Ease of Doing Business: Edo streamlines policies, initiatives on open data

The Edo State Government said it has commenced capacity building for Ministries, Department and Agencies (MDA) to provide investors with a seamless access to government data to further improve the ease of doing business in the state. Senior Special Assistant (SSA) to the Governor on Investment Promotion, Mr. Kelvin Uwaibi, said the initiative is part of the state government’s vision to improve the ease of doing business by providing a one-stop portal for investors to access government information relating to their investment. He said Edo will host the Nigeria Investment Certification Programme for State (NICPS) on Tuesday, January 29, to galvanise stakeholders in various MDAs to respond effectively to enquires on investment.

In a chat with journalists, Uwaibi  noted that the stakeholders’ meeting between the MDAs and the Investment Promotion Office will focus on certification to ensure that civil servants are able to respond to enquiries from local and foreign investors, and get them to invest in the state. According to him, “For example, what are the opportunities available in the state? We want civil servants to be able to sell the state in a structured manner to investors and show that we are ready for investment. They should also show that we have opportunities in terms of buildings and sites that the investors can also leverage on in the state,” he added. 

Uwaibi said the process of providing investors with access to data on their investments “started few months ago with the MDAs. We want the MDAs to be able to provide answers to investors’ enquiries accurately when they are approached and there should be that synergy between the Investment Promotion Office and the MDAs so that there is no miscommunication in terms of what we as a state are offering to investors.” He added that the state is building a data bank, “which would also fit into the open data portal that the Governor has agreed to develop, and will be open to investors to access data relating to investment opportunities in the state.”