Ensuring SMEs are not Hindered from Doing Business Easily in Nigeria is a Priority - Yemi Osinbajo

Thursday, December 16,2021 / 09:17 PM / by Prof. Yemi Osinbajo / Header Image Credit: StateHouse

Being remarks by His Excellency, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo, SAN, GCON,the Vice President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria at the 5^thAnniversary of the Presidential Enabling Business Environment Council, PEBEC atthe Banquet Hall on the 15^th of December, 2021.

Itis a real pleasure to join you today to celebrate five (5) years of PEBEC, aninitiative which the President established in 2016, to solve a malignantproblem - the problem of a business and trading environment that many agreedwas hostile and difficult both for local and foreign investors alike.

So,the long and short of the mandate of PEBEC was simply to find ways of changingthe growing reputation of Nigeria as a challenging business environment. Howwere we to do that? It seems quite simple, to remove the bottlenecks, andobstacles, and to seek to change the orientation of regulatory authorities andpublic servants who interface with businesses seeking government licenses, approvalsand other regulatory requirements.

Itwas always going to be a difficult task; the public service and governmentagencies are notoriously settled in their ways, and generally, there has neverbeen any sense of urgency in processing licenses and approvals.

Thisattitude of course ties well into the systemic corruption and abuses that mustfollow when public officials have discretion in terms of the time it takes toissue approvals and who gets approvals and where the accountability frameworkis weak. So, interfaces with the public almost always are opportunities forrent-seeking or bribes such that it had become the case that business ownershad to engage consultants, who help in navigating the deliberate roadblocks fora fee.

Similarly,simple processes such as arrival and departures at our airports, passingthrough land borders, import and export processes, also were difficultexperiences for users of those services.

Themain implication of this situation was the effect on the economy. A difficultbusiness environment simply means fewer investors, whether local or foreign andfewer jobs and opportunities.

Sothis was the task that the President gave us at PEBEC. We were fortunate tohave a smart and visionary team led by Dr. Jumoke Oduwole, who with her team ofpublic and private sector members, designed the series of reform initiativesand internationally recognized homegrown National Action Plans (NAPs) - 60-dayaccelerators designed to coordinate the effective delivery of priority reformsin select MDAs every year.

Atthe federal level, the PEBEC Secretariat also actively supports 15 prioritypublic-facing agencies and tracks 55 MDAs on the implementation of ExecutiveOrder 001 on Transparency and Efficiency of Public Service Delivery and theCouncil's feedback mechanism - ReportGov.NG.

Importantlyalso, we had the collaboration of several reform-minded heads of MDAs who wereinstrumental in the development and implementation of the plans. But mostnotable is the sustained collaboration across all arms and levels of government- the National Assembly, the Judiciary, and all subnational governments througha partnership we tried to foster at the National Economic Council.

In2020, the work of PEBEC has been further cascaded to the EBES to include LocalGovernments, with the Abuja Municipal Area Council (AMAC) serving as a pilot.

Ithink the results have been remarkable. PEBEC, since its inception, hasachieved the delivery of over 150 reforms and completed six National ActionPlan (60-day reform accelerators). As a result, Nigeria has moved an aggregateof 39 places on the World Bank Doing Business index since 2016, and was twicenamed as one of the top 10 most improved economies in the world in the lastthree cycles. And Nigeria was also named one of only two African countries tomake this highly prestigious list in 2019.

Similarly,the 2018 Subnational Doing Business report on Nigeria recorded unprecedentedimprovement, with 100% participation of States in the Right-of-Reply Exercise.The World Economic Forum (WEF), in its 2018 Global Competitive Report, alsorecognized Nigeria's business environment as one of the most entrepreneurial inthe world and highlighted Nigeria's improved competitiveness in the enablingbusiness environment space.

Butwe are still quite far from achieving our objectives. There are severalstubborn and malignant problems. There are still serious complaints aboutimport and export delays, just recently agro-export businesses came for ameeting with me and made strong representations on the difficulties they areexperiencing in being able to export their products and long waiting periodsfor product approvals.

Mostof the problems come from systemic constraints or agencies and officials whofail or resist change. But I believe that most of these problems can be solved.These systems work elsewhere and can work in Nigeria. The problem sometimes issystemic. The heads of MDAs commit to change but down the line, the systemeither resists or is simply not well designed to function properly.

Wemust in the coming months work with the agencies to implement a more aggressiveaccountability audit. Where we identify the specific bottlenecks in systemspossibly down to the particular desks where these problems arise. We may thencome for agencies and officials who have failed or resisted such changes.

Moreimportantly, are the systemic changes that need to take place because by andlarge, most officials in public agencies would want to do their work well andwant to deliver on their assignments but sometimes the system is so convolutedthat no matter what you do, you end up getting the same delays.

Ithink the last few years have proved what is possible if we are hands-on andintentional in making it easy to do business in Nigeria.

Unemploymentin our country is over 30%, a minimum of 3 million new young people join thejob market every year. Our priority as a government is to create jobs, thebiggest job creator is the private sector, especially small and mediumenterprises. We must ensure that they are not hindered from doing businesseasily so that they can produce the opportunities our nation needs.

Letme convey the appreciation of President Muhammadu Buhari to members of theCouncil, the PEBEC team, all MDAs, and State Governments for the excellentcollaboration that has produced great successes in the last five years.

Solet us take a moment to relish our accomplishments and leave here tonightrenewed and reenergized for the work that lies ahead.

Congratulationseveryone! God bless you all.

Thankyou.

Aboutthe Author

Professor YemiOsinbajo is the Vice President ofNigeria.