Nigeria’s Vice President, Kashim Shettima, has implored state governments, ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs) of the Nigerian government, the organised private sector, and other stakeholders to do more in advancing the business environment in Nigeria.
He made the call on Tuesday in Abuja during the PEBEC Gala and Awards Night organised by the Presidential Enabling Business Environment Council (PEBEC) to celebrate exceptional public service delivery, reform excellence, and collaborative efforts towards improving Nigeria’s business environment.
The Vice President acknowledged the successes recorded this year, describing them as “the triumph of collaboration over silos,” while emphasising that when the 36 states of the federation, MDAs, development partners, and other critical sectors commit to working together across the board, it becomes a big win for Nigeria.
He said, “The end of this night does not signal the end of your pursuit of excellence because excellence is a culture, not an event. It lives only where it is nurtured. And so, in the new year, let us do even more to advance the reform agenda for Nigeria’s business environment.
“Let us build a nation where efficiency is normal, where transparency is routine, and where excellence is the governing creed of public service.”
The Vice President underscored the importance of working as a team, noting that while every organisation reflects the kind of people within it, the people cannot “achieve excellence in a vacuum.”
VP Shettima said excellence is cultivated, “the result of choices, of discipline, of a refusal to settle for the bare minimum,” adding that it is not something that is inherited.
He said that it is for this reason that the Gala and Awards Night was organised “to honour the belief that public service can and must be synonymous with excellence.”
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Reminding stakeholders that the ball is in their court to make a difference, the VP said, “President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has laid the critical foundation for the reforms required to reset our economy, and the success of this depends on the awardees we celebrate tonight.”
“Your dedication and excellence embody the spirit of this administration’s Renewed Hope Agenda. You represent the very best of our public sector, and your work is the foundation upon which our nation’s prosperity is built,” he added.
VP Shettima described the Gala and Awards Night as “a celebration of public servants across Nigeria who have refused to accept mediocrity as our national ceiling,” by working hard to actualise the ongoing reforms undertaken by the Tinubu administration.
Acknowledging that there has been interagency collaboration on reforms that rapidly improve the nation’s business environment, the Vice President cited the establishment of the Ports and Customs Efficiency Committee (PCEC), which he said is “already bearing significant fruit through joint inspection procedures at the ports.”
The Deputy Chief of Staff to the President, Ibrahim Hadejia, said that under the leadership of Vice President Shettima, PEBEC has continued to deliver reforms that are incrementally impacting businesses in different sectors across the country.
Achievements
The Director-General of PEBEC, Zahrah Audu, outlined some of the achievements recorded by the agency in the past year through deliberate and result-oriented collaboration to transform operations across MDAs, noting that reform is embedded and remains a critical component of PEBEC’s service delivery.
She added that the scope of PEBEC’s achievements under the current dispensation reflects the depth of partnership established and nurtured by management with critical stakeholders across the country over the past months.
The high point of the occasion was the unveiling of the 2025 Business Facilitation Act (BFA) Compliance Report and the Subnational Ease of Doing Business Report, as well as the presentation of various categories of awards, including access to justice; legislative trailblazer; leadership of action; business advocacy and partnership, among others.