The World Bank has rated Nigeria 118 out of 150 countries polled on ease of doing business generally.
The rating is based on the International Finance Corpo-ration (IFC) report released yesterday in Washington DC and entitled “Doing Business in 2009”.
In the report, Nigeria is classified as a low income nation with $930 as Gross National Income (GNI) per capita.
The rating was arrived at from the average of a list of factors such as ease of starting and closing business, property registration and paying taxes.
Others are licensing process, getting credits, employing workers, cross-border trading, enforcing contracts and protection of investment.
Nigeria’s current ranking means the country has dipped further from its 109 in 2006, 108 in 2007 and 114 in 2008.
Following the report, the implication is that Nigeria is yet to carry out enough reforms as to ease off doing business in the country.
Three of the world’s top ten reformers in 2008 namely Senegal, Burkina Faso and Botswana are African.
The report, however, noted that Nigeria upgraded facilities at its Apapa Port in Lagos and thereby sped up her import and export process.
“Senegal made it easier to start a business, register property, and trade across borders,” the report noted, adding, “Burkina Faso introduced a new labour code and reforms for registering property, dealing with construction permits, and paying taxes.
“Botswana cut the time to start a business, facilitated trade, and strengthened investor protections. Post-conflict countries, Liberia and Sierra Leone, along with Rwanda were among the regions’ most active reformers of business regulations.”
The report puts Singapore in the first position.
The Asian nation is followed by New Zealand, United States, Hong Kong China in the second, third and fourth positions, respectively.
Mauritius is first in Africa and 24th in global ranking.
According to the report, Mauritius is an “inspiration for reform and good practices to other economies across Africa.”
Mauritius is followed by South Africa, which occupies the 32nd position in the global ranking.
At 38th position globally, Botswana is third in the continent.
Namibia was ranked 51, Kenya 82, China 83, Ghana 87, Uganda 111, Egypt 114, and Ethiopia 116.
Leading from the bottom is Bolivia at 150th position, followed by Senegal 149, Burkina Faso 148 and Sudan 147.
Meanwhile, World Bank President Robert Zoellick has said adherence to the rule of law, fighting corruption and ensuring transparency will create the right climate for investment in Nigeria.
Zoellick told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on the sideline of the Third High Level Forum in Accra, that Nigeria had “great potential” for growth.
“Nigeria is a country with great natural resources and part of the other resources is the rule of law, the anti-corruption, the transparency procedures that help create a better investment climate, '' he said.
The World Bank president said creating the right investment climate would require change on the part of donors and their partners, adding that the private sector must be given an upper hand in promoting investments.
He said: “Another aspect is in connecting the private business sectors and this is another area we are trying to work out with the International Finance Corporation.
“Much of the global trade system now has global sourcing. Let’s take agriculture for instance, you can get good product now in West Africa but the product has to meet what they call sanitary standards for the U.S. and Europe, '' he said.
Zoellick said negative reports on Africa had misrepresented the reality of 5.9 per cent to 8.1 per cent growth in the continent in the past 10 years.

This is really sad, cos we shd be up there with the kinda population that we have and the kinda money Nigeria has.

it's not a surprise to see Botswana in the top-10. their leaders seem to have some common sense

$$Rhino:

This is really sad, because we should be up there with the kind of population that we have and the kind of money Nigeria has.

what kind of money, nigeria is relatively poor in terms of GDP per capita, our unskilled population base isn't helping matters either.

WOW!!! This is terrible!

It's not terrible. It's expected. That is exactly what you get in any country where some silly illiterates are supported by the British to lord it over their superiors. Deal with it. They coerced you into their war and you stupidly and ignorantly supported them. Sign of weaknes of those who can't rule themselves.

bawomolo:

it's not a surprise to see Botswana in the top-10. their leaders seem to have some common sense

what kind of money, nigeria is relatively poor in terms of GDP per capita, our unskilled population base isn't helping matters either.

All these can change with right focus and vission for the nation.

are we really surprised with the lousiness of Nigerians and the yahoo yahoo up n down, please tell me something new

so sad

I ain't surprised. The level of corruption in Nigeria is mind-boggling!

what is the economic benefit of having an over populated country with almost 60% illiterates,
and 20% half baked lliterates?
how can the country move forward when the former leaders are still alive and runing political offices?

the schools lack infrastructures for learning, no enllightnement for the masses?

what kind of country is this that cannot provide jobs for its graduates but open mouth wide and lament on brain drain

a country whose leaders derive pleasure in creating unfavourable policies dat does not encourage or promote indegenous investors?
but very favourable to foreigners?

it beats my imagination to see how most foreigners are so buoyant in their enterprises,

even if u take up the initiative to establish a small scale business the power problem alone is enough to make u go bankrupt within months of operation.

our good 4 nothing leaders should wake up and take up the challenge and build out nations like others for heavens sake we've been through alot

and an increase in our GDP will never be a crime.

On the ranking proper

We need to be certain that the ranking is not based on parameters that the developed nations hope will work for them so they can rip developing nations off all in the name of doing business.

If Nigeria is that bad why do we still witness increase in the number of foreign nations and nationals that are ready to bribe their ways into doing business in Nigeria.

A ranking that will dwell on how easy it is to start and run a business in Nigeria by Nigerians will make more sense to me.

On the issue of government not providing jobs for the graduates

This is an unfortunate statement because it is not the duty of the government to provide jobs for people.

Government should create the enabling environment for businesses to thrive.

Nigerians whether educated or not should learn to use their brains to think through problems and seek ways towards providing solutions. Once you can solve a problem you will always make money, this is simple, this is basic.

It is embarrassing to find graduates complaining about jobs when every single problem around is an opportunity to become rich.

I do not doubt this conclusion by world bank.

Looking at the country, the infrastructure is not there for conducive business to be run. There is no constant electricity to run computers, trains, A/C's (owing to the heat), P/A systems, etc. Every business has to plan for generators (and include in their plans, the funds to purchase petrol and engine oil)

The roads are poor and very very bad. Transporting goods around the country will proove to be an uphill task for many companies. I worked in telecoms where transporting base stations and switches from Lagos to benin etc was a herculian task. Imagine trying to get across the Benin/Sagamu road with the deep gulleys and breaks in the roads.

Policy/Government attitudes. With each successive govt, new laws and policies are enacted. E.g. Yar'Adua is either probing or revoking the businesses that were signed into existence by OBJ. Whether these were fraudulently agreed to be OBJ's cabal is not the case. The mere fact that there is no continuity in govt is a poor indicator that the business climate in Nigeria is not continuous.

These are some of the things that prompt the world bank to rate us low.