World Bank Ranks Nigeria As One Of The Best Places To Do Business

Nigeria has made some progress on the World Bank’s ‘Ease of Doing Business’ ranking.

The Ease of Doing Business is an index published periodically by the World Bank.

It is an aggregate figure that includes different parameters. These parameters indicate how easy or difficult it is to conduct business in a country.

The Ease of Doing Business compares business regulations in 190 countries across the world.

In the latest index from the World Bank, Nigeria is ranked 131 globally, moving up 15 places from its last ranking.

Enforcement of contracts entered was a key factor in Nigeria’s ascent on the table. Wide ranging reforms by the federal government was also cited as a significant factor.

According to the Bretton Woods Institution: “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.

“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.”

Africa got a few knocks too, no thanks to poor infrastructure, bureaucratic bottlenecks and logistic concerns.

“Compared to other parts of the world, Sub-Saharan Africa still underperforms in several areas. In getting electricity, for example, businesses must pay more than 3,100% percent of income per capita to connect to the grid, compared to just over 400% in the Middle East and North Africa or 272% per cent in Europe and Central Asia.

“When it comes to trading across borders and paying taxes, businesses spend about 96 hours to comply with documentary requirements to import, versus 3.4 hours in OECD high-income economies, and small and medium-sized businesses in their second year of operation need to pay taxes more than 36 times a year, compared to an average of 23 times globally,” the World Bank wrote.