Vice President Kassim Shettima is set to host the inaugural Presidential Enabling Business Environment Council (PEBEC) townhall meeting on Friday, June 28, 2024. This follows the completion of the 90-day Regulatory Reform Accelerator Action Plan.
According to Jumoke Oduwole, the special adviser to the President on Ease of Doing Business, who made this known in a statement, the town hall meeting would serve as a platform to discuss the outcome of the program and deepening the PEBEC’s regulatory reform mandate.
The PEBEC was established in July 2016 by the Federal Government to oversee Nigeria’s business environment intervention with the dual mandate of removing bureaucratic and legislative constraints to doing business and improving the perception of the ease of doing business in Nigeria.
“The Presidential Enabling Business Environment Council (PEBEC) commenced a 90-day Regulatory Reform Accelerator Action Plan on February 20, 2024, which was set to terminate on May 20, 2024.
“However, due to the suboptimal performance of MDAs and the sluggish reform completion, His Excellency, the Vice President and Chair of the PEBEC granted a 30-day extension period to enable MDAs double down on their reform efforts. The extension period ends at midnight today, June 19, 2024,” Oduwole said.
According to Oduwole, with the extended 120 days, the MDAs have worked on improving eight key indicators including the review and update of their service level agreements, transparency reforms, efficiency reforms, entry & exit (Airport) reforms, port operations reforms, national single window project facilitation, agroexport reforms and manufacturing for export reforms.
She explained that these reforms operationalize earlier codified provision in the Business Facilitation Act 2022, and directly impact productivity and competitiveness of Nigeria’s economy.
“With the success of this final sprint, His Excellency, Vice President Kassim Shettima GCON is set to host the inaugural PEBEC Townhall Meeting on Friday, June 28, 2024, where the results of the Accelerator and deepening the PEBEC’s regulatory reform mandate will be discussed.
“Expected attendance for this highly anticipated Townhall meeting includes PEBEC Members, heads of over 5O federal government agencies and their reform teams, representatives of the organized private sector and other stakeholders.”
According to Oduwole, all PEBEC Members are expected at the event, including heads of over 50 federal government agencies and their reform teams, representatives of the organized private sector and other stakeholders.
By Cynthia Egboboh
