Osinbajo: Govt Has Broken Bureaucratic Obstacle with Ease of Doing Business Initiative

*Justifies rise in fintech since 2015 

*Backs proposed Ondo deep seaport project

Deji Elumoye in Abuja

The Vice President, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo yesterday said the federal government has broken the nation’s bureaucratic hurdles with the ease-of-doing-business initiative.

Osinbajo said this at the State House, Abuja, while playing host to some of the participants at the ongoing Nigeria Diaspora Investment Summit (NDIS) led by Chairman/ CEO, Nigerians in Diaspora Commission (NiDCOM), Abike Dabiri-Erewa and the Acting Governor of Ondo State, Mr. Lucky Orimisan Ayedatiwa.
In a statement by his spokesman, Laolu Akande, Osinbajo observed that the challenges involved in working through a bureaucracy accustomed to being more of an obstacle than a facilitator.

He however added that, “we are breaking that – bureaucracy is everywhere and tends to be that way and after a while, regulators (of businesses) don’t recognise anymore that the reason they are there is to facilitate business. They are more policemen than facilitators.”
The vice president also acknowledged that some regulators were beginning to understand that the economy depends on how well they do their work and how easy it is for people to come through their gates and leave their gates with some success.

According to him: “There is a great deal more attention being paid to achieving something and we have had discussions with several of the regulators including the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN and National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control, NAFDAC. We have seen substantial changes in their approach and attitude.

“For example, if you recall, if you were doing any sort of banking business, you need to take a banking license of N25 billion. CBN in response to some of the work being done agreed that for many financial intermediary services, there was a need to create other licenses that were not that expensive.
“We have about six categories of licenses where, in some cases, you don’t pay up to a N100 million. This is why we were able to get a lot of these fintechs between 2015 and now, taking these cheaper licenses because a lot of them do financial intermediation on electronic platforms, doing payment processes. There are quite a few of them, but 5 of them are now considered unicorns, companies’ worth over $1 billion.”

Osinbajo also welcomed the idea of the possibility of venture capitalists in the diaspora willing to invest in start-ups in the country.
Earlier in her remarks, Dabiri-Erewa, said through the intervention of the Nigeria Diaspora Investment Summit, “in the last five years, we have had investments, particularly in the area of agriculture, medicare, ICT and education.”
In a related development, Osinbajo has lent his support for the initiative to build a seaport in Ondo State saying he believed the project is something worth being executed.

He said this at the State House, Abuja, while receiving on audience the Acting Governor of Ondo State, Mr. Lucky Orimisan Ayedatiwa.
Ondo State Governor Oluwarotimi Akeredolu had been promoting the vision of the state government on the development of a deep seaport in Ilaje area of Ondo advocating the adoption of public private partnership, involving the federal government in order to realise the vision.
Speaking earlier, the acting governor sought the support of Osinbajo in securing the approval of the Federal Executive Council regarding the Ondo Deep Seaport Project.