World Bank: It still takes 19 days to register a business in Nigeria — despite improvement

Nigeria jumped 24 places to rank 154 on the World Bank Doing Business rankings for global economies — making it one of the top 10 most improved economies in the world.

Brunei Darussalam, Thailand, Malawi, Kosovo, India, Uzbekistan, Zambia, Nigeria, Djibouti and El Salvador were the most improved economies, according to the Doing Business report released on Tuesday.

In 2016, President Muhammadu Buhari established the Presidential Enabling Business Environment Council, which is chaired by Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo; the federal minister of industry, trade and investment is the vice-chairman.

The council’s main mandate is the supervision of the competitiveness and investment climate agenda at the federal and state levels, while the Enabling Business Environment Secretariat (EBES) is charged with day-to-day reform implementation.

“This year, Mr. President set us an ambitious target of moving up 20 places in the ranking – I am delighted that we have exceeded his goal,” Osinbajo said via a statement.

Despite this big leap, the Bretton Woods institution shows that it still takes about 19 days to register a business in Africa’s largest economy, and 110 days to get a construction permit.

By implication, it is more difficult to get a construction permit for business in 2017, than it was in 2016. On the other hand however, it has become easier to start a business in itself, and to register a property.

In 2016, it took 106.3 days to get a construction permit to register a business, and that has increased to 110.3 days in 2017.

On the bright side, registering a business has gone from 25 days and four hours in 2016 to about 18 days and 21 hours in 2017. To register a property, you needed 69 days and 14 hours in 2016, but only 68 days and 21 hours in 2017.

The report also shows it takes 149 days for a new business to get electricity in Nigeria, as against 195 days in 2016.

The country has improved on access to credit, access to electricity, paying taxes, registering a property and generally starting a business.

Despite the impressive work being done by the presidential committee on doing business, it is still easier to do business in Ghana, Tazania, Rwanda, Mauritius, Malawi, Kenya, South Africa, Niger, Mali, Cote D’Ivoire, Mozambique, Senegal, than it is in Nigeria.