Osinbajo tasks state govts on business environment

Vice President Yemi Osinbajo says state governments and their agencies have a significant role to play in ensuring an enabling environment for businesses to thrive.

Osinbajo said this assertion at a virtual meeting of the Presidential Enabling Business Environment Council (PEBEC) on Tuesday.

“For all who are charged with responsibilities at the state level, you have your work cut out for you.

“If we are going to have the kind of business environment that our country deserves and that can make a difference for our economy, it is the hard work at the sub-national level that would really move the needle.

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“The states’ process is a very important one and I hope that we will be able to spend individually, especially in the States, a fair amount of time trying to work out how this will work in actual practice in our various states,” Osinbajo was quoted as saying in a statement issued on Tuesday by the Senior Special Assistant to the Vice President on Media and Publicity, Lalolu Akande.

He further noted that at the federal level, it has been a major challenge “just trying to coordinate agencies and parastatals”.

Present at the virtual meeting were some of the chairpersons of the Ease of Doing Business Council in various states across the country including Governor Aminu Waziri Tambuwal (Sokoto), Governor Adegboyega Oyetola (Osun); Deputy Governors of Abia, Cross River and Kaduna; Secretary to the State Government, Anambra; Federal Ministers who are members of the commission including the Industry, Trade and Investment Minister, Niyi Adebayo; Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed; Minister of Interior, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola; and Foreign Affairs Minister, Geoffrey Onyeama.

Other present were the Commissioners of Finance and Economic Development in Ekiti and Ogun states, representatives of governors, other senior government officials, and the World Bank Country Director in Nigeria, Shubaham Chaudhuri.

The Star