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Nigeria moves 15 spots up on Ease of Doing Business Index

By Dennis Erezi
24 October 2019   |   10:39 am
Nigeria has moved up by 15 places to 131 on the World Bank’s Ease of Doing Business ranking. Africa's most populous country was ranked 146th in the previous year. The report is an annual publication that measures business regulations across 190 countries. In its latest study, World Bank ranked Nigeria in the top 10 economies…

Nigeria has moved up by 15 places to 131 on the World Bank’s Ease of Doing Business ranking. Africa’s most populous country was ranked 146th in the previous year.

The report is an annual publication that measures business regulations across 190 countries. In its latest study, World Bank ranked Nigeria in the top 10 economies where business climates have been improved. Nigeria was ranked 15 in ease of getting credits or loans.

Nigeria’s worst ranking in the report was at the ease of registering properties where it ranked 183. Nigeria also ranked 179 in trading across borders.

The latest World Bank Ease of Doing Business study said governments of 115 economies around the world launched 294 reforms over the past year.

“Nigeria conducted reforms impacting six indicators, including making the enforcement of contracts easier, which placed the 200-million-person economy among the world’s top improvers,” World Bank said in a statement.

“Only two Sub-Saharan African economies rank in the top 50 on the ease of doing business rankings while most of the bottom 20 economies in the global rankings are from the region.”

The report explained that the reforms affected the ease of doing business easier for the domestic private sector in the countries with more jobs, expanded commercial activity, and higher incomes for investors and citizens.

World Bank President, David Malpass, said governments can foster market-oriented development and broad-based growth by creating rules that help businesses launch, hire, and expand.

He noted that the removal of barriers hindering entrepreneurs will help the countries create more jobs and increase their tax revenues to reduce poverty and raise citizens’ living standards.

Asides Nigeria, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Togo, Bahrain, Tajikistan, Pakistan, Kuwait, China and India were also named as part of the top 10 reformers globally in the report.

The difference between an economy’s score in any previous year and its score in Doing Business 2020 illustrates the extent to which the economy has changed in its business regulatory environment over time. In any given year, the score measures how close an economy is to the best regulatory performance at that time.

World Bank in late September listed Africa’s largest economy country, Nigeria, among the top 20 improvers in doing business.

The recent World Bank projection is for the year 2020.

Nigeria made a giant leap of more than 100 positions as it was ranked 146 in 2018 report.

According to the report, the jump can be attributed to major improvement in significant parameters such as starting a business, dealing with construction permits, resolving insolvency, getting electricity, credit, among others.

The World Bank said Nigeria made improvements by operationalising a new electronic platform that integrates the tax authority and the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC).

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