Ziguinchor, Senegal, Oct. 26 (Infosplusgabon) - Sub-Saharan African economies continue to improve the business climate, said a statement from the World Bank's Dakar office, released Thursday in Dakar on the occasion of the annual publication of Doing Business. According to the World Bank Group's study, the region's largest economy, Nigeria, ranks among the best global gains of the year alongside Togo, the statement said. "Economies in the region implemented 73 reforms in a 12-month period ending May 1, down from last year's record of 108 reforms, and the number of countries implementing at least one reform rose from 40 to 31. The average regional ease of doing business score is 51.8 on a scale of 0 to 100, well below the OECD average of high-income economies (78.4) and the global average (63)," the paper notes, highlighting that there have been many positive developments in the Togo, which is on the list of the best progress for the second year in a row thanks in particular to reforms aimed at reducing the costs associated with building permits and simplifying property registration procedures, and Nigeria, which has carried out reforms to reduce the costs associated with building permits and simplifying property registration procedures, and Nigeria, which has carried out these have had an impact on six indicators, including facilitating the execution of contracts, which has placed the economy of this country, which has 200 million inhabitants, among the best growth of the year. The document notes that Kenya has also implemented six reforms, including to improve the reliability of access to electricity and to set up an online payment system for social security contributions. The country ranks third in the region, behind Mauritius and Rwanda, the statement said, adding that with four reforms implemented this year, Mauritius remains the easiest country to do business in sub-Saharan Africa and ranks 13th in the world. The Mauritian authorities have, among other reforms, facilitated insolvency resolution and improved contract enforcement, the statement said. "On the other hand, Cape Verde and Eswatini have carried out four reforms, a record figure. Zimbabwe made progress in five areas measured by Doing Business. Gabon, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Rwanda also showed progress in three areas. Following reform efforts, Niger and Senegal show significant progress in terms of score. The region has initiated the majority of reforms in the areas of starting a business, obtaining building permits, as well as obtaining loans, posting twelve reforms in each of these areas. Thanks to initiatives led by the Economic Community of Central African States (ECCAS), obtaining loans has become more flexible in different economies in the region," he said, stressing that the economies of the region are performing optimally in the areas of Business, as well as obtaining loans, with three economies (namely Kenya, Rwanda and Zambia) in the top 10 worldwide in the latter category and that setting up a business in the region takes an average of 20 days and represents a cost of 33.5% of the per capita income, a faster and cheaper process than the 62 days and 305% of per capita income required in 2003.

"With the reforms carried out last year by the Organization for the Harmonization of Business Law in Africa (OHADA) and the Economic Community of Central African States (ECCAS), sub-Saharan African countries have demonstrated that regional cooperation can contribute to improving of the business climate," according to Santiago Croci Downes, director of the Doing Business project. "Despite this progress, the pace of reforms, progress remains to be made, including the impact of reforms and their practical implementation. Only two countries in sub-Saharan Africa rank among the top 50 economies in the Doing Business ranking, while most of the bottom 20 countries are in this region. South Africa has implemented only one reform this year and four in the last five years. Liberia has carried out only three reforms in the last five years, and Burundi, the Central African Republic and Namibia have undertaken only four," he continues, noting that compared to other regions of the world, Sub-Saharan Africa shows very poor performance in several areas, such as the cost of a connection to the grid for companies, which corresponds to more than 3,100% of per capita income, compared to just over 400% in the Middle East and North Africa or 272% in Europe and Central Asia. "Cross-border trade and the payment of taxes are also areas where progress remains to be made. Indeed, businesses in sub-Saharan Africa have to spend about 96 hours on import formalities, compared to 3.4 hours in high-income OECD countries. In their second year of operation, small and medium-sized enterprises must make more than 36 tax payments per year, while the global average is 23 annual payments," the document concludes.