New action plan on ease of doing business reforms coming——Osinbajo

In an expanded meeting of the Presidential Enabling Business Environment Council, a new National Action Plan intended to drive the ease of doing business reforms in the country have been approved.

Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, SAN, Council Chairman said “We restate our commitment to ensuring that we deliver on the ease of doing business reforms,” at the expanded meeting which included the Chief Justice of the Federation, Justice Walter Onnoghen, Deputy Governor of Kano State, Prof. Hafiz Abubakar, a member of the National Assembly, Senator Bala N’Allah, representative of Lagos State government, several ministers and representatives of the private sector at the Presidential Villa.

The new National Action Plan NAP 2.0 has over 60 priority initiatives targeted to be attained by November this year. The initiatives cover such areas as starting a business, construction Permits, registering property, getting electricity, getting credit, paying taxes, trading across borders, enforcing contracts, simplifying the procurement process, entry and exit of people, and trading within Nigeria.

It is hoped that a successful implementation of the NAP 2.0 would deliver significant benefits especially for SMEs including the fact that it would make 1.3 MSMEs eligible to do business with government, bring about 75 per cent reduction in average clearance time for foreign travellers, 60% per cent reduction in time to get electricity, 75 per cent reduction in time to register business premises and 50 per cent reduction in time for filing corporate income taxes.

While the initial NAP had a 70 per cent performance rate, the final results of NAP 2.0 will be announced in December by the PEBEC Secretariat. Welcoming the participation of the Chief Justice, Kano and Lagos State government representatives, the representative of the Senate President at the meeting, Vice President Osinbajo highlighted the importance of the reform initiatives especially those around the Nigerian airports as an example.

“Improvements in the airport has a way of defining the change we are talking about, it will show we are serious,” the VP told members of PEBEC. The meeting was also attended by the Industry, Trade & Investment Minister, who is the Vice Chairman of PEBEC, the Attorney-General of the Federation/Minister of Justice, Ministers of Finance, Power, Works & Housing, Interior, Transportation and also the Minister of State for Industry, Trade & Investment and the Minister of State for Budget & National Planning. The Acting Secretary to the Government of the Federation was also at the meeting.

Earlier at the Presidential Villa, the Vice President presided over the National Council on Privatisation, NCP. He also spoke at the international conference of the African Tax Administrators Forum, ATAF held in Abuja.