OTCI SEEKS IMPROVED PROCESSES FOR EASE OF DOING BUSINESS

The Director-General, Lagos State Office of Transformation, Creativity, and Innovation (OTCI), Mr. Toba Otusanya has appealed to Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) in the State to improve processes that will enhance the Ease of Doing Business (EoDB) and create a more conducive environment for businesses, as well as aid movement up the ladder of the World Banks’ EoDB ranking.

The DG made the appeal during a Stakeholders’ meeting on the EoDB, organised by the OTCI for representatives of relevant MDAs and members of the Presidential Enabling Business Environment Council (PEBEC), Office of the Vice President, in dealing with construction permits and registering property reforms, as well as chart the way forward for EoDB 2019, especially as it relates to World Bank’s National and Sub-national ranking reports and their implications for 2020.

According to him, there is an urgent need for all relevant MDAs to come up with effective communication channels for their various stakeholders to engage them meaningfully and inform them adequately on the reforms processes and expectations, in order to aid the required compliance.

He noted that collating information on a regular basis was indeed vital and should be adopted by all in order to adequately prepare for the next World Bank’s assessment circle.

Otusanya also encouraged the participants to expand their stakeholders’ groups to create more awareness on reforms and engagements that require Public attention, as all these are needed to move up in the EoDB ranking of Countries.

While thanking them for their attendance, the DG added that plans are underway to organise workshops for Desk Officers as well as another stakeholders’ engagement to ensure maximum results are obtained in the next World Bank EoDB Ranking.

On his part, the representative of the Presidential Enabling Business Environment Council (PEBEC), Office of the Vice President, and Technical Assistant, Industry, Trade and Investment, Mr. Akin-Olusoji Akinyele commended the State government for collaborating with PEBEC in championing the Dealing with Construction Permits and Registering Property reforms.

He stated that his visit was informed by the need to debrief the relevant MDAs in Lagos on the 2018 Sub-National Doing Business and 2019 Doing Business Reports.

While identifying effective communication amongst all stakeholders as germane in moving the State up in the World Bank’s ranking, especially communicating what has been done with the reform, Mr. Akinyele called for executive buy-in, which according to him is key to achieving the required feat, saying “It is a communication game and we need to up our game to get it right”.

He, therefore, proposed an internal communication workshop on uncompleted reforms to be organised for Desk Officers in MDAs, to ensure they fully understand these reforms to better interact with the Public, noting that the need to also deepen existing reforms to provide proper evidence to validate our claims and achievements is equally important.He encouraged the relevant MDAs to own the reforms and called for increased engagement between reform-implementing organs of government and the private sector players to ensure sustainable progress is recorded.

The meeting also had in attendance representatives of Lagos State Water Corporation, Lagos State Internal Revenue Services, Office of the Surveyor-General, Lagos State Physical Planning Permit Authority, and the OTCI EoDB team amongst others.