By Awaal Gata
On behalf of Niger Coalition of Business and Professional Associations, the Centre for International Private Enterprises (CIPE) has concluded arrangements and slated November 17 to hold a one-day workshop for top media executives in Minna, the capital of Niger state.
The workshop, according to the organisers, will focus on “bridging the knowledge-gap in the top echelon of the media on the ‘Role of Business Associations in a Democratic Society and how BMOs and Media can work together.”
CIPE is one of the four core institutes of the National Endowment for Democracy. Since 1983, CIPE has worked with business leaders, policymakers, and journalists to build the civic institutions vital to a democratic society.
CIPE’s key programme areas include Anti-corruption, Advocacy, Business Associations, Corporate Governance, Democratic Governance, Access to Information, the Informal sector and Property rights, and Women and Youth.
Since 2008, Center for International Private Enterprise (CIPE) has substantially built the capacity of seven state-based Coalitions of Business and Professional Associations (COBPAs) and national businesswomen’s coalition, the Association of Nigerian Women Business Network (ANWBN) to drive grassroots advocacy reforms for their members.
As a direct result of CIPE’s work, the COBPAs and ANWBN have successfully advocated for market-oriented reforms through single-issue advocacy campaigns. Some of these successes included the reduction of multiple and illicit taxation, reducing unnecessary and burdensome regulations, security improvements for businesses in select areas, reduction of corruption within public agencies, and increasing access to credit for micro, small, and medium enterprises.
As a result of these initiatives, Policy makers now have increased awareness of the private sector’s important role in policy reform. In the states where CIPE’s partner coalitions exist and among allies in the national parliament, elected officials now seek to collaborate with private sector partners to form policy and legislation that creates a more enabling business environment.
The coalitions are in the process of developing Business Agendas (BAs) for their respective constituencies in a multi phased project. Business agendas are important tools that allow private sector actors to collectively identify and discuss the obstacles to the development and growth of the business sector, and propose potential solutions to those problems. Business agendas can be developed at the national (NBA), regional (RBA) and state (SBA) levels.
Over the past year, CIPE worked with the coalitions in the Phase I of the Business Agendas development project to execute some activities including the Identification of Priority Issues affecting the growth of Business activities, Conduct of field surveys on the identified issues, Formulation of Policy briefs and Preliminary visits to relevant Government agencies.
