President Muhammadu Buhari has approved the formation of a Presidential Commission on ease of doing business in Nigeria, Vice President, Professor Yemi Osinbajo, said on Monday.
A statement by a spokesman for the Vice President, Laolu Akande, said Professor Osinbajo announced the approval of the commission while presiding over the first Quarterly Consultation between the presidency and the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN) on Friday afternoon.
Professor Osinbajo said: “The commission will have a secretariat to be headed by a private sector professional”.
He explained that the chair would lead the secretariat of the Presidential Commission that would now pay even greater attention and focus to the issues of doing business in Nigeria.
At the consultation, MAN raised among many concerns, their worries about cases of multiple taxation. In response, the Vice President promised to follow-up on the matter.
Professor Osinbajo said: “One of the key issues the presidential commission which I am heading would be looking at is the case of multiple taxation. This is also an issue that the Ministry of Trade and Investment is also actively engaged with”.
Economic Sabotage
At the end of the meeting, the President of MAN, Dr. Udemba Jacobs while speaking with reporters expressed concern about the acts of vandalism regarding the nation’s oil and gas installations in Niger Delta, describing such as economic sabotage.
“The association is happy about what the Federal Government is doing, but we are concerned about what is happening in the Niger Delta area which is a kind of sabotaging the economic activities of government and therefore we want to call on them to lay down their arms in the interest of the country,” Dr Jacobs appealed.
He called on the militants to join hands with the government and move the Nigeria forward.
The MAN President stated that diversification of the economy was the best way to go now, given what is happening in internationally.
He said the association was “keying” into the government policy in terms of diversification of the economy by doing their best to increase the capacity of production.
There have been resurgence of militancy in the Niger Delta region of Nigeria, with attacks on oil and gas installations.
A group that calls itself the Niger Delta Avengers has claimed responsibility for most of the attacks that have forced some companies to shut down production.
