Okechukwu Enelamah: Minister of Trade and Industry

The Presidential Enabling Business Environment Council (PEBEC) on Tuesday announced plans to launch a second 60-day National Action Plan on Ease of Doing Business.

Dr Okechukwu Enelamah, the Minister of Trade, Industry and Investment, told State House Correspondents that the decision, taken at the expanded PEBEC meeting, would begin on Oct. 2, through Nov. 30.

He said “the way forward is that there is a second national action plan which we will share with you.

“We will share the materials here with you and you will see from the materials what we have achieved already; the journey so far with the plan on the way forward.

“The idea being that we want to have a second round of national action plan which is even more ambitious than the first one.

“We really want to make it easy for people to do business in Nigeria”.

According to Enelamah, members have a successful Presidential Business Enabling Environment Council meeting chaired by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo “and it was a stock-taking meeting’’.

He said that the expanded meeting was attended by the Chief Justice of Nigeria Walter Onnoghen, a representative of the Senate President, representatives of both Kano and Lagos states and the key ministers and heads of agencies.

Sen. Bala Ibn Na’Allah, representative of the National Assembly, also said that the National Assembly had lived up to its expectations and demands by PEBEC.

He said: “You will be glad to hear that in the interim report of PEBEC, National Assembly got green for compliance with all the commitments that we have made as our contribution to Ease of Doing Business.

“And probably, we are the only arm of government that has got full green for full implementation of whatever commitment that we gave as a national assembly towards assisting the project for enabling business environment in Nigeria.’’

Dr Jumoke Oduwole, the Secretary of PEBEC and Senior Special Assistant to the President on Trade, Industry and Investment, confirmed that the national assembly was collaborating with the Council on the national project.

“We are going to be working with all the states of the federation and the FCT in making sure that we are not just focusing on the federal level, we are taking ease of doing business statewide.

“And we are collaborating widely with private sector, all state governments and the national assembly because we are going to have an omnibus bill that will wrap up all the parts.

“But I think that the most important, the Minister of Trade, Industry and Investment, mentioned that we are launching a new 60-day national action plan from Oct. 2, through Nov.30,’’ Oduwole noted.

She stated that the council would be issuing “all the forms that all the MDAs are going to be working on.

“It is going to be an exciting time and we are looking forward to tangible deliverables for the Nigerian people.

The PEBEC secretary hinted that the target of the new plan would be the Small and Medium Enterprises.

“We are targeting SMEs; we want the business climate to be simpler; we want systemic change and you do not need to know anybody to do business in Nigeria.

“Larger companies a lot of time may have different kinds of problems but we want systemic change for SMEs,’’ she added.

A private sector stakeholder, Mr Chika Mordi, noted that a lot of work had been done and it is beginning to show.

He observed that there was no doubt that there was the commitment on the side of the government “and we are very optimistic about how this will translate to a better business environment for the country’’.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that PEBEC had on Feb. 21, announced the first 60-day action plan.

The plan was to among others, reduce business transaction time, shrink agencies involved in business registrations, clearances  and grant of permits and ensure inter-agency collaboration.

OLAL