FG Moves To Remove Hindrances To Ease Of Doing Business

The federal government has perfected plans to remove all hindrances to ease of doing business in the country by launching one-stop shop in the states...
Already the government had last month launched the first One-Stop Shop in Jos, Plateau State
According to a statement made available to newsmen by the spokesperson to the Vice President, Laolu Akande, the MSMEs clinics, held in several States already provided at an event the opportunity for entrepreneurs and local producers in the MSME level to interact with regulatory agencies.
The agencies to be housed in the One-Stop Shops include the Bank of Industry (BOI), Bank of Agriculture (BOA), CAC, FIRS, SON, NAFDAC, Industrial Training Fund (ITF), Nigerian Export-Import Bank (NEXIM), Nigerian Export Promotion Council (NEPC), and Small & Medium Enterprises Development Agency of Nigeria (SMEDAN).
It will also be a one-stop destination housing representatives of key government agencies under one roof where members of the public, entrepreneurs and potential entrepreneurs, can visit to engage with these agencies, make enquiries, report complaints and receive information that can boost their business plans and ideas.
At the launch of the Katsina State’s MSMEs Clinic in Katsina in May, Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, SAN, noted that the MSMEs clinics were the Buhari administration’s effort to bridge the gap between MSMEs and relevant FG regulatory agencies, like NAFDAC, CAC, BOI, FIRS and others and ensure that those agencies become facilitators of businesses, not obstacles to business development.
“The evidence is that over the years government and its agencies are seen more as an obstacle, a hindrance rather than a facilitator, and this is across all arms of government; the executive, the judiciary and the legislature. We have talked extensively about the executive and about the problems that people have interacting with the executive agencies but so it is with the Judiciary as well,” he said.
Similarly, the Vice President had urged public servants to imbibe the administration’s culture of transparency and accountability in discharging their respective duties, especially regarding the creation of an enabling business environment.
The states that are next in line for the launch include Abia, Cross River, Ogun, Akwa Ibom, Kwara, Kano, Benue and the FCT. While these states are slated for September and October, more of the one-stop shops are expected to be launched in other states before the end of the year.
The One-Stop Shop programme is part of the on-going Nationwide Micro, Small and Medium Enterprise Clinics for Viable Enterprises (MSME Clinics) initiated by the Presidency in January 2017, and is aimed at providing a platform for convenient, continuous and easy interactions between regulatory agencies and MSMEs doing business in Nigeria.