World Bank praises Nigerian reforms saying ease of doing business has improved dramatically

NIGERIA has moved up 15 place on World Bank’s Ease of Doing Business Index ranking rising to 131 from 146 in the latest survey which looked at commercial operations in 190 countries worldwide .

According to the report published today, Nigeria conducted reforms impacting six indicators, including making the enforcement of contracts easier, which placed the 200m 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 continent.

A World Bank spokesman said: “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% of income per capita to connect to the grid, compared to just over 400% in the Middle East and North Africa or 272% 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. 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.”

Earlier, the World Bank had named Nigeria as one of the top 20 ease-of-doing business reformers across the world, pointing out that Nigeria is part of the top 10 reformers globally. Apart from Nigeria, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Togo, Bahrain, Tajikistan, Pakistan, Kuwait, China and India were also named as part of the top 10 reformers globally.