Ease of doing business index (1=most business-friendly regulations) - Country Ranking - Africa

Definition: Ease of doing business ranks economies from 1 to 190, with first place being the best. A high ranking (a low numerical rank) means that the regulatory environment is conducive to business operation. The index averages the country's percentile rankings on 10 topics covered in the World Bank's Doing Business. The ranking on each topic is the simple average of the percentile rankings on its component indicators.

Source: World Bank, Doing Business project (http://www.doingbusiness.org/).

See also: Thematic map, Time series comparison

Find indicator:
Rank Country Value Year
1 Somalia 190.00 2019
2 Eritrea 189.00 2019
3 Libya 186.00 2019
4 Central African Republic 184.00 2019
5 Dem. Rep. Congo 183.00 2019
6 Chad 182.00 2019
7 Congo 180.00 2019
8 Equatorial Guinea 178.00 2019
9 Angola 177.00 2019
10 Liberia 175.00 2019
11 Guinea-Bissau 174.00 2019
12 Sudan 171.00 2019
13 São Tomé and Principe 170.00 2019
14 Gabon 169.00 2019
15 Cameroon 167.00 2019
16 Burundi 166.00 2019
17 Sierra Leone 163.00 2019
18 Madagascar 161.00 2019
19 Comoros 160.00 2019
20 Ethiopia 159.00 2019
21 Algeria 157.00 2019
22 Guinea 156.00 2019
23 The Gambia 155.00 2019
24 Mauritania 152.00 2019
25 Burkina Faso 151.00 2019
26 Benin 149.00 2019
27 Mali 148.00 2019
28 Tanzania 141.00 2019
29 Zimbabwe 140.00 2019
30 Mozambique 138.00 2019
31 Cabo Verde 137.00 2019
32 Niger 132.00 2019
33 Nigeria 131.00 2019
34 Senegal 123.00 2019
35 Lesotho 122.00 2019
36 Eswatini 121.00 2019
37 Ghana 118.00 2019
38 Uganda 116.00 2019
39 Egypt 114.00 2019
40 Djibouti 112.00 2019
41 Côte d'Ivoire 110.00 2019
42 Malawi 109.00 2019
43 Namibia 104.00 2019
44 Seychelles 100.00 2019
45 Togo 97.00 2019
46 Botswana 87.00 2019
47 Zambia 85.00 2019
48 South Africa 84.00 2019
49 Tunisia 78.00 2019
50 Kenya 56.00 2019
51 Morocco 53.00 2019
52 Rwanda 38.00 2019
53 Mauritius 13.00 2019

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Development Relevance: The economic health of a country is measured not only in macroeconomic terms but also by other factors that shape daily economic activity such as laws, regulations, and institutional arrangements. The data measure business regulation, gauge regulatory outcomes, and measure the extent of legal protection of property, the flexibility of employment regulation, and the tax burden on businesses. The fundamental premise of this data is that economic activity requires good rules and regulations that are efficient, accessible to all who need to use them, and simple to implement. Thus sometimes there is more emphasis on more regulation, such as stricter disclosure requirements in related-party transactions, and other times emphasis is on for simplified regulations, such as a one-stop shop for completing business startup formalities. Entrepreneurs may not be aware of all required procedures or may avoid legally required procedures altogether. But where regulation is particularly onerous, levels of informality are higher, which comes at a cost: firms in the informal sector usually grow more slowly, have less access to credit, and employ fewer workers - and those workers remain outside the protections of labor law. The indicator can help policymakers understand the business environment in a country and - along with information from other sources such as the World Bank's Enterprise Surveys - provide insights into potential areas of reform.

Limitations and Exceptions: The Doing Business methodology has limitations that should be considered when interpreting the data. First, the data collected refer to businesses in the economy's largest city and may not represent regulations in other locations of the economy. To address this limitation, subnational indicators are being collected for selected economies. These subnational studies point to significant differences in the speed of reform and the ease of doing business across cities in the same economy. Second, the data often focus on a specific business form - generally a limited liability company of a specified size - and may not represent regulation for other types of businesses such as sole proprietorships. Third, transactions described in a standardized business case refer to a specific set of issues and may not represent the full set of issues a business encounters. Fourth, the time measures involve an element of judgment by the expert respondents. When sources indicate different estimates, the Doing Business time indicators represent the median values of several responses given under the assumptions of the standardized case. Fifth, the methodology assumes that a business has full information on what is required and does not waste time when completing procedures.

Statistical Concept and Methodology: Data are collected by the World Bank with a standardized survey that uses a simple business case to ensure comparability across economies and over time - with assumptions about the legal form of the business, its size, its location, and nature of its operation. Surveys are administered through more than 9,000 local experts, including lawyers, business consultants, accountants, freight forwarders, government officials, and other professionals who routinely administer or advise on legal and regulatory requirements. The indicator measures the time, cost, and outcome of insolvency proceedings involving domestic entities. The time required for creditors to recover their credit is recorded in calendar years. The cost of the proceedings is recorded as a percentage of the value of the debtor's estate. The Doing Business project of the World Bank encompasses two types of data: data from readings of laws and regulations and data on time and motion indicators that measure efficiency in achieving a regulatory goal. Within the time and motion indicators cost estimates are recorded from official fee schedules where applicable. The data from surveys are subjected to numerous tests for robustness, which lead to revision or expansion of the information collected.

Periodicity: Annual

General Comments: Data are presented for the survey year instead of publication year. Data before 2013 are not comparable with data from 2013 onward due to methodological changes.