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Ghana is the Global Top Reformer in Improving Access to Credit and still Overall, the Easiest Place To Do Business in West Africa.

 Accra, Ghana, November 4, 2010 Ghana has established Africas newest centralized Collateral Registry and by improving credit information and legal rights through granting an operating license to a private credit bureau, the West African country led the world in making it easier for businesses to obtain credit.

  This is a finding of Doing Business 2011:  Making a Difference for Entrepreneurs, the eighth in a series of the flagship annual reports published by IFC and the World Bank benchmarking the regulations that enhance business activity and those that constrain it.  The report presents qualitative indicators on business regulation and the protection of property rights for 183 economies from Afghanistan to Zimbabwe.  The data are current as of June 2010.

In the past year 27 economies in Sub-Saharan Africa implemented 49 regulatory reforms to improve their business environment.  Three countries Rwanda, Cape Verde and Zambia rank among the top 10 worldwide on improvement in the ease of doing business based on the number and impact of changes to business regulations between June 2009 and May 2010.

  In the sub region, Ghana remains overall the easiest place to do business and ranks tops in 2 other indicators Registering Property and Paying Taxes.  Sierra Leone is the easiest place in Start a Business and provides the best Protection for Investors; Burkina Faso provides simplified regulations for getting a Construction Permit, Cape Verde tops in Trading Across Borders and Enforcing Contracts while neighbouring Cote dIvoire makes it easiest in legally Closing a Business.

  I am pleased that Ghana implemented reforms in Getting Credit, one of the 9 indicators of the report and has maintained its overall ranking as the easiest place to do business in West Africa.  IFC working with SECO has provided advisory support in improving Secured Transactions in Ghana.  However, there are clearly opportunities especially in deepening the products and scope of the financial markets to ensure that the legal and regulatory framework established by the Borrowers and Lenders Act; the credit reference bureau and the Collateral Registry actually translates into affordable long term credit for firms, especially the large SME market said Mary Jean Moyo, IFC Country Manager for Ghana. Interest rates in Ghana remain high and there are other areas such as infrastructure and the provision of reliable and affordable energy which while not measured by the Doing Business report has a direct impact on the overall investment climate and thus the ability of Ghana to develop a true competitive edge in the region and globally.

  This year, Doing Business 2011 introduces a new indicator Getting Electricity. This and the Employing Workers indicators are not included in the ranking on the on the overall ease of doing business ranking.  This report also features cumulative 5 year trends of the focus and pace of legal and regulatory reform in the economies surveyed. 

  Since 2005, about 85% of the worlds economies have made it easier for local entrepreneurs to operate, through 1,511 improvements to business regulation. Among the 30 most-improved economies during those five years, a third are in Sub-Saharan Africa Burkina Faso, Ghana, Madagascar, Mali, Mauritius, Mozambique, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal and Sierra Leone.

 
About the Doing Business report series

Doing Business analyzes regulations that apply to an economys businesses during their life cycle, including start-up and operations, trading across borders, paying taxes, and closing a business.  Doing Business does not measure all aspects of the business environment that matter to firms and investors.  For example, it does not measure security, macroeconomic stability, corruption, skill level, or the strength of financial systems.  Its findings have stimulated policy debates in more than 80 economies and enabled a growing body of research on how firm-level regulation relates to economic outcomes across economies.  For more information about the Doing Business report series, please visit: www.doingbusiness.org

 

 Ease of Doing Business 2011 in Ghana data double click on link below
http://bit.ly/aWXsdK

Doing Buinsess 2011 Africa Regional Press Release
http://bit.ly/b43NiT

Doing Business 2011 Video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2zuRH1TiAT0Doing Business 2011 Africa Regional Fact Sheet
http://bit.ly/adgjs1

Doing Business 2011 ECOWAS profile
http://bit.ly/aYeCnF

For Doing Business 2011 Full Report
http://bit.ly/aAC1Va

About the World Bank Group

The World Bank Group is one of the largest sources of funding and knowledge for developing countries.  It comprises five closely associated institutions: the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD) and the International Development Association (IDA), the International Finance Corporation (IFC); the Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA); and the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID).  Each institution plays a distinct role in the mission to fight poverty and improve living standards for people in the developing world.  For more information, please visitwww.worldbank.orgwww.miga.org, and www.ifc.org.

 
Contacts for region-specific queries on Doing Business 2011:

  Sub-Saharan Africa - Anglophone


 

   

 

 

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