Sub-Saharan Africa is better 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.

Front view of Accra Mall, Ghana. ©2011 EnterpriseAfrik

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).

Source: How We Made It in Africa