The Presidential Enabling Business Environment Council (PEBEC), on Thursday, encouraged private sector actors to legally demand efficiency and transparency from government agencies that insist on bottlenecks and bureaucracy.
PEBEC said that with the Executive Order 001 (EO1) in place, the private sector can now get the agencies to serve them rightly.
Jumoke Oduwole, Special Adviser to the President on Ease of Doing Business and Secretary to the PEBEC, said the EO1 has granted legal provisions to fight bureaucracy and ambiguity which has hindered efficiency and transparency in the public sector
The PEBEC Secretary while releasing the 2022 Executive Order 001 (EO1) Compliance Report, said It is expected that the legal provisions will serve as a stimulus for a more transparent and efficient public service delivery in Nigeria.
“The codification of EO1 directives in the Business Facilitation Act 2022 is a major development in the efforts to entrench EO1 in the psyche of the Civil Service,” Oduwole said.
According to the latest EO1 Compliance Report which covers January to December 2022, the top five performing MDAs are the Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB) which emerged first at 81.11%; Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON) (2nd, 78.68%); Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Council (FCCPC) (3rd, 68.37%); Nigerian Export-Import Bank (NEXIM) (4th, 64.59%); and Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) (5th, 63.68%).
On May 18, 2017, Executive Order 001 (EO1) on Transparency and Efficiency in the Business Environment was issued as the Administration’s first Executive Order to strengthen the implementation of business climate reforms and to deepen collaboration among ministries, departments, and agencies (MDAs) by instituting a systemic change management process for reforms.
EO1 mandates MDAs to submit monthly reports to the PEBEC Secretariat, the offices of the Head of Service (HOS) of the Federation, the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), and SERVICOM.
Oduwole encouraged , SMEs and private businesses to speak up against multiple taxation, bottlenecks and corrupt practices that has been stiffening the business environment as they now have legal backings.
Last month, President Muhammadu Buhari signed the Business Facilitation, Miscellaneous Provision Bill 2022 also known as the Omnibus Bill into law.
The signing of the Bill provides an enabling environment for Micro, Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (MSMEs), in Nigeria.
The Business Facilitation (Miscellaneous Provision) Act, 2023, is a legislative intervention by the Presidential Enabling Business Environment Council, PEBEC, which amends 21 business related laws, removing bureaucratic constraints to doing business in Nigeria.
The new law promote Transparency and Efficiency in Public Service Delivery and strengthen ease of doing business across the country.
