BUSINESS FG rolls out fresh reforms on NLNG partners ease of doing business NLPGA to boost cooking gas supply to North

The Presidential Enabling Business Environment Council (PEBEC) has rolled out fresh reforms to consolidate and deepen the impact of the ease of doing business plan in Nigeria.

The council yesterday released three main pillars of the next phase of interventions and reform to improve its image on Ease of Doing Business report by the World Bank in 2018.

The pillars consisted of Deepen Existing Reforms, Subnational Reforms and Trading within Nigeria.

Under the pillars, the council will ensure completion and implementation of existing initiatives, including legislative backing, engagement of the public by MDA heads with focus on communication and consequence management, validation of completed reforms by the World Bank and Kick-off of medium -term reforms, with a view of next year’s ranking.

Others are: Kick-off of initiatives and reforms improving business process and regulations within Nigeria and scoping and identification of priority reforms and ease of movement of goods within and across regions in Nigeria.

Meanwhile, the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN) has scored the Federal Government high on its seven points objective set in line with the World Bank Indices of Ease of Doing Business (EODB).

MAN President, Frank Udemba Jacobs, commended the government efforts at improving the current economic situation and for all the steps being taken to pull the economy out of recession.

Jacobs said in a release: “Noteworthy are the Economic Recovery and Growth Plan (ERGP) which is aimed at deepening the diversification and backward integration of the economy, and the establishment of the Presidential Enabling Business Environment Council (PEBEC) with the mandate to improve the Ease of Doing Business (EODB) in the country. No doubt these would lead to enhanced productivity and overall performance of the manufacturing sector.”

He said an assessment and verification of the performance score card of the Presidential Enabling Business Environment Council (PEBEC) 60-Day National Action Plan revealed that the Council scored above 60% performance on six objectives and only one recorded a low score of 33%. Overall.

Jacobs said: “To enable the private sector effectively key-in and benefit from an over-all lower cost business environment, there is the need for Government to expand the scope of this programme and take cognisance of other constraints to businesses as follows:

“Address the cumbersome procedures and exorbitant administrative charges of Government Regulatory Agencies; Harmonise multiple taxes and levies across the three tiers of Government; Encourage Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) to regularly hold stake-holders consultative fora where the private sector can be briefed on activities of MDAs; Deepen the existing reforms by including indices that will effectively enforce the reduction in the cost of doing business;

“Develop other easily verifiable platforms for the simplified VISA on arrival and submission process because what is currently available is just an e-mail address which is not sufficient for effective performance evaluation and Expand the set objectives under “getting electricity” to include those that would address the challenges of electricity inadequacy, improper pricing and metering. FLIGHT

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