Doing business is Nigeria is not easy. Nigeria has dropped one place on the latest Ease of Doing Business ranking released by the World Bank. The Doing Business 2019 report shows that Nigeria slipped to 146th position out of 190 countries. This is down from 145th place on the previous ranking.
World Bank’s Assessment
Furthermore, according to the World Bank, 128 governments across the world have implemented 314 business reforms over the past year. 107 reforms have been carried out in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) from that number. The increase in global business reforms surpasses the previous all-time high of 290 reforms reported two years ago.
This year’s results clearly demonstrate government commitment in many economies, large and small, to nurture entrepreneurship and private enterprise.
Rita Ramalho, Senior Manager of World Bank’s Global Indicators Group
Governments have enormous task of fostering an environment where entrepreneurs and small and medium enterprises thrive
The President of the World Bank, Jim Yong Kim
Additionally, he stated that sound and efficient business regulations are critical for entrepreneurship and a thriving private sector. Without them, Kim said there is no chance of ending poverty and boosting shared prosperity around the world.
More so, according to a statement released by the World Bank, Nigeria carried out four reforms, which include making the process of starting a business easier in Kano and Lagos, the two cities covered by the Doing Business report. The other reforms are Getting Electricity and Trading Across Borders.
Actually, enforcing contracts in Lagos got easier by issuing new rules of civil procedure for small claims courts. But on the contrary, Kano made property registration opaque by stopping the publishing online of the fee schedule and list of documents necessary to transfer a property.
Finally, the African countries among the top 100 on the Ease of Doing Business ranking include Mauritius (20th), Rwanda (29th), Morocco (60th), Kenya (61st), Tunisia (80th), South Africa (82nd), Botswana (86th), Zambia (87th), Seychelles (96th), and Djibouti (99th).
