From current indices available, the Nigerian economy is gradually recovering from recession and one of the major ways proffered as solution has to do with the ease of doing business in Nigeria by both local and foreign investors.
Recently, the World Bank in its latest Bi-annual Economic Update revealed that Nigeria faces the prospect of fragile economic recovery in 2017 given the high degree of fragility and risks from future shocks to the oil price or further unrest in the Niger Delta region.
This came with a caveat that, the country could build on the oil-driven economic recovery anticipated for it in 2017 by strengthening its macroeconomic policy framework and implementing the structural reforms needed to diversify the economy and break out of a boom and bust cycle.
The statistics also showed that even though the oil sector represented only 8.4 percent of GDP in 2016, lower foreign exchange earnings from oil exports had spillover effects on non-oil sectors -industry and services -dependent on imports of inputs and raw materials, and overall real GDP contracted by 1.5 per cent.
It is further believed that with the recently launched Economic Recovery and Growth Plan (ERGP) for 2017–2020 which contains critical reforms aimed at diversifying the economy, it will set the nation on a path toward sustained and inclusive growth over the medium- to long-term.
In this vein, there have been continuous debates on the ease of doing business in Nigeria considering the volatility of some areas and other economic conditions in the country. The government has claim to be committed to fostering the ease of doing business in the country through some reforms which, according to Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment, OkechukwuEnelamah, have already been completed. This would ensure that Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) build capacity to deliver the ease of doing business, with effective collaboration that would support continuous improvement. The Minister actually confessed to the fact that Nigeria is a challenging environment to do business, but insisted that the country is a must-invest place that cannot be ignored. He admitted that though Nigeria does not score high in the rating for ease of doing business, the size of the Nigeria in terms of population makes the statistics something that cannot be ignored.
Meanwhile Nigeria ranks 169 among 190 economies on the ease of doing business index, according to the World Bank 2016 ranking. The latest ranking represents an improvement from 170 in 2015. Over the years the country’s ranking had not been enviable. The World Free Zones Convention held recently in Doha, Qatar, provided a platform to focus on country attractiveness to investment capital based on the Ease of Doing Business index, a World Bank-created measurement for ease of market entry and operations on country by country basis. The World Free Zones Convention was fully represented by countries from all regions of the world. Nigeria, Mexico, India, USA, Tanzania, China, Thailand, Ghana, Uganda, United Arab Emirates and Australia while being chaired by Graham Mather, Chairman and President, European Policy Forum, London and Brussels.
On his return from Doha, the Managing Director of Nigeria’s Oil and Gas Free Zones Authority (OGFZA), UmanaOkonUmana, explained that the case had to be made for the country that Nigeria is doing everything possible to get up to speed with the rest of the world with regard to starting a business and operating within the Nigeria business environment. The facts bear up his position.
Nigeria is currently pushing reforms to improve on her ranking in terms of the Ease of Dong Business. It has embarked on core infrastructure projects—roads, airports, railways—to spur up growth, aided by resurgent consumer confidence, and are seriously fighting corruption.
Apparently in a bid to stem the challenge of doing business in Nigeria, acting President, Professor YemiOsinbajo, signed three executive orders which are all aimed at improving private and government’s business operations in the country.
The government seems to maintain its doggedness in ensuring that laws are made to the effect of providing an enabling ground for local businesses to thrive and compete globally. Nigeria has all the basic requirements to grow her economy and create millions of jobs if the business environment is made friendly, especially to encourage local producers and local products.
This calls to mind the Made-In-Nigeria project championed by this government. However, to make this happen, the country needs a visionary, exemplary leadership that has the priority list and patriotic citizenry and the Buhari-led administration is not wavering in its promise to make for an enabling business environment for Nigerians.
The optimism about doing business in Nigeria has to do with perceived safety of certain regions in the country. Despite the situation in the region, the Managing Director of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), Mr. NsimaEkere, declared that the current focus of the federal government on the Niger Delta region has made it an investment destination with opportunities in oil and gas, agriculture, information communication technology, as well as power generation and distribution.
The NDDC boss, who stated that the Niger Delta was being repositioned to attract investors in several growth areas beyond oil and gas, assured that specific policy initiatives targeting the root cause of the agitations in the Niger Delta were being prepared for rollout by the federal government. This, according to him, will apparently make the government to tackle security, law and order, power, transport infrastructure, modular refineries and investment in people.
The NDDC Managing Director said with 18 universities spread across the nine states in the region, the Niger Delta was well positioned to provide the needed human resources to ensure viability and sustainability of investments.
He declared: “We are also working with the business community to identify ways to overcome constraints and ensure businesses take advantage of the numerous opportunities in the region. Investors are invited to join us on this journey of discovery of the potentials in the Niger Delta region.”
The Federal Government’s commitment may be something to be happy about with the implementation of the National Action Plan (NAP) and ease of doing business in Nigeria while stressing that it will solicit private sector support for partnerships towards achieving the set goals.
Also the recently established Presidential Enabling Business Environment Council (PBEC) with the aim of reviewing and addressing all encumbrances in the business environment is also something to be optimistic about.
Subsequently, the Enabling Business Environment Secretariat, (EBES) under the leadership of the Office of the Vice President, Prof. YemiOsinbajo and the initiation of a 60-day strategy and National Action Plan to achieve the set goals will also improve Nigeria’s performance on the ease of doing business ranking.
As a matter of fact, Enelamah reiterated that “as a government, we are committed to the partnership with the private sector, and the support to the Presidential Enabling Business Environment Council (PEBEC) is absolutely critical. I am positive that we are on a journey together, and that journey will absolutely come out right and we will have the right outcome eventually.
“Movement of people and goods in and out of the country, transparency in government, regulations, registering business amongst others, all those areas are receiving attention, and I think that the important thing is to implement rightly, consistently and also sustainably.”
Some indicators that the negative perception about doing business in Nigeria is gradually giving way to a new dispensation of dispatch in business transaction is the strengthening of the regulatory framework for investment such as the reviews of the Petroleum Industry Bill and the Oil and Gas Free Zones Authority law. Yet other indicators are political stability, economic diversification policies, transparent and less bureaucratic policy environment.
