Start-up procedures to register a business (number) - Country Ranking - Africa

Definition: Start-up procedures are those required to start a business, including interactions to obtain necessary permits and licenses and to complete all inscriptions, verifications, and notifications to start operations. Data are for businesses with specific characteristics of ownership, size, and type of production.

Source: World Bank, Doing Business project (http://www.doingbusiness.org/).

See also: Thematic map, Time series comparison

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Rank Country Value Year
1 Equatorial Guinea 16.00 2019
2 Eritrea 13.00 2019
2 Uganda 13.00 2019
4 Eswatini 12.00 2019
4 Algeria 12.00 2019
6 Ethiopia 11.00 2019
6 Congo 11.00 2019
8 Central African Republic 10.00 2019
8 Libya 10.00 2019
8 Mozambique 10.00 2019
8 Namibia 10.00 2019
8 Sudan 10.00 2019
8 Tanzania 10.00 2019
14 Zimbabwe 9.00 2019
14 Somalia 9.00 2019
14 Seychelles 9.00 2019
14 Botswana 9.00 2019
14 Guinea-Bissau 9.00 2019
14 Comoros 9.00 2019
14 Cabo Verde 9.00 2019
21 Angola 8.00 2019
21 Ghana 8.00 2019
21 Chad 8.00 2019
24 Malawi 7.00 2019
24 South Africa 7.00 2019
24 Zambia 7.00 2019
24 Kenya 7.00 2019
24 Nigeria 7.00 2019
24 Gabon 7.00 2019
30 Djibouti 6.00 2019
30 Benin 6.00 2019
30 Cameroon 6.00 2019
30 Lesotho 6.00 2019
30 Guinea 6.00 2019
30 The Gambia 6.00 2019
30 São Tomé and Principe 6.00 2019
37 Sierra Leone 5.00 2019
37 Liberia 5.00 2019
37 Rwanda 5.00 2019
37 Madagascar 5.00 2019
37 Mali 5.00 2019
37 Egypt 5.00 2019
43 Dem. Rep. Congo 4.00 2019
43 Côte d'Ivoire 4.00 2019
43 Burundi 4.00 2019
43 Mauritania 4.00 2019
43 Mauritius 4.00 2019
43 Niger 4.00 2019
43 Morocco 4.00 2019
43 Senegal 4.00 2019
51 Togo 3.00 2019
51 Tunisia 3.00 2019
51 Burkina Faso 3.00 2019

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Development Relevance: The economic health of a country is measured not only in macroeconomic terms but also by other factors that shape daily economic activity such as laws, regulations, and institutional arrangements. The data measure business regulation, gauge regulatory outcomes, and measure the extent of legal protection of property, the flexibility of employment regulation, and the tax burden on businesses. The fundamental premise of this data is that economic activity requires good rules and regulations that are efficient, accessible to all who need to use them, and simple to implement. Thus sometimes there is more emphasis on more regulation, such as stricter disclosure requirements in related-party transactions, and other times emphasis is on for simplified regulations, such as a one-stop shop for completing business startup formalities. Entrepreneurs may not be aware of all required procedures or may avoid legally required procedures altogether. But where regulation is particularly onerous, levels of informality are higher, which comes at a cost: firms in the informal sector usually grow more slowly, have less access to credit, and employ fewer workers - and those workers remain outside the protections of labor law. The indicator can help policymakers understand the business environment in a country and - along with information from other sources such as the World Bank's Enterprise Surveys - provide insights into potential areas of reform.

Limitations and Exceptions: The Doing Business methodology has limitations that should be considered when interpreting the data. First, the data collected refer to businesses in the economy's largest city and may not represent regulations in other locations of the economy. To address this limitation, subnational indicators are being collected for selected economies. These subnational studies point to significant differences in the speed of reform and the ease of doing business across cities in the same economy. Second, the data often focus on a specific business form - generally a limited liability company of a specified size - and may not represent regulation for other types of businesses such as sole proprietorships. Third, transactions described in a standardized business case refer to a specific set of issues and may not represent the full set of issues a business encounters. Fourth, the time measures involve an element of judgment by the expert respondents. When sources indicate different estimates, the Doing Business time indicators represent the median values of several responses given under the assumptions of the standardized case. Fifth, the methodology assumes that a business has full information on what is required and does not waste time when completing procedures.

Statistical Concept and Methodology: Data are collected by the World Bank with a standardized survey that uses a simple business case to ensure comparability across economies and over time - with assumptions about the legal form of the business, its size, its location, and nature of its operation. Surveys are administered through more than 9,000 local experts, including lawyers, business consultants, accountants, freight forwarders, government officials, and other professionals who routinely administer or advise on legal and regulatory requirements. Entrepreneurs around the world face a range of challenges. One of them is inefficient regulation. The indicator measures the procedures, time, cost and paid-in minimum capital required for a small or medium-size limited liability company to start up and formally operate. The Doing Business project of the World Bank encompasses two types of data: data from readings of laws and regulations and data on time and motion indicators that measure efficiency in achieving a regulatory goal. Within the time and motion indicators cost estimates are recorded from official fee schedules where applicable. The data from surveys are subjected to numerous tests for robustness, which lead to revision or expansion of the information collected.

Aggregation method: Unweighted average

Periodicity: Annual

General Comments: Data are presented for the survey year instead of publication year.