According to the Special Adviser to the
President on the Ease of Doing Business and Secretary, PEBEC, Dr. Jumoke
Oduwole, the published report is in line with the Council’s commitment to
continuously measure compliance to the Executive Order (EO1) on the Promotion
of Transparency and Efficiency in the Business Environment and to periodically
capture the footprint of the Federal Government’s reform agenda.
She said that an additional set of metrics
was introduced in the latest ranking to measure the performance of Ministries,
Departments and Agencies of Government with emphasis on functional Social Media
channels for communication, the incorporation of the website assessment ranking
of the Bureau for Public Service reforms as well as the Ethics and integrity
scale of the Independent Corrupt Practices and other Related Offences
Commission (ICPC) to further reduce the challenges faced by businesses and
boost the competitiveness of Nigerian made products.
Commenting on the award, SON
Director-General, Mallam Farouk Salim stated that his organisation is committed
to the promotion of domestic and foreign investments, creation of employment
opportunities and continuous stimulation of the national economy through the
diligent implementation of standardisation and quality assurance programmes in
line with the Federal Government’s Ease of Doing Business policy.
The SON helmsman emphasised that SON has
intensified efforts to remove product quality limitations and technical
barriers to trade (TBTs) while improving the competitiveness and market
acceptability of Made in Nigeria products locally and internationally.
According to him, the international
accreditation of SON laboratories, the continuous improvement of its training
and management system certification services and the ongoing automation of all
its services to stakeholders are aimed at greater efficiency, reduced
turnaround time and promotion of the Ease of Business in and with Nigeria.
Also speaking on the award, SON Desk
Officer, PEBEC, Mrs. Phebean Arumemi reiterated that the organization has
placed renewed emphasis on improving its technology edge through automation to
enhance its service delivery to Nigerians.
She stated that all SON conformity
assessment programmes are now accessible online and the organisation has
continually made efforts to improve on its service delivery, thus deserves the
high rating because it took a lot of re-engineering to get the organisation
where it is today.
“It shows what we are doing is right to
come tops for the years under review 2020/2021 out of over 34 Ministries,
Departments and Agencies and considering that this is the first time SON is
coming tops with a cumulative score of 78% since the inception having at
various times been 7th and 3rd positions, respectively,” she said.
Arumemi explained that the PEBEC rating
relates to the compliance of concerned MDAs with the government policy
directives on the ease of doing business which includes accessible service
charges, following set flow process, including timelines for fulfilling the
service level agreements and providing efficient services to the satisfaction
of the Customers particularly, Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs).