National Competitiveness Council of Nigeria hosts business community, Diplomatic Corps

Mordi

As part of activities scheduled for the first year of operations of the National Competitiveness Council of Nigeria (NCCN) which was inaugurated in February 2013, a Business Outreach event has been organised to introduce the Nigerian business and diplomatic community and key industry players to the Council’s competitiveness agenda as well as facilitate opportunities for collaboration towards positively transforming business productivity in Nigeria.

SHOWBIZPLUSng gathered that the event is scheduled for Friday, April 4^th, 2014, at the Southern Sun Hotel, Ikoyi. It will help raise awareness on competitiveness and its attendant effect on businesses operating in Nigeria. Furthermore, it will provide a platform to mobilise the private sector with input from government around developing and implementing a clear competitiveness agenda to boost the collective prosperity of Nigerians.  


Chika Mordi, the inaugural CEO of the Council states that, “Nigeria ranked 147 out of 189 on the 2014 World Bank’s Ease of Doing Business Report. This simply means that when measured against 189 global economies, many of whom are also African; our environment is more challenging for starting and growing businesses. Nigeria has one of the most entrepreneurial people on earth and a large domestic market. Poor competitiveness shackles our potential. Personally, I believe sustainable growth and poverty reduction can only come about by market-led growth. We need to build a business friendly environment to combat the problem of unemployment and secure our prosperity..  However, a high productivity environment can only be realised when the private and public sector come together to implement an agenda for competitiveness; to bridge the gap between opportunities and supporting infrastructure, bureaucracy and policies. This is the role of the NCCN; to facilitate that collaboration.”

The NCCN is structured to generate and sustain the national conversation around competitiveness; educate and inform on competitiveness and influence policy decisions; shape public opinion about competitiveness, raise awareness; consistently produce an annual national competitiveness report; and suggest ways through competitiveness initiatives to improve the economic environment in Nigeria with view to boosting national productivity and wealth. Already the NCCN constituted four working groups to tackle the areas of Human Capital and Innovation; Tax, trade and business enablement, Security, Country image and Corruption; and Bureaucracy, titling and Judiciary. The committees are chaired by Omobola Johnson, Minister of ICT, Alhaji Aliko Dangote, Frank Nweke II and Chief Kola Jamodu.