LCCI to World Bank: review ease of doing business indicators

LCCI to World Bank: review ease of doing business indicators: The World Bank should review the indicators for composing the Ease of Doing Business (EoDB) Index to reflect the reality of each country, the Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI) has said.

Speaking in Lagos, its Director-General, Mr. Muda Yusuf, said country-specific criteria was desirable and not just using the same indicator for every country.

He said countries vary in their peculiarities and challenges.

“Some of the indicators in the EoDB 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 EoDB parameters,” Yusuf said.

The LCCI chief pointed out, for instance, that the present indicators were about construction permit, ease of starting business, credit, reforms, trading across borders, among 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 affect the ease of doing business and the business environment.

The World Bank Doing Business Index (DBI) is a yearly ranking that objectively assesses prevailing business climate conditions across 190 countries based on 10 EoDB 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.

A nation’s ranking on the index is based on the average of 10 sub-indices namely, 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.