Five states of the Federation on Wednesday night received awards for been top five reformed states in the year 2018.
The states in descending order included Kaduna, Enugu, Lagos, Abia, and Anambra.
They
received their awards from Vice President Yemi Osinbajo at the
Presidential Enabling Business Environment Council (PEBEC) Awards 2019
held at the old Banquet Hall of the State House, Abuja.
Anambra
State improved its score from 47 to 53.50 by making it easier to start a
business and to register property in the State. – Abia State improved
its score from 46 to 53.90 by making it easier to start a business and
to register property in the State. – Lagos State improved its score
from 48 to 54.90 by making it easier to start a business, register
property and obtain construction permits in the State. – Enugu State
improved its score from 47 to 56.82 by making it easier to start a
business, register property as well as enforce contracts in the State.
– Kaduna State improved its score from 55 to 65.97 by making it easier
to start a business.
Other companies and individuals that got
awards at the ceremony included Oil and Gas Free Zone Authority,
Corporate Affairs Commission, National Office for Technology Acquisition
and Promotion.
Others are the Senate and the House of
Representatives, Court of Appeal, Nigeria Bar Association, Nigeria
Economic Summit Group, National Assembly Environment Round Table, DFiD,
World Bank, Oando Energy Resources, First Bank of Nigeria,
Omotayo Omoniyi, who returned large sum of money found to the authorities also received award at the ceremony.
Other
awardees are FIRS, Nigeria Custom Service, Nigeria Port’s Authority,
Nigeria Shippers Council, Nigeria Electricity Regulatory Commission,
Lagos State Judiciary.
Banwo and Ighodalo, KPMG Nigeria, Procter
and Gamble Nigeria, Deloitte Nigeria and Aluko and Oyebode also got
awards at the ceremony.
Osinbajo said “It really is a pleasure to
be here this evening to celebrate the phenomenal successes of the PEBEC
reforms but more importantly to recognize specially some of those who
made it all possible. Our incredibly selfless and committed private
sector partners and the sterling performance of many in the public
sector.I n the past three years, Nigeria has implemented more than 140
reforms to make doing business in Nigeria easier.
“Some of the
successful reforms include the ability to: Reserve a business name
within 4-hours, Complete the registration of a company within 24 hours
online, Apply for and receive approval of a visa-on-arrival
electronically within 48hrs, File and pay taxes online; and, Access
specialised small claims commercial courts in Lagos and Kano, The World
Bank also reported in 2018 that 32 states of Nigeria improved their Ease
of doing business environment led by Kaduna, Enugu, Abia, Lagos and
Anambra
“In 2019, PEBEC set a goal to move Nigeria into the
top-100 on the 2020 World Bank Doing Business Index (DBI). To achieve
this, we will be pursuing the continued implementation reforms across
all indicators, including
“implementation of legislative reforms,
specifically the passage of the new Companies and Allied Matters Act
and the Omnibus Bills, the expansion of the regulatory reform program
started with NAFDAC and NAICOM to include other regulators, the
establishment of a National Trading Platform for ports; and the
concession of our major international airports.”
Stressing that
PEBEC has now commenced the fourth 60-day National Action Plan (NAP 4.0)
on Ease of Doing Business, he said, NAP 4.0 is running from the 1st of
March to the 29th of April, 2019.
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“It aims to deepen the reforms delivered over the past 3 years and drive institutionalization.
“We
have highlighted key action items in all of the focus areas to ensure
they do not unravel, and to ensure we drive sustainability
“Some
of the targets achieved in the last NAP 3.0 include driving registration
for utilization of the National Collateral Registry to facilitate
access to credit for SMEs; Clearance of all pending NAFDAC registration
applications to improve efficiency; and Creation of a strengthened
single joint cargo examination interface in all airports & seaports
for import and export to reduce the time spent at the ports.”
He
added “NAP 4.0 will focus on initiatives such as enforcing compliance
with SLAs across all indicators/focus areas, driving the passage of the
CAM Bill 2018 for improved effectiveness of company law in Nigeria,
enhancing efficiency in the small claims court, and enhancing the
application and approval system for visas on arrival, to mention a few.”
The Council, he said, will continue to work extensively with all MDAs, the National Assembly and other key stakeholders.
He
said “All of us who have been involved in this incredible journey will
agree that it has been both exciting and fulfilling even if admittedly
sometimes frustrating. But that is the way of progress. I congratulate
you all for the great successes and thank you all for keeping faith with
our joint vision. In particular we must commend our private sector
partners who have contributed immensely to the technical output of the
EBES through the secondment of professional staff to the secretariat.
Let me specially mention the KPMG Professional Services, Deloitte,
Procter and Gamble, Banwo&Ighodalo, Aluko and Oyebode.
“The
NBA-SBL was also particularly instrumental in the drafting of the
omnibus bill. About 40 law firms worked pro-bono towards this effort.
Our nation is truly grateful to you.
“We must also commend the
Hon. Minister of Industry Trade and Investment Dr OkeyEnelamah for his
focused and forthright leadership, and the incomparable and tireless
Senior Special Assistant to the President on Industry Trade and
Investment Dr JumokeOduwole and her team.
“To the rest of us I
think we have demonstrated that the work of creating a world-class
environment for commerce will be done by like minds in the Nigerian
private and public sectors, and these are the exceptional ladies and
gentleman such as yourselves who form the PEBEC family, well-done
everyone God bless you.” he stated.
Source:- Thenationonlineng
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