Nigeria maintained its 169th position out of the 190 countries surveyed in the latest World Bank’s ‘Ease of Doing Business’ ranking released yesterday.
The World Bank Group’s annual report titled: “Doing Business 2017: Equal Opportunity for All,” showed that Nigeria only performed better than countries such as Chad, Haiti, Angola, Libya, Eritrea, Somalia, Congo Democratic Republic, Yemen, Syrian Arab Republic, Myanmar, Djibouti, Guinnea-Bissau, Bangladesh, South Sudan and Congo Republic.
A breakdown of the report showed that in terms of ‘Starting a Business,’ Nigeria was ranked 138. Also in ‘Dealing With Construction Permit,’ the country was ranked 174; and in ‘Getting Electricity’ – 180.
Others included Registering Property – 182; Getting Credit -44; Protecting Minority Investors – 32; Paying Taxes – 182; Trading Across Borders- 181; Enforcing Contracts – 139 and Resolving Insolvency- 140.
According to the report, a record 137 economies around the world have adopted key reforms that make it easier to start and operate small and medium-sized businesses. The new report also found out that developing countries carried out more than 75 per cent of the 283 reforms in the past year, with Nigeria and other economies in Sub-Saharan Africa accounting for over one-quarter of all reforms.
In its global country rankings of business efficiency, Doing Business 2017 awarded its coveted top spot to New Zealand, Singapore ranks second, followed by Denmark; Hong Kong SAR, China; Republic of Korea; Norway; United Kingdom; United States; Sweden; and Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia.
The world’s top 10 improvers, based on reforms undertaken were Brunei Daressalam; Kazakhstan; Kenya; Belarus; Indonesia; Serbia; Georgia; Pakistan; United Arab Emirates (UAE); and Bahrain.
Sub-Saharan Africa economies stepped up the pace of reform activity, with 37 economies undertaking a total of 80 business reforms in the past year, an increase of 14 percent from the previous year. For the second consecutive year, Kenya was among the world’s top 10 improvers, while seven economies implemented four or more reforms each in the past year.
