Time to import, border compliance (hours) - Country Ranking - Africa

Definition: Border compliance captures the time and cost associated with compliance with the economy’s customs regulations and with regulations relating to other inspections that are mandatory in order for the shipment to cross the economy’s border, as well as the time and cost for handling that takes place at its port or border. The time and cost for this segment include time and cost for customs clearance and inspection procedures conducted by other government agencies.

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

See also: Thematic map, Time series comparison

Find indicator:
Rank Country Value Year
1 Tanzania 402.00 2019
2 Congo 397.33 2019
3 Dem. Rep. Congo 336.00 2019
4 Cameroon 271.00 2019
5 Chad 242.00 2019
6 Nigeria 241.71 2019
7 Equatorial Guinea 240.00 2019
7 Egypt 240.00 2019
9 Zimbabwe 227.67 2019
10 Liberia 217.00 2019
11 Algeria 209.57 2019
12 Kenya 194.00 2019
13 Togo 168.00 2019
14 Burundi 154.30 2019
15 São Tomé and Principe 150.00 2019
16 Uganda 145.00 2019
17 Sudan 144.00 2019
18 Côte d'Ivoire 125.14 2019
19 Central African Republic 121.71 2019
20 Sierra Leone 120.00 2019
20 Zambia 120.00 2019
22 Djibouti 118.00 2019
23 Burkina Faso 102.00 2019
24 Madagascar 98.73 2019
25 Mali 98.33 2019
26 Seychelles 97.00 2019
27 South Africa 87.00 2019
27 The Gambia 87.00 2019
29 Somalia 85.00 2019
30 Guinea-Bissau 84.00 2019
30 Gabon 84.00 2019
32 Benin 82.00 2019
33 Ghana 80.00 2019
33 Tunisia 80.00 2019
35 Guinea 78.86 2019
35 Libya 78.86 2019
37 Niger 78.00 2019
38 Rwanda 73.50 2019
39 Ethiopia 72.23 2019
40 Angola 72.00 2019
41 Comoros 70.27 2019
42 Mauritania 69.00 2019
43 Cabo Verde 60.00 2019
44 Morocco 57.00 2019
45 Malawi 55.04 2019
46 Senegal 53.33 2019
47 Mauritius 41.00 2019
48 Mozambique 9.00 2019
49 Namibia 5.50 2019
50 Lesotho 4.50 2019
51 Botswana 3.50 2019
52 Eswatini 3.06 2019

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Limitations and Exceptions: If inspections by agencies other than customs are conducted in 20% or fewer cases, the border compliance time and cost measures take into account only clearance and inspections by customs (the standard case). If inspections by other agencies take place in more than 20% of cases, the time and cost measures account for clearance and inspections by all agencies. Different types of inspections may take place with different probabilities—for example, scanning may take place in 100% of cases while physical inspection occurs in 5% of cases. In situations like this, Doing Business would count the time only for scanning because it happens in more than 20% of cases while physical inspection does not. The border compliance time and cost for an economy do not include the time and cost for compliance with the regulations of any other economy.

Statistical Concept and Methodology: The computation of border compliance time and cost depends on where the border compliance procedures take place, who requires and conducts the procedures and what is the probability that inspections will be conducted. If all customs clearance and other inspections take place at the port or border, the time estimate for border compliance takes this simultaneity into account. It is entirely possible that the border compliance time and cost could be negligible or zero, as in the case of trade between members of the European Union or other customs unions. If some or all customs or other inspections take place at other locations, the time and cost for these procedures are added to the time and cost for those that take place at the port or border. In Kazakhstan, for example, all customs clearance and inspections take place at a customs post in Almaty that is not at the land border between Kazakhstan and China. In this case border compliance time is the sum of the time spent at the terminal in Almaty and the handling time at the border. Doing Business asks contributors to estimate the time and cost for clearance and inspections by customs agencies— defined as documentary and physical inspections for the purpose of calculating duties by verifying product classification, confirming quantity, determining origin and checking the veracity of other information on the customs declaration. (This category includes all inspections aimed at preventing smuggling.) These are clearance and inspection procedures that take place in the majority of cases and thus are considered the "standard" case. The time and cost estimates capture the efficiency of the customs agency of the economy. Doing Business also asks contributors to estimate the total time and cost for clearance and inspections by customs and all other government agencies for the specified product. These estimates account for inspections related to health, safety, phytosanitary standards, conformity and the like, and thus capture the efficiency of agencies that require and conduct these additional inspections.

Aggregation method: Unweighted average

Periodicity: Annual

General Comments: Time is measured in hours, and 1 day is 24 hours (for example, 22 days are recorded as 22 × 24 = 528 hours). If customs clearance takes 7.5 hours, the data are recorded as is. Alternatively, suppose that documents are submitted to a customs agency at 8:00