Lagos Leads 2025 Ease of Doing Business Rankings, PEBEC Highlights Gaps in Other States
The Presidential Enabling Business Environment Council (PEBEC) has released its 2025 Subnational Ease of Doing Business (EoDB) Report, confirming Lagos as the top-performing state with an 85.6% score, further widening its lead over other subnationals in attracting investors and improving regulatory efficiency.
Kaduna followed with 65.1%, while Oyo, the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), and Ogun ranked third, fourth, and fifth with 62.7%, 61.0%, and 59.9% respectively. Completing the top 10 were Enugu (56.2%), Plateau (56.2%), Ekiti (55.8%), Kano (54.8%), and Nasarawa (53.4%).
According to PEBEC, the 2025 index is grounded in “hard administrative evidence, not political claims,” assessing states across 16 indicators and 36 sub-metrics such as electricity reliability, taxation transparency, digital governance, land administration, logistics efficiency, commercial justice delivery, investor support, and skilled labor readiness.
Princess Zahrah Mustapha Audu, Director-General of PEBEC, stated that the rankings indicate some states are transitioning from policy statements to actual implementation, particularly through the $750 million State Action on Business Enabling Reforms (SABER) programme aimed at boosting subnational competitiveness.
Despite progress, the report cautioned that many states still lack credible investor aftercare systems, predictable interstate trade frameworks, industrial-level power stability, and functioning MSME financing channels. These shortcomings, PEBEC warned, continue to push Nigerian entrepreneurs toward more stable regulatory environments in Ghana, Rwanda, and Kenya.
The Council outlined five urgent reforms governors should prioritize to attract productive investment: revamp commercial justice processes, stabilize power supply for industrial and SME clusters, implement effective post-investment support, harmonize interstate taxation and trade rules, and remove logistics bottlenecks affecting goods movement across states.
Established in 2016 and chaired by Vice President Kashim Shettima, PEBEC emphasized that the report is not ceremonial but serves as a compliance audit influencing state eligibility for federal incentives, global investment engagement, and development financing allocations.
The Council concluded: while Lagos continues to set the benchmark as Nigeria’s commercial hub, most states remain constrained by bureaucratic inefficiencies, ad hoc taxation, and inconsistent regulatory practices, making investment and expansion challenging.
“The 2025 Subnational EoDB Report provides a critical foundation for policy action, investment decisions, and long-term competitiveness across Nigeria,” PEBEC noted.
