Ease of doing business: FG commences new 60-day action plan

The Federal Government has commenced a 60day National Action Plan (NAP 3.0) starting from 5th February to 5th April 2018, to drive the ease of doing business initiative of the present administration.

The Presidential Enabling Business Environment Council approved the plan at its first meeting of the year which it held on January 30, 2018, at the Presidential Villa and was chaired by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo.

The plan, which is third in the series, is expected to further reduce the challenges faced by SMEs when getting credit, paying taxes, or moving goods across the country, amongst others, by removing critical bottlenecks and bureaucratic constraints to doing business in the country.

The reforms will also aim to continue Nigeria’s upward progress in the World Bank’s Ease of Doing Business Index 2019.

Reforms implemented across various sectors of the economy and Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) of government had seen Nigeria move up 24 places in the World Bank’s Ease of Doing Business Index 2018. Nigeria moved from 169th position on the 2017 ranking and also 170th position on the 2016 ranking to 145 in the World Bank’s 2018 report.

Some of the reforms to be implemented include further enhancing the efficiency in tax remittances include driving the adoption of electronic filing for taxes for all categories of companies and increase accessibility of affordable credit for SMEs by driving and incentivizing banks to utilize the collateral registry.

They are also to increase the number of SMEs that can access government contracts by communicating and enforcing the minimum employee requirement for pension contributions as 15 employees through the Bureau of Public Procurement.