The recent report of the scandal of the irregularities uncovered by both internal and independent investigations in the World Bank-owned ease of doing business data of some countriies has generated reactions from the populace, Njenje Media News reports.
The World Bank had announced its resolve to stop further publication of its “Doing Business” report series for 2018 and 2020 over the discovery of discrepancies that are believed to have impugned on the integrity of the country-based report.
Reacting to the development in an exclusive interview with our correspondent, macro-economic expert, Dr Ayo Teriba, said the report has set the yardstick for nations to build their economies and create business enabling climate for investors.
“It was nice while it lasted that the World Bank was rating countries based on the perceived ease of doing business. And if that’s not going to be published in the coming years, that report will be dearly missed. It became a yardstick for ranking business environments,” Dr Teriba said.
“Countries struggled to increase their ranking by increasing their ease of doing business in line with the World Bank’s ranking metrics. Nigeria for instance announced at a time that it gained 13 points in the ease of doing business ranking. It was a major achievement for the government. If they stop publishing that, that ranking will be missed.”
Pointing out that the integrity and impartiality of its data and analysis remained paramount, the bank further announced immediate measures to address the situation.
The bank in a statement said it would correct the anomalies. Economic analyst, Stephen Kanabe said it was a face-saving measure. “We will act based on the findings and will retrospectively correct the data of countries that were most affected by the irregularities,” the bank said.
