Africa Business Communities
Kenya third most improved country in ease of doing business globally, study

Kenya third most improved country in ease of doing business globally, study

In a move credited with government’s stepping up services it offers to investors, Kenya has moved 21 places in the Ease of Doing Business 2017 ranking to position 92 globally out of 190 countries making it the third most improved economy for two years in a row.

The improvement was mainly helped by reforms in resolving insolvency, starting a business, protecting minority investors and getting electricity. The improvement is compared to position 113 in the 2016 report where Kenya had moved 28 positions from the previous year.

Industrialization Cabinet Secretary Adan Mohammed said this is the first time in seven years Kenya is at top 100. “Moving forward the country will reach the target of top 50 by 2020 even before time, in the last two years we have moved over 40 places, if we move again 40 places in the next two years, we will hit the target,” he added.

Kenya moved 21 places up in getting electricity to position 106 , 25 places in protecting the minority investors to position 87, the country also moved 48 places up in resolving insolvency to position 92 and 34 places to position 116 in starting a business.

Kenya Private Sector Alliance Chief Executive Carole Kariuki welcomed the move citing that it will bring about lower costs to businesses.

“What it means is that any time there is less processes, procedures, it means less time less costs. That can translate into more jobs, with companies saving more money for expansion,” she said.

She says moving forward other key areas of focus should be in trade across borders and land issues. “We also need to be improving issues of construction permits,” she urged.

The improvement she explains has seen the country gain a lot of interest on investors and business confidence. “We have seen a lot of delegations coming to the country through the year buoyed by these improvements, people don’t invest where there are challenges,” she added.

The report notes that Sub-Saharan Africa had implemented a record of 80 reforms in 37 of the region’s 48 countries over the past year, 14 per cent more than the number of reforms recorded last year (69) leading in the world’s number of reforms.

Each year, the World Bank Group and International Finance Corporation benchmarks 190 countries globally against 10 indicators on how easy it is to do business in the country.

A high ranking on the ease of doing business index means the regulatory environment is more conducive to start and operate a local firm.

www.doingbusiness.org

 

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