Sub-Saharan Africa Implements the Most Business Regulatory Reforms Worldwide

Washington, D.C., October 29, 2014A new World Bank Group report finds that Sub-Saharan Africa had the highest number of business regulatory reforms globally in 2013/14, with 74 percent of the regions economies improving their business regulatory environment for local entrepreneurs.

Released today, Doing Business 2015: Going Beyond Efficiency finds that Benin, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Côte dIvoire, Senegal, and Togo are among the 10 top improvers worldwide, having improved business regulation the most in the past year among the 189 economies covered. Since 2005, all countries in the region have improved the business regulatory environment for small and medium-size businesses, with Rwanda implementing the most reforms, followed by Mauritiusand Sierra Leone.

The report series shows that over the past five years, 11 different Sub-Saharan African countries have appeared on the annual list of the 10 global top improvers. Some have done so multiple times, such as Burundi, Cabo Verde, Côte dIvoire, and Rwanda. Sub-Saharan African economies have come a long way in reducing burdensome business regulations, said Melissa Johns, Advisor, Global Indicators Group, Development Economics, World Bank Group. Our data show that Sub-Saharan Africaaccounts for the largest number of regulatory reforms making it easier to do business in the past year, with 75 of the 230 documented worldwide. Yet despite broad regulatory reform agendas, challenges persist in the region, where business incorporation continues to be costlier and more complex on average than in any other region.

Ghana this year was ranked 70 out of 189 countries on the ease of doing business,it made dealing with construction permits less time-consuming by streamlining the process to obtain a building permit. Ghana alsomade trading across borders easier by upgrading infrastructure at the port of Tema.

The report finds that Senegal implemented regulatory reforms in six of the 10 areas tracked by Doing Businessa global high for the year. Thanks to such reforms, Senegal is gradually narrowing the gap with best practices seen elsewhere. For example, in 2005, completing every official procedure to import goods from overseas took 27 days. Today it takes 14 days, the same as in Poland.

This year, for the first time, Doing Business collected data for a second city in the 11 economies with a population of more than 100 million. In Nigeria, the report now analyzes business regulations in Kano as well as in Lagos.

The report this year also expands the data for three of the 10 topics covered, and there are plans to do so for five more topics next year. In addition, the ease of doing business ranking is now based on the distance to frontier score. This measure shows how close each economy is to global best practices in business regulation. A higher score indicates a more efficient business environment and stronger legal institutions.

The report finds that Singapore tops the global ranking on the ease of doing business. Joining it on the list of the top 10 economies with the most business-friendly regulatory environments are New Zealand; Hong Kong SAR, China; Denmark; the Republic of Korea; Norway; the United States; the United Kingdom; Finland; and Australia.