The Federal Government has ranked the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), Nigerian Shippers Council (NSC), Federal Airport Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) and the Bank of Industry (BOI) among the least compliant agencies on the ease of doing business presidential order.
Special Adviser to the President, Ease of Doing Business/Presidential Enabling Business Environment Council (PEBEC) Secretary, Dr Jumoke Oduwole stated this in Abuja on Thursday while addressing a press conference and public official release of its 2022 Executive Order 001 (EO1) Compliance Report.
According to her, the report is to continuously track and keep the business community updated on compliance with the Executive Order on Transparency and Efficiency in the Nigerian Business Environment.
A breakdown of the report, which assessed 36 agencies show that the Nigerian Shippers Council, Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria and the Bank of Industry scored 19.28 per cent, 16.03 per cent and 14.83 per cent respectively. Other agencies that got low points include the Nigeria Customs Service 13.97 per cent, the Federal Ministry of Foreign Affairs 13.5 per cent, the Commercial Law and Trademarks Department 12.0 per cent and the Nigerian Police Force 11.06 per cent.
The least compliant agency in the list is the Special Control Unit Against Money Laundering (SCUML), which had 8.54 per cent.
Also, the top five performing MDAs are the Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB) which emerged first at 81.11%; Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON) (2nd, 78.68%); Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Council (FCCPC) (3rd, 68.37%); Nigerian Export-Import Bank (NEXIM) (4th, 64.59%); and Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) (5th, 63.68%).
Commenting on the report, Oduwole said, “In the last six years, PEBEC has consistently published an EO1 Compliance Report, which captures a periodic empirical analysis of the monthly reports received from MDAs. The latest EO1 Compliance Report covers January to December 2022.”
“The codification of EO1 directives in the Business Facilitation Act 2022 is a major development in the efforts to entrench EO1 in the psyche of the civil service. It is expected that the legal provisions will serve as a stimulus for a more transparent and efficient public service delivery in Nigeria.”
The PEBEC, chaired by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo was established in July 2016 by President Muhammadu Buhari to remove critical bottlenecks and bureaucratic constraints to doing business in Nigeria.
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