FG mulls ‘Omnibus Bill’ to improve Nigeria’s business climate

The Federal government said it has concluded plans for an ‘omnibus Bill’ that will harmonize over 25 laws on business practices, as part of plans to strengthen ‘Ease of Doing Business’ in Nigeria and attract more foreign investment.

Jumoke Oduwole, special adviser to the President on Ease of Doing Business speaking at the focus group meeting on Ease of Doing Business and presentation of the 7th National Action Plan, in Abuja, noted that the legislation is necessary to address challenges and bottleneck militating against businesses in Nigeria.

Businessday gathered that the government is concerned over the low levels of compliance with its orders on Ease of Doing Business, especially the Executive Order 001 of 2017, on promotion of “ transparency and efficiency”.

Nigeria is currently ranked 130 out of 170 countries on the global Ease of doing business index, which ranks countries against each other based on how the regulatory environment is conducive to business operation and stronger protections of property rights.

Economies with a high rank of 1 to 20 have simpler and more friendly regulations for businesses.

The bill, which is a business facilitation legislation, Businessday gathered is ready to go to the Federal Executive Council FEC, and is currently with the office of the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, the Bill was done with the Nigerian Bar Association NBA.

Ahead of the legislation, the Presidential Enabling Business Environmental Council (PEBEC) is said to have had a robust engagement, interaction and consultation with relevant stakeholders, including inputs from about 40 law firms.

“ So, we have tried to amend 25 legislations, with that omnibus bill”

The PEBEC on a Monday took place after over two years of inactivity due to the Coronavirus global pandemic, and is engaging stakeholders with a “ robust national action plan” to improve Nigeria’s rating on the global Ease of Doing Business index.

Oduwole said the issue has attracted the attention of the Federal Executive Council FEC, office of the Head of Service of the Federation and Secretary to the Government of the Federation.

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“ Compliance is essential to effectiveness, that is why we track. It is not our place at the Secretariat to sanction agencies, or sanction officers, but it is an area that we are very keen to make sure that it is rewarded and lack of transparency and efficiency is sanctioned”

“ Our Executive Order 001 compliance reports capture agencies that are ahead and the agencies that are not doing well are reflected there.

The report tracts agencies that are being a bit of laggard. So, we need the help of private sectors to tell us where the problems are and also to keep clamoring for better services from these agencies of government so that we can track performance effectively

But I am hoping that the consequence management, not even so that it is punitive, but to set the tone because, we do not have time at all

With the AfCFTA and everything that is going on in the economy, it is imperative that we all have our hands on the deck.

Oduwole, described the level of engagements with stakeholders as “ encouraging” , with Vibrant collaboration with the sub national government and private collaborators.

Jumoke sees “tracking of Ministries Departments and Agencies MDAs of government” by the Council Chaired by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo and 13 Ministers, as “ essential because, what gets measured, gets done”

Jumoke while observing that “Efficiency and transparency is improving” adding however, that “ we do not rest on our oars”

“ Exporting, you know, gives us the much needed foreign exchange and of course , the farmers across the country are producing things that we really do not want to waste, so it is a value chain that we are supportive of.

She noted that the Ports have been a challenge, that whole system, not just one agency but a compendium of all the agencies together.

The 7th National Action Plan (NAP 7.0) is designed to break away from the lacklustre performance of the country’s last two outings, NAP 5.0 and NAP 6.0, held in Q1 of 2020 and 2021, which saw the relevant ministries, departments and agencies perform below par at 44percent and 43percent respectively for a variety of reasons. 7.0 Accordingly, at its meeting of February 1, 2022, chaired by the Vice President, the PEBEC reached the firm conclusion and stated categorically.

It will be recalled had at the last meeting that Osibanjo tasked all relevant MDAs to strive to deliver and exceed reform target expectations during this 60-day accelerator, beginning from the 7th of February, 2022.

BusinessDay gathered that the 7th Nation Action Plan targets trade/ports reform, Automation Reforms, Regulatory Reforms, Legislative/Judicial Reforms and Executive Order 01/ReportGov.NG compliance reforms.

Under the Ports and trade facilitation, the focus is on a 60-day agro-export action plan targeted at ensuring that perishable agricultural produce earmarked for export are allowed to move freely through our ports.

Oduwole said “ faithful implementation of the Agro-export plan is expected to boost the competitiveness of Nigeria’s agro-exports, and create jobs, while enhancing Nigeria’s foreign exchange earnings and providing good rewards for the labours of farmers all across Nigeria”

The plan also targets deployment of automation and process review, that will intensify efforts at improving the travel experience, particularly at international airports, strengthening the automation of the business incorporation process of the Corporate Affairs Commission, enhancing transparency in the trademark registration process, and increasing the adoption of electronic filling of taxes, among others.

The NAP 7.0 is also expected to enhance robust tracking and evaluation of MDAs’ compliance with the directives of the Executive Order 001.

“ We target stakeholders to please support the federal governments efforts by utilizing the ReportGov.NG portal, even as we strive towards making the platform the preferred choice for channelling feedback on services provided by MDAs”

Joseph Ameh,

A legal practitioner, a legal practitioner, lamented difficulties in accessing the website of the Corporate Affairs Commission to register business names, despite measures by the government to strengthen Ease of Doing Business.

“Sometimes we observe that some monies are paid into their accounts that are not reflected on their receipts, while sometimes, you cannot even access their website”

Samson Ugwuokwo, executive director of Youths Innovations, while also lamenting the challenges encountered in clearing goods from the Lagos ports, urged the federal government to expedite actions on its port reforms by extending activities to other Ports outside Lagos, to ease clearance of goods from the ports.

“ Unless government allows others ports outside Lagos, like the Calabar, Warri, Sapele and others ports are equipped to operate fully, the challenges of ease of doing business cannot be addressed” he said.

Also speaking on agro export, National Coordinator of Naija Dot Connect, Yetunde Aiyela, believe that exports of agricultural produce will continue to encounter challenges, multiplicity of regulatory agencies.

“ Government agencies should play their roles as enabler and not as competitor or over regulator of the business environment. Unless this is taken seriously, it will be difficult to boost export of agricultural produce, as is being envisaged”

The Standard Organization of Nigeria, SON , however urged Nigerian exporters to seek proper information on the rules of engagements of countries of export destinations to avoid rejection of exported produce from Nigeria.

The Phebean Arumemi, representative of SON, also charged Nigerian exports on the need for “honesty and transparency” and compliance with export best practices, adding that “ many Nigerian agro produce exports are rejected due to poor compliance with regulatory provisions”