Forbes ranks Rwanda, S’Africa over Nigeria on ‘investor protection’

Forbes has ranked Nigeria 3rd best in Africa in terms of “investor protection”.

Rwanda and South Africa were rated above Nigeria on the African continent. A total of  153 countries were surveyed.

The American business magazine made this known in its Index of Best Countries for Business Report released on Friday.

The report said in the period under review, Nigeria experienced positive economic growth driven by its agriculture, telecommunications and services sector.

In the overall ranking, Nigeria was ranked as 115th best country to do business in the world.

The rankings were based on 15 different factors including property rights, innovation, taxes, technology, corruption, freedom (personal, trade and monetary), red tape and investor protection.

Cumulatively, South Africa was ranked 48th while Rwanda scored 79th on the index for best country to do business.

Listing key indices used in its computation, the report said Nigeria’s GDP as of December 2017 was $405 billion while GDP growth was -1.6 percent in the period under review.

Unemployment and inflation rate was put at 13.4 percent and 15.7 percent respectively.

In the country profile, the report said even though Nigeria had experienced economic diversification and strong growth, it has not translated into a significant decline in poverty levels, with over 62 percent of the country’s 170 million people still living in extreme poverty.

“Despite its strong fundamentals, oil-rich Nigeria has been hobbled by inadequate power supply, lack of infrastructure, delays in the passage of legislative reforms, an inefficient property registration system, restrictive trade policies, an inconsistent regulatory environment, a slow and ineffective judicial system, unreliable dispute resolution mechanisms, insecurity, and pervasive corruption,” the report read.

“Regulatory constraints and security risks have limited new investment in oil and natural gas, and Nigeria’s oil production has contracted every year since 2012.

“President Buhari ran on an anti-corruption platform, and has made some headway in alleviating corruption, such as an implementation of a Treasury Single Account that allows the government to better manage its resources.”

It scored the country 111 in innovation and technology, while in terms of red tape, personal freedom and tax burden Nigeria scored 109, 92 and 138 respectively.

The federal government said Nigeria will improve its ranking by 45 places in the World Bank Ease of Doing Business Index in the next two years to achieve its goal of attaining the top 100 by 2020.