Nigeria Remains 169th On ‘Ease Of Doing Business’ Ranking

By Modupe Gbadeyanka

Nigeria has remained low in the latest ‘Ease of Doing Business’ ranking released by the World Bank on Tuesday.

Out of the 190 countries surveyed by the World Bank Group, Nigeria retained its 169th position ahead of Sudan, Chad, Haiti, Angola, Equatorial Guinea, Libya, Eritrea, Congo Democratic Republic, Yemen, Syrian Arab Republic, Myanmar, Djibouti, Central African Republic, Guinea-Bissau, Bangladesh, Congo Republic, South Sudan, Eritrea and Somalia, which is 190th in the world.

New Zealand, Singapore, Denmark, Hong Kong SAR, China, Korea Republic, Norway, United Kingdom, United States, Sweden and Macedonia are the top 10 countries in that order on the chart.

In the report titled ‘Doing Business 2017: Equal Opportunity for All,’ the World Bank explained that Economies are ranked on their ease of doing business, from 1–190.

It explained further that “a high ease of doing business ranking means the regulatory environment is more conducive to the starting and operation of a local firm.”

The rankings, according to the Bank, are determined by sorting the aggregate distance to frontier scores on 10 topics, each consisting of several indicators, giving equal weight to each topic.

The rankings, it said, for all economies, are benchmarked to June 2016.

The report also said 137 economies around the world have adopted key reforms that make it easier to start and operate small and medium-sized businesses, while it was discovered that developing countries carried out more than 75 percent 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.

The top 10 African countries on the latest ranking are Mauritius 49th, Rwanda 56th, Morocco 68th, Botswana 71st, South Africa 74th, Tunisia 77th, Kenya 92nd, Seychelles 93rd, Zambia 98th and Lesotho 100th.

Furthermore, a breakdown of the report showed that in terms of ‘Starting a Business’ in Nigeria, the Africa’s biggest economy ranked 138, while in the ‘Dealing With Construction Permit’ category, it stayed 174th.

For ‘Registering Property’, Nigeria is 182rd; in ‘Getting Electricity’, the country is in 180th position in the world; while ‘Getting Credit’, Nigeria is in 44 and in the ‘Protecting Minority Investors’ category, it is in the 32rd position.

For ‘Paying Taxes’, the country sat at 182; Trading Across Borders at 181; Enforcing Contracts at 139 and Resolving Insolvency at 140.