The Vice President, Senator Kashim Shettima, has implored Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) of government as well as members of the Presidential Enabling Business Environment Council (PEBEC) to deepen synergy in order to ensure an enabling business environment in Nigeria.
According to him, the administration of President Bola Tinubu remained resolute in its commitment to its eight-point Renewed Hope agenda, which he said is central to a robust, streamlined business environment that supports the ease of doing business in Nigeria.
Speaking on Wednesday during the close of the PEBEC Retreat for heads of MDAs and MDA Reform Champions in Abuja, Vice President Shettima, in a statement by his spokesman, Stanley Nkwocha, noted that the goal was to make sure Nigeria remains an attractive destination for investors.
He stated: “This retreat was convened by the Presidential Enabling Business Environment Council (PEBEC), an institution I am privileged to chair, not just to review reform progress, but to deepen something even more critical: synergy.
“The business of government is too complex to be solved in silos. We cannot afford the luxury of working in isolation, while the problems we are tasked to solve are increasingly intertwined.
“What PEBEC has demonstrated since its inception is that collaborative governance works. It has brought together MDAs with overlapping mandates and divergent processes and shown that when there is shared vision and collective will, we can simplify procedures, harmonise timelines, and build trust in our institutions.”
The Vice President told participants that the decisions they have made at the retreat must “reflect a commitment to collaboration, innovation, and interagency progress, translating into measurable improvements in how the government serves the people of Nigeria.”
This, he said, can only be achieved through trust, which, according to him, is the most valuable currency in governance, adding that without trust, no reform will stand the test of time.
The VP declared that the era of buck-passing on the mandates of government was over, adding that it was time to end the bureaucratic turf.
He maintained: “The time for bureaucratic turf wars is over. Nigeria’s economic and social future depends on what we, the stewards of public institutions, choose to do today.
“Our citizens are watching. Our investors are waiting. And time is not on our side. We must move from policy to performance. From ambition to execution. From silos to synergy. This retreat and further engagements must birth a culture of action, accountability, and cross-agency collaboration.
“Our people deserve efficient, transparent, and responsive public institutions. Whether they are trying to register a business, clear cargo, obtain a regulatory permit, or access a government service, they must not be lost in a maze of red tape. We must collectively simplify processes, eliminate duplication, and leverage technology to improve transparency and turnaround times”.
VP Shettima further urged heads of MDAs to prioritise joint planning, data sharing, and common KPIs where their work intersects, just as he enjoined them to break what he described as the culture of “this is not my mandate.”
“Let us embrace interagency task teams for critical reforms, rather than rely on isolated mandates. Where conflicts arise, resolve them through dialogue. Where gaps exist, close them with innovation. And where progress is made, institutionalise it. This is how we build a government that works, not in fragments, but in sync,” he stated.
