Two years after Nigeria exited the recession, Jim Ovia,
Chairman of Zenith Bank Plc believes the country is on a growth trajectory due
to Nigeria’s ease of doing business index and the inflation rate.
Speaking at the Deloitte in Dialogue Nigeria Economic
Outlook 2019, held at the Civic Centre, Victoria Island, Lagos, Ovia commended
the Federal Government and its economic team for pulling Nigeria through the
recession and restoring growth within the country.
In his address to the participants of the event, the
Minister of Finance, Mrs. Zainab Ahmed and her counterpart in Budget and
National Planning, Senator Udo Udoma, as well as the Minister of Industry,
Trade and Investment, Dr. Okechukwu Enalamah and the Governor of the Central
Bank of Nigeria, Godwin Emefiele were commended for their role in the revamping
of the economy.
While he praised them for Nigeria’s remarkable improvement
on the ease of doing business index, Ovia suggested that the goal now should be
single digit, which he believes will further improve the standing of Nigeria on
the index.
“the target for the ease of doing business for nigeria in
2019 in terms of ranking, should be single digit.
“we are no longer in recession and we have been able to
manage the rate of inflation. the outlook for the nation shows that we are now
on a growth trajectory,” he said.
Nigeria’s ease of doing business performance
Despite Ovia’s praises for the economic team, Nairametrics
understands Nigeria dropped a spot on the World Bank Ease of Doing Business
ranking for 2018, declining to 146 from 145 the country occupied since exiting
recession in 2016.
Nigeria’s performance had improved in 2017 after the country
climbed 24 places from its 169 position to 145 of the 190 countries tracked by
the global financial institution.
Factors that boost Nigeria’s position in 2017
According to the World Bank, who tracked 314 reforms by 128
governments across the world, ease of doing business in Nigeria was enabled by
the reduction of time needed to register a company at the Corporate Affairs
Commission (CAC) and introducing an online platform to pay stamp duty – this
reform applies to Kano and Lagos States.
Spanner in the works
Ovia might have praised the Federal Government’s economic
team for lifting Nigeria’s economy out of the recession, but Nigerians are not
really out of it just yet, and the Brookings Institution, a Washington based
economic research group, made this known in its report, ‘The start of a new
poverty narrative.’
The report placed Nigeria ahead of India, as the world’s
poverty capital, with the largest number of extremely poor, with about 86.9
million Nigerians living in abject poverty as of May 2018. It was disclosed
that extreme poverty is growing by six people every minute in Nigeria.
Coronation Research
Nairametrics learnt if Nigeria is unable to change its
current trajectory, it will be home to 110 million people living in extreme
poverty by the year 2030.
The Brookings Institution research also corroborates African
Development Bank’s observation in February 2018, that 152 million Nigerians,
representing almost 80 per cent of the country’s estimated 193.3 million
population are allegedly living on less than $2 per day, that is, N724 per day.
Also, according to a Quartz Africa report, the human capital
spending rate in Nigeria is the worst globally for the second year running. In
the Commitment to Reducing Inequality (CRI) index compiled by Development Finance
International (DFI) and Oxfam, Nigeria was ranked 157 out of 157 nations.
It should be noted that the CRI index ranks the commitment
of national governments to reducing the gap between the rich and the poor
citizens. the ranking is determined by three factors considered critical to
reducing the gap; social spending, tax policies and labour rights.
So, Nigeria might be out of recession, but the citizens are
yet to be impacted by the economic growth.
