FIC Report (Oyo State) – The Presidential Enabling Business Environment Council (PEBEC), in Ibadan, the Oyo State capital, has held a technical session on the Ease of doing business in the country, an initiative of the government of the President Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
The technical meeting, which was organized collaboratively with the Oyo State Action Business Enabling Reforms(SABER), was in the series of awareness and technical interaction organised by PEBEC for the 36 states of the Federation and the the Federal Capital Territory(FCT).
The Ibadan session was a townhall meeting with the public and private sector stakeholders engagement, held on Saturday 28th June, 2025. The event, which was held the Western Hall, the Parliament building of the Oyo State House of Assembly (OYHA), Secretariat, Ibadan, started about 10:30 am.
At the meeting were top government officials, representatives of various ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs) in the state, as well as private stakeholders.
In the opening address, the state host, the Honorable commissioner for budget and economic planning, Prof. Babatunde Musibau, he stated that businesses should be streamlined and “we should be well informed of our business environment”, urging that small and medium scale enterprise should carry out strategic reform in order for the business to grow.
The PEBEC’s Resource person, a senior reform leader at PEBEC, Hajia Hussaina Abdulkadir, who led the PEBEC team to Ibadan, welcomed all the participants to the technical session. She highlighted the importance of the technical meeting, stating that the PEBEC partnership with State Action on Business enabling reforms (SABER) was aimed at the streamlining of processes of business registrations, reducing of bureaucratic hurdles ,and creating a more attractive environment for both local and international investors.
Mrs. Abdulkadir mentioned the key components of SABER in Oyo State which includes land , administration, business enabling infrastructure, which she said were aimed at creating sustainability for large scale investments, involving stakeholders engagement in Oyo State to identify challenges and develop effective solutions.
The permanent Secretary, Ministry of Budget and Economic planning, Mr .T.J. Ayanleke, while addressing the technical session, outlined the elements of the Oyo State Ease of Doing Business initiative. Mr. Ayanleke said that, Ibadan, the state capital, is the second fastest growing city on the Africa continent. This he said was according to the UN human settlements Research programme (2002) while the state is ranked third in West Africa in the tech start up index.
The Permanent Secretary gave the state focal Key Economic sectors as
- Agriculture
- Solid Minerals
- Trade, Commerce and Industries
- Energy
- Real Estate and Property Development
- Culture and Tourism
According to him, the Oyo State economic profile were based on
• Access to World class educational and research institutions (UNIBADAN , NISER, IITA, Etc.)
• A number of natural tourist attractions
• Large deposits of solid mineral resources
• Standard Gauge Rail networks to Lagos Sea port
• Large arable land – 28,484.5km (approximately 10,466 square miles)
Mr Ayanleke, also stated how Oyo state is actively working to improve its business environment, evidenced by policy reforms and strategic initiatives aimed at attracting investors and fostering entrepreneurship. “The state has improved from it’s national ranking for ease of Doing Business, moving from 27th to 17th place”.
Highlighting the state indices of economic profile, he said that the state achievement in the following areas as
. Peace and security
- Facilitating business registration
- Simplification of tax system, and
- Infrastructural Development, as what has contributed to ease of business environment in the state.
In the closing remarks by Mrs. Saratu Adamu, a team member of PEBEC, Mrs Saratu Adamu, PEBEC reassured the MDAs in the state, private sector participants and other stakeholders, of all the technical supports needed in achieving the year 3 deliverables stated above.
Signed
Temitope Oyewole,
SIO&PRO, Edited by Moses Oyelade, AD(I&PR),
FIC, Ibadan.
