Nigeria moved up the ranking on the annual doing business report from 169 to 145, notching 24 places. Nigeria also features as one of the 10 economies showing the most notable improvement in Doing Business 2018.
The Presidential Enabling Business Environment Council (PEBEC) also reports that on the distance to frontier metric, Nigeria’s score went from 48.18 in Doing Business 2017 to 52.03 in Doing Business 2018, using a comparable methodology.
This improvement of 3.85 points means that in the last year Nigeria has improved its business regulations as captured by the Doing Business indicators in absolute terms—the country is narrowing the gap with the global regulatory frontier.
We took a lot at the report detailing how Nigeria was able to move up the ranking and here is what we found;
- Nigeria made starting a business faster by allowing electronic stamping of registration documents. This reform applies to both Kano and Lagos.
- Nigeria (Kano) increased transparency in obtaining a construction permit by publishing all relevant regulations, fee schedules and pre-application requirements online. Nigeria (Lagos) made it easier to obtain construction permits by streamlining the permitting process and increased transparency by publishing all relevant regulations, fee schedules and pre-application requirements online.
- Nigeria (Kano) made transferring property more transparent by publishing the list of documents, fee schedules and service standards for property transactions. Nigeria (Lagos) made transferring property easier and more transparent by removing the sworn affidavit for certified copies of land ownership records, introducing a specific and independent complaint mechanism and by publishing statistics on land transfers.
- Nigeria improved access to credit information by guaranteeing borrowers the legal right to inspect their credit data from the credit bureau and by starting to provide credit scores to banks, financial institutions and borrowers. Nigeria also strengthened access to credit by adopting a new law on secured transactions and establishing a modern collateral registry. These changes apply to both Kano and Lagos.
- Nigeria made paying taxes easier by introducing new channels for payment of taxes and mandating taxpayers to file tax returns at the nearest Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) office. This reform applies to both Kano and Lagos.
