With more and more emphasis on the need to stimulate economic growth by fostering new business during this turbulent period of the Nigerian economy, the term ease of doing business has gained more popularity than ever before.
While at the national level, several steps have been taken to improve the ease of doing business in Nigeria, state-wide efforts have not been given much spotlight. With another impending sub-national ease of doing business ranking, we take a look at the current top states where doing business in Nigeria is easy.
With reference to performance in all 4 categories, (Starting a Business, dealing with Construction Permits, Registering Property and Enforcing Contracts), these are the top 5 states where doing business is easiest in Nigeria.
Gombe
Gombe comes on this list with its main strength being in registering property where it comes second only to Zamfara State. Similarly, it’s the 6th easiest state in the country to establish a business. Gombe is one of the few states where you can complete the registration of your new business in less than a month, precisely 23 days. Gombe’s worst category is in dealing with construction permits where you’ll need almost 3 months (86 days) to complete only 1 procedures associated with a construction permit.
Ogun
In Ogun State, it will take you about 32 days to complete the 8 procedures linked to starting a business in the state. This is not too far off the Sub-Saharan African average of 7.8 days to complete 27.3 procedures. With regard to dealing with construction permits, Ogun distinguishes itself from the region as it requires only 39 days to complete 15 procedures, unlike the 155 days required in the region. However, it will cost you about 37.1% of your claim to successfully pursue enforcement of contracts in about 455 days.
Lagos
Lagos is the another easy place to start your business as you need to complete just 8 procedures which on average will require 28 days to complete. It will however require 54.9% of income per capita to do so. This is where Lagos’ strength ends with poor showings in other categories. For example, it ranks worst in dealing with construction permits, requiring that you spend almost 4 months to register your property. The state also ranks 31 out of 36 in registering property as you will spend approximately 77 days and 20% of the property’s value in registering it.
Kebbi
The Northern states continue their strong showing on this list as Kebbi boasts of being the 3rd easiest city both in starting a new business and enforcing contracts. This is because the just 10 procedures required can be completed in 32 days. What is probably more appealing is the fact that the costs associated with starting the business is about 44.4% of income per capita, the lowest in the country. In addition, you’ll spend just a little above one-quarter of your claim to ensure enforcement of contracts in a year. Kebbi’s weakest category is registering property. It will take 196 days and 12% of the property value to do so.
Zamfara
Another Northern state with Zamfara being the easiest sate in the country to register your property and the second easiest to start-up your new business. You need just about 26 days to start a new business while you will pay 47.6% of income per capita to do so. With regard to registering property, you need about a month to do so with only 9 procedures to be taken. You will also spend only 8% of the property value to register it. This is the second lowest proportion in Nigeria with only Yobe having 7.7%. Zamfara’s weakest category is dealing with construction permits. You will need 50 days and spend more than 8 times the value of the property in a warehouse in getting the permit for its construction. That is the 4th highest in the country.
Please note that the FCT was not included in this list as it is not regarded as a state. If it was, it will take top spot for ease in starting a new business. It also ranks 7th in registering property while its worst category would be dealing with construction permits where it ranks second to the worst in the country.