FG Approves $750m World Bank-Backed Business Reform Programme

The National Economic Council (NEC) has approved a $750m World Bank-backed State Action on Business Enabling Reforms (SABER) programme.

The Secretary of Presidential Enabling Business Environment Council (PEBEC), Dr. Jumoke Oduwole, who disclosed this, yesterday, said the $750 million financing amounts to 36 per cent of the $2 billion government SABER programme (2022 – 2025), which represents the aggregate recurrent expenditure of key Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) at the federal and state levels across the country.

Oduwole, who is also the Special Adviser to the President on Ease of Doing Business, said the SABER programme is a three-year performance-based intervention jointly designed by the World Bank Technical Team and the PEBEC secretariat with support from the Federal Ministry of Finance, Budget and National Planning (FMFBNP) Home Finance Department and the Nigeria Governors’ Forum (NGF) secretariat.

She added that the initiative would give expression to the Ease of Doing Business (EoDB) mandate articulated in the Economic Recovery and Growth Plan (ERGP), which was subsequently retained in the National Development Plan (NDP), aimed at generating 21 million full-time jobs and lifting 35 million people out of poverty by 2025.

“In addition to the already-existing PEBEC-NEC subnational intervention, the SABER programme seeks to provide additional incentives, such as using results-based financing targeted at improving the business environment and facilitating crowding in of private sector investments at scale.

“The eligibility criteria for the programme include developing an annual action plan with private sector collaborators to be approved by the State Executive Council and published online. Recommendations from the second Subnational EoDB Report, due to be released in October 2022, are also expected to be considered,” she said.

Oduwole, disclosed that the Council had been collaborating with the World Bank to develop the SABER programme, adding that the SABER programme consists of two main areas – $730 million Programme-for-Results (PforR) and $20 million for Technical Assistance.