Nigeria one of the ‘hardest’ countries to do business

The World Bank Group (WBG) has ranked Nigeria as one of the hardest countries to do business in 2015, falling 23 places down the rankings when compared with the 2014 report.

In a report by the bank, Nigeria ranked 170 of 189 countries on the ease-of-doing business index. It ranked 147 in 2014.

While Eritea was at the bottom of the table as the worst country to do business in 2015, Singapore stood out as the best.

Nigeria also came in as the fourth worst country to do business in West Africa, behind Chad, the worst, in West Africa, and Guinea Bissau and Liberia.

In Africa, the best countries for business are Mauritius, South Africa, Rwanda, Tunisia, Ghana and Botswana.

The Doing Business report ranked economies on their ease of doing business, from 1–189, with Singapore, New Zealand, Hong Kong, Denmark, Korea and Norway, leading the way.

“A high ease of doing business ranking means the regulatory environment is more conducive to the starting and operation of a local firm,” it said.

“The rankings are determined by sorting the aggregate distance to frontier scores on 10 topics, each consisting of several indicators, giving equal weight to each topic. The rankings for all economies are bench-marked to June 2014.

“The time and cost to resolve a commercial dispute differ between the two cities in seven of the 11 economies and the differences in time can be significant. In Nigeria, for example, resolving a commercial dispute takes 720 days in Kano but 447 days in Lagos.”

Nigeria’s distance to frontier (DTF) or ease of doing business score for 2015 stood at 47.33, against Singapore’s 88.27 and Eritrea’s 33.16.

Doing Business 2015: Going Beyond Efficiency, a World Bank Group flagship publication, is the 12th in a series of annual reports measuring the regulations that enhance business activity and those that constrain it.