By Ugo Aliogo
Following the  approval of the Federal Executive Council (FEC) of a memorandum directing the ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs) of government to follow through on executive order one in order to adopt a 72 hour rule in terms of whatever complaints that come through the online portal, Nigeria is now ready for its implementation.
The Minister of Trade and Investment, Okechukwu Enelamah, who stated this in Lagos at the First Bank Agric Expo 2018 with the theme: ‘Innovating for a Sustainable Green Economy’, noted that the present administration was committed to the enabling environment initiative, adding that it required the partnership of the public and private sectors to drive it.
He also stated that countries that had worked on the ease of doing and enabling business initiatives had realised that there was a correlation between enabling environment and economic prosperity.
“What we have realised is that if you want to do enabling, you cannot do it alone, it has to be a partnership with the private sector and other stakeholders. Secondly, you have to break it down; it has become a body of knowledge almost scientific that is why the World Bank measure the ease of doing business and enabling environment ranks and countries that have done it well has found that there is a strong correlation between the enabling environment and prosperity,†the minister stated.
He explained that the ministry had taken a cross cutting approach for both the government and the people, adding that the singular responsibility of the administration was to create the right enabling environment whether for trade, investment, industry and others.
Also speaking at the event, the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Chief Audu Ogbeh, expressed the desire of the federal government to partner the private sector, especially the banks in rolling out a new agricultural policy initiative known as Agriculture Inputs and Mechanisation and Management Scheme (AIMS) aimed at marketing agro-inputs.
Ogbeh noted that through the partnership, the ministry would position three distributors in every Local Government Area across the country to market agro-inputs. He stated that the distributors would be registered with the federal Ministry of Agriculture and their details would be registered online.
Ogbeh further explained that the ministry would also have their Bank Verifications Number (BVN), noting that it would be their duty to make sure that they sell seeds, agricultural inputs and fertilizers to farmers.
The minister maintained that through the new initiative, they would be able to track what the farmers were selling, adding that if they were selling the wrong commodities, farmers can complain and they would apprehend the individuals responsible.
Ogbeh added: “We are doing a lot of soil testing and we are investing in seeds and proceeds. Our research institutes are doing a great deal of work. We are investing more in extension services to teach the farmer how to farm. We are also watching the value chain development from the farm to the factory and the processing line to the table. The assurance I want to give you is to strengthen your portfolio for investment in agriculture because better days ahead.
“We will need your partnership in two areas: one is a programme called AIMS which stands for Agriculture Inputs and Mechanisation and Management Scheme (AIMS). We will need three distributors in every Local Government Area across the country to market agro-inputs. They would be registered with us and they would be online. We will have their BVN and it is their business to make sure that they sell seed, inputs and fertilizers to farmers.â€
