Business Made Easy

The Spark | Ignite / Connect / Achieve
www.thesparkng.com
SPECIAL FEATURES
On Soft
Infrastructure
and Economic
Growth
PEBEC’s reforms are making business a little
easier for regular people just like you.
by Lolade Sasore
“...the core aim of the team is
to reduce the time, cost, and
improve the efficiency of
procedures that support an
enabling business environment
for improved competitiveness.”
The Presidential Enabling Business
Environment Council (PEBEC), is
chaired by Vice President Yemi
Osinbajo, SAN, with the Minister of Industry,
Trade and Investment as Vice
Chair. The council has 9 other ministers,
Head of Civil Service of the Federation,
Governor of CBN and representatives
from the National Assembly
and private sector as members.
PEBEC was established to remove the
constraints and bottlenecks to doing
business in Nigeria. Designed to focus
on addressing issues around ‘soft infrastructure’,
the core aim of the team is
to reduce the time, cost, and improve
the efficiency of procedures that support
an enabling business environment
for improved competitiveness. The
Enabling Business Environment Secretariat
(EBES), implements the reform
agenda of PEBEC.
The PEBEC’s model aligns with global
best practice, and is filtered by a number
of domestic and international rankings
including the World Bank Doing
Business Index (DBI), which is reported
annually. The Index offers comparative
insights based on private sector
validation of reforms delivered in the
two largest commercial cities in countries
with a population higher than 100
million. For Nigeria, the DBI tracks both
Lagos and Kano States, being the two
largest business cities in the country.
Since the launch of the council, PE-
BEC/EBES has implemented over 140
reforms across 12 focus areas, with
direct and positive impact on business
owners. These include Starting a
Business, Getting Credit, Paying Taxes,
Dealing with Construction Permits,
Getting Electricity, Registering Property,
Entry and Exit of People, Protecting
Minority Investors, Resolving Insolvency,
Enforcing Contracts, Trading Across
Borders, and Trading Within Borders.
The following features will take you
through the reforms - what, and most
importantly, how they might help make
your business a little easier. You will
learn how over the last three years,
thousands of hours have gone into
both creating an environment where
business can thrive, and reshaping the
narrative around the difficulties of doing
business in Nigeria. Because we
function for a simple, yet all-important
objective - to make business just a little
easier.
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ark
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