The Federal Government has said there will henceforth be accountability audits of various agencies, adding that bureaucratic bottlenecks will be identified and removed in a renewed effort to further improve the country’s business environment and economy.
This will in turn encourage more local and foreign investments, create more jobs and opportunities for Nigerians.
Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, made these observations on Wednesday night at the fifth-anniversary celebration event of the Presidential Enabling Business Environment Council (PEBEC), which was held at the State House Banquet Hall, Abuja.
This was disclosed by the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Laolu Akande, in a statement issued on Thursday titled ‘FG To Conduct Accountability Audit Of Agencies, Osinbajo Says At PEBEC’s 5th Year Milestone.’
In improving the country’s business climate and making it more attractive for foreign and local investors, the Vice President noted that while creating jobs is the government’s priority, the biggest job creator in the private sector, particularly small and medium enterprises.
He stated “We must ensure that they are not hindered from doing business easily so they can produce the opportunities our nation needs. Where we identify the specific bottlenecks in systems possibly down to the particular desks where these problems arise, we may then come for agencies and officials who have failed or resisted change,” he warned. As a result, Nigeria has moved an aggregate of 39 places on the World Bank Doing Business index since 2016, and was twice named as one of the top 10 most improved economies in the world in the last three cycles. Nigeria was also named one of only two African countries to make this highly prestigious list in 2019. Similarly, the 2018 Subnational Doing Business report on Nigeria recorded unprecedented improvement, with 100% participation of States in the Right-of-Reply exercise. The World Economic Forum (WEF), in its 2018 Global Competitive Report, also recognized Nigeria’s business environment as one of the most entrepreneurial in the world, and highlighted Nigeria’s improved competitiveness in the enabling business environment,”
He affirmed that PEBEC’s reforms have “proved what is possible if we are hands-on and intentional in making it easy to do business in Nigeria.”
“We were fortunate to have a smart and visionary team led by Dr Jumoke Oduwole (Special Adviser to the President on Ease of Doing Business), who, with her team of public and private sector members, designed the series of reform initiatives and internationally recognized homegrown National Action Plans (NAPs) – 60-day accelerators designed to coordinate the effective delivery of priority reforms of select Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) annually. At the federal level, the PEBEC Secretariat also actively supports 15 priority public-facing agencies and tracks 55 MDAs on the implementation of Executive Order 001 on Transparency and Efficiency of Public Service Delivery and the Council’s feedback mechanism – ReportGov.NG.”