The World Bank on Tuesday said Nigeria now ranked 145th out of 190 countries in the Ease of Doing Business index for 2018.
The country thus emerges along with India and Zambia as biggest winners in the World Bank’s latest Doing Business rankings.
The World Bank labels Nigeria as one of the top 10 most improved economies in the world.
The report indicated that Nigeria had moved up by 24 points from 169th position in the 2017 ranking and also 170th position in the 2016 ranking to 145 in the World Bank’s 2018 report.
According to the World Bank, Nigeria, El Salvador, India, Malawi, Brunei Darussalam, Kosovo, Uzbekistan, Thailand, Zambia and Djibouti are the top 10 improved countries worldwide.
These countries have carried out numerous reforms to improve their business environment.
“These economies together implemented 53 business regulation reforms across 10 of the areas measured by doing business.
“Overall, the 10 top improvers implemented the most regulatory reforms in the area of getting credit, starting a business, dealing with construction permits and paying taxes,’ the report said.
The World Bank claims that economies in all regions are implementing reforms and easing the process of doing business, but Europe and Central Asia continues to be the region with the highest share of economies implementing at least one reform.
76 percent of economies in the region have implemented at least one business regulatory reform, followed by South Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa.
The World Bank Doing Business project provides objective measures of business regulations and their enforcement across 190 economies.
The report features four case studies in the areas of starting a business, dealing with construction permits, registering property and resolving insolvency, as well as an annex on labour market regulation.
The World Bank highlighted five reforms making it easier to do business in Kano and Lagos, the two cities covered by the report in Nigeria over the course of last year.
They are Starting a Business, Dealing with Construction Permits, Registering Property, Getting Credit and Paying Taxes.
In the area of company registration, the Corporate Affairs Commission has moved to offer online registration and introduced new features such as electronic stamping of registration documents.
Thus, entrepreneurs have been able to register their businesses much faster, within 24-48 hours, thereby saving cost and time.
Getting construction permits and registering property in both Lagos and Kano States have become more transparent and easier for businesses with the online publication of all relevant regulations, fee schedules and pre-application requirements online.
Getting access to credit is now easier and Nigeria is placed 6th in the world on this indicator.
The government recorded a significant success by collaborating with the National Assembly to pass two new Acts, the Secured Transactions in Movable Assets Act 2017 and the Credit Reporting Act 2017, thereby strengthening the legal framework for access to credit for SMEs across the country – an important requirement for the success of SMEs.
Finally, it has become easier to pay taxes in Nigeria because taxpayers can file tax returns at the nearest Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) office, and electronic payment and filing are gradually gaining acceptance.
However, the report showed that the country was retrogressing in the Resolving Insolvency ranking, going from 140th position in 2017, to 145th in 2018.
According to the World Bank, 83 business reforms were carried out in Sub-Saharan Africa in the past year, surpassing the previous 80.
“The Sub-Saharan Africa region continues to struggle in the area of getting electricity.
“On average, obtaining an electricity connection takes 115 days in the region, compared to the global average of 92 days.
“The reform effort in Sub-Saharan Africa is singularly worth celebrating, as the region is beset with myriad crises, including conflict and violence.
“We hope to continue recording the region’s successes in enabling entrepreneurship to address the challenge of job creation, particularly for the region’s millions of young women and men,” the bank said.
Following the country’s 169 ranking on the 2017 Ease of Doing Business index, the Presidential Enabling Business Environment Council (PEBEC) was set up in July 2016 by President Muhammadu Buhari.
VP, Osinbajo To Open Reps’ Summit On Economic Recession
PEBEC was mandated to remove bureaucratic constraints to doing business in Nigeria and make the country a progressively easier place to start and grow a business.
Already, several reforms directly impacting on business owners have been implemented by Ministries, Agencies and Departments with the support of PEBEC.
Buhari Excited
Meanwhile, President Muhammadu Buhari has described as most heartily the phenomenal improvement of Nigeria on the World Bank’s Doing Business latest ranking.
A statement by presidential spokesman, Femi Adesina, quoted the president as congratulating all Nigerians on the very significant step forward which symbolises the real success achieved by the Presidential Enabling Business Environment Council (PEBEC), the National Assembly and state governments in making it easy for people to register their businesses speedily, obtain licences and approvals from government agencies without unnecessary bureaucratic bottlenecks.
According to President Buhari, “It also reflects our efforts to make it easy for foreign business visitors to obtain visa on arrival, pass through our airports and do their businesses with ease and speed.”
The post Reforms Raise Nigeria 24 Points On World Bank’s Ease Of Doing Business appeared first on Independent Nigeria.
Source: Daily Independent
We appreciate you for reading our post, but we think it will be better you like our facebook fanpage and also follow us on twitter below.