The Ernest Shonekan Centre for Legislative Reforms and Economic Development (ESC), an initiative of the Nigerian Economic Summit Group (NESG), has launched a Business Bill Intelligence Portal to improve access to information on bills that affect Nigeria’s business environment.
The portal was launched at the 32nd Nigerian Economic Summit (NES#32) held at the Transcorp Hilton Hotel, Abuja, themed “Growth that Works: Delivering Jobs, Productivity and Shared Prosperity.”
Specifically, it is designed to help businesses and stakeholders identify relevant proposed legislation, track its progress through the National Assembly and understand its implications for investment, operations, market access and cost of doing business.
The Centre noted that while laws shape business decisions, many stakeholders struggle to follow proposed legislation relevant to their sectors.
The new platform provides a central digital resource for browsing bills, searching specific legislation and applying filters to identify bills of interest. It features an analytics dashboard showing bills distribution across legislative stages, while individual bill pages provide status, latest action and legislative history.
Speaking, ESC Chairman, Mr Kyari Bukar, explained that the initiative will strengthen informed participation in lawmaking.
“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,” he said.
“Our goal is to support clearer, more practical laws that improve the business environment, encourage investment and create opportunities while protecting the public interest.”
The portal builds on NESG’s long engagement with the legislature. The Group established the National Assembly Business Environment Roundtable (NASSBER) in 2016 to drive private sector-legislature engagement, and later supported the State Assemblies Business Environment Roundtable (SABER) at subnational level.
Established in 2023, the Ernest Shonekan Centre focuses on legislative reform research and advocacy. The new portal, according to the Centre, will foster more informed engagement among lawmakers, private sector, civil society, media and other stakeholders.
ESC Executive Director, Dr Uchenna Ogbonna, said the portal serves citizens, businesses, CSOs, journalists, policy analysts, academics, researchers, government agencies, and National Assembly staff and legislators.
“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,” Ogbonna said.
“Our particular focus is on strengthening informed participation in legislation affecting Nigeria’s business environment and economy.”
He added that the launch at NES#32 highlights the role of accessible legislative information in driving economic reforms and constructive dialogue around laws shaping economic activity.
