The Presidential Business Environment Council (PEBEC), has rated the Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB), the Standards Organization of Nigeria (SON) and the top five Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) as compliant with the Executive Order on Transparency. and Efficiency in the Nigerian Business Environment.
According to the recently released Executive Order 001 Compliance Report covering January to December 2022, the top five MDAs are the Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB) which emerged first with 81.11 percent; Standards Organization of Nigeria (SON) which came second with 78.68 percent; The Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Council (FCCPC) ranked third with 68.37 percent; The Nigerian Export-Import Bank (NEXIM) came fourth with 64.59 percent, while the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) secured the fifth position with 63.68 percent.
The Special Adviser to the President on Ease of Doing Business and PEBEC Secretary, Dr, Jumoke Oduwole, while presenting the report during a media conference yesterday in Abuja stated that the release of the compliance report is in line with his promise to continuously monitor and keep the business community updated on compliance with the Executive Order on Transparency and Efficiency in the Nigerian Business Environment.
He stated that PEBEC has tracked the activities of 57 Ministries, Departments, and Institutions directly with the private sector, especially Small and Medium Enterprises.
Oduwole noted that Executive Order 0O1 was issued by the current administration to strengthen the implementation of business climate reforms and to deepen collaboration between MDAs by instituting a systemic change management process for reform.
He added that EO1 directed MDAs to submit monthly reports to the PEBEC Secretariat, the office of the Head of Service (HOS) of the Federation, the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), and SERVICOM.
He noted that although PEBEC has created a back end, a mobile application, ‘reportgov’ which allows the private sector to report violations by MDA so that the necessary action will be taken by the President to address the problem, unfortunately, the private sector, especially SMEs. not taking advantage of the channel.
He regretted that a lot of money was invested into the ‘reportgov’ application in order to get feedback from the private sector, especially UMKM, but since 2017, the number of cases has dropped to less than 5000.
He noted that through the intervention, there were useful reports in the Nigerian Customs Service, the Nigerian Immigration Service, the Corporate Affairs Commission, Airports, Ports and others, adding special focus on business costs, bureaucracy and transparency.
But Oduwole said that if the country can reduce corruption and various taxes, they will move forward easily making business rankings, while countries that refuse to adapt will lose investment.
He also emphasized that the country should stop paying lip service to creating a workable environment for business owners, noting that there are things that need to be done to ensure that it is in line with global best practices.