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Five African countries – Togo, Nigeria, Djibouti, Kenya, and Zimbabwe – are among the top-20 improvers in making it easier to do business in the last year. This is according to a preview of the World Bank’s annual Doing Business ranking, to be released on October 24.

Good performance on the ranking is coveted by countries – usually resulting in widespread, favourable media coverage – and used to promote their credentials as desirable investment destinations.

It’s also a superficial indicator of a country’s business environment, exclusively tracking the number of nominal reforms across 10 regulatory areas. It says little about implementation, the wider economic context, or the practicalities of actually doing business.

This can lead to some confusing results, like this year’s top-20 improvers.

The inclusion of Nigeria and Zimbabwe is curious, as both have experienced a deterioration in their business environments in recent years. Zimbabwe, in particular, underlines how misleading Doing Business can be.

The country is in the midst of a spiralling crisis threatening to unravel its economy, amid growing concerns about poor governance and corruption. If anything, the ease of doing business is rapidly getting worse.

The World Bank does concede that the ranking doesn’t fully reflect an economy’s attractiveness for business, but this doesn’t stop the media, and its top performers, from hyping it up each year.

This report reflects the views of the author alone, not those of How we made it in Africa.

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Today’s picks

From the continent

Zambia’s government is pushing ahead with contentious constitutional reforms to strengthen the powers of president Edgar Lungu. Bill 10, if passed by the country’s parliament, extends the president’s power to appoint judges and ministers, and control of monetary policy. More: Eyewitness News

Egyptian authorities have re-arrested a prominent dissident linked to protests that helped oust former president Hosni Mubarak in 2011, as part of a widespread crackdown on planned anti-government demonstrations. This follows unexpected protests against president Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, which have raised concerns about stability in the country. More: Al Jazeera

The global perspective

Sudan’s newly appointed prime minister Abdalla Hamdok has said the country hopes to reach an agreement to be removed from the US list of state sponsors of terrorism “very soon” following talks last week. This is part of efforts by the country’s transitional government to kick-start Sudan’s stagnant economy. More: Reuters

Italian prosecutors are reportedly investigating the wide of oil major Eni’s CEO Claudio Descalzi as part of a wider probe into corruption allegations involving the company in the Republic of the Congo. The company is also embroiled in a high profile trial over alleged corruption in the purchase of an oil block in Nigeria in 2011. More: Euronews

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