The Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON) and four other government agencies have been recognised among the top five most business efficient and transparent agencies for the year 2022.
The announcement was contained in federal government’s 2022 Executive Order 001 Compliance Report released by the Presidential Enabling Business Environment Council (PEBEC).
Other government agencies that made the top five of the award are; the Nigerian Content Development Monitoring Board Export-Import (NCDMB), Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Council (FCCPC), Nigeria Export-Import Bank (NEXIM) and Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC).
Executive Secretary of PEBEC, Jumoke Oduwole, said that the agencies have performed extremely well to meet consumer demands in the best and most efficient ways to promote businesses in their bids to achieve excellent service delivery.
“In the latest EO1 Compliance Report, NCDMB emerged first at 81.11per cent; SON second at 78.68 per cent,” said Oduwole who is also Special Adviser to the President, Ease of Doing Business.
She added, “The Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Council (3rd, 68.37 per cent); Nigerian Export-Import Bank (4th, 64.59 per cent); and Corporate Affairs Commission (5th, 63.68 per cent).”
Oduwole said the report was released in line with PEBEC’s promise to continuously track and keep the business community updated on the compliance with the order on transparency and efficiency in the Nigerian business environment.
Recall that the Director General of SON, Mallam Farouk Salim, had always emphasised on the need for government agencies to be business facilitators rather than perceived as bottlenecks to the business community.
In this regard, SON recently commenced the digitalization of its process to fast track ease of doing business and seamless processes, thereby reducing Hunan touch.
SON has also stepped up its game by investing massively in laboratory testing and calibration and measurement process to advance testing of Nigerian products for local consumption and export.
This feat will help Nigeria participate actively in the African Continental Free Trade Agreement (AfCFTA).
On May 18, 2017, Executive Order 001 on Transparency and Efficiency in the Business Environment was issued as the current administration’s first executive order to strengthen the implementation of business climate reforms.
It was issued to also deepen collaboration among ministries, departments and agencies by instituting a systemic change management process for reforms.
