Former Director, Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), and Executive Chairman, Polar-Afrique Consulting Limited, Dr. Chris Osi Itsede, has scored the federal government very low in its ongoing campaign in driving ease of doing business in Nigeria.
He made it clear that up till now, South Africa is better by far when compared with Nigeria the ease of doing business in Nigeria.
While stressing that Nigeria is not as attractive as South Africa, he disclosed that Egypt and many emerging economics in the region have better conditions to attract business and investment.
Explaining in an interview, Itsede observed that one of the key determining factors in weighing ease of doing business among economies include flow of foreign capital which he said had been very low when compared with South Africa and Egypt.
He insisted that what comes into Nigeria is a fraction of what it should get considering the vast potential of the nation, adding that it is next to nothing when compared to what smaller countries are getting.
According to him, so far Nigerian government has a lot of control in businesses; international encouragements for genuine investors will continue to be poor.
Nigeria recently climbed up a bit in the global ranking of ease of doing business, but analysts say the rise is not encouraging, meaning that government needs to do more.