Mozambique drops one place in World Bank’s Ease of Doing Business report

Login

Register

http://www.clubofmozambique.com/

Mozambique drops one place in World Bank’s Ease of Doing Business report

11:57 CAT | 03 Nov 2017

The business environment in Mozambique remains challenging, according to the 15th edition of Doing Business.

In the World Bank Group’s annual report analysing the ease of doing business for small and medium-sized enterprises globally, Mozambique has fallen yet another position, despite reforms in obtaining electricity and intraregional trade.

Mozambique, which last year fell four positions, made some sort of progress in the “Doing Business 2018: Reforming to Generate Jobs” report, only losing one position this year, dropping from 137th to 138th in a list of 190 economies evaluated.

According to a World Bank statement, this small improvement was due to a reduction in “the time needed to secure an electricity connection by simplifying procedures that are now focused on Electricity of Mozambique (EDM), which has reduced costs by removing the need of large-scale commercial customers to supply a deposit”.

“It should also be noted that although in the region an average of 115 days is still required to obtain an electrical connection, compared to an overall average of 92 days, the reform now allows an electrical installation to take about 68 days in the country’s capital,” the statement adds.

The other improvement occurred in the area of cross-border trade. “Mozambique made exports easier, having improved infrastructure at the Maputo-Matola port complex,” the report notes.

Within the 47 economies of sub-Saharan Africa, Mozambique maintained the 16th place. Mauritius, ranked 25th, is the best-positioned economy in the region.

The other economies in the region performing well in the ratings are Rwanda (41st), Kenya (80th), Botswana (81st) and South Africa (82nd). The economies with the lowest ranking are Somalia (190th), Eritrea (189th), South Sudan (187th) and the Central African Republic (184th).

Economies are ranked on their ease of doing business, from 1–190. A high ease of doing business ranking means the regulatory environment is more conducive to the starting and operation of a local firm. The rankings are determined by sorting the aggregate distance to frontier scores on 10 topics, each consisting of several indicators, giving equal weight to each topic. The rankings for all economies are benchmarked to June 2017.

Source: A Verdade / World Bank