The Director-General of the Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI), Mr. Muda Yussf has faulted the methodology used by the World Bank in Nigeria’s Ease of Doing Business rating in 2017 saying that the methodology did not fit into the environment which operates here in the country.
Yusuf who made this known while delivering a lecture at the 2nd Annual Lecture and Awards organized by the Primetime Reporters in Lagos last week with the theme,”The Gains and Challenges of the Presidential Order on Ease of Doing Business in the Nigerian Maritime Sector One Year After”, recalled that the business ranking which Nigeria recorded in 2017 moving it up by 24 places from 169 to 145, though could be seen as an achievement but appeared academic to some people.
In his word,” The issue of business ranking which we recorded in 2017 moving us up by 24 places, Nigeria was ranking 169, we moved up to 145. That was an achievement. Again, to some people, this is just academic because when you say we have moved in our ranking, you look at the components of this ranking that has moved us up. The first component is access to credit and I know all of us are business people here, I don’t know how easy it is to access credit but that is one of the first performance indicators.
“We have starting the business, I am aware that that has improved because there is a lot of ICT applications now to business registration with CAC, a lot of improvement has been recorded there but again it’s an important one but you register a business once, you don’t register business every day. So, what is more critical is the everyday experiences that businesses cover. That is not to diminish the importance of the improvement that has been achieved in registering business, then there is one on construction permit.
“So, the whole methodology of the World Bank in this ranking, sometimes, you have them not fit into the environment which we operate here and then the methodology of the ease of doing business ranking, the exercise was done in two states; in Lagos and in Kano and we have 36 states and we have the capital. So, when you take the samples of two states, it may not adequately reflect the reality that is on ground”.
He however noted that although the improvement in Nigeria’s ranking had been severally celebrated by the government, the impact of the improvement was yet to be significantly felt, even as he believed that the positive trajectory needed to be acknowledged.
“In a sense, it reflects the numerous efforts of government to improve enabling g environment for business”, he said.
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