APBN decries bureaucracy in getting Building approvals, Land titles

President/ chairman of Association of Professional Bodies of Nigeria (APBN), Dr. Idris Omede has decried the delays on issuance of land titles, with a call that the ease of doing business through the Economic Recovery and Growth Plan (ERGP) should address the challenges.

This is even as he disclosed that genuine government action to reactivate and reinvigorate Ajaokuta steel company in Kogi state would provide many public and private sector benefits to Nigerians and the international communities.

He stated this in Abuja during the 7th summit of professionals organised by APBN with the theme, ‘Private Sector Participation as a Panacea for Sustainable Growth & Development: The Road Map’.

APBN is the apex organisation comprising of 30 professional bodies whose main objective is to provide Nigeria with an effective forum for transmitting to government the aggregate views of professionals on matters of public interest.

The president was hopeful that collaborative efforts with the private sector would provide window of opportunities in ameliorating contending national challenges, assuring that professionals would continue to consistently apply ethics, ethical standard, code of conduct and obedience to laid down rules and regulations for the benefit of Nigerians.

He lamented that many private sector businesses and economic ventures in Nigeria carry out suboptimal performance as a result of both internal and external bottlenecks and bureaucratic red-tapism.

Omede encouraged professionals and politicians to emphasize more on skills, competence and merit that would add value to the system despite the existence of quota system, federal character and other considerations.

He stated that industrial breakthrough in developed nations was coordinated and predicated by the intervention of the private sector adding that Nigeria being the world’s biggest black population and Africa’s largest economy cannot continue to lag behind.

The president enjoined Nigerian leaders to imbibe the tenets of hard work, determination, and commitment, stressing that digital literacy, Information Communication Technology (ICT), agriculture, constant power and globally competitive infrastructure are critical for sustainable development in addition to good education and qualitative healthcare.

On his part, the acting director general/ chief executive officer of Infrastructure Concession and Regulatory Commission (ICRC), Engr. Chidi Izuwah sought for Public-Private Partnership (PPP) in the management of infrastructure, which he said would create jobs through toll fees collected on the roads.

In his presentation titled, ‘Attraction of Public-Private Partnership for Transportation Infrastructure’, he enjoined government to lead in the construction of rail infrastructure and attract the private sector for further investment.

However, in a communique signed by Omede and APBN secretary-general, Surv. Olumide Adewebi, the body called on government to support the private sector in the provision of infrastructure.

It said for sustainable growth and development in the country that government should provide the enabling environment for the private sector (both the Small and Medium Enterprises SMEs) to lead in economic development.

The experts enjoined federal government to simplify the SMEs accessibility through the removal of unnecessary bottlenecks such as multiple taxations, bureaucratic interferences and red-tapes.

The communique added that since economic growth is largely dependent on transport infrastructure through Public Private Partnership (PPP) that government should encourage private sector participation in the execution of its projects.

The experts advocated the restructuring of healthcare delivery by enabling the private sector to play a prominent role in such services adding that inflation could be used as an important tool to stimulate growth as done in some countries. The communique pointed out that a sustainable economy cannot be based on a resource that is non-renewable.

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Credit: Leadership