Vice President Yemi Osinbajo has restated that Nigeria will continue to pursue reforms in business environment until the full attainment of its objectives.
The objective is bring dramatic changes in the country’s economy, he said on Tuesday while receiving the 2019 Compliance Report of the Presidential Executive Order 001.
The Order seeks to promote transparency and efficiency in the business environment.
The report was presented by the Minister of State for Industry, Trade and Investment, Mariam Katagum, and the Special Adviser to the President on Ease of Doing Business, Dr. Jumoke Oduwole.
The presentation was made during the meeting of the Presidential Enabling Business Environment Council, PEBEC.
“We will keep updating ourselves on the progress of the ease of doing business reforms,” he said and noted that some of the progress already recorded in the last three years since the commencement of the ease of doing business reforms.
“For instance, in 2017, in the World Bank Doing Business Ranking, Nigeria moved up 24 places and was also listed among the top ten reforming economies in the world. This year the World Bank also named Nigeria one of the top-20 improvers in doing business out of 190 countries.
“Among the notable results of the reforms, besides the better ranking by the World Bank Doing Business Rankings, include that the Federal Inland Revenue Service, FIRS, launching of a centralized e-payment channels contributing to a 20% reduction in time businesses.
The other is the launch by the Immigration authorities of a fully digitized e-visa process guaranteeing visa approvals in 48 hours.
Also on the table is National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control, NAFDAC, re-engineered registration processes and reduced processing time from 12 to less than 3 months.
Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria’s, FAAN, improved user experience at airports by eliminating passenger service charge stickers and manual check-in bag searches.
Some of the other results recorded include how the Corporate Affairs Commission, CAC, simplified company registration processes, resulting in 50% reduction in processing time and the passage by the National Assembly of the Credit Reporting Act 2017, among others.
