GETTING PLATEAU READY FOR BUSINESS: BUSINESS ENABLING ENVIRONMENT COMMITTEE CALLS ON GOVERNMENT TO MAKE ITSELF MORE ACCESSIBLE AND AVAILABLE TO THE PEOPLE

By Nnabugwu Chizoba (Charismatic Chizy)

Yours truly with other BEEC Members, Mrs Blessing Uwechie, 1st left and Dorcas Bentu 1st right and GIZ staff Sinna Waziri Uti and Barr Akin Omoware on cap

The Business Enabling Environment Committee (BEEC) on the 9^th of August, 2018, participated in, “A one day sensitization forum”, on Business Enabling Environment and Investment Climate in Plateau State, where it called on the government and all those in the corridors of power, to make themselves, more accessible and available to the Committee and the people, especially the business community. The Committee equally used the occasion to draw the attention of the organizers of the event to the works of the Committee. 

The event which held at Government House, Little Rayfield, has as its theme “Getting Plateau Ready for Business” while the following are the objectives:

• “To increase awareness of decision makers (Commissioners) and key players in bureaucracy (Permanent Secretaries and heads of agencies) on key business enabling environment and investment climate issues and need for quick reforms.
• “To provide a Platform for periodic review of business enabling environment and investment climate issues and monitoring of impacts of reforms,
• “To provide opportunity for Peer Learning and Review among key MDAs of government on best practices with respect to business enabling environment and investment climate reforms”

Mr. Ezekiel Gomos, the Chairman of Plateau Investment Promotion Council (PIPC), Jos, made a presentation on the topic “Business Enabling Environment in Plateau State; Where are we? He took his time to examine the business environment on the Plateau and expressed concern that a lot have been said in the past, but with very little action. He made references to the World Bank report on “Doing business in Nigeria” and compared the 2010 and 2014 report. He frowned at the ranking of Plateau state, where instead of moving upward from the 2010 ranking, the state rather slipped three steps downward in the 2014 ranking.

In his paper entitled, “Business Enabling Environment and Investment Climate Reforms: Setting Realistic Targets and Actions for Reforms”, Barr Akin Omoware, of the Deutsche Gesellsschaft Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH, called on the government to reconsider some of her targets; for example the number of days involved in the processing of title documents for land, and to also address issues that bother on registration, in particular harmonizing relationship between the ministry of commerce and Revenue service in the process. He also called on the government to reconsider the issues of business operators paying rents of two and three years in advance, and highlighted the challenges that the business community encounter on this, especially the start-ups and the not very strong, financially among them (the business community).

There was also another presentation that offered opportunity for Peer learning, thus provided room for Plateau state to compare note with their sister state, Kaduna. The presentation was done by Mr. Gambo Hamzat Garba, the Pioneer Executive Secretary, of the Kaduna Investment Agency, who also used the medium to call on the Plateau state government to establish a “Result Delivery Unit” at both the state and MDA levels. He also advised the government of Plateau state to pull the Plateau Geographical Information System (PLAGIS), from the Ministry of Lands and Survey, saying if this is not done, PLAGIS would still be bugged by the same bureaucracy that the civil service is known for.

You would recall that, the Business Enabling Environment Committee (BEEC) has a clear mandate of providing advocacy and development oriented services towards ensuring a highly improved business environment in Plateau state. To achieve its objectives the Committee in the past has interfaced and will continue to interface with both the government and business community in the bid to ensure that all administrative bottlenecks and policies inimical to business are removed and replaced with policies and infrastructure necessary for businesses to thrive on the Plateau.