Today, October 1st 2008 marks Nigeria’s 48th Anniversary and I thought it would be good to highlight the economy’s ranking on the ease of doing business. According to the Doing Business 2009 Report recently released, Nigeria’s economy ranks 118th out of the 181 economies reviewed.

Since 2004, Doing Business has been tracking reforms aimed at simplifying  business  regulations,  strengthening property rights, opening up access to credit and enforcing contracts by measuring their impact on 10 indicator sets. These indicators include starting a business, employing workers, getting credit, protecting investors, paying taxes, trading across borders and so on.

Although, rankings on the ease of doing business do not tell the whole story about an economy’s  business  environment, improvement in an economy’s ranking does indicate  that  its government  is creating a regulatory environment more conducive  to  operating  a  business.

For example, Nigeria’s reforms made it easier for trading across borders which significantly has had an impact in the country’s economy. Most African reformers  focused on easing start-up and  reducing  the cost of importing and exporting. But, entrepreneurs in Africa still face  greater  regulatory and  administrative burdens, and less protection of property  and  investor  rights,  than  entrepreneurs  in  any  other  region.

According to the report, Singapore continues to rank at the top on the ease of doing business, followed by New Zealand, the United States and Hong Kong (China).

Via: Doing Business