Sub-Saharan Africa’s best countries for doing business

The World Bank and IFC recently released the Doing Business 2012 report that ranks 183 countries according to the ease of doing business in each economy.

This year’s Doing Business ranks economies on the basis of 10 areas of regulation – for starting a business, dealing with construction permits, getting electricity, registering property, getting credit, protecting investors, paying taxes, trading across borders, enforcing contracts and resolving insolvency. In addition, data are presented for regulations on employing workers.

According to the report, most Sub-Saharan African countries have made it easier to do business in their respective economies. “Over the past year a record number of governments in Sub-Saharan Africa changed their economy’s regulatory environment to make it easier for domestic firms to start up and operate. In a region where relatively little attention was paid to the regulatory environment only 8 years ago, regulatory reforms making it easier to do business were implemented in 36 of 46 economies between June 2010 and May 2011. That represents 78% of economies in the region, compared with an average of 56% over the previous 6 years.”

An interesting fact in this year’s report is that it costs more on average to get an electricity connection in Sub-Saharan Africa than in any other part of the world – more than 5,400% of income per capita (the average in OECD high-income economies is 93% of income per capita).

Rankings on the ease of doing business – Sub-Saharan Africa
Sub-Saharan Africa rankCountryOverall DB2012 rankOverall DB2011 rank
1Mauritius2321
2South Africa3536
3Rwanda4550
4Botswana5452
5Ghana6360
6Namibia7874
7Zambia8480
8Seychelles103109
9Kenya109106
10Ethiopia111104
11Cape Verde119129
12Uganda123119
13Swaziland124123
14Tanzania127125
15Nigeria133133
16Sudan135135
17Madagascar137144
18Mozambique139132
19Sierra Leone141 150
20Lesotho143142
21Malawi145141
22Mali146148
23The Gambia149145
24Burkina Faso150151
25Liberia151155
26Senegal154157
27Equatorial Guinea155161
28Gabon156160
29Comoros157156
30Mauritania159162
31Cameroon161165
32Togo162158
33São Tomé and Príncipe163174
34Côte d'Ivoire167170
35Burundi169 177
36Zimbabwe171168
37Angola172171
38Niger173172
39Benin175173
40Guinea-Bissau176181
41Democratic Republic of the Congo178176
42Guinea179179
43Eritrea180178
44Republic of the Congo181180
45Central African Republic182183
46Chad183182