Nigeria has a new national action plan 5.0 that is aimed at accelerating the actualisation of the country’s ease of doing business target. The action plan will run between February 5th and April 4th of 2020.
The special adviser to President Muhammadu Buhari on ease of doing business, Jumoke Oduwole, recently joined CNBC Africa’s Esther Awoniyi to discuss the action plan.
According to Oduwole, the new action plan is not completely different from the previous plans. Instead, it is all about continuously improving on the previous efforts that have already been made.
She further explained that while the indicators are basically the same, the government is prioritising some over the others. She said:
“We prioritise some over the others. But definitely, we keep working in a sort of concentric circle, going deeper and deeper and pushing ourselves more. So, the low-hanging fruits that we’ve taken from 1.0, 2.0 to now 5.0 is getting deeper. Some of them are now more technical, they are back-end. But the impact of it…Nigerian businesses will just notice that things are more seamless and automated. We are really pushing automation in different areas.
“You know it’s all about continuous improvement. So, we continue peeling the layers of the onions. For instance, we are looking at FIRS and CAC merging payment so that it’s even more seamless. Dealing with construction permits and registration of properties, the state governments are looking at going to a risk-based system, making sure that the system is more robust, looking at the construction, insurance, and things that can make the construction phases safer and more reliable for the public and the transparency of the requirements.”
[READ MORE: Ease of doing Business: NECA seeks more reforms)
Oduwole also disclosed that prior to setting the new action plan 5.0, there was a holistic assessment of Nigeria’s processes. The intention was to ensure a more realistic approach is towards actualising the action plan, she said. During the assessment, they took note of the complaints that were made by the private sector and intend to work together with Ministries, Departments, and Agencies towards solving addressing those. They also examined global best practices in the ease of doing business, with the intention of replicating the ones that are best fit for Nigeria.
Recall that Nigeria moved up fifteen places to number 131 in the latest ease of doing business index as earlier reported by Nairametrics.
You may watch Oduwole’s full interview with CNBC Africa by clicking here.
