms would have been delivered as part of efforts to make Nigeria a progressively easier place to do business at the conclusion of the exercise.
Reforms Completed and Implemented
According the presidential adviser, three of the business reforms which were initiated and completed during the current exercise were the Share Register template for public companies by the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC); Resolution of Recurrent Errors in the Manual Generation of Certificates/Recordal Documents as well as the Insolvency Regulations reforms.
Continuous engagement with MDAs
Earlier during a midway progress report by the PEBEC on the implementation of the Nation Action Plan (NAP), there were indications that reforms in agro-exports had attained had progressed significantly with the exercise focusing on four key areas including payment and verification process, the inspection process, terminal operators and shipping lines as well as access and documentation.
According to Oduwole, who was recently appointed into the All Progressives Congress (APC) Professionals Forum, progress on payment and verification process, inspection process, terminal operators and shipping lines and access and documentation are all at advanced stages of completion.
Essentially, the proposed reforms regarding payment and verification seek to limit the Nigerian Export Proceeds (NXP) process flow to essential government agencies alone.
It also seeks to finalise the ongoing implementation of the Single Goods Declaration (SGD)-NXP integration between the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) and launch the Pre- Inspection Agent (PIA) portal as well as integrate it with NXP.
Oduwole said the reforms seek to introduce fewer procedures that drastically reduce the processing timeline for NXP confirmation.
PEBEC was set up in July 2016 to improve the doing-business environment in the country for SMEs by removing critical bottlenecks and procedural restrictions to doing business.
The move was also to boost the country’s position in the World Bank Ease of Doing Business Index ranking.
Essentially, PEBEC collaborates with Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) and other partners to reduce the costs, time and number of procedures to make the process of setting up and doing business in Nigeria simpler and effective – from starting a business to getting a location to getting finance to dealing with day-to-day operations and ultimately to operating in a secure business environment.
However, the inspection process attempts to audit and streamline the current physical inspection process for agro-exports, publish and enforce an official timeline.
The objective is to ensure drastic reduction in the current time for export cargo examination.
The reforms in agro-exports further target direct priority access lane for compliant agro-export containers with the aim of making it faster in processing of agro-exports and increase in the volume of commodities exports as well as minimise degradation of agro-export produce.
Trade facilitation
The exercise is also targeted at sanitizing ports operation and trade facilitation at the nation’s airports particularly as it affects entry and exit of people had attained 31 per cent completion.
The aim is to improve the ambience and travelers/visitors’ experience at the airport and enhance passenger processing and baggage handling process among others.
Other aspects of the reforms include tracking, analysing and report MDAs compliance with the Executive Order 1 (EO1) directives which was recorded at 33 per cent currently as well as track, analyse and report on MDA compliance with the 72-hour resolution timeline as approved.
MDAs as Drawback
Despite the achievements so far recorded, the MDAs’ responses remain crucial for a positive end-result. Currently the exercise, which ought to have been concluded in spite of the minor setbacks suffered during the COVID-19 pandemic had again been extended to improve compliance from MDAs. Already reforms drive is particularly being slowed down by the tardiness on the part of public institutions to make the required adjustment with most of them giving excuses for their delays to comply.
It is an irony that even through the reforms intended to abolish bureaucratic tendencies in the public institutions to fast-tract business, the MDAs are still defined by their very own nature.
This is where political-will comes to play and requires that the government compels the former to be more responsive to issues that seek to make the business environment saner.
New Delivery Timelines
Following the tardiness by MDAs, and in line with the goal of continuously improving the business environment in Nigeria through reforms, PEBEC had extended the completion date for the Seventh National Action Plan (NAP 7.0) by 30 days, with a new completion date of May 6, 2022.
Oduwole added, “The extension of the 60-day window is to enable affected ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs) improve on their overall performance, which has so far been suboptimal.
“However, based on recent interventions by the
Head of Civil Service of the Federation and relevant Permanent Secretaries, there is the likelihood that more
reforms may be delivered by the new deadline as affected MDAs are given additional time for the completion of their reforms.”
The exercise aims to deliver 57 reforms within the 60-day accelerator window.
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