Nigeria: FG intervention initiative to aid large and medium industries

The federal government has planned to launch the Business Champion Programme, an intervention package aimed at large and medium-scale businesses. Dr. Jumoke Oduwole, the Special Adviser to the President of the Presidential Enabling Business Environment Council (PEBEC) and Investment, announced this initiative as one of the five strategic pillars that PEBEC will focus on.

Speaking about the programme, she noted: “Having worked with MSMEs for a few years, we realised that while systemic interventions from working on airports and seaports, we must be more targeted. The Business Champion intervention targets medium to larger-sized industries and there are two parts to that programme. The first part is to work with medium-sized enterprises and have a pilot programme of about 25 of them.” 

She stated that the Business Champion Programme will select businesses based on criteria such as revenue, tax contributions, job creation, and export proceeds. The intervention is designed as a bespoke service to assist chosen companies in navigating the business environment from the government’s perspective.

Continuing the discussion on the intervention, Oduwole emphasized that only 23 companies in Nigeria have annual revenues exceeding $1 billion. The intervention is specifically directed at these high-revenue companies.

“Out of the 334 $1 billion companies in revenue in Africa, only 23 are in Nigeria,” she lamented.   She noted that the decision to change models stems from the observation that larger businesses exhibit an ‘osmosis’ effect, leading to the clustering of stakeholders. She added: “It was determined that we will need to have this new approach to move faster and to grow the economy faster in these turbulent times.”

Oduwole also noted that on the legislative front, there will be a further review of the Omnibus bill, emphasizing the collaborative efforts of various Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) who volunteered their expertise to review approximately 21 business laws in 2023, culminating in the formation of the 2023 Omnibus bill, adding that another round of reviews is slated for 2024 to create a new Omnibus bill.

source: guardian.ng