KEY POINTS

• The Nigerian Economic Summit Group has launched a digital portal to help businesses and investors track proposed legislation at the National Assembly.
• The Business Bill Intelligence Portal provides bill status updates, legislative histories and information on progress through the lawmaking process.
• The platform is designed to help businesses assess how proposed laws could affect operating costs, investment, market access and regulatory compliance.
• The initiative builds on the NESG’s previous engagements with federal and state legislatures to promote business environment reforms.

MAIN STORY

The Nigerian Economic Summit Group (NESG) has launched a digital platform to help businesses, investors and other stakeholders track proposed legislation at the National Assembly and understand how new laws could affect Nigeria’s business environment.

The Business Bill Intelligence Portal was unveiled by the Ernest Shonekan Centre for Legislative Reforms and Economic Development, an initiative of the NESG, at the 32nd Nigerian Economic Summit held at the Transcorp Hilton Hotel in Abuja.

The summit, themed “Growth that Works: Delivering Jobs, Productivity and Shared Prosperity,” brought the initiative into discussions on reforms needed to support investment, business growth and economic development.

The portal provides a centralised resource for accessing information on bills, monitoring their progress through the legislative process and assessing their potential implications for business operations, investment decisions, market access and compliance with regulations.

Speaking at the launch, Chairman of the Ernest Shonekan Centre, Kyari Bukar, said the platform was intended to encourage informed participation in legislative reforms and strengthen the connection between lawmaking and Nigeria’s economic priorities.

He said legislation could have significant consequences for businesses and investment, making it important for stakeholders to understand proposed laws and participate in discussions about them.

According to the NESG, businesses and other stakeholders often struggle to track proposed legislation and identify bills relevant to their sectors, despite the influence such laws can have on operating costs and investment decisions.

The portal is designed to address this challenge through features that allow users to browse bills, search for specific legislation and filter proposals according to their interests.

It also includes an analytics dashboard showing how bills are distributed across different stages of the legislative process. Individual bill pages provide information on each proposal’s status, latest recorded action and legislative history.

Executive Director of the Ernest Shonekan Centre, Dr Uchenna Ogbonna, said the platform was developed for a broad range of users, including businesses, citizens, civil society organisations, journalists, policy analysts, academics, researchers, government agencies, legislators and National Assembly staff.

He said these groups require legislative information for different purposes, from understanding the effects of proposed laws on specific industries to supporting research and legislative work.

The launch builds on the NESG’s earlier efforts to strengthen engagement between lawmakers and the private sector. In 2016, the group established the National Assembly Business Environment Roundtable (NASSBER) to promote dialogue on legislative reforms affecting businesses.

The NESG later supported the establishment of the State Assemblies Business Environment Roundtable (SABER), extending the engagement to state legislatures.

Established in 2023, the Ernest Shonekan Centre focuses on research, advocacy and stakeholder engagement on legislative reforms and economic development.

The centre said the new portal would expand these efforts by improving access to legislative information and encouraging constructive engagement among lawmakers, businesses, civil society organisations, the media and other stakeholders.

THE ISSUES

Proposed laws can affect businesses before they come into force because companies may need to prepare for new costs, operating requirements or restrictions. However, identifying a bill is only the first step. Businesses also need to understand what it proposes, whether it is likely to pass and what its final provisions would mean for their operations.

For Nigerian businesses, easier access to legislative information could help reduce the risk of being caught unprepared by regulatory changes. Investors could also use the information to identify proposals that may affect particular industries, market opportunities or the costs of doing business.

The platform’s usefulness will depend on the accuracy and timeliness of its information, how clearly it explains legislative developments and whether stakeholders can readily find the bills relevant to them. Tracking a bill does not, by itself, establish that a proposal will become law or that its expected effects will materialise.

WHAT’S BEING SAID

• “Laws and proposed legislation can have significant implications for businesses, investment and economic growth. We want to strengthen informed participation in legislative reform and connect lawmaking with Nigeria’s economic development priorities,” – Kyari Bukar, chairman of the Ernest Shonekan Centre.
• “These groups need legislative information for different purposes. Businesses want to understand proposals affecting their industries, citizens want to know how proposed laws could affect them, and legislators and researchers need information to support their work,” – Dr Uchenna Ogbonna, executive director of the Ernest Shonekan Centre.

WHAT’S NEXT

The centre expects the portal to strengthen access to information about proposed legislation and improve engagement among the National Assembly, the private sector and other stakeholders.

Businesses, investors, researchers and citizens can use the platform to identify relevant bills and follow their progress. Its practical impact will depend on continued access to reliable updates and the extent to which stakeholders use the information to participate in legislative discussions.

BOTTOM LINE

The NESG’s Business Bill Intelligence Portal is intended to make legislative developments easier to follow, helping Nigerian businesses and investors understand proposed changes that could affect their decisions and giving other stakeholders a clearer route to participate in discussions about laws shaping the economy.