The Presidential Enabling Business Environment Council has outlined its strategies for launching a $750 million World Bank program in January of next year.
This came about as Vice President Yemi Osinbajo stated on Tuesday that hard work at the sub-national level is the only way to create the type of business environment Nigeria needs for significant economic growth.
Osinbajo made the claim at a PEBEC meeting where he was briefed on the State Action on Business Enabling Reforms Program run by the secretariat and the World Bank, according to a statement signed by his Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, Laolu Akande.
“Osinbajo to state govt: your hard work is crucial for business environment changes to succeed,” said the statement.
Prof. Osinbajo said, “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.”
He added that “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.”
He noted that at the federal level, it had been a major challenge “just trying to coordinate agencies and parastatals.”
We have been working together for more than two years to conceptualize the SABER Program, said Jumoke Oduwole, Special Adviser on Ease of Doing Business and Secretary of PEBEC. This program represents the first of its kind for the World Bank in the entire world.
She described SABER, a three-year program that runs from January 2023 to December 2025, as a performance-based intervention created in collaboration by the World Bank, the PEBEC Secretariat, and the Federal Ministry of Finance, Budget, and National Planning, with assistance from the Nigeria Governors’ Forum Secretariat.
The $750 million operation comprises two main areas: a $730m Program-for-Results financing component and a $20m technical assistance for investment project financing.
