The Edo state government in partnership with the Pro-Poor Growth and Promotion of Employment in Nigeria – SEDIN Programme, an initiative of the German organization, Deutsche Gesellschaft fur InternationaleZusammenarbeit (GIZ), held a technical session on Monday, March 21, 2022, to brainstorm on how to eliminate barriers militating against investments in the state.
Welcoming guests to the event which was held at the New Festival Hall, Government House, Benin City, the state capital, Mr. Kelvin Uwaibi, Managing Director, Edo State Investment Promotion Office, said the purpose of the technical session was to highlight the importance of creating an enabling environment for businesses to thrive in the state.
He assured participants of government’s commitment to ensuring that businesses in the state are done with ease and expressed optimism about his agency’s efforts at ensuring the state is highly ranked in the ease of doing business index.
He added that the session was also conceived to serve as an engagement platform for government and business owners.
In her remarks, the Commissioner for Industry, Trade and Co-operatives, Afishetu Braimoh, expressed satisfaction with the efforts of the state government towards job creation, and in creating an enabling environment for businesses in the state to thrive.
She expressed government’s readiness to getting products made in the state to compete in the global market.
On her part, the State Co-ordinator, GIZ SEDIN, Blessing Oluwatosin Ajimoti, intimated participants of the objective of the organization and its achievements in the state thus far.
She said: “Our focus generally is on Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs), investment promotion, policies for enabling environment and the likes.
“Our objective essentially is to support the MSMEs to grow their income, and when we support them to grow their income, the expansion of the businesses, which is as a result of the growth in income, will actually lead to the creation of jobs and then drive social mobility in Edo State, and bring people out of poverty and also provide economic opportunities generally.”
She added: “We also work across value chains; in fact, the two value chains we are currently working on in Edo state are the cassava value chain and the E-Commerce/the digital economy value chain. Of course, there are going to be opportunities to expand to other value chains in the future, but those are the ones we have started with”.
The Commissioner for Communication and Orientation, Adaze Emwanta; Special Adviser to the Governor on Strategy, Policy, Projects and Performance Management, Mrs. Sarah Esangbedo Ajose-Adeogun; Commissioner for Public Security, Omololu Ojehomon; President, Benin Chamber of Commerce, Industry, Mines and Agriculture (BENCCIMA), Aina Omo-Ojeonu; took turns to explain the relationship between their portfolios and the business environment in the state, and efforts being made by their respective ministries to enhance businesses.
Speaking during the panel discussion session, Mrs Ajose-Adeogun, emphasized the need for clarity of vision when carrying out reforms.
She said: “I think the first thing is clarity of vision. Knowing what your goals are. What you want to achieve in the different areas of doing business, and then having the courage, the people and the knowledge to be able to achieve the set business.
She continued: “For us in Edo State, what does this mean? We have clarity to say what we want to achieve to be able to take advantage or harness this ease of doing business in Edo State. What are the different indexes in the different sectors that we want to measure, and working with EDSIPO we have been able to come up with metrics in different areas.
“But from the way we have set up government, we are not just doing these in isolation, we have set up performance management team that is helping us now to ensure the different agencies responsible for these are actually putting this into their score cards, and as a state we can then measure our ability to meet the defined metrics or templates that we have agreed to.”
According to the commissioner for industry, trade and investment, the state government is working assiduously to create the enabling environment for policies.
She added: “We want to look at infrastructure, security and all of the major elements that will allow someone to do business with ease in the state. Another issue is how to make investment possible, interesting, and fun and of course, enterprising for other people to come into the state to do business.”
By Nosakhare Agbonigiarhuoyi
