By Levinus Nwabughiogu

ABUJA—The Presidency  yesterday lauded the 2017 World Bank reports on business which ranked Nigeria 169 out of 189 countries in the overall Ease of Doing Business.

By the rating, Nigeria retained its position last year.

Noting the development, the Presidency which was obviously excited about the development, stated that the score was an indication that measures put in place by the present government to bring about a healthy business climate were yielding positive results.

A statement from the office of the Vice President Yemi Osinbajo stated that the government was still committed to scaling up its reform activities to continue to arrest the past decline where the country fell from No. 94 in 2006 to 169 in 2016.

The statement read: “The Buhari administration is gratified that the various reform initiatives put in place towards instituting a positive business environment is slowly but gradually yielding some dividends as Nigeria’s ranking in the World Bank’s Ease of Doing Business remains static, halting a falling trend in the past several years.

“The latest World Bank’s Doing Business 2017 ranking report released on Tuesday, October 25, 2016, which ranked Nigeria 169 out of 189 countries in the overall Ease of Doing Business rank is a positive indication that the focus and tenacity of President Muhammadu Buhari to reposition the nation’s business and economic environment is working and on course.

“While Nigeria’s country’s position remains the same as last year on the index ranking, it is encouraging that Nigeria has recorded some positive outlooks in four critical areas of the ranking-namely: Starting a Business, Dealing with Construction Permits, Registering Property and Access to Credit.

“The objectivity and reliability of this report coming from an international development institution lends weight to the milestone recorded in particular on the distance to frontier (DTF) metric, where the country’s score improved slightly from 44.02 in Doing Business 2016 to 44.63 in Doing Business 2017.

“According to the World Bank report the improvements noted mean “that in the last year, Nigeria’s business regulatory environment as captured by the Doing Business indicators improved slightly in absolute terms – the country is decreasing the gap with the global regulatory frontier.

This is a morale booster for stakeholders involved in the efforts aimed at removing existing bottlenecks in the business environment.

“This observation by the World Bank is indeed a recognition of the bold initiatives and untiring work of President Muhammadu Buhari-led administration, particularly through the Presidential Enabling Business Environment Council, PEBEC, chaired by the Vice President, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo, SAN.

“The President in August had set-up PEBEC, which has an active collaboration with the private sector, including a Secretariat led by Mr. Seyi Bickersteth of KPMG, “to remove the bottlenecks that stifle businesses and create the right enabling environment and investment climate.”