All is set for the Presidential Enabling Business Environment Council (PEBEC) awards billed to hold today, Wednesday, April 26, 2023. The Council will recognise and honour states with the highest scores based on empirical data from micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) in the 2021 and 2023 subnational ease of doing business ranking it conducted recently.
PEBEC will also honour ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs), as well as private sector stakeholders who have made significant contributions to the ease of doing business interventions.
Top on the list of those to receive the awards is Gombe State which was announced as the number one state in the Ease of Doing Business in Nigeria for the second year running.
When PEBEC released the second edition of the Subnational Ease of Doing Business Report for 2023, Gombe State won the highest points, leading the 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory.
This is the second time Gombe will clinch the first position, having emerged the overall best last year when PEBEC released the 2022 Ease of Doing Business report.
According to the PEBEC report, Gombe scored 7.15 to emerge as the state providing the friendliest environment for business. It is being followed by Jigawa State which got a weighted score of 6.79 while Sokoto State with 6.88 score comes third.
An arriving at its ranking, PEBEC looked at six indicators, namely Infrastructure; Secure and Stable Environment; Transparency and Accessibility of Information; Regulatory Environment; Skills and Labour and Economic Opportunity.Gombe State excelled in all the parameters.
Each of the 36 States was rated on a 10-point scale across the indicators, providing the basis for calculating the 2023 weighted EoDB score for each state.Gombe came first.
Retaining the number one spot in the Ease of Doing Business in Nigeria in 2021 and 2023 is asymptomatic of purposeful leadership. It is an unassailable attestation to the stoic but robust leadership qualities and political dynamism of Governor Muhammadu Inuwa Yahaya.
Inuwa Yahaya is fast becoming the proverbial Midas whose hand turns to gold whatever he touches.
Any feat you can perform brilliantly more than once, is certainly a feat you have mastery of. Let’s give it to Governor Inuwa. He is simply a man driven by excellence and accomplishments. He is always hitting the bull’s eye. Under his leadership, Gombe State has been winning over and over.
Regarding the building of a business friendly environment capable of attracting investment,Gombe State has proven once again that it is the state to beat in Nigeria at the moment.
Even during the Covid 19 pandemic, when the whole world was sullen and in utter confusing disposition, Inuwa Yahaya’s management of the pandemic season attracted the attention of World Health Organization for his pragmatic approach to the execution and management of the challenges of the moments. No wonder he was invited to the internationally acclaimed political podium of Chatham House in the United Kingdom to share his Universal Health Coverage with the world.
Winning Nigeria’s Best State in the Ease of Doing Business didn’t come by luck. It is a product of a man who thinks on the move.
Inuwa Yahaya is a man of coordinate vision. He is a good strategist, validated economic policy formulator and astute manager of men and resources.
Nothwitstanding the fact that Gombe State is among the lowest in revenue allocation from the Federal Government, Inuwa has brought to bear his shrewd financial private sector acumen on the fortune of Gombe State. He has set up a management team of highly technocratic and seasoned professionals who understand all his developmental nuances.
His policy frameworks coupled with finicky attention to accomplishments have laid a good economic blueprint for the State and everything else just seem to be falling in line. Shoddiness has no place in Inuwa Yahaya’s administration.
Excellence has been enthroned in Gombe State civil service which is tech-driven. Although Governor Inuwa Yahaya may be happy at this achievement, it is obvious that the hardwork, commitment and financial prudence he has invested in Gombe State is yielding positive results.
Winning the Ease of Doing Business a record second time perhaps explains why despite all the political hoopla he encountered in the build up to the elections, he never deterred. He is a man on target for a monumental development of Gombe State.
For the three times Governor of the Year award winner, Inuwa Yahaya is deliberate in all his ways. He doesn’t leave anything to chance. And he is never complacent, always pressing fully the throttle of progress until he turns the Jewel in the Savannah into a jewel after the heart of national and international investors.
All the poorly performing sectors at the inception of his leadership have felt the golden touch of Inuwa Yahaya’s pragmatism.
You can actually feel the openness that pervades the overall governance of Gombe State.
The Civil Service structure in Gombe State is technologically driven which has gone a long way in eliminating redtapeism and unnecessary bureaucratic bottle necks that often slows down business processes elsewhere.
Training and retraining of civil servants and e-governance model introduced by the current administration have helped tremendously in making the State a very business friendly one.
Inuwa Yahaya has changed the economic trajectory of the state he met in financial tatters almost four years ago. All the econometric indices in the State now speak eloquently to the merit of the Ease of Doing Business award. Gombe has in place the winning geometry.
Under Governor Inuwa Yahaya, for the first time in the history of Gombe State a 10-Year Development Plan template has been put in place and is being implemented meticulously.
The macroeconomic effects of the development plan is already beginning to have a ripple effect as a driver for all the sub sectors in a beneficial symbiosis and enviable seamlessness.
Gombe now has a 1000 hectare Industrial Park located in a serenaded area of Dadinkowa initiated by Inuwa Yahaya.
Gombe State had its first Investment Summit tagged Goinvest 2022. It was a huge success that attracted a potpourri of investors into the State. Attestation from the Investment Summit may have significantly impacted on the chances of the State winning this year’s Ease of Doing Business number one position.
No financial statistician or serious minded entrepreneur will look away from the oil exploration potential of Gombe State.
The Kolmani Integrated Project flagged off by President Muhammadu Buhari has garnered a momentum of business interest towards the state, coupled with the fact of the State being the Safest in Northern Nigeria today, Gombe is always in the news for the best reasons.
Gombe has worked diligently in retaining its first position, by not resting on its oars but rather firing up the steam of excellence in every sector that’s necessary.
Gombe State has a peculiarity of road network programme called Network Eleven-100 under which each of the 11 local governments in the State will have at least a hundred kilometers of road. This spectacular road network has heralded the opening up of all the State’s business interconnectivity by roads. Farmers and other businesses are the better for Inuwa Yahaya’s infrastructural strides.
Winning the Ease of Doing Business by Gombe State comes with some benefits.
The ranking of a state is projected by the national governments as a major economic achievement. For Gombe State therefore the award is a significant development milestone.
The Ease of Doing Business evaluation is indicative of relative openness of the business environment in the state and an indicator for investment destination.
Coming top in the Ease of Doing Business for Gombe is signpost for rapid industrialization of the Jewel in the Savannah which has recorded historic economic leaps to the credit of Inuwa Yahaya’s administration.
The award underscores the huge economic and industrial revolution taking place in Gombe State in the current political dispensation.
Gombe State has played host to many investors in the last three and a half years owing to the peaceful and pleasant environment of the State.
It is often said that the result of hard work is further hardwork the next four years of Inuwa Yahaya’s administration promises to be a revolutionary one never witnessed by the state.
The state will strive to consolidate its promising status of the best investment destination as well as sustaining this economic triumph of the State that is fast becoming a model of economic flourishing in Nigeria.
– Misilli is Director-General, Press Affairs, Government House Gombe
