Uganda is ranked 127th out of 190 economies in the global 2019 Doing Business report but Mauritius joins the group of top 20 economies this year. It is the highest ranked Sub-Saharan African economy.
The second highest ranking economies in the Sub Saharan region are Rwanda (29) and Kenya (61).South Sudan (185), Eritrea (189), and Somalia (190) are the lowest ranked economies in the region. Other large economies in the region and their rankings are Democratic Republic of Congo (184), Ethiopia (159), Nigeria (146), Tanzania (144), Sudan (162), and Uganda (127).
The region’s economies perform best in the area of Starting a Business (122). Rwanda ranks among the best globally in the Doing Business areas of Registering Property (with a rank of 2) and Getting Credit (3). In registering property, Rwanda has an efficient land registry where it takes 7 days to transfer property and costs only 0.1% of the property value, the same as in New Zealand.
Sub Saharan Africa also underperforms in the areas of Getting Electricity (145), Trading Across Borders (139) and Registering Property (131). It takes on average 112 days for a business to obtain a permanent electricity connection to the grid in Sub-Saharan Africa, compared to a global average of 86 days.
This year’s report marks the sixth year in a row that Sub-Saharan Africa leads with the highest number of business regulatory reforms captured by Doing Business.
One-third of all business regulatory reforms recorded by Doing Business 2019 were in the economies of Sub-Saharan Africa. With a total of 107 reforms, Sub-Saharan Africa has a record number for a third consecutive year.
In addition, this year also saw the highest number of economies carrying out reforms, with 40 of the region’s 48 economies implementing at least one reform, compared to the previous high of 37 economies two years ago.
The largest number of reforms implemented in the region was in the areas of Enforcing Contracts (27), followed by Starting a Business (17), and Registering Property (with 13 reforms)
17-member states of the Organization for the Harmonization of Business Law in Africa, known by its French acronym OHADA adopted a Uniform Act on Mediation in 2017 (filling a legislative void that existed in most OHADA member states) which introduced mediation as an amicable mode of dispute settlement.
Four Sub-Saharan African economies – Togo, Kenya, Côte d’Ivoire, and Rwanda made the list of global top 10 improvers this year. Over the past 12 months, collectively these economies implemented a total of 23 reforms.
Rwanda led the region in terms of the number of reforms implemented – seven in the past year, while Gabon, Guinea and Sudan were also among the notable reformers, with five reforms each.
Sub-Saharan African economies recorded eight reforms in the area of getting electricity, the highest number of any region worldwide.