The Presidential Enabling Business Environment Council (PEBEC), in furtherance of its mandate to foster a conducive environment for businesses across Nigeria, held a Nationwide Town-Hall and Stakeholder Engagement in conjunction with the State Action on Business Enabling Reform (SABER) on Friday, 27th June 2025 at the Banquet Hall, Government House, Lokoja, Kogi State. The engagement was convened to interact directly with stakeholders, MSME community, regulatory agencies, reform experts, and the general public, with the aim of identifying bureaucratic bottlenecks in the business environment and co-creating solutions for improved service delivery and ease of doing business at both national and subnational levels. At the end of the strategic engagement, the following resolutions were passed:
1. That a Joint Task Force will be constituted to follow up on actionable points raised during the engagement.
2. Heads of relevant agencies made commitments to acting on specific challenges raised, including improved timelines, customer service and reduction of bureaucratic bottlenecks.
3. Regular stakeholder engagements at the subnational level will be institutionalized for transparency and inclusivity.
4. The PEBEC Secretariat will publish a post-engagement report with timelines and assigned responsibilities for identified reforms.
5. Kogi State is selected to serve as a pilot state for the subnational Ease of Doing Business Monitoring Framework in North-Central Nigeria.
6. A follow-up taskforce is to be constituted to track implementation of agreed reforms for compliance, for instance in the tax environment.
7. Adoption of a continuous feedback loop between regulators and the business community.
8. Ministry of Commerce & Industry and Kogi State Internal Revenue Service (KGIRS) to have an active Grievance Redress Mechanism (GRM), and the former to fully automate their processes like KGIRS has done.
9. The representative of Kogi State Investment Promotion and Public Private Partnership Agency (KOSIPPPPA) made a commitment to making the state website on ease of doing business deliverables more robust and user-friendly for investors, strengthening the one-stop-shop initiative to deepen inter-agency collaboration and investor confidence.
10. A platform for reporting complaints and compliance in the MDAs to be set up and functional to ensure responsibilities are carried out efficiently.
11. Uploads are to be relevant to timeframes overspent timeframes on the website are to be removed.
12. MDAs to have in – person meeting with the representative(s) from the PEBEC Secretariat in Abuja, to help guide the State to succeed with PEBEC.
13. For statewide publicity of reforms, more billboards are to be installed and production of radio jingles in local dialects for the rural areas, while keeping live data of recalcitrant areas.
14. To create an Aftercare and Retention Programme to be included in the corporate plan for Year three of the PEBEC/SABER program.
15. Investment Promotion Agency (IPA) incentives and support (for existing investors) are to be publicized with evidence to ensure the facilitation of investment and be submitted on or before 25th December 2025
Conclusion
The engagement reaffirmed the collective commitment of government and stakeholders to providing and sustaining a business enabling environment in Kogi State and across Nigeria. PEBEC thanked the Kogi State Government for hosting the event and stakeholders for their active participation and constructive contributions.
Issued this 28th day of June 2025
At Lokoja, Kogi State
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Signed: Kogi State Action on Business Enabling Reform (SABER) 08035867622
