The spirit of continuity at the corridor of government establishment has been the bane of the survival of the country’s economy, in view of the importance placed under the Renewed Hope Agenda of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, that prioritised local competition along with global ones , including foreign direct investment, FDI.
The introduction and existence of a policy framework funded by the Ministry of Finance, World Bank, NGF and coordinated by PEBEC has come to stay and thriving.
The State Action on Business Enabling Reforms, SABER, a $750 million performance- based initiative debuted from 2023-2025 as implementation template provided to encourage states into healthy competition in the local and global sphere was rejigged in the current dispensation.
Under the leadership of Princess Zahrah Mustapha, as Director General, her engagements with stakeholders and actors through redoubling of program and encouragement to Nigeria states, with a view to delivering critical reforms that paved way for ease of doing business, access to disbursements with a caveat of meeting the requirements of assessing the fund, having engaged in due diligence with Business -Enabling Reform Action Plan for eligible states.
The states will basically take cognisance of giery registration, promote private investment with Public Private Partnerships agreement, streamlined tax and regulatory procedures, support transparency through budgets along with financial disclosure
To access global funding , States are independently assessed by a third-party IVA, while Funding is released only when DLI milestones are met and eligibility criteria confirmed.
All these are the criteria and requirements expected to be complied by states, before assessing the chunk of funds provided by development partners across the country and FCT.
For seamless performance and inline with the ongoing reforms and easy assess to funding of both Capital among pressing projects of the state governments, PEBEC had redoubled efforts towards continuous re-orientation through talkshops, workshops, Town Hall meetings with state governments who acted as stakeholders and representative of states.
The reinvigoration strategy adopted by PEBEC under the purview of Princess Zahrah Mustapha, no doubt has showed alot of encouragement for mass participation of states and FCT , with a view to assessing the global funds with focus on the ease of doing business across the country.
The non -viability of states and reliability of all the states in monthly federal allocations from Federal government had stalled development and business endeavors in the states.
With PEBEC determination and policy framework geared towards surpassing the global standards and enabling businesses across states , no doubt encouraged states into mass participation.
Written BY ABUBAKAR YUSUF on yus.abubakar3@gmail.com.
