Nigeria has retained an upward growth trajectory with regards to ease of doing business, as it moved up 24 places from its 169th position in the World Bank’s ‘Doing Business’ in 2017, to 145th in 2018. This is as a result of the many initiatives and reforms by the federal government; and to ensure that Nigeria keeps moving up the ladder to become top 100 by 2020 and ultimately be ranked in top 50 countries to do business by 2025, the Presidential Enabling Business Environment Council (PEBEC) recently launched the new REPORTGOV.NG App to ensure optimum operation of Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs).
The Reportgov.ng App, is an official public service feedback and complaints platform to support business climate reforms implemented by the Council since 2016. The platform, which is also a website, will facilitate the escalation and resolution of issues encountered with MDAs towards ensuring a more business-friendly environment.
According to PEBEC app was launched to make it easier for individuals and corporates including Small and Medium size enterprises (SMEs) to report feedbacks and challenges encountered when dealing with MDAs of the Federal Government.
The app which was developed by a team of 60 young Nigerian entrepreneurs; led by Soji Apampa, CEO, Convention on Business Integrity, was co-launched by Okey Enelamah; minister for industry, trade and investment, Adedotun Sulaiman; chairman, financial reporting council of Nigeria, and Jumoke Oduwole; senior special assistant to the president on industry, trade and investment, at the Regulatory Conversations (RC3.0) event themed “Improving Transparency and Ease of Doing Business in Nigeria”, which was hosted by The Convention on Business Integrity/The Integrity Organisation in collaboration with ActionAid, Nigerian Economic Summit Group, Lagos Chamber of Commerce & Industry and BusinessDay Newspapers, in partnership with the Enabling Business Environment Secretariat (EBES) of the Council.
Speaking at the launch event in Lagos on Thursday March 14, 2019, Jumoke Oduwole, SSA to the president on industry, trade and investment said;
“We first had it as a web based portal and we spent a lot of time with a lot of agencies and working with the back end because we all know that every application is only as strong as the back end. The minister took it to the federal executive council and president Mohammadu Buhari approved a 72-hour response time for the complaints and feedback lodged on the portal.”
Now we have developed it into an app, so it is on Google play store and will shortly be available on Apple ios for download. We have also re-branded the web based portal,” Oduwole added.
How the app works:
The new app works as another innovative strategy of the Federal Government of Nigeria to deliver quick, pragmatic changes for Nigerians and foreigners seeking to invest in Nigeria’s business community. It is believed that when you give feedback or file a complaint, you contribute to continuous improvement in service delivery and public protection efforts on a national level.
Complaints can be made in four simple steps. After downloading the mobile app or visiting the web portal on www.reportgov.ng, users will be able to select from a long list of ministries, departments and agencies, click on ‘create complaint’ or ‘send feedback’, fill out the form and submit.
Given the approved 72-hour response time, your complaint immediately goes to the Presidential Enabling Business Council (PEBEC), which then assigns the complaint to the MDA and follows up to ensure it is treated in line with the Service Level Agreement. Finally, the complainant will receive an email that the complaint has been resolved, or with information on the next steps required.
So far, a high level of success across several areas has been recorded, and MDAs have made significant improvements. Many have taken up the challenge to deliver more transparent and efficient services to their customers in alignment with the Executive Order 01 (EO1), with a number of notable milestones achieved such as an increase in the number of MDAs that have functional websites containing detailed information about their services or statutory functions, as well as improved collaboration among MDAs.
The Executive Order E01, which was signed by Vice President Osinbajo on May 18, 2017, ensures that citizens have complete clarity on all government requirements and processes, better cooperation and improved information sharing among MDAs, as well as requiring proper communication of approval or rejection of applications to Nigerians within the stipulated timeframe.
Okey Enelamah; minister for industry, trade and investment said the app was created to achieve the goals of government in terms of economic growth, creating employment, industrialization, diversification and others.
According to him, “achieving its goals can only be achieved through engagement, energizing, empowering and enabling private sector businesses, SMEs and stakeholders in the economy.”
“This is why every opportunity we get to facilitate that process and to provide tools that you can use to enable ease of business must be viewed as important. This app is a very tangible attempt to create another avenue for engagement because communication is two-way. So, unless there is an app through which you can speak back to the government or to the agencies and service providers to say your experience, then it could be seen as more talk than action. As this app is launched, I hope we put it to use immediately,” the minister said.
Adedotun Sulaiman, chairman, financial reporting council of Nigeria, said; “We love to complain a lot in Nigeria because in our country, not many things work. But in complaining, we complain to ourselves, and so changes are rarely made. But we now have a means of channeling our complaints to the right quarters and to those who can do something about it. There will be action because every complaint lodged on this app is tracked as to which ones have been resolved and which ones are yet to be attended to. Hopefully, things can only get better if we use this app appropriately.”
When to use the Reportgov app
Reports can be made on the app or web portal when information on any of the MDAs is not accessible or is incomplete on the advertised website, when applications filed are taking longer than the specified time, when payment for services are being delayed unfairly, if a civil servant or government official requests for money which is not in line with the disclosed sum for the service provided by the relevant MDA, and if any of your rights as an entrepreneur or business owner has been violated.
When reports like these are made, criminal activities will be brought closer to justice. This will help deter others from violating people’s rights and will increase overall efficiency of the government and its parastatal, which will in turn help make business easier.
PEBEC was established in July 2016 to remove delays and restrictions that come with doing business in Nigeria, and make the country an easier place to start and grow a business.
Jumoke Akiyode-Lawanson
