FG commits to sanity in business environment

The Federal Government has restated its commitment to create an enabling environment for businesses to thrive.

The government said agencies, such as the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) and the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), we’re collaborating to eliminate unnecessary bottlenecks in businesses.

Executive Secretary, Nigerian Investment Promotion Commission (NIPC) Yewande Sadiku, stated this while delivering a keynote address on “Ease of doing business: The role of regulatory agencies”, at the 43rd annual conference of the Institute of Chartered Secretaries and Administrators of Nigeria (ICSAN) in Lagos.

Represented by the Commission’s Acting Director, Investors Relations, Mutawalli Kukawa, Sadiku said the Commission was taking careful steps to thoroughly assess countries and investors, who had an interest in investing in Nigeria to save her from unwholesome products and services with the aim of protecting local investors.

She stressed that the commission was leaving no stone unturned to ensure that the country enjoys more investment opportunities from local and foreign investors, adding that Nigeria needs to rev up its Gross Domestic Product (GDP) to be among the first top 100 countries in the World Bank ease of doing business index by 2020.

The President and Chairman of Council (ICSAN), Bode Ayeku said both the Federal and State Governments must act decisively to provide the visible enabling environment for hitch-free business operations.

While noting that the institute would continue to pursue the promotion of good code of corporate governance both in the private and public sectors, Ayeku lamented the government’s lukewarmness on timeliness and turnaround period, as well as lack of a practical mechanism to solve challenges confronting the private sector.

He said: “It seems the government and the private sector are standing at opposite directions because there is no blend of purposes, unfortunately, the government has issues with timeliness and turn around period and lack of practical mechanism to solve the problem faced by the private sector, when they say something must be done, it must be seen to be done within the time frame, Let all lackadaisical attitude and lukewarmness towards the economy stop forthwith.”

The Head of Tax, KPMG, Africa, Wole Obayomi, maintained that for Nigeria to enjoy a hitch-free business environment, professionals and professionalism must be entrenched from the top to the players in the business world.

Obayomi stressed that the Nigerian business environment could only be conducive only if a crop of personnel at every regulatory agency were professionals in their respective disciplines and organisations.

He added that if the regulators are not experts in their fields, the resultant effects are the churning out of anti-people policies and regulations, which would spell doom for businesses.