Nigeria has remained among the below 100s in the World Economic Forum Global Competitiveness Index, ranking 125.As recorded in the GCI on Tuesday, Mauritius (45), Rwanda (58), South Africa (61), Botswana (63), Namibia (90), Kenya (91), Senegal (106), Seychelles (107), Ethiopia (108) and Cape Verde were the top ten countries in the latest GCI.
Mauritius (45), Rwanda (58), South Africa (61), Botswana (63), Namibia (90), Kenya (91), are the African contries that ranked above 100.
Senegal ranked (106), Seychelles (107), Ethiopia (108) are in the league of the African countries that ranked below 100 with Nigeria.
Nigeria’s position in the ranking is coming at a time the Presidential Enabling Business Environment Council (PEBEC), at its meeting held at the state house, Abuja approved what it described as a new National Action Plan to drive reforms on ease of doing business in Nigeria, Aledeh.com reported.
WEF revealed in its report that Nigeria failed to increase its overall score since 2012 due to challenges such as macroeconomic environment (down 14 to 122), institutional strength ( down 7 to 125), poor infrastructure (132), Health and primary education (136).
The WEF report is an annual assessment of factors driving a country’s productivity.
The report revealed that Switzerland emerged as the world’s most competitive economy, ahead of The United States Of America and Singapore for the ninth consecutive year.
“Countries preparing for the fourth Industrial revolution and simultaneously strengthening their political, economic and social systems will be the winners in the competitive race of the future”, said the founder and Chief Executive, WEF, Klaus Schwab,
Osinbajo, in a statement released by his media aide, Mr. Laolu Akande disclosed that the newly approved National action plan which was tagged “NAP 2.0” had over 60 priority initiatives to be achieved by November 2017.
The statement reads: “The initiatives would cover areas such as: Starting a business, construction permits, registering property, getting electricity, getting credit, paying taxes, trading across borders, enforcing contracts, simplifying the procurement process, entry and exit of people and trading within Nigeria.
The successful implementation of NAP 2.0 would deliver significant benefits notably to Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) including making 1.3 Medium, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) eligible to do business with government; bringing about 75 percent reduction in average clearance time for foreign travelers; 60 percent reduction in time to get electricity; 75 percent reduction in time to register business premises and 50 percent reduction in time for filing corporate income taxes”.
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