Akwa Ibom and other Nigerian State governments will start accessing the World Bank’s $750 million facility by December 2022, President Muhammadu Buhari’s aide stated.
Speaking with journalists on the sideline of the stage play in Abuja, Dr Jumoke Oduwole, Special Adviser to the President, Ease of Doing Business/PEBEC Secretary, at the weekend, stated that access to the fund will begin in December, although the programme will fully kick off in January 2023.
This was even as the Presidential Enabling Business Environment Council (PEBEC) staged an Independence Day play: The Future Is Here to promote the effective use of the various business reforms.
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“Access will begin in December with some prior results, we are trying to galvanise like a sneak peek. But in January the programme kicks off in full. You know that we also have our ease of business national report we have a number of baseline survey last year, the new survey the second edition will be out next month.
“So that’s what we used to make the action plan at state because all businesses are domiciled in the states. That’s where the state governments really partnering very collaboratively with NEC governor’s forum and that will help them,” Oduwole said.
While speaking on the criteria to accessing the fund, she said: “we’ve been working with them very closely for about two years now. We’ve been jointly building the programme we’re working on land administration because you know when private sector have their land properly mapped out, they can use it to access credits.”
The presidential aide who further spoke on the significance of the stage play said this was aimed at educating the public on the various business reforms.
She said the various reforms have impacted businesses judging from testimonials from the reportsgov.ng from Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) across the country.
“And slowly but surely, we want people to know and to use the reforms and you saw from the play, that private sector also needs to support the reforms and do the right thing,” noted Oduwole.
On the sustainability of these reforms, she said this was being achieved with institutionalization.
‘‘In our team, we have civil servants that are members of this team. We also have consultants from the private sector. So it is a Private Public Partnership (PPP) project and its government.
“So for instance, you would have known that the World Bank just approved $750 million facility for state governments for business climate reforms, that’s part of our work. And that’s a legally binding contract. The legislation we are legally binding, so it’s not personalised for one government. For the team that does the work, there’s training,” she added.
