The Presidential Enabling Business Environment Council (PEBEC) has developed a National Action Plan (NAP 2.0) for the 2017- 2018 reform cycle detailing 11 key reforms in the business environment that are capable of impacting the Nigerian economy positively. Daily Trust takes a critical look at the reforms and the expected gains.
Starting a business: To ease up the business environment in Nigeria, the council proposes the elimination of inspection for business premises registration and the adoption of e-registration for company registration.
The National Action Plan seen by Daily Trust says the immediate gains of this reform in starting a business are one less procedure and 72 hours saved in registering a business in Kano State and close of manual registration portals in 10 additional states.
Dealing with construction permits: The plan recommends driving the usage of the e-planning platform and reducing the cost and time to obtain development permits.
The reform in construction permits is expected to yield 50 per cent more users on the e-planning platform and also lead to fully operational electronic payment system with options for POS and bank transfers in Lagos State.
Registering property: The plan proposes availability of land information online and the simplification and optimisation of the process of obtaining the governor’s consent in Lagos and Kano states.
Getting electricity: Further reduce time to get connected to the grid by deploying online systems and ensure compliance to revised procedures and timelines for getting connected to the grid.
The gains include reduced time for getting electricity by 10 days, notice based system for works that involve crossing of road, and increased number of financial institutions on the collateral registry – registering at least 300 microfinance banks.
Getting credit: The action plan also requires improved access to credit by driving usage of the National Collateral Registry and facilitation of the usage of credit bureaus for the provision of credit data and credit scoring.
This action will increase the number of financial institutions on the collateral registry – registering at least 300 microfinance banks, public awareness of availability of credit reports, increased usage of credit scoring services by banks and other financial institutions
Paying taxes: The presidential council also wants the simplification of the process and reduction in the time for paying taxes so as to enable all large and medium size enterprises to be registered on e-filing system and also reduce average time for filing and paying taxes by 50 per cent.
Trading across borders: The action plan requires enabling quicker and easier movement of goods across borders to be led by the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS).
Enforcing contracts: The target is to reduce the time it takes to resolve cases related to commercial contracts and the result is to have specialised magistrates trained to handle commercial cases.
Selling to government: The council seeks the simplification of the government procurement process for small and medium enterprises (SMEs).
Expected results are clear guidelines and documentation for selling to the government (applicable to SMEs) and the Bureau of Public Procurement to ensure compliance of relevant government agencies to laid down procedures and timelines.
Entry and exit of people: The council wants improvement in the experience of travellers entering and leaving Nigeria through deliberate decrease in time spent at the airports and streamlined processes for entering the country.
Trading Within Nigeria: The action plan targets three areas for reforms in trading within Nigeria in order to improve trade and encourage traders.
The final reform in trading in Nigeria is for the trademark registry to clear backlog of outstanding marks and the result should be 30,000 outstanding marks published.
