Review ease of doing business indicators, LCCI urges World Bank

The World Bank has been called upon to review the indicators for the composition of the Ease of Doing Business Index to reflect the reality of each country.

The Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry Director-General Mr Muda Yusuf, made the call on Monday in Lagos.

He noted that a country-specific criterion was desirable and not just using the same indicator for every country, saying that countries vary in their peculiarities and challenges.

“Some of the indicators in the Ease of Doing Business composition do not properly capture the critical variables in our own environment.

“Issues of power, transportation, security and our regulatory environment are not captured. We need to address all these other variables that are not on the list of the ease of doing business parameters.

“If you look at the present indicators, it is about construction permit, ease of starting business, credit, reforms, trading across borders, amongst others.

“There are some issues on the parameters that are not fundamental to our own business environment in terms of impact.

“In many of those countries that you roll out these parameters, security is not an issue, power and transportation are taken for granted; whereas, in our environment, these are very big issues,” he said.

Yusuf said it was cogent for the World Bank to include these excluded variables in order to have a parameter that reflects the reality of each country.

According to him, the excluded variables were factors that should be addressed as they drive the cost of doing business in the country, which invariably affects the ease of doing business and the business environment.

The World Bank Doing Business Index is an annual ranking that objectively assesses prevailing business climate conditions across 190 countries based on 10 Ease of Doing Business indicators.

The Index offers comparative insights based on private sector validation of reforms delivered in the two largest commercial cities in countries with a population higher than 100 million, and the report consequently features Lagos and Kano states for Nigeria.

A nation’s ranking on the index is based on an average of 10 sub-indices: Starting a business; Dealing with construction permits; getting electricity; registering property; getting credit and protecting investors.

Others are paying taxes; trading across borders; enforcing contracts and resolving insolvency.