ABUJA, Sept. 6 (Xinhua) -- A World Bank report issued here on Wednesday placed Nigeria among the top four reformers in Africa behind Ghana, Tanzania and Rwanda.

    The World Bank in the report entitled "Doing Business 2007: How to Reform," however, stated that Nigeria was one of the most complex countries to do business with in the world in spite of the reforms carried out by the federal government,

    Report author Caralee Mcliesh noted that the reforms in Nigeria have not gone far enough to make real impact on its business environment.

    "There is a long way to go, but Nigeria is moving in the right direction," she said.

    Some of the gains of the reforms in Nigeria, according to the report, included the time for business registration fell from 274 days to 80 in the last one year. Its import and export procedures have also been cut.

    The World Bank, however, noted that reforms in the judiciary have made significant impact on Nigerian business environment especially when the courts reduced the time to settle disputes from 730 to 457 days.

    It said Nigeria must take steps to check other "complex regulations" affecting property registration, licensing and other procedures in starting new businesses.

    Mcliesh explained that the "Doing Business 2007" report was meant to allow policymakers to compare regulatory performance with other countries, learn from best practices globally and prioritize reforms.

    She said the studies have inspired some 48 reforms around the world, as more countries strive to ease the burden of doing business to guarantee job opportunities and economic boom.

    According to the report, only South Africa in Africa was among the 30 top business friendly countries in the world. Enditem