Nigeria’s W’Bank Business Ranking Unimpressive

• Nigeria’s W’Bank Business Ranking Unimpressive — Expert

An economic and finance expert, Mr Vincent Nwani, has said that Nigeria’s improvement on the World Bank Ease of Doing Business ranking was based mostly on two indices, ease of getting credit and ease of registering new business.

He noted that these indices were not impactful and did not reflect the areas where businesses faced the greatest challenges.

He said, for instance, businesses still encountered challenges with power and most recently at the ports where poor infrastructure and access roads had put a great deal of burden on the cost of clearing and haulage.

Nwani expressed concerns that for a sector generating a great deal of income for the nation with potential to earn more, the government did not display urgency in fixing ports infrastructure.

He compared the port to the oil and gas sector and declared that it had the potential to generate more income for the economy.

He projected that the Nigeria Customs Service could generate double the amount currently being generated in annual revenue if the ports were at optimum performance.

In October 2017, the World Bank published its Ease of Doing Business report titled “Doing Business 2018: Reforming to create jobs” that showed that Nigeria ranked 145th out of 190 countries on the index.

The report indicated that Nigeria had moved up by 24 points from 169th position on the 2017 rankings.

Details of the report revealed that Nigeria made the greatest stride in improving access to credit, moving from 32nd to sixth position. In terms of starting a business, Nigeria ranked 130th, an improvement of eight point from the 138th position it occupied earlier.