Agro-Export: FG Targets 60-day Action Plan for Perishable Agricultural Produce

Kasim Sumaina in Abuja

The federal government through it’s Presidential Enabling Business Environment Council (PEBEC), has set a 60-day agro-export action plan targeted at ensuring perishable agricultural produce earmarked for export are allowed to move freely through the country’s ports.

In implementing the Council’s mandate, the PEBEC secretariat hinted that it identified priority reforms from across five categories for the current 7th National Action Plan (NAP 7.0).

Special Adviser to the President on Ease of Doing Business, Dr. Jumoke Oduwole, in her remarks at the Focus Group Session with key stakeholders, marking the launch of the Presidential Enabling Business Environment Council (PEBEC)’s 7th 60-day National Action Plan (NAP 7.0), in Abuja said the five categories include: trade/ports reform, Automation Reforms, Regulatory Reforms, Legislative/Judicial Reforms and Executive Order 01/ReportGov.NG compliance reforms
Oduwole stated that in the area of ports and trade facilitation, the focus is on a 60-day agro-export target, stating: “indeed, the faithful implementation of the Agro-export plan is expected to boost the competitiveness of Nigeria’s agro-exports, and create jobs, while enhancing Nigeria’s foreign exchange earnings and providing good rewards for the labours of farmers all across Nigeria.”

In addition she said, “through the deployment of automation and process review, we are, again, intensifying efforts at improving the travel experience, particularly at our international airports, strengthening the automation of the business incorporation process of the Corporate Affairs Commission, enhancing transparency in the trademark registration process, and increasing the adoption of electronic filling of taxes, among others.”

Oduwlo therefore stated that the NAP 7.0, “is especially designed to break away from the lacklustre performance of our last two outings, NAP 5.0 and NAP 6.0, held in Q1 of 2020 and 2021, which saw the relevant ministries, departments and agencies perform below par at 44% and 43% respectively for a variety of reasons.

She said, “Accordingly, at its meeting of February 1, 2022, chaired by His Excellency, the Vice President, the PEBEC reached the firm conclusion and stated categorically that all relevant MDAs must strive to deliver and exceed reform target expectations during this 60-day accelerator.”

She explained that NAPs are homegrown internationally recognised 60-day accelerators developed to coordinate the effective delivery of priority reforms implemented by select ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs), to drive ease of doing business in Nigeria.

“Since the inception of the Council in July 2016, the PEBEC has undertaken over 160 reforms developed through active engagement of private and public sector voices. To us, there is no better way to kick-start the 7th iteration of this exercise than by presenting the latest approved reforms to the ultimate beneficiaries – representatives of the private sector – in the presence of the hard public and civil servants charged with the responsibility of actualizing these reforms approved by the Council.

“In the last six years, we have consistently paid close attention to feedback from the private sector garnered through in person Stakeholder Engagements such as this, including our nation-wide tour – LITuation – as well as via our ReportGov. NG feedback portal developed for receiving verification by way of complaints or compliments about Nigeria’s business climate, “she said.

She noted that while the journey has yielded marked improvement in particular areas, particularly in the initial years of the PEBEC’s intervention, it has not been an easy one.

She said, “As we are all aware, several bureaucratic and regulatory challenges remain at all arms and levels of government, which continue to affect the speed, cost and transparency of doing business in Nigeria.
“It is, therefore, our earnest expectation that by April 7, the NAP 7.0 will have delivered reform results that are a remarkable improvement over the performance of previous MDA outings in recent times.”

Continuing, she said that as NAP 7.0 continues with robust tracking and evaluation of MDAs’ compliance with the directives of the Executive Order 001, “we urge stakeholders to please support the federal governments efforts by utilizing the ReportGov. NG portal, even as we strive towards making the platform the preferred choice for channeling feedback on services provided by MDAs.”