A report has indicated that Nigeria has made significant progress toward ensuring speedy establishment of firms, particularly small and medium-size enterprises in the country.
The improvement, recorded in 34 key thematic requirements for establishing firms, according to the 2014 Doing Business in Nigeria Report launched this week in Abuja by the World Bank and other development partners, was, however, not good enough to alter the country’s position to a more positive territory on the global business competitive ranking index as Nigeria maintains its 147th position recorded last year out of a total of 189 countries surveyed this year.
On the global ranking table Singapore is at No. 1, and China at No. 2, while New Zealand, the United States, Denmark and Malaysia place third, fourth, fifth and sixth respectively.
Korea Republic, Georgia, Norway and the United Kingdom made up the rest of the first 10 positions.
Rwanda is the best business-friendly country on the African continent, placing No. 32, followed by South Africa, Ghana, Zambia and Morocco at 41, 67, 83 and 87 positions, respectively.
On the flip side, the Republic of Chad leads other African strife- stricken nations such as Central African Republic, Libya, South Sudan and Congo at the bottom of the table.
The rest last 10 positions also include Myanmar, Venezuela, Guinea Bissau, Angola and Senegal.
This year’s Doing Business Report, which focused on peer reviewing business regulations for domestic firms in the 35 states and the FCT and 188 other economies around the world, found that the “distance to the frontiers” measure shows that the regulatory environment for local entrepreneurs in each Nigerian state has improved since 2010.
Read more at ngrguardian.com
