Briefing Paper

Unlocking the Business Environment in Nigeria: The BECANS Solution

“Nigeria is widely acknowledged as a country with great (albeit unrealized) potential to become a major player in the global economy. One vivid sign of unrealized potential is the inability to translate huge crude oil earnings into international economic competitiveness that will guarantee sustainable growth, employment creation and poverty reduction. After a long period of macroeconomic volatility, the country, has in the last six straight years, witnessed improved macroeconomic and growth performance. Despite the enhanced performance, the country continues to suffer high levels of poverty and unemployment. Available evidence shows that the growth has neither created jobs nor reduced poverty. BECANS supplies independent research-based
evidence on the business environment across Nigerian states, in an on-going manner. Such credible and objective evidence is essential to improve the quality of dialogue and advocacy. Also, it provides benchmarking
tools for government and private sector to identify specific competitiveness obstacles, thus stimulating critical thinking about strategies to overcome them. The role of BECANS is to foster government and private
sector dialogue for state-level business environment reforms.”