Kenya climbs 21 places in World Bank’s Ease of Doing Business index

Kenya's standing has improved by 21 places in the latest World Bank Ease of Doing Business report, signalling that a raft of business reforms initiated by the government may be paying off.

The Doing Business 2017 report released on Tuesday showed that Kenya was placed at position 92 out of 190 countries surveyed, with Mauritius and Rwanda outpacing Kenya at 49th and 56th place respectively.

New Zealand replaced Singapore this year, being ranked the easiest place in the world to do business.

Kenya’s improvement was credited to five reforms in the areas of starting a business, obtaining access to electricity, registering property, protecting minority investors and resolving insolvency.

“This is a marathon and we will not be complacent until we attain position 50 by 2020,” said Industrialisation Cabinet Secretary Adan Mohamed in Nairobi while welcoming the results of the report.

Kenya was also ranked as the world’s third most reformed country.

A record 137 economies around the world were reported to have adopted key reforms that make it easier to start and operate small and medium-sized businesses (SMEs), said the World Bank.

The latest survey found that developing countries carried out more than 75 per cent of the 283 reforms in the past year, with sub-Saharan Africa accounting for over a quarter of all reforms.

The world's top 10 improvers, based on reforms undertaken, are Brunei Darussalam, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Belarus, Indonesia, Serbia, Georgia, Pakistan, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Bahrain.

In its global country rankings of business efficiency, the World Bank awarded its coveted top spot to New Zealand, with Singapore ranking second, followed by Denmark, Hong Kong, China and the Republic of Korea.