BECANS: News

Nigeria 's business environment has often attracted comments from players and other stakeholders in the economy for being not too investor friendly. This issue has been of concern to the African Institute of Applied Economics (AIAE) based in Enugu . Professor Eric Eboh, Executive Director of the Institute, said a national project aimed at improving the business environment through provision of timely and reliable information on various segments of the economy is being developed. The programmed called Business Environment and Competitiveness across Nigerian States (BECANS) is a flagship project of the institute, which has the primary objective of producing and disseminating information and statistics on key business environment indicators across Nigeria . The project is based on public-private sector partnership and it serves a very important function to stakeholders in business, private sector, civil societies, academics and the government as well.

“As far back as 2003, we developed the concept at the institute and it has continued to undergo reviews through a series of stakeholder consultations, feedback and technical meetings that we have been having. This is because the project is first of its kind in the country to be pioneered by a local institution. A lot of niche issues need to be developed and finalized. What we have been doing over the years has been conceptualization, mobilization, and consultation and now we have got to the point where we would begin to carry out a survey.”

A number of activities have been carried out leading up to the present time that we are preparing for a major event as an integral part of the programme. And that event is the national workshop on BECANS, which has been scheduled to take place between July 6 and 7 in Abuja ”, Eboh said.

Justification for the project

Over time, the private sector and civil society groups have undertaken advocacy and dialogue with very little concrete results upon which they can engage the government and other stakeholders.

What we have set out to do in this project is to supply information through a very rigorous and systematic, approach, which integrates research, survey, publication dissemination and advocacy as well. This project is multi-dimensional and it adopts a unique approach to solving the information and advocacy challenges of Nigeria .

BECANS is unique in several ways. It adds value to existing initiative in several areas. One is in the area of approach. In term of approach, BECANS is based on public-private sector partnership. It is owned by the Nigerian private sector and civil society. They have accepted the project and this acceptance is evidenced in their willingness to use the result of the project.

In many case in the past business environment surveys have been undertaken in an isolated manner and have not been adequately utilized for the purpose of influencing advocacy, thereby bringing about positive reforms in the business environment. That is one way in which BECANS differs very significantly from existing initiatives.

On the other hand, BECANS integrates research, survey and advocacy in one single project, which is an important feature. Going through past initiatives that have been undertaken to either study the business environment or use it for purpose of advocacy, we observed that these surveys have not integrated advocacy elements. The point that BECANS is making is to go beyond the presentation of the survey to engaging policy makers at the state level to enlighten them on ways of utilizing the result of the survey.

This is the major reason why the structure of the project includes what we refer to as State-Level Stakeholders' Contact Groups, which comprise the key private sector organizations at the state level, the civil society and the key government ministries responsible for land administration, tax, business promotion, industry, commerce, economic planning and statistics generation.

This private-public sector collaboration enables the project to reach out to the key stakeholders in the various states and engage them to review the results of the project, thereby promoting utilization of the results within that state.

What we do in BECANS is to empower the various stakeholders at the state level to supply them with evidence in order to improve their advocacy activity. That is another approach where BECANS differs from others.

Sustainability

It is also important that this approach is linked to the issue of sustainability. The fact that BECANS has been accepted by the Nigerian private sector has made sustainability element of the project very important. The sustainability of BECANS is rooted in the continued acceptance and willingness to utilize the results of the surveys. This is very important because that is the major driving force behind the establishment of the project.

BECANS also differs from other initiative in the sense that it looks at the indicators at the state levels; other projects have reported the Nigerian business environment as a homogenous entity without making a distinction across the states. This has tended to give a distorted picture of business environment in Nigeria . Potentially, business environments differ across the states, depending on the level of policy, regulatory and institutional reforms going on in the states. It is important to portray the federal structure of Nigeria in reporting the business environment. For example, if you take the case of land registration, and consider the number of days that it takes to register land in a particular state; most other reports produced one indicator for Nigeria . But it is important to observe that this indicator may not provide the picture of the situation in all 36 states of the Federation.

What BECANS does is to develop indicators that are relevant to the Nigerian business environment, go to the field to collect data in order to evaluate those indicators, analyze the data and produce reports state by state in order to demonstrate the state-specific scenario concerning business environment and investment climate. This has a very important value for investors, state governments, civil societies and for comparability across the various states of the country.

It is also very important to understand that the key value of BECANS is to encourage state governments to appraise themselves on how the reforms being undertaken have impacted on the private sector. We are very sure that the data that is obtained as a result of the project would go a long way in providing the state governments with independent assessment of the impact of their reform programmes on business.

These are some of the points of departure between BECANS and other projects that have attempted to study and report the Nigerian business environment.

Benchmark areas

BECANS has developed a framework for assessing the business environment across Nigeria . The framework is going to be uniformly applied because it is based on systematic principles. We have divided the business environment issues into four clusters called benchmark areas.

First, we have infrastructure and utilities. Under this criterion, we are looking at water supply, transport, electricity and sanitation. These are all physical infrastructure. We will also focus on social infrastructure such as level of expenditure on health and education. These are critical sectors that impact on Nigeria 's ability to meet the Millennium Development Goals (MDGS).

The second benchmark area, which is an important category, is called legal and regulatory services. It includes variables such as land or property registration, tax administration, transaction cost and contract enforcement in the areas of access to justice, commercial dispute resolution mechanism. We will also look at business registration time and cost, cost of licensing by the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) and the Standards Organization of Nigeria (SON).

Given the global competition that Nigeria faces, competitiveness can be enhanced if the cost of doing business is reduced. This will enhance efficiency of the companies and help Nigerian products to compete more effectively with products from countries such as Malaysia , Thailand and Indonesia .

Business development support is another category, which focuses on key business support services such as credit, technical and managerial services to businesses and the operating environment. The indicators look at the key policy thrust of the government in promoting industrial clusters, parks, estates and incentives to new and existing entrepreneurs.

The fourth category is security, which is very crucial because without it businesses would be threatened. We shall collect data on crime at state levels and from business people concerning their perception of security in the state.

These are the four benchmark criteria that constitute the thematic focus of BECANS. We are going to report the state governments according to how they perform on these four criteria.

If we take a specific indicator, we should be able to say that this is how a particular state has performed. It is quite possible that the states will perform differently on different indicators. We are handling these issues at the technical working group (TWG) level.

Partners

State governments, ministries, departments and agencies, key private sector organizations, such as Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN), the Nigerian Association of Small and Medium Enterprises (NASME) and the Nigerian Association of Small Scale Industrialists (NASSI), will all be brought together to discuss the instrument and to understand their roles in the process.

We shall undertake a revision of the instrument based on the feedback that we get at the workshop and finalize the process in October. We should be able to produce some preliminary result as from July next year that would begin to give us some insight into the business environment across the federation. We are also going to launch state of the Nigerian states publication – a series that would document and report different dimensions of economic development across Nigerian states.

BECANS and SEEDS

The State Economic Empowerment Development Strategy (SEEDS) provides an important mechanism for the reform of the business environment in the states. Most of the policy documents of state government emphasize greater role for the private sector in employment generation, poverty reduction and income generation.

The important link between BECANS and SEEDS is that the former provides an ongoing facilities for state governments to evaluate the impact of the SEEDS programme on the private sector and the benchmarks that have been set in the various state documents become an important standard by which the private sector and the government will evaluate the performance of the states.

The indicators developed by the BECANS project will become readily available to the stakeholders as a basis to evaluate the reforms.

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THISDAY, Monday June 19, 2006

BUSINESS COMPETITIVENESS: NPC PARTNERS PUBLIC/PRIVATE SECTOR

The National Planning Commission under the leadership of Dr. Osita Ogbu is coordinating a public-private sector collaborative project on business environment and competitiveness across Nigerian States with the acronym (BECANS). This project is implemented by the African Institute for Applied Economics in collaboration with key government agencies such as the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), Small and Medium Enterprise Development Agency of Nigeria (SMEDAN) and leading private sector organizations including Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN), National Association of Small and Medium Enterprises (NASME) and the Human Right Law Services (HURILAWS).

BECANS which is a landmark project will produce Business Environment and Competitiveness (BEC) Reports across Nigerian States on an on-going basis. The integrates research, survey, dissemination and advocacy in a systematic effort to link research to advocacy towards evidence based business environment reform across the states. It provides the most comprehensive and authoritative assessment of the business environment and private sector competitiveness in the country. These assessments constitute the evidence tool for more credible and effective advocacy by the private sector and civil society organizations, inform self-appraisals and peer review among state governments. The project further entrenches evidence-based public-private dialogue on reforms in the policy, regulatory and institutional environment at the State level.

BECANS addresses the gaps in most previous international reports which depict aggregate indicators and portray Nigeria as a homogenous business environment thereby ignoring Nigeria 's Federal Status and potential differentiation in business environment across States.

Thus BEC indicators will compare to such cross-country benchmarks produced periodically by international agencies such as the World Economic Forum Africa Competitiveness Reports, World Bank Doing Business and Investment Climate Reports, UNIDO Manufacturing Enterprise Reports and others.

In addition, BEC reports equip the private sector and civil society with concrete and reliable evidence to engage and dialogue with government. They enlighten and guide foreign investor's in investment decisions across the states as they also provide States with appraisals and peer review to evaluate the impact of institutional and regulatory reforms on the private sector and business conditions.

The Multi-functional role of BEC cannot be over-emphasized as it provides data and statistics to the coordinating body, National Planning Commission to assist its central national economic planning, coordinating and monitoring functions. It also complements the programme of the research department of the CBN in the production of data and statistics for policy formulation and economic assessments. Other government agencies to benefit from BEC reports include Federal Ministry of Industry, Commerce and SMEDAN, and the Nigerian Investment Promotion Commission.

Under the State Empowerment and Development Strategy (SEEDS), BECANS serves as a crucial monitoring and feedback role as it complements the 2005 SEEDS benchmarking exercise and similar reform monitoring mechanism in the country. The first cycle of the project spans 2005-2008 and covers the entire 36 States and the FCT.

More information on the project and implementation updates can be obtained from the Project Implementing Institution – The African Institute for Applied Economics, www.aiae-nigeria.org .

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DAILY SUN, Monday June 19, 2006

PUBLIC, PRIVATE SECTORS COLLABORATE ON BUSINESS ENVIRONMENT

Dennis Mernyl, Abuja

Determined to produce Business Environment and Competitiveness (BEC) reports across Nigerian States on a regular basis, the National Planning Commission is coordinating a public-private sector collaborative project on the subject across Nigerian States.

The Project tagged ‘BECANS', is being implemented by the African Institute for Applied Economics in collaboration with key government agencies including Central Bank of Nigeria, National Bureau of Statistics, and leading private sector organizations the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria, National Association, of Small and Medium Enterprises and the Human Rights Law Services.

The assessment is expected to constitute an evidence tool for more credible and effective advocacy by private sector and civil society organizations and inform self-appraisals and peer review among state governments.

A statement last week hinted that the project integrates research, survey, dissemination and advocacy in a systematic effort to link research to advocacy towards evidence-based business environment reforms across Nigerian States.

The statement which was signed by Miss Kobi Ikpo public affairs officer of African Institute of Applied Economics, Enugu and made available to newsmen noted that the Business Environment and Competitiveness Report Series will deepen and complement international comparative reports done periodically by international agencies, such as the World Economic Forum Africa Competitiveness Reports, World Bank Doing Business and Investment Climate Reports, UNIDO Manufacturing Enterprise Reports and others.

According to him, ‘BECANS addresses the gaps in most previous international reports which depict aggregate indicators and portray Nigeria as a homogenous business environment, thereby ignoring Nigeria's federal status and potential differentiation in business environment across states.

“BECANS will domesticate and legitimize home-grown indicators of business environment and competitiveness through systematic data collection, analysis, publications, dialogue and advocacy. BEC report series will equip private sector and civil society with concrete and reliable evidence to engage with and dialogue with government.

They will provide state governments with own-appraisals and peer reviews to evaluate the impact of institutional and regulatory reforms on the private sector and business conditions. BEC Report Series provide the National Planning Commission with data and statistics for its roles and functions as the central national economic planning, coordinating and monitoring agency.

To aid the implementation of the Business Environment and Competitiveness across Nigerian States (BECANS) project, the African Institute for Applied Economics is also collaborating with the National Planning Commission to organize a National Workshop.

The National Workshop on Business Environment across Nigerian States Nigerian States is scheduled to hold July 6-7, 2006. The workshop will prepare the grounds for the nation-wide field survey in the 36 states and FCT.

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BUSINESSDAY, Monday June 26, 2006

BENCHMARK FOR TRANSACTING BUSINESS IN STATES OUT SOON

Kirk Leigh

Factors encouraging the growth of private sector in individual states of the Federation are the subject of a new study by a consortium led by the African Institute for Applied Economics (AIAE).

In consonance with its mission to aid Nigeria and Africa think and work through the emerging renaissance. The AIAE is presently leading a consortium of private sector stakeholder institutions to undertake a flagship project aimed at promoting the growth and competitiveness of the private sector. The project tagged, Business Environment and Competitiveness across Nigerian States (BECANS), aim s to contribute to providing disaggregated assessment of factors facilitating business growth at the sub national level aligned with the federal structure of the country.

A release by the institute says that while a number of initiatives had been undertaken to promote business environment in the past, many of these at the Federal level and often involve cross-country evaluations. These reports are national aggregates that show little or no differentiation across Nigerian states. Rather, they benchmark and rate Nigeria against other countries and regions.

The statement says some recent attempts at evaluating governance at the sub-national level (as in the SEEDS benchmarking) focused mainly on the public sector. In contrast, the BECANS project involves a comparison of the business environment across states and is mainly private sector driven. BECANS seeks to systematically assess, regularly update and report business environment and competitiveness among states in Nigeria . ‘Unlike every other previous and existing assessment; the statement continues, ‘this project explicitly integrates Business Environment and Competitiveness (BEC) survey with state-level advocacy in order to foster critical constituencies for BEC reforms in the states. Such constituencies are considered very necessary to the success of the project and will, based on the survey results, pressurize respective state governments to optimize their policy domains and constitutional responsibilities for improving the business environment'. This, the institute maintain, is consistent with Federal Government policy of promoting competitive federalism.

This project is being carried out in collaboration with key government partners – National Planning Commission (NPC), the National Bureau of Statistics and Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN). A number of other Private Sector Organizations and Development Partners are also actively working with the Institute on the project. These include the Manufacturers' Association of Nigeria (MAN), the Human Rights Law Service (HURILAWS), the National Association of Small and Medium Scale Enterprises (NASME), the Federal University of Technology, Yola, and the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) among others.

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DAILY INDEPENDENT, Wednesday June 21, 2006

FG, OPS PLAN SURVEY ON NIGERIA 'S BUSINESS ENVIRONMENT

Adedeji Christopher

The National Planning Commission (NPC) is embarking on coordinating a public-private sector collaborative project on business environment and competitiveness across Nigerian states.

This is in a bid to make available Business Environment and Competitiveness (BEC) reports across Nigerian states on a regular basis.

The project, christened BECANS, is being implemented by the African Institute for Applied Economics in collaboration with key government agencies including Central Bank of Nigeria , National Bureau of Statistics, and leading bodies in the organized private sector (OPS) including Manufacturers Association of Nigeria, National Association of Small and Medium Enterprises and the Human Rights Law Services.

The assessment is expected to constitute a tool for more credible and effective advocacy by private sector and civil society organizations and inform self-appraisals and peer review among state governments.

A statement Tuesday hinted that the project would integrate research, survey, dissemination and advocacy in a systematic effort to link research to advocacy towards evidence-based business environment reforms across Nigerian States.

The statement, which originated from the African Institute for Applied Economics, Enugu and made available to newsmen in Abuja noted that the Business Environment and Competitiveness Report Series will deepen and complement international comparative reports done periodically by international agencies, such as the World Economic Forum Africa Competitiveness Reports, World Bank Doing Business and Investment Climate Reports, UNIDO Manufacturing Enterprise Reports and others.

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DAILY CHAMPION, Tuesday, June 22, 2006

BECANS WILL BOOST ECONOMY – AIAE

Chukwudi Achife

African Institute for Applied Economics (AIAE), Enugu has said the Business Environment and Competitiveness Across Nigerian States (BECANS) project which is aimed at promoting the growth and competitiveness of the private sector would provide a major boost to national economy through provision of disaggregated assessment of growth at the sub national level.

The Institute in a statement issued in Enugu explained that the project that the project was necessitated by the fact that while a number of initiative have been undertaken to promote business environment in the past, many of them were at the Federal level and often involved cross-country evaluations whose reports are national aggregates that show little or no differentiation across Nigerian states.

Instead, the reports, according to the AIAE, benchmarked and rated Nigeria against other countries and regions adding that some recent attempts at evaluating governance at the sub national level (as in the SEEDS benchmarking) had focused mainly on the public sector.

In contrast, the Institute said, the BECANS project which is being carried out in collaboration with key government partners – National Planning Commission (NPC), the National Bureau of Statistics and Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), involves a comparison of the business environment across states and is mainly private sector driven.

BECANS seeks to systematically assess, regularly update and report business environment and competitiveness among states in Nigeria .

It said “Unlike every other previous and existing assessment, this project explicitly integrates Business Environment and Competitiveness (BEC) survey with state-level advocacy in order to foster critical constituencies for BEC reforms in the states. Such constituencies are considered very necessary to the success of the project and will be based on the survey results, pressurize respective State Governments to optimize their policy domains and constitutional responsibilities for improving the business environment. This is consistent with Federal Government policy of promoting competitive federalism.

The project aims to develop framework of benchmarks and indicators for monitoring and assessing business environment and competitiveness across states, collect and analyze data to empirically evaluate the benchmarks and indicators and update in a cumulative and continual bases the business environment and competitiveness indicators to provide in an ongoing monitoring and reporting on an annual basis.

It will also develop flagship states profiles of business environment and competitiveness and disseminate and use such profiles and report to promote evidence-based advocacy by private sector and civil society organizations for policy, institutional and regulatory changes.

The statement disclosed that a number of other Private Sector Organizations and Development Partners such as the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN), the Human Rights Law Service (HURILAWS), the National Association of Small and Medium Scale Enterprises (NASME), the Federal University of Technology, Yola, and the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) among other were working with the Institute on the project.

It explained that for effective administration of the project, different organs including the Technical Working Group (TWG) which involves experts from the collaborating institutions and other relevant groups both in the private and public sector and would serve as the intellectual backbone of the project have already been established.

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THE PUNCH, Monday, June 26, 2006

AIAE, CBN COLLABORATE ON BUSINESS ENVIRONMENT REPORT

Atser Godwin

The African Institute for Applied Economics, Enugu , is collaborating with the Central Bank of Nigeria and other key government agencies on a project on business environment and competitiveness across the 36 states of the federation.

“Business Environment and Competitiveness Across Nigerian States addresses the gaps in most previous international reports, which depict aggregate indicators and portrays Nigeria as a homogenous business environment thereby ignoring Nigeria 's federal status and potential differentiation in business environment across states,” a statement from AIAE said on Saturday.

The Corporate Affairs Manager, AIAE Ms, Kobi Ikpo, in an e-mail to our correspondent, said indicators from BECANS would align with such cross-country benchmarks produced periodically by international agencies such as the World Economic Forum Africa Competitiveness Reports, World Bank Doing Business and Investment Climate Reports, UNIDO Manufacturing Enterprise Reports and others.

Coordinated by the National Planning Commission, the project would produce business environment and competitiveness reports across Nigerian states on an on-going basis.

To engender participation, Ikpo said a national workshop would be held in July, in Abuja . She said, the research integrates survey and advocacy in a systematic effort to link research to advocacy towards evidence-based business environment reform across the states.

“It provides the most comprehensive and authoritative assessment of the business environment and private sector competitiveness in the country.”

Other stakeholders in the project include the National Bureau of Statistics, the Small and Medium Enterprise Development Agency of Nigeria and leading private sector organizations including the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria, National Association of Small and Medium Enterprises and the Human Rights Law Services.

AIAE said the research would further entrench evidence-based public-private dialogue on reforms in the policy, regulatory and institutional environment at the state level.

In addition, she said BECANS reports would equip the private sector and civil society with concrete and reliable evidence to engage and dialogue with government.

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THE SUN NEWSPAPERS, Monday, July 3, 2006

NIGERIANISM AND BECANS INITIATIVE

Ignatius Orisewezie

We are in a world characterized by the notion of might is right. The international political system is one of reign of imperialism. Indeed, in the international politics the gambit is simply how to dominate the weak that the strong might grow stronger and tougher. We are in an era where everything about us is relayed to us, by people in a distant land. They are to tell us how to sleep, how to wake up and the direction our political and economic lives must gravitate. But at Napoleon Hill remarked, a horse that meekly does what it is directed to do is completely unaware of its own strength.

In this kind of power-dominated political system, any effort geared towards a search for inward strength is in my opinion the height of nationalistic spirit and in the context of Nigeria , it is what I mean by Nigerianism – a philosophy of will-power and national pride.

Writing in May 2005, a piece entitled, “Self Help in Nation Building ”, I had cause to state that “in the spirit of Nigerianism, time has come for us to use our local expertise to solve our local problems. If all our professionals come up and challenge themselves in the manner of the authors of Better Business Initiative, BBI, are doing, the era whereby our specialist remain aloof while the so-called foreign experts, who have no capacity to grasp the peculiarity of our domestic problems fiddle with our economy, will be over.”

Men and women inspired by a sense of national pride have always advocated the imperative of self-help as one of the ways to achieve meaningful progress. Thus, the Central Bank of Nigeria Governor, Professor Charles Soludo, ‘remarked at a seminar in 2005 at Nicon Hilton Hotel, Abuja , that as it with individuals, so it is with any nation, a time comes when it is appropriate to say Never Again . Chief Chukwuemeka Chikelu, former Minister of Information and National Orientation, who initiated The Heart of Africa image project, had reason to opine that the philosophy behind the project is the necessity to tell the story of our environment by ourselves, rather than allow the world to interpret our nation based on information about us obtained from outsiders. As my Umunede people of Delta State , Nigeria , often say “it is the name that you give to your dog that others will call it. If you don't have name for the pet, others will call it whatever name they like”.

Over the years, information about Nigerian business environment had always come from people and institutions in far away America , Europe and Asia . Thus, we had depended on people who do not know so well, to tell us who we are. For example, most existing assessments of our business environment including the World Economic Forum Africa Competitiveness Reports, World Bank Doing Business Reports, bear international benchmarking and rating of business environments and private sector competitiveness.

With due respect and without any motive to prejudice the quality business environment assessment index by these international watchers, we must admit their shortcoming particularly, with respect to their vague attention to details in view of the wide scope of their coverage. Nigeria for example is a Federation consisting of 36 states and Federal Capital Territory . All the states do not have uniform business environment. For an International assessor, who may only scan over two or three states with negative index and set down for a report to be described as Nigerian Business Environment Assessment index, they will not only be misleading the world but also doing a disservice to other states with a better enabling environment. It is this shortcoming that borders on mischief of statistical fallacy, that BECANS (Business Environment and Competitiveness across Nigerian States), a Nigerian public – private sector collaborative effort to produce and disseminate Business Environment and Competitiveness reports, on a continuing basis and in sustainable manner, is conceived to cure.

BECANS is conceived by the African Institute of Applied Economics Enugu (AIAE), with Prof. Eric Eboh as the helmsman, to overcome the gaps in most previous international reports which portray Nigeria as a homogenous business environment, without regard to its federal status and potential differentiation in business environment across the states.

BECANS which is an outgrowth of Economic reform initiative of the Federal Government is strictly speaking, about professional nationalism, about telling the story of our business environment by ourselves, a search for inward strength, living in a state of challenge, a refusal to be a slave to our circumstance and indeed about an improvement in our method of thinking as a people and as a nation. The project which integrates research survey, dissemination an advocacy tasks, will constitute the evidence tool for more credible and effective advocacy by private sector and civil society organizations, just as it will also provide state governments with own appraisal of regulatory reform on private sector and business conditions, to evaluate the impact of institutional reform and as a peer review mechanism. It will hopefully ignite a healthy competition among states on how to improve the environment of business in order to attract Foreign Direct Investment and Local investors and invariably, prop and challenge the state governments to improve the quality of governance. The project which will domesticate and legitimize internationally comparable indicators of state – level business environment and competitiveness through systematic data collection analysis, publications, dialogue and advocacy will supply critical information to investors and stakeholders and provide the private sector and civil society with reliable evidence to engage with and dialogue with government.

BECANS which is a collaborative between the African Institute for Applied Economics, Enugu, and key governmental agencies including the Central Bank of Nigeria, National Planning Commission, National Bureau of Statistics and leading private sector organizations like Manufacturers Association of Nigeria, MAN, National Association of Small and Medium Enterprises and Human Rights Law Services, is a project that will deepen and complement international comparative reports done periodically by agencies like UNIDO, Manufacturing Enterprises Reports, World Bank Doing Business and Investment climate Reports, World Economic Forum Africa Competitiveness Reports etc.

The National Workshop on BECANS, slated for July 6-7, 2006 at the Transcorp Hilton Hotel, Abuja will provide a platform for a better understanding of its methodology to enlighten federal and state government officials of the nitty-gritty of the project and deepen stakeholders' participation. The workshop will prepare the ground for the nation wide field survey on business environment and competitiveness. And it may help to answer the question which President Olusegun Obasanjo reportedly asked the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria, to wit: what can the government do for the private sector make it more effective, efficient, competitive and position it as an engine of economic growth, henceforth?

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FINANCIAL STANDARD, Monday June 19, 2006

AIAE INITIATES PROJECT TO PROMOTE BUSINESS IN NIGERIA

Frederick Mordi

The African Institute for Applied Economics (AIAE), a research organization that is based in Enugu , is leading a consortium of private sector stakeholder institutions to embark on a project, which is aimed at promoting the growth and competitiveness of businesses in Nigeria .

The project, which is tagged: ‘Business Environment and Competitiveness Across Nigerian States (BECANS).' Seeks to identify factors that facilitate business growth at the sub-national level and align them with the federal structure of the country.

A statement from the organization signed by Professor Eric Eboh, its Executive Director, added that this became necessary to serve as guide for international agencies such as the World Economic Forum, Africa Competitiveness Reports, World Bank's Doing Business and Investment Climate Reports and the United Nations Industrial Development Organization's (UNIDO) Manufacturing Enterprise Reports that have relied on national aggregates, which show little or no differentiation across Nigerian states. BECANS, which is a public-private sector collaborative project designed to produce business environment and competitiveness reports across Nigerian States, on a regular sustained basis, integrates research, survey, dissemination and advocacy.

The National Planning Commission (NPC) is coordinating the project, which the institute is implementing in collaboration with key government agencies such as the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), National Bureau of Statistics and leading private sector organizations including Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN), National Association of Small and Medium Enterprises (NASME) and the Human Rights Law Services. The project is expected to produce Business Environment and Competitiveness (BEC) Reports across Nigerian states, on an on-going basis.

Eboh, who noted that the international business community benchmarks and rates Nigeria against other countries and regions, without looking at the potential of the individual entities making up the country, said BECANS would address this shortcoming, which he added was one of the principal objectives of the States Economic Empowerment Development Strategy (SEEDS) that focused mainly on the public sector.

In furtherance of the implementation of the project, he said the institute is collaborating with the National Planning Commission (NPC) to organise a national workshop on ‘Business Environment across Nigerian States' between July 6 and 7 in Abuja . He said the workshop would help to disseminate the BECANS methodology, enlighten federal and state government officials and deepen stakeholder participation, adding that it is an integral part of the implementation programme which started 2003.

He said the programme implementation had passed through several stages of conceptualization, consultations, technical reviews, stakeholder mobilization and feedback, stating that the workshop would prepare the grounds for the nation-wide field survey in the 36 states and FCT.

“Unlike every other previous and existing assessment, this project explicitly integrates Business Environment and Competitiveness (BEC) survey with state-level advocacy in order to foster critical constituencies for BEC reforms in the states”, he said. “Such constituencies are considered very necessary to the success of the project and will, based on the survey results, pressurize respective State Governments to optimize their policy domains and constitutional responsibilities for improving the business environment.” This, he said, is consistent with the federal government's policy of promoting competitive federalism.

For effective running of the project, he added that different organs were instituted. These include the Technical Working Group (TWG), the Project Advisory Committee (PAC) and the State-level Stakeholder Consultative Forum. According to him, the TWG had reached an advanced stage in the production of the instrument for the survey, adding that a workshop had been slated for July 12 and 13 in Enugu for this purpose. He also said a national stakeholder workshop is being planned for September to bring together officials of state governments and other private sector stakeholders to interact on the modalities and objectives of the project, while both pilot and full scale surveys are to take place October and November, respectively.

He said the first cycle of the project, which spans 2005-2008, would cover the entire 36 states and the FCT, adding that there had been positive signals from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) in the area of providing funding for the first phase.

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ThisDay. Monday, July 10, 2006

AIAE Proposes Criteria for more Investment in Nation's 36 States

Chinedu Eze

How to provide conducive investment climate in the various state of the federation so that more investors will be attracted to establish businesses in the country was the theme of discussion during the National Workshop on State-level Business Environment in Nigeria, organized by African Institution for Applied Economics (AIAE) at the Transcorp Hilton Hotel, Abuja at the weekend.

Resource persons who spoke at the two-day event stressed on the need to provide business environment and competitiveness across Nigerian states, which is known as the BECANS programme. The emphasis of the programme is that there should be the need for improved infrastructure, assurance of security and legislation that would enhance easy procurement of land by investors in order to encourage investment in various states and boost significant private sector participation in the nation's economy.

In his presentation, the Executive Director of AIAE, Professor Eric Eboh, lamented the poor international competitiveness of the non-oil private sector of Nigerian business and attributed the unfavorable situation to the high cost of doing business in Nigeria.

He noted that the private sector is, “what constitutes the bulk of employment of the citizenry is the key to successful economic growth.”

Prof. Eboh added that conducive business environment is crucial to the economic growth and the realization of the Millennium Development Goals. (MDGs), “a global agenda, which Nigeria has subscribed to as member of United Nations”, he explained.

He also lamented the lack of existing business environmental assessment and the paucity of regulatory institutions to monitor economic growth at the state level, noting that these are the bane to increased investment in many states of the nation.

Eboh stated that the BECAN project is aimed at promoting the growth and competitiveness of the private sector that should provide a major plank to national assessment of economic growth at the sub-national level.

He observed that too much attention has been focused on the federal government, and very little to the states, nothing that major investment in the private sector propelled economy should be under the jurisdiction of the states.

In an interview with THISDAY, Professor Eboh said that in the prevalent situation where there is over emphasis on what the federal government should do without complementary action from the state governments would give very little result of the development of the nation's economy and urged that the state governments should facilitate private investment through the provision of infrastructure and utilities; ensuring that there is water and sanitation; enhanced transport system and health facilities.

He said that the federal government has carried out a number of significant reforms on the business environment and investment climate, “but I think that there still remains scope for improvement. In addition, what the federal government has done should be emulated by the states, which should open up investment by making it easy for land procurement.”

Eboh advised that the state governments should make land registration easier, “less difficult and cheaper in order to reduce the waiting period in obtaining certificate of occupancy (C of O) so that people can give title to landed property use for business transactions,”

In his contribution, the Director-General, Nigeria economic Summit Group (NESG) Engr Mansur Ahmed said that unfolding economic development in the world has demonstrated that it is not those nations that have the largest national resources that deliver development to their people, but those that have comparative advantage in the quality of ever resources they have, be it intelligence or creativity to transform the lives of their people.

He remarked that if Nigeria wants to be among the first 20 countries in the world it could achieve that because it has the potential to realize such goal, “but there must be something we must achieve at every level of development that will move us into that direction. This will reflect the extent we use our human and material capacity to generate the condition that will elevate our country to that high economic standard.”

Mansur said that it must be economic development are brought about by activities of the state holders, the private sector and the civil society at every level of development.

He observed, “An investor invests his money to where it will generate the greatest advantage to him. If the investor has a choice he will make the choice on the basis of the expectation of benefits from the investment. Money is such a coward – it will go to all the areas that will general benefits to him. Money is a coward and selfish, it cannot go to any location that has conflict. If you want to attract money into your state, you have to eliminate conflict, establish infrastructure and make those who want to invest to become interested in your state.”

He remarked that it is the provision of these amenities that makes the difference between state A and state B, stressing that there must be integrity on the side of the state government, and on the side of the investor, noting that integrity should be built in the whole process.

The Director-General of NESG said that development is not the responsibly of the state alone to enhance the living standard of the people, saying that, that is erroneous impression, because economic development today is the responsibility of the private sector, “but the duty of government is to provide the enabling environment for private businesses to thrive.”

The state is there to provide the environment, the facilities, to monitor and to be sure that the development takes place in an equitable manner to make life better for all citizens,” he added.

The Minister for Finance, Mrs. Nenadi Usman, who was represented by a senior official in the ministry; Mr. J.I Zasiwa, in her contribution said that the Federal Government has enhanced free enterprise in the country through policies that liberalized the market and encourages huge investment. She pointed out the gains of such polices which have brought in foreign investment, noting that businessmen now jostle to come and do business in Nigeria .

She said that the Federal Government was interested in integrity and transparency in business and in its administration, that was why it established Nigeria Extractive transparency Initiative, (NETI), remarking that Nigerians now know how much the country generates in terms of revenue, adding that all the allocations gives to the states and local government areas are documented and published since 1999, from the Obasanjo administration.

Usman said that the Federal Government has created one-stop investment center in Nigeria and has made it easy for investors to spend less time in repositioning and establishing their business in the country.

She noted that the private sector should initiate its programmers so that it would synchronies with that federal government, observing that the state have the responsibility to respond to what the Federal Government has done by also enhancing ways to attract investment. The Minister also stated that both the Federal Government and the state government must have a focal point, a direction for business pursuit, warning that if the states and the private sector are not carried along in the new polices to enhance investment in the country, what the federal government had done so far will amount to nothing.

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The Comet. Wednesday, July 5, 2006

Benchmarking Local Economy through BECANS

Godfrey Ubaka

One vital lesson of contemporary political economy of national, especially at the international stage, is that even in the face of globalization, the strength of local and regional economies has remained in the validity and sustainability of their local economic reforms and initiatives.

It has therefore become more anomalous now than ever before in the history of nations to judge the efficacy or otherwise of local reforms and initiatives on flat global theories and concepts.

Worse still is the prescription and, in some cases, adoption of foreign theories and presumed antidotes as solutions for the socio-economic ailments of one's nation it is on that basis that one will almost be quick to commend the ingenuity and practical patriotism pf all the schools, professional bodies, institutions, corporate entities and foundations who have come out with the BECANS initiative for the planning, support and assessment of economic growth across Nigerian states.

BECANS is the acronym for Business Environment and Competitiveness across Nigerian state. It is a Nigerian public-private sector collaborative effort to product and disseminate and Environment and Competitiveness (BEC) reports a cross Nigerian states on a continuing basis, in a sustainable manner.

Conceived in 2003 by the African Institute for Applied Economics (AIAE) the goal of BECANS is to use research and Advocacy networking bring local benchmarking for economic/ developmental competitiveness across Nigeria in states with defined target of improving the business environment in Nigeria.

For so long, since political independence in 1960, the Nigerian economy has been subjected to foreign benchmarking, assessment and manipulation. Critics of these foreign reports have insisted that they at best represent neocolonialist effusions as in World Economic Forum African Competitiveness Reports, World Bank Doing Business Reports.

On the occasions in that Nigeria is to reflect in these foreign reports, they reflect only a few indices scantily collected in Lagos , Port Harcourt and Abuja . But Nigeria is a federation of 36 states with the economy of each state being in some cases distinct in its development characteristics.

A typical public private sector project, the key government partners in BECANS include in National Planning Commission (NPC), the National Bureau of Statistics, small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency of Nigeria and Central Bank of Nigeria.

The Private Sector and Civil Society partners include the Manufacturers' Association of Nigeria (MAN), the National Association of Small and Medium Enterprises Human Rights and Law services. The other partners include the Department of Economics, Federal University of Technology, Yola and some independent experts from Nigerian universities and research institutes.

BECANS as a Nigerian economic initiative is set to provide the most comprehensive and authoritative assessment of the business environment and private sector competitiveness across Nigerian state.

BECANS entrenches evidence based on public private dialogue on reforms in the policy regulatory and institutional environment at the state level. The project aims at providing informed, dependable and verifiable guide on the Nigerian business environment with detailed state-by state analysis and regulatory reform of the private public sector planned and monitored contribution to the overall business environment.

BECANS is a homegrown initiative that will creatively domesticate existing development yardsticks and economic indices on reforms and growth for the facilitation of growth and improvement of business climate in Nigeria Handled by professionals outside the safe detachment of partisan politics it holds lots of promises to Nigerian economy and investment from the global economy

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The Westerner. July 8, 2006

Database on Business Underway

Philip Jakpor

Unless federal measures to improve the nation's business environment corresponds with state level reforms, Nigeria's ambition of improving its 94th position out of 155 countries of the World Bank's ease of doing business rating to 30th by 2010 will not be achieved.

To this end, the African Institute for Applied Economics (AIAE) and key stakeholders in the public and private sectors of the economy have called on Nigerian to support a new machinery which will involve the use of home grown scientific approach for assessing, reporting and updating data on the local business environment and competitiveness across states of the federation.

The project called Business Environment and Competitiveness across Nigerian States (BECANS) is targeted at removing bottlenecks to business at state level through regular supply of empirical evidence to policy makers, government technocrats, investors and students, among others.

It would encourage a peer view system whereby Nigerian's 36 states and the federal capital territory will be assessed against one another on several agreed benchmarks that will promote information flow, experience sharing mutual learning and best practices, rather than the present system of comparing Nigeria as an entity with other countries using foreign indicators that do not give enough platform for comparison for states.

Executive Director of AIAE, Professor Eric Eboh who disclosed this at a media briefing organized in Lagos, said it was misleading to analyze Nigeria using foreign indicators since such data was usually hinged on scattered information that do not represent he reality in the country.

He said the BECANS approach will draw greater public attention to the importance of the states and local governments as catalysts for growth and unleash the untapped energies residing in Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) in line with the United Nations Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), National Economic and Empowerment Strategy (NEEDS) and the states and local government equivalent currently in operation in the country.

Eboh disclosed that the project will also involve the use of research, survey, data and statistics production and advocacy, among others, so that final reports will contain state specific information that can be used by local and foreign investors desiring to do business in the states.

Four sub-groups aligned to four benchmark areas of the project will zero in on problems inherent in the local business environment such as infrastructure and utilities, legal and regulatory services, business development support and security.

Earlier, Mrs. Frances Nworka, executive director of Human Rights Law Service, said the BECANS project is owned and managed by Nigerian stakeholders and organizations working as a consortium to adopt a holistic perspective to business environment benchmarking and reporting.

She stated that the homegrown approach of the project will be used state governments to gauge the effects of their economic reform programmes on business conditions and private sector growth.

According to her, to ensure maximum buy-in, the group is to hold a national workshop on State-Level Business Environment and Competitiveness in Nigeria this week at the Transcorp Hilton Hotel, Abuja , to ensure that stakeholders understand and examine the methods and instruments being adopted by the BECANS project.

Collaborators in the project include Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN), National Association of Small and Medium Enterprises (NASME), National Planning Commission (NPC) and Human Rights Law Service (HURILAWS).

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Nigerian Tribune. Tuesday, July 4, 2006

AIAE Commences State Level Business Project

Taiwo Omoyajowo

A joint initiative of the African Institute for Applied Economics, the National planning Commission, National Association of Small and Medium Enterprises, Manufacturers Association of Nigeria and Human Rights Law Services (HURILAWS), the BECANS project, according to Professor Eric Eboh, Executive Director, A.I.A.E. and guest speaker at the launch of the project, was necessary if the country intended to meet her target of improving significantly, her position on the world bank's rating of economically buoyant nations.

Professor Eboh argued that the BECAN project would seek to draw greater public attention to state level administration, since these sub-government levels had suffered neglect because too much attention had been given to administration at the federal level.

He stated that there was the need to correspond federal level measures to improve the business environment with state-level reforms. This, he argued, was necessary because several reported bottlenecks to doing business such as land registration, business locating and connection to public utilities, court procedures. Tax and license administration “are responsibilities of state and local governments.

“BECANS is working to remove bottlenecks to business at the state level through regular supply of empirical evidence to monitor business conditions. The BECANS state-level data would beam searchlight on business environment, serious policy makers, government technocrats investors, entrepreneurs, business managers, researches, policy activists, students and the general public” he stated.

Describing the project as a response to the yawning need for independent regular surveys, assessments and monitoring of the business environment across all the states of the federation, he disclosed that the methodology that would be adopted in carrying out the projects would be “qualitative and quantitative.” These according to him, would include fact-finding mission, executive opinion surveys enterprise level surveys and documentary reviews.

A national workshop on State-level Business Environment and Competitiveness in Nigeria , organized by AIAE.is expected to hold between 6 and 7 July, 2006, in Abuja .

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The Abuja Inquirer. July 2, 2006

CBN, African Institute for Applied Economics, Others Start Survey on Business Environment

Lucy Etim

The African Institute for Applied Economics in collaboration with other key government agencies are set to kick off a nationwide survey on business environment a and competitiveness which would cut across Nigerian states on a regular basis. The survey which is called Business Environment and Competitiveness Across Nigerian States, BECANS, is being implemented by the African Institute for Applied Economics while the National Planning Commission, NPC, is to coordinate the project.

Other agencies who are involves in the project are Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN National Bureau of Statistics and leading private sector organizations such as Manufacturers Association of Nigeria, MAN, National Association of Small and Medium Enterprises as well as the Human Rights Law Services.

According to a statement from the African Institute for Applied Economics, Enugu, signed by the Corporate Affairs Manager, Kobi Ikpo, the business environment and competitiveness survey would deepen and complement international comparative reports done periodically by international agencies, such as the World Economic Forum, African Competitiveness Reports, World Bank Doing Business and Investment Climate Reports and UNIDO Manufacturing Enterprise Reports.

It further stated that the assessment is expected to bring about tool for more credible and effective advocacy by private sector and civil society organizations and inform self-appraisals and peer review among state governments, adding that the project would integrate research, survey, dissemination and advocacy in a systematic effort to link research to advocacy to wards business environment reforms across the country.

Enumerating the benefits of the survey, the statement mentioned that BECANS would address the gaps in the previous international reports which portrayed Nigeria as a homogenous business environment, thereby ignoring Nigeria 's federal status and potential differentiation in business environment across states.

Also, it noted that BECANS would domesticate and legitimize home-grown indicators of business environment and competitiveness through systematic data collection, analysis, publications and dialogue that would equip private sector and civil society with concrete and reliable evidence to engage with and dialogue with government.

Through this, the National Planning Commission would be provided with data and statistics for its roles and functions as the central national economic planning coordinating and monitoring agency while state governments would be provided with own appraisals and peer reviews to evaluate the impact and regulate reforms on the private sector business conditions.

The African Institute for Applied Economics in collaboration with National Planning Commission has planned a national workshop which holds in Abuja between 6-7 July 2006 on the implementation of BECANS project.

The workshop, the statement informed, is designed to disseminate the BECANS methodology, enlighten federal and state government and encourage stakeholders, participation, among others.

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Businessday. Monday, July 10, 2006

No longer business as usual

Martins Azuwike

State Government in the Federation have been told point blank that it is no longer business as usual for them. This was disclosed by Osita Ogbu, the Economic Adviser to the President at a two-day “National Workshop on State-Level Business Environment in Nigeria ” organized in Abuja . This statement underscores the comprehensive efforts being made by the National Planning Commission (NPC), the Africa Institute for Applied Economics (AIAE), MAN, SMEDAN, NESG, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) and other collaborating agencies to ensure the competitiveness of the investment environment at state levels.

The workshop, which comprehensively gave an overview of the Business Environment and Competitiveness Across Nigeria State (BECANS) methods, also aims to rally stakeholders around the BECANS agenda for enhanced investment climate throughout Nigeria , and facilitate dialogue towards state-level reforms for more conducive business environment.

Eric Eboh, Executive Director, Africa Institute for Applied Economic (AIAE) told BUSINESSDAY at the event that the context of the BECANS exercise was prompted by poor international competitiveness of the non-oil private sector, high cost of doing business, the crucial nature of the business environment to private sector growth and competitiveness, paucity of systematic State-level BEC analyses, and the fact that rather based on national level aggregates. Participants were told that it was germane tom reconstruct these important factors and bring them in sync with the overarching objectives of NEEDS, the MDGs and SEEDS, for robust national progress.

According to him, BECANS, components are research, Survey, Dissemination and advocacy. While research aims to develop BEC models and indicators, survey collects data to evaluate models and indicators, dissemination publishes BEC reports and advocacy facilitates evidence-based dialogue for BEC Repots.

BECANS model includes Legal and Regulatory Secrecies, Infrastructure and Utilities, Business Development Support, and Security.

Eboh identified the BECANS stakeholders as The Federal Ministry of Industry and Commerce, SMEDAN, NIPC, CAC, FIRS, the National Planning Commission, the 36 State Governments, Private sector organization (PSOs), Civil Society Organizations (CSOs), and the International Development partners.

According to Ogbu, “Doing Business Report produced annually by the International Finance Corporation and the world Bank in the past ranked Nigeria number 95 out of 155 countries. Most of the indicators used were state based and that gave us a poor ranking.

We therefore thought it wise to take studies on these indices at the state levels. This is also aimed at taking the reforms to the states. Poverty levels are now to be measured on state-by-state basis and no longer on the zonal levels. The aim of the new focus is to create a competitive federation. It is to move the state away from point A to point B. The idea behind this is to move us away from business as usual.”

The SEEDS benchmark has teeth, he said. “If you do well as a state, you benefit immensely and enjoy, and if you do badly, you would be penalized, especially by the donor and development partners and investors who want evidence-based basis for comparison to guide their decision on state to support”, he stated.

The whole idea of the BECANS benchmark is to make the state business environment competitiveness, private sector support initiatives and the entire country more investment-friendly.

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Businessday. Monday, July 10, 2006

Sustainability of reforms will enhance competitiveness

Onyinye Nwachukwu

The deputy governor, Economic Policy, Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Obadiah Mailafia has said that sustaining the on-ongoing economic reforms will drive Nigeria 's competitiveness globally.

He disclosed this at a two-day national workshop on state-level business environment in Nigeria organized by Africa Institute for Applied Economics (AIAE) in collaboration with National Planning Commission in Abuja .

He noted that the whole reforms being put in place is aimed at creating the macroeconomic framework that will make the country a much more competitive business environment, adding that a nation's prosperity depends on its level of competitiveness based on productivity with the right institutions in place.

“For Nigeria to be competitive over the next couple of years, we have to be prepared to sustain the reform over a long period of time. There has to be sustainability of the reforms. We have to be bold and move forward. Some aspects of the reform maybe painful but these are the necessary cost for long term economic growth as a nation”, he said.

Earlier, the Economic Adviser to the president, Osita Ogbu had noted that the emphasis on competitiveness and consequently the workshop stems from the country's ambition to improve on its 94 th position out of 155 countries on World bank's ‘Ease of Doing Business' rating to the first ten position by 2010.

According to executive director, AIAE, Eric Eboh, the indicators used for the rating include paying taxes, registering property and enforcing contracts which are regulatory services administrated at the state level and therefore actions aimed at paying more attention to deployment and management of resources at the state and local government levels are being initiated to make the business environment more competitive and transparent.

He said one of such initiative is BECANS, an acronym for Business Environment and Competitiveness across Nigeria State which is a Nigerian public-private sector collaborative effort to produce and disseminated Business Environment and Competitiveness (BEC) reports across Nigeria states on a continuing basis and in a sustainable manner and works to remove bottlenecks at the state level through regular supply of empirical evidence to monitor business conditions.

He noted that the ambition to improve on the World Bank's rating will not be realized if federal level measures to improve the business environment are not corresponded with state-level reforms as reported bottlenecks to doing business in Nigeria which include amongst other land registration, court procedures, tax and license administration, sanitation and safety, as well as security fall within the responsibility of the state and local governments.

Ogbu, however, added that this initiative would help sustain reforms since the private sector is meant to be the engine of growth of the economy and thrust of NEEDS, reiterating government's commitment to push down the reforms to the state level.

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Financial Standard. Monday, July 17, 2006

Enhancing Business Competitiveness

Frederick Mordi

Mr. Joseph Odumodu, managing director/Plc, once said that if he had a choice between setting up a factory in Nigeria or Ghana , he would go for the latter. This calls for sober reflection because Odumodu is somebody whose views on investment should be taken seriously. His reason is quite simple.

To set up a factory in Nigeria , an intending manufacturer would have difficulty registering Affairs Commission (CAC), where the process could take weeks. He would also pay through his nose to get the government's approval-not counting what the area boys would charge him for a piece of land to build the factory.

To get to the factory stage, he probably would have obtained a loan from a bank at a high interest rate of about 30 per cent. He would of necessity have to install a generator in the factory, simply because power supply from the Power Holding Company of Nigeria Plc (PHCN) is utterly unreliable. He would also have to provide his own borehole.

When the finally manages to get off the ground, he would have to contend with the fierce competition in the market, where dumping of cheap sub-standard imported products from Asian countries and smuggling of purportedly banned items would conspire against him. That graphically sums up what businessmen face in Nigeria . Their counterparts in Ghana take these things for granted. That is why the May and Baker Chief executive made that forlorn statement.

It was in an attempt to find a lasting solution to these perennial problems confronting businessmen in the country that the Enugu based Africa Institute for Applied Economics (AIAE) organized a national workshop on State-level Business Environment in Nigeria , in collaboration with the National Planning Commission (NPC). The workshop held in Abuja recently. The institute used the occasion to unveil its project, tagged: ‘Business Competitiveness across Nigeria States (BECANS),' which it believes would address these challenges.

What FG is doing

In his opening at the occasion, which was attended by stakeholders from both the private and the public sectors, Dr. Osita Ogbu, economic adviser to the President and Chief executive, NPC, who spoke on the theme: ‘Imperative of Business Environment was not unmindful of the need to improve the business climate in Nigeria, which he added would enable the private sector to play its expected role as driver of the economy.

Ogbu, who also said a vibrant business environment would help to sustain its current economic reforms, disclosed that the government was worried by Nigeria 's recent ranking as 94th out of 155 countries in terms of the ease of doing business. He said the government is prepared to tackle the constraints, which include poor infrastructure, multiple taxations and administrative bottlenecks.

Noting that most of the indicators in the report were based on the performance of the states, he said the government would soon start to take a closer look at the current reforms at that level of governance to ensure that they are in tandem with the State Economic Empowerment Development Strategies (SEEDS).

Commending the institute for embarking on the project in which it intends to rate the states according to their support for business, the chief executive of the NPC added that this was in line with the principles of the National Economic Empowerment Development Strategy (NEEDS).

Harnessing Nigeria's Potential

Similarly, Dr. Obadiah Mailafia, deputy governor (economic policy), Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), who delivered a stirring key note address on the theme: ‘Prospects for Private Sector Growth Under Business Environment Reforms in Nigeria States,' belies because she does not seem to know her potential yet.

Mailafia, likened Nigeria to an eaglet-which still thinks and behaves like a chicken. He said until Nigeria realizes her true potential, she is not likely to soar like the eagle that she is.

He expressed regrets that tiny African countries such as Botswana and Tanzania are rated better than Nigeria in terms of business competitiveness, expressing the hope that the current reforms that the government have put in place would help to address these shortcomings. However, he acknowledged that the government alone cannot achieve the lofty goals that it has set for itself, adding that active collaboration from the private sector was sine qua non. It was in this light that he equally commended the organizers of the workshop, which he described as timely and right on target. He added that the financial sector reforms, which the CBN has successfully brought to a logical conclusion, would soon begin to have the desired positive impact on other sectors of the economy, particularly manufacturing.

In his goodwill message, Mr. Alfred Fawhundu, resident representative, United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), also harped on the need for Nigeria to harness the rich human and natural resources that she is endowed with.

Engineer Mansur Ahmed, director-general, Nigeria Economic Summit Group Limited/Gte, made an interesting presentation entitled: ‘BECANS, Private Sector Growth and Competitiveness.' Ahmed, who said the need for a conducive business could not be overemphasized, observed that investors would only invest in places where they will reap the greatest returns on their investment. As such, he enjoined states that are perceived to be hostile to businessmen to change their approach, stating that money is a coward, which only goes to a place where it is comfortable.

He said BECANS makes sense because it would highlight states that are friendly to investors and those that are not, stating that this will ultimately guide investors in taking informed decisions. Consequently, he challenged the states to create the right environment to attract investors. He also charged the relevant stakeholders in the project such as the CBN, NPC, Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN) and the Nigerian Association of Small and Medium Enterprises (NASME) to ensure success of the project.

Benefits to MSMEs

NASME also believes Becans will impact positively on the activities of micro, small and medium scale enterprise (MSMEs) in the country. Mr. Eke Ubiji, executive secretary, Nasme, who spoke on: ‘Benefits of BECANS to Private Sector Organizations,' at the conference, described the project as a welcome development, stating that it would help to identify and remove the infrastructural constraints hindering the growth of MSMEs in the country, highlight administrative bottlenecks and assist the state to come up with friendly policies.

Ubiji also said the result of the project, which would be made public, next July, would provide Business Membership Organizations (BMOs) such as NASME, handy tool for result-oriented advocacy and serve as an instrument for policy makers at the three tiers of government.

The project outcome will help the state to develop and deliver relevant tailor-made package of assistance for MSMEs” he added. “It will also assist in the design and operation of a harmonious multi-component industrial policy with the active participation of the states, local government and the organized private sector and foreign investors.

Capturing the essence

Professor Eric Eboh, executive director, AIAE who gave an overview of the BECANS programme, noted that previous studies merely gave a homogeneous picture of the business condition in Nigeria , adding that the project would assess the states on an individual basis. Eboh, who described BECANS as being unique in several ways, said the preliminary result of the survey, which started in 2003, would be published by July next year.

“It adds value to existing initiatives in several areas,” he said. “One is in the area of approach. In terms of approach, BECANS is based on public-private sector partnership. It is a project that is owned by the Nigerian private sector and civil society. They have accepted the project and this acceptance is evidenced in their willingness to use the result for the project.

“In many cases in the past, business environment survey have been undertaken in isolated manner and have not been adequately utilized for the purpose of influencing advocacy and thereby bringing about positive reforms in the business environment. That is one way in which BECANS differs very significantly from existing initiatives.”

He said that institute developed consultations feedback, inputs and technical meetings, in 2003. Explaining, the length of time that it took to bring the project to this stage, he said a lot of niche issues needed to be developed and finalized because it is the first of its kind in the country to be undertaken by the private sector.

Presenting a true picture

“BECANS also differs from other initiatives in the sense that it looks at the indicators at the state levels; other projects have reported the Nigerian business environment as a homogenous entity without distinguishing the environment from business across the state,” he added.

“This has tended to give a distorted picture of business environment in Nigeria . Potentially, business environments differ across the states, depending on the level of policy regulatory and institutional reforms going on in the stares. It is important to portray the federal structure of Nigeria in reporting the business environment.”

“If we take a specific indicator, we should be able to say tat this is how a particular state has performed,” he said. “It is quite possible that the states will perform differently on different indicators.”

The need to create a conducive environment for business can never really be overemphasized because it influences the decision of investors. It is in this regard that the government should support the BECANS project, which complements its current reform programmes aimed at making Nigeria the preferred investment destination

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