Lagos — Efforts towards making research findings veritable tools for policy making has been boosted as National Planning Commission (NPC) has embraced the second circle of the Business Environment and Competitiveness Across Nigerian States (BECANS II).

BECANS , a flagship of the African Institute for Applied Economics (AIAE),is the comprehensive report of the research findings on the business environment in Nigerian States.

The research, facilitated by AIAE was conducted by over 480 local experts and would be presented to the public on September 23, 2010 at Transcorp Hilton Abuja at the 2nd National Forum on Business Environment across Nigerian States, tagged FOBEANS 2010.

AIAE's Communications and Relations Manager, Sola Oluwadare, disclosed that NPC has not only indicated a great interest in the report, but is also putting modalities in place to carry along its counterparts at the State level. He noted that the Commission, had since 2005, when the first circle of the research began, been a committed partner in the project. He said, "I can authoritatively tell you that the National Planning Commission has taken BECANS as its bride, as a matter of fact, all the State Planning Commissions mostly domiciled in the governors' offices have been invited to grace the public presentation, and many of them have responded to the call. The organised private sector has also embraced the initiative, so BECANS is now an all embracing research output in the policy environment in our country"

He averred that the ultimate goal of BECANS was to promote evidence-based reforms of the business environment in Nigeria, with focus on the sub-national jurisdictions (State and Local Governments). According to him, the initiative is designed to supply independent research-based evidence on the business environment across Nigerian States, in an ongoing manner. He said such evidence is essential to inform and influence advocacy by non-State actors, (particularly private sector organisations) and improve the quality of dialogue between government, private sector and civil society.

"This business environment scorecard of Nigerian States is the second in the publication series of the African Institute for Applied Economics (AIAE)'s flagship research, survey and dissemination initiative known as BECANS. The initiative runs in successive cycles of research, surveys, dissemination and policy dialogue for the promotion of better business environment throughout the country. Each cycle begins with desk research (the scientific validation of models, methods and indicators) and followed by survey/data collection, data analysis, report writing, publication, dissemination and dialogue between the government and stakeholders in private sector and civil society," he noted.

AIAE spokesperson stressed that BECANS model defines sub-national business environment along four dimensions. The dimensions, according to him, are infrastructure and utilities; regulatory services; business development support and investment promotion; and security, adding that these dimensions are called BECANS benchmarks.