FORBES, the popular American business magazine, has ranked Nigeria in the 110th position among Best Countries for Busines in the world out of 161 graded countries.
The United States was ranked 17th below Ireland and Finland, while top on the list is the United Kingdom (1), followed by Sweden (2), Hong Kong (3), The Netherlands (4), New Zealand (5) and Canada (6).
In the African region, South Africa came first in Africa, while Nigeria is in the 14th position, but on the global scale, South Africa ranks 59.
Other countries rated in Africa include Morocco (62), Seychelles (66), Tunisia (82), Botswana (83), Rwanda (90), Kenya (93), Ghana (94), Egypt (95), Namibia (96), Senegal (100), Zambia (103) and Cape Verde (104).
On the criteria used for the ranking, Forbes said: “We used the World Bank’s Doing Business report to grade countries’ taxes, investor protection and red tape/bureaucracy,” Forbes said, explaining its methodology.
“The Heritage Foundation’s Index of Economic Freedom provided the basis for our ratings on trade freedom and monetary freedom. Ratings on technology, innovation and infrastructure came compliments of the World Economic Forum’s annual Global Competitiveness Report.
“We used the Property Rights Alliance’s International Property Rights Index to gauge property rights, which was led by Japan. The workforce was based on the size of the labour force and its growth from data via the World Bank.
“Quality-of-life ratings came courtesy of the United Nations’ Human Development Index.”
Nigeria’s assessment was also based on its 203.5 million population with a Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth of 0.8 per cent and GDP per capita of $2,000.