States to play role in making business reforms succeed – Osinbajo

Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, yesterday, emphasised the significance of the role to be played by state governments in ensuring an enabling environment for businesses to thrive in the country.

Osinbajo made the emphasis during a virtual meeting of the Presidential Enabling Business Environment Council (PEBEC), where a presentation of the State Action on Business Enabling Reforms (SABER) Program coordinated by the secretariat and World Bank was discussed.

The SABER Program is a three-year (Jan 2023 – Dec 2025) performance-based intervention jointly designed by World Bank and PEBEC Secretariat with support from the Federal Ministry of Finance, Budget and National Planning and Nigeria Governors’ Forum Secretariat. 

The purpose is to incentivise and strengthen the implementation of business enabling reforms in Nigeria, specifically across the states and FCT, Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Laolu Akande, said in a statement. 

Osinbajo said: “For all who are charged with responsibilities at the state level, you have your work cut out for you.  

“If we are going to have the kind of business environment that our country deserves and that can make a difference for our economy, it is the hard work at the sub-national level that would really move the needle.”

Osinbajo noted that at the Federal level, it has been a major challenge “just trying to coordinate agencies and parastatals.”

In her own remarks, Dr. Jumoke Oduwole, Special Adviser on Ease of Doing Business and Secretary of PEBEC, stated that “we have been collaborating for over two years in conceptualising the SABER Program,” adding that “it is the first programme of this size that the World Bank is embarking on at this scale globally.”

The program is a $750 million operation comprising two main areas – $730 million Program-for-Results Financing (PforR) component and $20 million technical assistance for investment project financing.”