NIGER: GON MOVES TO IMPROVE INVESTMENT CLIMATE

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 NIAMEY 000787 SIPDIS SIPDIS STATE FOR MCC/IT E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: ETRB ECON KMCA PREL NG SUBJECT: NIGER: GON MOVES TO IMPROVE INVESTMENT CLIMATE NIAMEY 00000787 001.2 OF 002 ¶1. SUMMARY. On July 13, Government of Niger (GON) Prime Minister (PM) Hama Amadou held a meeting with the Council of Ministers and members of the National Counsel of Private Investors (CNIP) to review the latter's recommended reforms to the process of setting up a business in Niger. The PM ordered several of CNIP's proposed reforms to be instituted immediately, and instructed various GON ministries to follow up. This period of rapid action stems from a February visit by a World Bank (WB) team preparing the WB's "Doing Business" report. The team suggested that Niger could improve its rank by acting on ten standard indicators of performance, of which the GON selected three for immediate action - start up time for new businesses, ease of property transfer, and regulation of the construction sector. CNIP was put in place in March to study the specific ways in which these priorities might be addressed. The PM's rapid adoption of their recommendations on the 13th suggests that the GON is serious about eliminating the barriers to private sector growth in the world's least-developed economy. END SUMMARY. -------------- REDUCED START-UP TIME FOR BUSINESSES -------------- ¶2. CNIP argued that Niger should seek to reduce the start up time for new businesses, using West African Economic and Monetary Union (UEMOA) members, numbers as a benchmark. The PM instructed the Minister of Justice to reduce the start up time to that of the UEMOA group leader. The Clerk of the Business Court was empowered to register new businesses, names immediately and to postpone a time consuming system of redundancy checks until later. The presentation of police records by new entrepreneurs was likewise allowed to follow, rather than precede, the registry. A requirement that notice of new companies be printed in the GON's Official journal was liberalized - allowing companies to be listed just once instead of twice in the monthly journal prior to starting work. Acting on another CNIP recommendation, the PM abolished certain commercial fees that new companies must pay to begin work. ¶3. The PM gave the Ministry of Labor responsibility for making the registry of one's employees with the social security administration and government employment agency a one stop affair. The requirement that foreign individuals or entities obtain "working licenses" in order to operate in Niger was lifted for entrepreneurs. The CNIP also recommended lowering the GON collected fee on property transfers from ten percent of assessed value to the three or five percent to better reflect the UEMOA average. The PM instructed the Minister of Finance to look into this. -------------- KNOCKING DOWN SOME BUILDING RULES -------------- ¶4. The myriad rules governing private industrial construction will soon be more accessible, as the PM ordered the Ministry of the Interior to publish a unified booklet with all of the relevant documents and contact information for relevant GON offices. Licensing fees too will be minimized under a new system whereby a fixed amount of CFA 50,000 (approximately $100) will be charged for a building license and an extra fee of CFA 25,000 (approximately $50) will be charged for stamps. Previously, there was no fixed rate. Fees varied according to the type of construction, ranging from CFA 500 ($1.00) to CFA 3,000 ($6.00) per square meter. Moreover, the requirement that new commercial building plans be reviewed by a board of inspections - historically a cumbersome process - was abolished in favor of the simple requirement that all such buildings be designed by an accredited architect. Finally, a new construction inspection regime was promulgated. Rather than the eleven unannounced spot inspections carried out on commercial construction sites at present, the GON will inspect each project twice, at the beginning and the end. ¶5. COMMENT: In the Nigerien context, development usually conjures up images of international donor money or public sector activity - in the minds of Nigeriens and expatriates alike. Against a background of such expectations, PM Amadou has initiated a subtle shift in emphasis. In various public remarks over the last six months he has begun to make the obvious but oft neglected point that "development" for the country must be premised on a stronger, more formalized, private sector too. If the PM's rapid-fire implementation of CNIP's initial recommendations presages equally vigorous action on the remaining seven WB performance indicators, Hama Amadou will have matched his avowed interest in MCC NIAMEY 00000787 002.2 OF 002 eligibility for Niger with some actions that might yield it. END COMMENT ALLEN