Uganda moves 11 steps up in ease of doing business

Improving. Ease of doing business in Uganda has been improving in the last five years. Photo by Eronie Kamukama  

In Summary

• Marked reformers: At the global and Sub Saharan Africa level, the World Bank said with four reforms implemented this year, Mauritius remains the easiest place to do business in the region, ranking 13th globally.
• Economies in sub-Saharan Africa, the report indicates, continued to improve their business climates, with the region’s largest economy, Nigeria, earning a place among the year’s top global improvers alongside Togo.

By MARTIN LUTHER OKETCH

Uganda has improved 11 steps forward in the World Bank Ease of Doing Business Report 2020.
The report indicates that Uganda was ranked at 116 from 127 out of 190 economies that were surveyed by the World Bank.

However, the report indicates that the country made only one reform in the area of access to electricity over the last 12 months.

The 10 areas measured in the report include starting a business, dealing with construction permits, getting electricity, registering property, getting credit and protecting minority investors.

Others are paying taxes, trading across borders, enforcing contracts, and resolving insolvency.
One additional area, employing workers, is also measured but is not included in the rankings.

Globally, the World Bank Doing Business Report 2020 study shows that developing economies are catching up with developed economies in ease of doing business. However, the gap is still wide.

“An entrepreneur in a low-income economy typically spends around 50 per cent of the country’s per-capita income to launch a company, compared to just 4.2 per cent for an entrepreneur in a high income economy. It takes nearly six times as long on average to start a business in the economies ranked in the bottom 50 as in the top 20,” the report indicates.

In East Africa, Rwanda was ranked ahead of other member states at 38 with three reforms in the areas of starting a business, where the country exempts newly formed small and medium-size enterprises from paying trading licence tax for their first two years of operation.

Other arrears where Rwanda reformed include, dealing with construction permits, the report says Rwanda made dealing with construction permits faster and improved building quality control.

The country reduces the time in which one can obtain a water and sewarage connection and improved building quality control by requiring all construction professionals to obtain liability insurance on buildings once in use. “Getting electricity in Rwanda improved the reliability of power supply by upgrading its power grid infrastructure,” the report says.

Kenya was also ranked ahead of Uganda in position 56 with six reforms in the last 12 months.
Kenya made dealing with construction permits more transparent, improved the reliability of electricity supply, marked improvement in access to credit and improved in the area of protecting minority investors.

Tanzania, at 144 and Burundi at 166 ranked behind Uganda in the region.