By Nnamdi Ojiego

The Federal Government has said has disclosed that it has implemented over 160 reforms aimed at reducing the cost and time of doing business in the country.

The Special Adviser to President Muhammadu Buhari on Ease of Doing Business, Dr Jumoke Oduwole, stated this on Wednesday in Lagos, while delivering a keynote address at the Peer-to-Peer Learning Session for Magistrates and Court Officials of the Small Claims Courts.

According to her, the reforms have in no small measures impacted the life cycle of MSMEs in the country, and have earned the country external validation from the World Bank’s flagship Doing Business report where Nigeria moved up 39 places and were twice recognized as a top 10 reformer globally.

The reforms cut across Automation (Digitisation of the pre incorporation process of the Company Registration Portal), Regulatory (Approval and release of insolvency Regulations pursuant to CAMA 2020), Legislative (passage of the CAMA 2020, Credit Reporting Act 2017, Secured Transactions Immovable Assets Act, 2017) and Judiciary (Establishment of Small Claims Courts in 7 States so far).

“Over 160 reforms have been implemented by the Presidential Enabling Business Environment Council, PEBEC, over the last six years targeted at improving Nigeria’s public service delivery across Federal Government Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs).

“We have focused on reforms aimed at reducing the cost and time of doing business as well as enhancing transparency. The main areas of intervention have been on people issues and processes. The objective of the intervention is to foster systemic change to make it progressively easier to start and grow a business in Nigeria, particularly for micro, small and medium sized enterprises.”, Oduwole explained.

On the establishment of Small Claims Courts, SCC, she said it has shown an improvement in the quality and efficiency of judicial processes. According to her, the rationale behind the SCCs arose from the need to urgently address the speed of adjudication, particularly financial claims and to reduce cases from the dockets of the High Courts over a simple commercial dispute.

“These courts provide easy access as well as inexpensive and speedy resolution for debt and liquidated money recovery disputes. They are regulated by the Practice Directions issued by the Chief Judge of the State pursuant to Section 274 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 (as amended).”

Continuing, the presidential aide noted that the training program was “designed to create an avenue for the states who are yet to establish the SSCs to interface with the experienced members of the states judiciary that operate the courts to share their knowledge and experiences.

“The program will also equip the delegates with the knowledge of how to initiate the process of establishing Small Claims Court from setting up of a committee, drafting of the practice directions, assignment and training of magistrates and court registrars, proceedings from hearing to appeals, publication of performance reports and judgments of the court.”

She however, charged the participants to take advantage of the program to champion the establishment and operationalization of SCCs in their state judiciaries for quick dispensation of justice to assist MSMEs in their commercial activities.

The Presidential Enabling Business Environment Council, PEBEC, was established in July 2016, by President Buhari to oversee Nigeria’s business climate reform agenda. It is chaired by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, with the Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment as vice chair.

With the key objective to replicate the ease of doing business to all Nigerians, the National Economic Council (NEC) in July 2017 approved the domestication of the PEBEC model across all 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory.

The mission was to cascade the EODB initiatives down to the subnational level by engaging the state governments and collaborating with them to implement reform initiative that would increasingly make their states more attractive to business. One of the key reforms is judicial reforms under the Enforcing Contracts Indicator.