The Ogun State Commissioner for Industry, Trade and Investment, Mrs. Kikelomo Longe, has encouraged business owners in the state to embrace the state government’s automation policy on the Business Premises Permit registration by registering their businesses on the portal.
This was contained in a statement on Sunday jointly signed by the Press Officers of the Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment, Wale Osunbiyi & Ismail Oladipo.
According to the statement, Longe made the announcement in Abeokuta, the Ogun State capital, during a stakeholders engagement and training programme on the BPP automation.
The state government organized a program in partnership with the German Agency for International Cooperation for entrepreneurs in the Ogun Central Senatorial District.
She stated that both enterprises and the government benefit from registration.
The commissioner reinforced that the Business Premises Amended Law of 2006 was followed by the BPP registration, which is one of the strategies the current administration has implemented to make doing business easier.
According to Longe, registering on the portal would assist the government in better planning and collection of data on businesses operating in the state. Information from the database would also be used to contact registered businesses when interventions and programs were required.
She said the present administration’s drive to improve the ease of doing business through an automated process would make the process seamless, adding that the registration could be done online within a day instead of an average of 18 days when done manually.
She said, “As you know in Ogun State, the law requires that all entrepreneurs register their business premises and renew the registration annually. Before 2021, it used to be done manually. Now, with the portal, it can be done online at the convenience of business operators in the state. I encourage entrepreneurs to go online and register their businesses. It is to the benefit of all if you log on to the portal and process the business premises Permit.”
Also speaking, the Special Adviser to the Governor on Industry, Trade and Investment, Remi Ogunmefun, urged the participants to take advantage of the training programme to adequately understand the process involved in using the portal, assuring them that the government remains committed to supporting Micro, Small and Medium-scale Enterprises.
Earlier in her presentation, the Senior Special Assistant to the Governor on Industry, Trade and Investment, Ms. Sola Arobieke, had said the programme was put up to inform business operators about the benefits of registering on the portal and getting feedback from the stakeholders.
She said the automation would help eliminate any form of extortion of business owners, as well as help entrepreneurs register and renew their BPP in a transparent, fair and convenient manner.
In response to a request that the manual procedure continue, Arobieke asked the involved parties to take ownership of the automation process and adhere to international best practices, promising them that the ministry would offer pertinent technical support that would promptly address their needs.
The state coordinator for GIZ, Mr. Stephen Dada, stated in his welcoming speech that the organization had worked with the ministry to assist in training business operators on the Business Premises Permit Portal as well as other areas on the development of MSMEs.
