Country Overview
Niger has dramatically improved its position in permit processes since 2016, reducing the cost to start a business from 32% to 8% of income per capita and the time to register a property from 36 days to only 13, placing them among the top African countries for Permits. To build on these efficiency gains, the Niger government should seek to publish an infrastructure plan and project pipeline, as well as perform post-completion reviews.
See Full Overview Data
GDP per capita
595.2 USD
Population
25.1 million persons

Driver Overview

This section shows a country’s rank, ranking change and score for each of the eight drivers. It also categorises each country’s driver performance on a scale from “Emerging” (score from 0-20) to “Global Leader” (score from 80-100).

Driver
Rank
Score /100
Emerging Aspiring Contender Top performer Global Leader
- No ranking change Ranking increase Ranking decrease

Rank

Score /100

Best practice

72
1
26.6
Emerging
73
-
40.9
Emerging
49
9
63.9
Aspiring
62
1
39.2
Aspiring
74
1
30.9
Emerging
15
1
50.6
Global Leader
66
3
21.3
Emerging
62
4
23.6
Aspiring

Metric Overview

Strengths

Registering property

It takes 13 days to register a property in Niger, the second lowest of Low Income and African Countries. This is down from 36 days in 2017. As infrastructure projects often involve property rights, the shorter the time to register properties, the less costly and risky the project.

Cost to start a business

According to the World Bank, the cost of starting a business in Niger is equal to 8% of income per capita, far lower than the African average of 27%, easing the entry of new firms.

Time required to start a business

According to the World Bank, the time required to start a business in Niger is 10 days, which is faster than the African average of 19 days. Shorter times to set up businesses can persuade businesses to set up in a country, including new infrastructure entities.

Registering property

It takes 13 days to register a property in Niger, the second lowest of Low Income and African Countries. This is down from 36 days in 2017. As infrastructure projects often involve property rights, the shorter the time to register properties, the less costly and risky the project.

Cost to start a business

According to the World Bank, the cost of starting a business in Niger is equal to 8% of income per capita, far lower than the African average of 27%, easing the entry of new firms.

Time required to start a business

According to the World Bank, the time required to start a business in Niger is 10 days, which is faster than the African average of 19 days. Shorter times to set up businesses can persuade businesses to set up in a country, including new infrastructure entities.

Top Performing Metrics

Top Performing Metrics

This is defined by the metrics with the highest unweighted score out of 100. 

Low income country average

Opportunities to Grow

Published infrastructure procurement guidelines

Niger does not publish guidelines for the procurement of infrastructure projects. Publishing guidelines makes contractors aware of the government’s processes, expectations and requirements, improves transparency and helps the government achieve better value for money.

Published project pipeline

Niger does not currently publish an infrastructure pipeline of projects. The addition of an infrastructure pipeline could help provide infrastructure participants with a clear indication of prospective and confirmed infrastructure activity.

Published infrastructure plan

Niger does not have a national or sub-national infrastructure plan. The addition of an infrastructure plan could highlight infrastructure challenges and opportunities for investment, as well as detail the government's planned responses.

Published infrastructure procurement guidelines

Niger does not publish guidelines for the procurement of infrastructure projects. Publishing guidelines makes contractors aware of the government’s processes, expectations and requirements, improves transparency and helps the government achieve better value for money.

Published project pipeline

Niger does not currently publish an infrastructure pipeline of projects. The addition of an infrastructure pipeline could help provide infrastructure participants with a clear indication of prospective and confirmed infrastructure activity.

Published infrastructure plan

Niger does not have a national or sub-national infrastructure plan. The addition of an infrastructure plan could highlight infrastructure challenges and opportunities for investment, as well as detail the government's planned responses.

Metrics to Improve

Metrics to Improve

This is defined by the metrics with the lowest weighted score out of 100, such that these metrics would have the greatest impact on the overall score.

For metrics that have binary outcomes (yes=100/no=0), no comparative income group average is reported.

Low income country average

Detailed Data

This section shows country data for each of the 41 metrics. The figures in brackets denote the change in score since InfraCompass 2017. 

Note that all data has been normalised on a scale of 1-100. For raw metric data, please download the complete InfraCompass 2020 dataset. 

Where relevant, some metric scores have been inverted, such that all metrics have positive relationships with good infrastructure outcomes. For example, since lower compliance costs make it easier to invest in infrastructure, the normalised value of ‘number of procedures to start a business’ has been reversed such that lower number of procedures are scored closer to 100, and higher numbers closer to 0. In other words, a score of 0 indicates a poor performance, rather than 0 number of procedures.

Governance Regulatory Permits Planning Procurement Activity Funding Financial
Driver
Rank
Score /100
Emerging Aspiring Contender Top performer Global Leader
- No ranking change Ranking increase Ranking decrease

Metric

Niger

Low Income Countries Average

Source Link

28.2%

Recovery rate

The recovery rate is recorded as cents on the dollar recovered by secured creditors through reorganisation, liquidation or debt enforcement (foreclosure or receivership) proceedings.

20.9 (-1.8)
21.8

20.7%

Rule of law

World Governance Composite Indicator reflecting perceptions of the extent to which agents have confidence in and abide by the rules of society, and in particular the quality of contract enforcement, property rights, the police, and the courts, as well as the likelihood of crime and violence. The rule of law reflects whether the law imposes limits of power on the state, private sector and individuals.

38.4 (+1.6)
37.1

18.1%

Post-completion reviews

Whether the country conducts post-completion reviews on infrastructure projects to ensure the forecast outcomes are being achieved.

No
-

15.1%

Shareholder governance

Measures the governance practices that protect shareholders through three dimensions: the extent of shareholder rights index (shareholders’ rights and role in major corporate decisions), the extent of ownership and control index (governance safeguards protecting shareholders from undue board control and entrenchment), and the extent of corporate transparency index (corporate transparency on ownership stakes).

26.7
16.3

12.8%

Political stability and absence of violence score

Measures perceptions of the likelihood of political instability and/or politically-motivated violence, including terrorism. Estimate gives the country's score on the aggregate indicator, in units of a standard normal distribution i.e. ranging from approximately -2.5 to 2.5.

29.0 (-2.6)
34.0

5%

Infrastructure or PPP agency

Whether an infrastructure agency exists to coordinate an integrated approach to infrastructure delivery and policy.

Yes
-

Niger

Low Income Countries Average

20.9 (-1.8)
21.8
38.4 (+1.6)
37.1
No
-
26.7
16.3
29.0 (-2.6)
34.0
Yes
-

Country Overview Data

Niger has dramatically improved its position in permit processes since 2016, reducing the cost to start a business from 32% to 8% of income per capita and the time to register a property from 36 days to only 13, placing them among the top African countries for Permits. To build on these efficiency gains, the Niger government should seek to publish an infrastructure plan and project pipeline, as well as perform post-completion reviews.
GDP per capita

595.2 USD

Population

25.1 million persons

GDP

9.4 USD billion

GDP growth rate

6.3%

GDP per capita growth rate

-2.2%

Gini coefficient

34.3 (0-100 worst)

Gross Government Debt

56.0% of GDP

Inflation rate

-1.3%

Summary credit rating

0.0 (0-100 best)

Unemployment rate

0.3%

Urbanisation ratio

16.0% of total population

Digital Adoption Index

0.2 (0-1 best)