Ghana records more negatives, slips to 64th on World Bank’s Doing Business 2013 rankings
The 2013 Doing Business Report put together by the World Bank and released today October 23, 2012, shows Ghana losing a spot from the 63rd place it had in the 2012 edition to the 64th position out of 185 economies worldwide.
Titled “Smarter Regulations for Small and Medium-Size Enterprises,” the Doing Business 2013 assesses regulations affecting domestic firms in the selected economies and ranks them in ten areas of business regulation, such as starting a business, resolving insolvency and trading across borders.
This year’s report data covers regulations measured from June 2011 through May 2012.
The report marks the 10th edition of the Doing Business series. Over the past decade, these reports have recorded nearly 2,000 regulatory reforms implemented by 180 economies.
Ghana took the 5th position in sub-Saharan Africa after Mauritius, South Africa, Rwanda and Botswana who placed first, second, third and fourth respectively.
In the area of Starting a Business, Ghana dropped from the 104th position it placed in the 2012 edition to 112th position in the latest report. It takes 12 days for one to start a business in Ghana and the cost is 18.5% of income per capita, according to the report.
Another area used in the rankings which is Protecting Investors, and Ghana droppped from 46th to 49th position.
Out of the ten areas of business regulation, Ghana recorded only three positive moves. These areas are Getting Credit, Getting Electricity and Resolving Insolvency.
Ghana was put in the lower middle income category with a population of 24,965,816 and a gross national income per capita of $1,410.
On the global front, Poland was the top improver in the rankings. It enhanced the ease of doing business through four institutional or regulatory reforms, making it easier to register property, pay taxes, enforce contracts, and resolve insolvency.
Besides Poland, nine other economies were recognized as having the most improved ease of doing business across several areas of regulation as measured by the report. They were Sri Lanka, Ukraine, Uzbekistan, Burundi, Costa Rica, Mongolia, Greece, Serbia, and Kazakhstan.
Singapore topped the global ranking on the ease of doing business for the seventh consecutive year, followed by Hong Kong SAR, China, New Zealand, the United States and Denmark.
Georgia was a new entrant into the top ten.
According to the report, 108 economies implemented 201 regulatory reforms in 2011-2012 making it easier to do business.
It stated that reform efforts globally have focused on making it easier to start a new business, increasing the efficiency of tax administration and facilitating trade across international borders.
Of the 201 regulatory reforms recorded in the past year, 44% focused on these three policy areas alone, it indicated.
By Ekow Quandzie