The Federal Government is working on an intervention program targeted towards large and medium-scale enterprises, tagged the “Business Champion Program”.
This was announced by Dr Jumoke Oduwole, the Special Adviser to the President on Presidential Enabling Business Environment Council (PEBEC) and Investment at First Bank’s Nigeria Economic Outlook 2024, on January 12, 2024.
Speaking on the panel session of the event-themed “Current Realities and Prospects”, Dr Jumoke highlighted the Business Champion Program as one of the five strategy pillars that PEBEC will be working with in 2024.
Speaking about the program, she noted, “Having worked with MSMEs for a few years, we realised that while systemic interventions from working on airports and seaports, we have to be more targeted.”
Adding, “The Business Champion intervention targets medium to larger-sized enterprises, and there are two parts to that program. The first part is to work with medium-sized enterprises and have a pilot program of about 25 of them.”
Oduwole highlighted that the selection of businesses will be based on factors such as their revenue, tax contributions, job creation, and export proceeds. She added that the intervention will be like a “bespoke service to help those companies navigate the business climate from the government side.”
Still on the intervention, Dr Jumoke Oduwole highlighted that there are only 23 companies with over $1 billion in annual revenue in Nigeria. Highlighting that the intervention program was targeted towards these companies.
She noted, “Out of the 334 in Africa, only 23 are in Nigeria.”
Reason for the intervention
She noted that the decision to change models stems from the observation that larger businesses exhibit an “osmosis” effect, leading to the clustering of stakeholders.
Noting, “It was determined that we will need to have this new approach to move faster and to grow the economy faster in these turbulent times.”
Five Strategy Pillars for PEBEC in 2024
Speaking at the event, Oduwole highlighted the five strategy pillars that PEBEC was working with in 2024, including,
- The first being the Business Facilitation Act of 2022, which was signed into law in February 2023. The Act is a codification of the Executive Order No. 001 from 2017.
- Second, Sub-national interventions, such as the World Bank’s State Action on Business Enabling Reforms (SABER) Program-for-Results. Oduwole noted that there’s a $750 million grant available for implementation by states participating in the SABER program.
- Third, Oduwole noted that on the legislative front, there will be a further review of the Omnibus bill.
She emphasized the collaborative efforts of various Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) who volunteered their expertise to review approximately 21 business climate laws in 2023, culminating in the formation of the 2023 Omnibus bill.
- Additionally, she indicated that another round of reviews is slated for 2024 to create a new Omnibus bill.
- Fourth, on the judicial front, she noted that the council will work with state judiciaries to facilitate the creation of “Small Claims Court”.
- Noting that at the start of 2023, eight states had small claims courts in Nigeria, however, by the end of the year, 25 states had implemented it.
- Fifth, was the Business Champions Program.
