The Doing Business index is a ranking index system, created by the World Bank Group, which indicates the regularity environment of businesses. A higher ranking, which is indicated by a lower numerical value, specifies a stronger protection of property rights, and vice.versa.
The World Bank has annually been measuring the quality of worldwide business environments, for the past fifteen years, with its Doing Business ranking system. Over 190 economies have been scrutinized on criteria including: electrification and ease of business creation, the tax burden and the protection of property rights.
The bank released the latest report themed ‘Doing Business 2019: A Year of Record Reforms, Rising’ on Wednesday.
Highlights of the Report
- Doing Business captured a record 107 reforms across 40 economies in Sub-Saharan Africa, and the region’s private sector is feeling the impact of these improvements. The aver age time and cost to register a business, for example, has declined from 59 days and 192% of income per capita in 2006 to 23 days and 40% of income per capita today. Furthermore, the average paid-in minimum capital has fallen from 212% of income per capita to 11% of income per capita in the same period.
- One-third of all business regulatory reforms recorded by Doing Business 2019 were in the economies of Sub-Saharan Africa. With a total of 107 reforms, Sub-Saharan Africa once again has a record number this year.
- With four economies—Côte d’Ivoire, Kenya, Rwanda and Togo—Sub-Saharan Africa is the most represented region in the Doing Business 2019 list of 10 top improvers. Digitization was a common theme among the business regulatory reforms recorded by these four economies. Côte d’Ivoire and Togo introduced online systems for filing corporate income tax and value added tax returns, while Kenya simplifed the process of providing value added tax information by enhancing its existing online system, iTax.
- Mauritius, joined the group of top 20 economies this year (the only Sub-Saharan African economy to do so), thanks to the country’s comprehensive reform over the years, for example, the time needed to register property has decreased more than 12 times; the time needed for business incorporation has decreased almost 10 times as a result of four reforms in starting a business.
Doing Business 2019
Doing Business measures regulations of the labour market (which has not been included in this year’s ranking) and for eleven areas in the life cycle of a business. Eleven of these areas have been included in this year’s ranking on the “ease of doing business”. They are:
- Getting electricity
- Dealing with construction permits
- Trading across borders
- Paying taxes
- Protecting minority investors
- Registering property
- Getting credit
- Resolving insolvency
- Enforcing contracts
- Labor market regulation
- Starting a business
Following this criteria above, here are the top 20 African economies, as ranked in the 2019 Doing Business report.
Top 20 Best African Countries for Doing Business
Rank | Country | (EODB) Score
1. Mauritius – 79.58
2. Rwanda – 77.88
3. Morocco – 71.02
4. Kenya – 70.31
5. Tunisia – 66.11
6. South Africa – 66.03
7. Botswana – 65.40
8. Zambia – 66.08
9. Seychelles – 62.41
10. Djibouti – 62.02
11. Lesotho – 60.60
12. Namibia – 60.53
13. Malawi – 59.59
14. Ghana – 59.22
15. Congo, Rep. – 39.83
16. Eswatini – 58.95
17. Egypt – 58.56
18. Ivory coast – 58.00
19. Uganda – 57.06
20. Cape Verde – 55.95
And here are the Top 20 Worst African Countries for Doing Business
Rank | Country | (EODB) Score
20. Algeria – 49.65
19. Ethiopia – 49.06
18. Madagascar – 48.89
17. Sudan – 48.84
16. Sierra Leone – 48.74
15. Comoros – 48.66
14. Cameroon – 47.78
13. Burundi – 47.41
12. Gabon – 45.58
11. Sao tome & principe 45.14
10. Angola – 43.86
9. Liberia – 48.51
8. Guinea Bissau – 42.85
9. Equitorial Guinea – 41. 94
8. Congo Rep – 39.83
7. Chad – 39.36
6. Central African Republic – 36.90
5. Congo, Dem. Rep. – 36.85
4. South Sudan – 35.34
3. Libya – 33.44
2. Eritrea – 23.07
1. Somalia – 20.04
Methodology
The Doing Business data are collected in a standardized way. To start, the Doing Business team, together with expert advisers, designs a questionnaire. The questionnaire uses a simple business case to ensure comparability across econo- mies and over time—with assumptions about the legal form of the business, its size, its location and the nature of its operations.
Questionnaires are administered to more than 13,800 local experts, including lawyers, business consultants, accountants, freight forwarders, govern- ment ofcials and other professionals routinely administering or advising on legal and regulatory requirements.
