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 rank	Country	Overall DB2012 rank	Overall DB2011 rank
1	Mauritius	23	21
2	South Africa	35	36
3	Rwanda	45	50
4	Botswana	54	52
5	Ghana	63	60
6	Namibia	78	74
7	Zambia	84	80
8	Seychelles	103	109
9	Kenya	109	106
10	Ethiopia	111	104
11	Cape Verde	119	129
12	Uganda	123	119
13	Swaziland	124	123
14	Tanzania	127	125
15	Nigeria	133	133
16	Sudan	135	135
17	Madagascar	137	144
18	Mozambique	139	132
19	Sierra Leone	141	150
20	Lesotho	143	142
21	Malawi	145	141
22	Mali	146	148
23	The Gambia	149	145
24	Burkina Faso	150	151
25	Liberia	151	155
26	Senegal	154	157
27	Equatorial Guinea	155	161
28	Gabon	156	160
29	Comoros	157	156
30	Mauritania	159	162
31	Cameroon	161	165
32	Togo	162	158
33	São Tomé and Príncipe	163	174
34	Côte d'Ivoire	167	170
35	Burundi	169	177
36	Zimbabwe	171	168
37	Angola	172	171
38	Niger	173	172
39	Benin	175	173
40	Guinea-Bissau	176	181
41	Democratic Republic of the Congo	178	176
42	Guinea	179	179
43	Eritrea	180	178
44	Republic of the Congo	181	180
45	Central African Republic	182	183
46	Chad	183	182