The World Bank has ranked Nigeria 169 out of 189 countries in its latest report on the ease of doing business globally. This is contained in a statement made available to newsmen by the Head of Communications, World Bank Nigeria, Mr Obadiah Tohomdet, on Tuesday in Abuja.
According to the statement, the report takes into consideration the ease of obtaining construction permits, getting electricity, enforcing contracts, registering property and trading across borders among other parameters. The report showed that Nigeria had improved in the ranking from 170 in 2014 to 169 in its 2015 report.
It further showed that the Sub-Saharan African economies were among the world’s top improvers of business climate.
“The region, however, ranks poorly in the areas of trading across borders and registering properties. Mauritius ranks best in the region, with a global ranking of 32, performing particularly well in the areas of paying taxes and enforcing contracts. In Mauritius, it takes only 152 hours for entrepreneurs to pay taxes, compared to 261 hours globally.
“Rwanda has the next best ranking in the region, with a global ranking of 62. Ten years ago, an entrepreneur in Rwanda took 370 days to transfer property. Now, it takes 32 days which is less than in Germany, ” it stated. Also, Botswana ranked 72; South Africa 73; Seychelles 95; Kenya 108, and Uganda 122 this year.
According to the report, the Sub-Saharan African region stands out in implementing reforms under the Getting Credit indicator. It stated that this was a welcome development for small businesses in the region.
“Despite great improvements, governments in Sub-Saharan Africa will need to continue working on closing the gap in many key areas that impact the ease of doing business, especially increasing access to reliable electricity. The region’s economies have room for improvement in the reliability of supply and transparency index of the getting electricity indicator and the quality of land administration index of the registering property indicator.”
