The Presidential Enabling Business Environment Council, on Tuesday, called on the National Identity Management Commission to review its newly introduced charge of N1,000 for National Identification Number integration and verification for each Nigerian passport applicant.
PEBEC made the call in a statement issued in Abuja and signed by the Special Adviser to the President on Ease of Doing Business/PEBEC Secretary, Jumoke Oduwole.
The statement read in part, “PEBEC has taken note of the recent announcement by the NIMC on the introduction of a new charge of N1,000 for NIN integration and verification for each Nigerian passport applicant, with effect from April 1, 2023 and urges NIMC to review the new regulation through the lens of making it faster and cheaper to access government services.”
It stated that while the framework with the Nigerian Immigration Service to improve the quality of passport services through the verification of NIN, as stated by the NIMC, was a welcome development, the additional cost for each applicant had not been well received by stakeholders.
Oduwole noted that further to the provisions of the Business Facilitation (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 2022, which was signed into law by the President on February 8, 2023, where an applicant required service from a ministry, department or agency, the MDA was mandated to conduct the necessary verification or certification from relevant MDAs, in respect of the applicant.
On May 18, 2017, Executive Order 001 on transparency and efficiency in the business environment was issued as the current administration’s first executive order.
It was issued to strengthen the implementation of business climate reforms and to deepen collaboration among ministries, departments and agencies, by instituting a systemic change management process for reforms.
EO1 mandates MDAs to submit monthly reports to the PEBEC Secretariat, the offices of the Head of Service of the Federation, Secretary to the Government of the Federation, and SERVICOM.
On March 9, PEBEC released its 2022 Executive Order 001 Compliance Report, in line with its promise to continuously track and keep the business community updated on the compliance with the executive order
In the last six years, PEBEC consistently published the EO1 Compliance Report, which captures a periodic empirical analysis of the monthly reports received from MDAs.
The council, chaired by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, was established in July 2016 by the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), to remove critical bottlenecks and bureaucratic constraints to doing business in Nigeria.
