The World Bank just published its 13th edition of the annual series Doing Business. The report contains a ranking of 189 economies from across the world based on regulations that enhance business activities and those that constrain it. The goal of the Doing Business series is to provide objective data for use by governments in designing sound business regulatory policies and to encourage research on the important dimensions of the regulatory environment for firms
The report compiled between June 2014 and June 2015 documents 231 business reforms which include reforms to to reduce the complexity and cost of regulatory processes, those in the area of starting a business were the most common in 2014/15, as in the previous year.
Some of the 10 areas included in this year’s ranking on the ease of doing business are: starting a business, dealing with construction permits, getting electricity, registering property, getting credit and protecting minority investors,
Uganda, Kenya, Mauritania, Senegal and Benin are among the African economies that improved the most in 2014/2015 in areas tracked by Doing Business. Singapore is ranked as the easiest country to do business in with New Zealand and Denmark coming in 2nd and 3rd respectively.
Mauritius -- described as a tax haven -ranks as the top African country on the list at position 32 with Rwanda following at position 62, Kenya 108 and Uganda 122 representing Eastern Africa;Botswana 72, South Africa 73, Seychelles 95 and Zambia 97 (Southern Africa) Tunisia 74 ,Morocco 75 (Northern Africa) while West Africa is represented by Ghana 114, , Cape Verde 126, and Nigeria 169.
Europe and Central Asia have the largest share of economies continually making it easier to do business. Nigeria is one of the countries that has made strides with reduced taxes/ fees making it easier to register property as compared to before 2014 despite it ranking 169 out of 189.
