FCT and ease of doing business

Just as a conducive environment is essential for an individual’s good life and productivity, so is it for any business to thrive and the economy of any nation to grow and blossom. This truism and sine-qua-non for productivity and development propelled the Federal Government of Nigeria to introduce the Presidential Enabling Business Environment Council (PEBEC), […]

Just as a conducive environment is essential for an individual’s good life and productivity, so is it for any business to thrive and the economy of any nation to grow and blossom.

This truism and sine-qua-non for productivity and development propelled the Federal Government of Nigeria to introduce the Presidential Enabling Business Environment Council (PEBEC), barely three years ago.

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Chaired by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, the Council anchors the Ease of Doing Business, which is aimed at simplifying Nigeria’s business environment for economic growth and development.

The Ease of Doing Business aims at ensuring all stakeholders in government business put their best to ensure that Nigeria has and maintains a friendly business environment, hence the imperative for Secretariats, Departments and Agencies of the FCT Administration, as well as the Ministries, Departments and Agencies of the federal government to work seamlessly together to attain that conducive environment.

No wonder, with the introduction of PEBEC, Nigeria’s ranking on the global index for the Ease of Doing Business has improved tremendously, moving rapidly from 171 to 131, with an expected rise in the next review.

What makes the Ease of Doing Business initiative so impactful is the fact that it focuses on vital economic and developmental parameters such as simplifying trade and investment marketing, ensuring growth and productivity, as well as entrenching transparency and access to information.

Other hitherto encumbered areas the Ease of Doing Business thrived to achieve include unbundling and simplifying regulatory procedures, ensuring easy access to land, property and infrastructure.

Consequently, Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs), state governments, as well as the FCT Administration serve as critical drivers in these core reform areas of eliminating bureaucratic bottlenecks and helping to speed up service delivery time for all business procedures.

Occupying a vantage position as Nigeria’s melting pot and Centre of Unity, Abuja has no choice but to continue to serve as a role model to the states of the federation, particularly as it is the nation’s capital, it is literally a ‘laboratory’ where the workability or otherwise of federal government’s policies and programmes are first tested or test-run before implementation in the states.

More so, Abuja, an emerging destination for local and international businesses and investment, cannot afford to fail, thus naturally placing a wake-up or a do more call for relevant Secretariats, Departments and Agencies of the FCT Administration.

Having been identified to have a significant role to play in the FCTA’s efforts toward ensuring a friendly business environment, it is, therefore, incumbent on all SDAs, not just the critical ones, to envision achievement or sustenance of effective governance of service delivery at all times.

It, therefore, behooves on the departments of Land Administration, Development Control, Abuja Geographic Information System (AGIS), Parks and Recreation, Outdoor Advertisement and Signage (DOAS), as well as Parks and Recreation, to up the ante by doing away with all the practices that slow down business operations.

Other very critical SDAs that should follow suit include Health and Human Services, Transportation, Education, Agriculture and Rural Development, and Legal Secretariats, as well as the Directorate of Road Traffic Services (DRTS) popularly known as VIO.

The rest are the Abuja Environmental Protection Board (AEPB), Abuja Investment Company Limited (AICL), and Abuja Infrastructure Investment Centre (AIIC).

All these Secretariats, Departments and Agencies, among many others, collectively discharge the huge responsibilities rested on the FCTA. Do not forget that, unlike the typical federal ministries of government, the FCTA performs multi-sectoral functions in the provision of both infrastructure and services similar to states of the federation.

While the department of land administration, popularly called Lands, deals with land valuation, land administration system, computerisation of the cadastral and registry system, its sister agency, AGIS serves as the repository of geo-spatial data for the entire 8,000 sqm and collector of all revenue accruing from land allocation and management matters.

The pioneering computerisation and digitalisation of land administration in FCT, achieved more than a decade ago, continues to undergo innovations and improvement to erase bottlenecks and strengthen service delivery.

Development Control department, which has also computerised most of its operations and simplified procedures, ensures conformity of all physical developments in the nation’s capital with the Abuja Master Plan. In doing this, they have had, from time to time, removed illegal structures due to contraventions.

On the other hand, Transportation Secretariat has different units, which Directorate of Road Transport System (DRTS) is part of, that regulate and monitor commercial and capacity vehicles in FCT, ensuring compliance with this directive, secure the roadways, enhance traffic and transportation planning, inspection and enforcement of FCT Motor Vehicle and Licensing Administration Law to enhance safety and security on FCT roads and high ways.

Health and Human Services Secretariat, which manages the health of residents and visitors to Abuja through the public hospitals in the districts and satellite towns, has also digitised most of its operations so as to lessen the burden of having access to healthcare.

In most of the district hospitals, the prescription of drugs is electronically transferred to the pharmacy to eliminate inconveniences, save time and ensure accuracy. This is also applicable to payment processes. Ensuring that this and other innovative service improvement initiatives get across to all FCTA owned health facilities would definitely improve the health of residents.

Even the FCTA organ, saddled with the responsibility of promoting farming and grassroots development, the Agriculture and Rural Development Secretariat, has evolved means of simplifying its processes and operations.

For many years, they continue to leverage on technology in ensuring the distribution of fertilizer and farm inputs get to real farmers across the Territory.

Whereas, the Abuja Infrastructure Investment Centre (AIIC) champions the promotion and facilitation of private sector participation in infrastructural development, the Abuja Investment Company Limited interfaces between the FCTA and investors, facilitating business processing, offering due diligence on projects and providing advisory services.

In addition, the AICL promotes Public Private Partnerships (PPP) and seeks to create investment opportunities for investors to participate in the development of the FCT.

All these efforts, initiatives and innovations, coupled with encouragement from the federal government, the ease of doing business continues to take deeper roots in the Federal Capital Territory Administration.

Jumai Ahmadu, PhD is Acting Director, FCTA Department of Reform Coordination and Service Improvement.