President Muhammadu Buhari of Nigeria has attributed the country’s rise by 25 places in the World Bank Ease of doing business ranking to initiatives of the administration aimed at promoting Micro, small and medium scale businesses among other factors.
He stated this during a national broadcast to mark the 2020 celebration of Democracy Day which marks 21 years of uninterrupted civil administration in the country.
According to the President “Nigeria has risen by 25 places on the World Bank’s Ease of Doing Business ranking from 146th to 131st and is now rated as one of the top ten reforming countries. This development is due to the Visa on Arrival policy, consistent promotion of initiatives that expand facilities available to Micro, Small and Medium Scale Enterprises, robust electronic registration and payment system, seamless processing of business registration and reduction of cost of registering business by 50%. We are confident that on-going efforts would result in further improvement of this rating.
The President also disclosed that the country has recorded notable achievements in the course of implementing its nine priority objectives .
While listing the administration’s effort towards stabilizing the economy, the President said “On the economic front, our objectives have remained to stabilize the macroeconomy, achieve agricultural and food security, ensure energy sufficiency in power and petroleum products, develop infrastructure, fight corruption and improve governance.
‘In order to stabilize the economy, the Monetary Authority took steps to build the external reserves which resulted in improved liquidity in the foreign exchange market. The external reserves grew from $33.42 billion on April 29th 2020 to about $36.00 billion in May, 2020 which is enough to finance seven months of import commitments’’ Buhari noted.
In closing, Buhari noted “Fellow Nigerians, as we celebrate this year’s Democracy Day, let us remember that, notwithstanding our aspirations, humanity and indeed democracy is under the threat of COVID-19. Nigeria has survived many crises before and came out stronger. I am confident that by God’s grace we shall overcome this one and emerge stronger and more purposeful’’
