25th October, 2019
President Muhammadu Buhari, Vice President Yemi Osinbajo and the ruling All Progressives Congress have been celebrating the latest World Bank Ease of Doing Business 2020, in which Nigeria jumped 15 places from its previous position to 131st in the world.
From its 146th position in the previous ranking, Nigeria is now ranked 131st out of 190 nations,
scoring 56.9 as against 52.9 it scored in the previous ranking.
The All Progressives Congress (APC) commended Buhari for the “feat” and with the way other spin doctors have commented on Nigeria’s new position, one will think Nigeria has hit the lottery jackpot and that the nation’s minders have done the people a great favour.
“With Nigeria’s latest ranking, it is evident that the Buhari led administration is building a globally competitive economy and consolidating on our status as Africa’s biggest economy”, APC publicity secretary Lanre Issa-Onilu wrote.
“Since the launch of the National Action Plan on Ease of Doing Business, the Buhari administration has aggressively implemented economic reforms”, he added.
Is the new ranking a great achievement? We do not think so.
Across the nation’s shut borders, fellow West African nation Togo was ranked 97th out of the 190 economies the World Bank surveyed their business environment in the report released on 24 October. Ghana is 118th, despite slipping by four places and scored 60 per cent. Ivory Coast is ranked 110th. Mauritius is 13th in the world, Rwanda (38) and Kenya (56).
While Nigeria moved 15 places, Togo moved up 40 places from the 137th position last year and is among this year’s top 10 most improved economies.
“Togo is on the list of top improvers for the second year in a row thanks to reforms lowering fees for construction permits and streamlining property registration procedures, among others,” the World Bank said in a press release.
Togolese President Faure Gnassingbe welcomed the improvement of his country in a Facebook post.
“The position of leading reformer African country bestowed to Togo rewards, in all humility, all the efforts of Togolese people and strengthens our collective resolve to build a prosperous nation,” he said.
Though Nigeria was listed, along with Togo among 10 top improvers in their ease of doing business score, the Togolese big leap far ahead of Nigeria shows that the reforms that Nigeria is implementing are still at snail speed, the nation’s improvement tokenist. The country surely needs to rev things up.
The other eight top improvers are China, Bahrain, India, Jordan, Kuwait, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Tajikistan.
One of the urgent things Nigeria needs to fix is regular power supply. For 20 years, Nigeria’s politicians have failed miserably to fix the problem after squandering billions of dollars and privatising the sector.
An economist, Dr Uju Ogubunka stressed the importance of regular electricity for homes and businesses if Nigeria really wants to improve like Togo its position in the ease of doing business.
Ogubunka is a former Executive Secretary, Chartered Institute of Bankers of Nigeria (CIBN).
“Inadequate power supply is one of the major challenges impeding the growth of business and development of the country.
“It is responsible for the country’s low level of industrialisation in spite of the nation’s potential,’’ he said.
He urged government to facilitate cheaper funds to entrepreneurs to grow their businesses.
“The monetary authorities should reduce the rates for banks, to make them issue affordable credits for budding businesses.
“ The rates issued by banks to businesses should be in one digit in order for entrepreneurs to expand into new frontiers.’’
He also called on government to address multiple taxation to enable expansion of businesses in the country.