The news is out that in the Doing Business 2018 Report, the World
Bank Group’s flagship publication launched on October 31, 2017, Nigeria shocked
the world by improving an unprecedented 24 ranks in the global ease of doing
business index and entered the global elite group of the top ten reforming
countries in the world this year. Those are two firsts for our country, and may
have come as a surprise to many Nigerians as well, but there is enough reason
to celebrate the results, and this progress is an early sign of more and better
to come.
Nigeria’s private sector is known across the
world for being dynamic and innovative. Yet, our courageous entrepreneurs face
cumbersome, often opaque regulations, and bear heavy costs that expose them to
rent seeking behaviour while trying to access basic services needed for any
micro, small or medium enterprise (MSME) to function and to thrive. The Buhari
administration is determined to fix precisely that. If Nigeria is to become an
internationally competitive investment destination, it has to be first be an
easier place to do business for its domestic enterprises. This is our agenda –
we want to make business work in Nigeria!
The presidential enabling business environment
council (PEBEC) was established by His Excellency, the President in July 2016,
with a mandate to sustainably and progressively make Nigeria an easier place to
do business. The PEBEC, is chaired by His Excellency, the Vice President, with
the Hon minister of industry, trade & investment as vice chair. Its other
members include ten ministers, the head of the civil service of the federation,
governor of the Central Bank, as well as representatives of the national
assembly, Lagos and Kano states and the private sector. The enabling business
environment secretariat (EBES) supports the PEBEC in implementing its reform
mandate.
On February 21, 2016, PEBEC approved a 60-day
national action plan on the Ease of Doing Business with clear deliverables and
timelines for the ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs) responsible for
implementing each line item in the plan. The goal of the NAP 60 was to make it
easier for MSMEs to do business in Nigeria. For us, developing a national plan
along the lines of 7 out of the 10 indicators measured by Doing Business in
addition to 1 home-grown one was a good starting point on our journey to make
Nigeria’s environment more transparent, faster, more affordable and convenient.
In fewer words – more competitive.
Surely enough, we started seeing results of
our work and we were proud to note the following achievements:
– Business registration can now be done
online, and completed within 24 hours;
– Time to obtain a construction permit has been halved from 42 to 20 days;
– Fewer days – 44 instead of 145 – are now required for a new electricity connection;
– Property transfer is now twice as fast as it used to be – 30 days instead of 77;
– MSMEs have better access to credit, thanks to the collateral registry and stronger credit reports;
– E-filing and e-payment are broadening the tax base;
– Export/import procedures are now taking 50% less time than before; and
– Visa-on-arrival can now be processed within 48 hours.
– Time to obtain a construction permit has been halved from 42 to 20 days;
– Fewer days – 44 instead of 145 – are now required for a new electricity connection;
– Property transfer is now twice as fast as it used to be – 30 days instead of 77;
– MSMEs have better access to credit, thanks to the collateral registry and stronger credit reports;
– E-filing and e-payment are broadening the tax base;
– Export/import procedures are now taking 50% less time than before; and
– Visa-on-arrival can now be processed within 48 hours.
The encouraging results in the latest edition
of the Doing Business Report, which are based on the testimonies of the private
sector operating in Lagos and Kano, reflect all this hard work. Yet, a lot
still remains to be done to bring our business environment at par with global
best practice, and this continues in our ongoing second 60-day national action
plan (NAP 2.0) which commenced on October 3 and ends on December 1, 2017.
Building on the positive news, we are doubling our efforts to keep our reform
momentum high and improve indicator by indicator, year after year.
This is a herculean task, but it is not an
insurmountable one. Several countries in sub-Saharan Africa are succeeding in
reforming to make their business environments more attractive. Mauritius is
25th globally in the ease of doing business measurement, better than France,
Japan, Italy or Belgium. Rwanda is 41st on this index, while Kenya is 80th,
Botswana 81st, South Africa 82nd and Zambia 85th. If these countries can do it,
Nigeria can surely do much more!
There is no magic formula to successfully
reform any economy. Strong reforming countries display recurring traits. There
is leadership and championing of reforms from the highest levels of government.
There is also constant dialogue with private sector – the beneficiary of
reforms – to ensure reforms carried out are actually implemented on the ground.
Then reform communication and outreach are key to ensure private sector knows
about the reforms carried out, understands how they can benefit from them and
actually supports the implementation, not undermine the reforms.
This is best practice anywhere, and is what
produced the results we received last week as we applied it in our Nigerian
context. Importantly, for the first time, coordinated efforts are underway to
make it easier to do business in Nigeria. Through systemic changes, we are
repositioning regulators as facilitators of business, and are steadily
improving transparency and efficiency of service delivery by the public sector.
The PEBEC gives strong political leadership to a highly collaborative reform
exercise cutting across different levels of government.
Within the federal government over 40 MDAs
worked together to deliver this quantum leap, not to mention our highly
successful partnership with the national assembly, and with Lagos and Kano
state governments. Furthermore, the supportive role played by the private
sector and other stakeholders cannot be quantified. This experiment has
definitely taught us that everyone pulling in the same direction to make
business work in Nigeria clearly pays off!
In spite of the economic headwinds that we are
now emerging from, Nigeria’s story still remains a remarkable one. Inflows from
all the investment types grew in the second quarter of 2017, with the biggest
growth from portfolio investors. Second quarter inflows of $1.8bn almost double
$908m imported in the first quarter.
Investor interest remains strong, with
announced investments of $22.42bn from January to August 2017, in 41 projects
across 22 states. As noted in the economic recovery and growth plan (ERGP),
sustainably reforming our business environment to make it more conducive is a
safe building block to enable competitiveness and to reinforce Nigeria’s status
as a preferred investment destination.
We’re not there yet. It’s a marathon and not a
sprint, but we are clearly moving in the right direction of making Nigeria a
progressively easier place in which to do business. I am confident that the
best is certainly yet to come, but even as we journey together, please allow me
pause to say – Congratulations Nigeria!
Jumoke Oduwole is senior
special assistant to the president on industry, trade, and investment in the
office of the vice president and secretary to the presidential enabling
business environment council (PEBEC). She writes from Abuja, Nigeria.
Source: The Cable
