Nigeria’s ranking in World Bank’s doing business report positive – FG

Nigeria’s ranking in
World Bank’s doing
business report positive
– FG

TAGS Doing business
Laolu Akande nigeria World Bank
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The Presidency says the World Bank’s Doing
Business 2017 Report, released on Tuesday
is an indication that the government’s
reform initiatives are yielding positive
results.
“The Buhari administration is gratified that
the various reform initiatives put in place
towards instituting a positive business
environment is slowly but gradually yielding
some dividends.
“Nigeria’s ranking in the World Bank’s Ease
of Doing Business remains static, halting a
falling trend in the past several years,’’ the
Vice Presidential spokesman, Mr. Laolu
Akande, said, via a release issued on
Thursday in Abuja.
Akande recalled that the latest report had
ranked Nigeria 169 out of 189 countries in
the overall Ease of Doing Business rank.
He described the ranking as “a positive
indication that the focus and tenacity of
President Muhammadu Buhari to reposition
the nation’s business and economic
environment is working and on course.
“While Nigeria’s position remains the same
as at last year on the index ranking, it is
encouraging that Nigeria has recorded some
positive outlooks in four critical areas of the
ranking.’’
Akande listed the areas as: Starting a
Business; Dealing with Construction Permits;
Registering Property and Access to Credit.
He noted that the objectivity and reliability of
the report coming from an international
development institution, lent weight to the
milestone recorded in particular on the
distance to frontier (DTF) metric.
Akande observed that on the metric, the
country’s score improved slightly from
44.02 in Doing Business 2016 to 44.63 in
Doing Business 2017.
According to the World Bank report, the
improvements noted mean that last year,
Nigeria’s business regulatory environment
as captured by the Doing Business
indicators improved slightly in absolute
terms.
According to the report “the country is
decreasing the gap with the global regulatory
frontier.
“This is a morale booster for stakeholders
involved in the efforts aimed at removing
existing bottlenecks in the business
environment.’’
Akande declared that the observation by the
World Bank was recognition of the bold
initiatives and untiring work of President
Muhammadu Buhari-led administration.
He said it was particularly achieved through
the Presidential Enabling Business
Environment Council (PEBEC), chaired by the
Vice President, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo.
He said Buhari in August had set-up PEBEC,
which had an active collaboration with the
private sector, “to remove the bottlenecks
that stifle businesses and create the right
enabling environment and investment
climate.”
PEBEC has nine ministers, the Head of the
Service and the CBN governor as members
and is mandated to give progress reports to
the Federal Executive Council every month.
The council’s secretariat with a team
comprising staff from both public and private
sector, is supported by knowledge experts
and collaborates across ministries,
departments and agencies as well as private
sector stakeholders to achieve reform
objectives.
According to Akande, Buhari is absolutely
committed to boosting reform activities so
as to continue to arrest the past decline,
where the country fell from number 94 in
2006 to number 169 in 2016.
He said the reforms would positively project
the business climate to an enviable position
in the international business community.
“With the reform efforts being put in place
now, indications are that in subsequent
years, Nigeria will scale up significantly in
the ranking,’’ he declared.