Kenya rises 12 places in doing business index

NAIROBI, KENYA: Kenya has moved up 12 places in the latest edition of the World Bank Group’s Annual Doing Business ranking.  

The improvement has largely been boosted by ongoing efforts by the Government to ensure faster and cheaper connectivity to electricity.

Kenya now ranks position 80, up from 92 in the previous report, a feat that thrust the country into the league of 100 best places to do business in the world.

Only Mauritius, Rwanda, and Morocco ranked ahead of Kenya in Africa, with the country maintaining an upward movement for the past three years.

Easier access to electricity, one of the 10 indicators of doing business measured by the World Bank, contributed to the country’s 12.25 per cent overall improvement.

The report, released yesterday, noted that connecting electricity to a warehouse in Nairobi took three procedures, 97 days, and at a cost of about Sh1 million.

Getting credit was another big plus for the country, registering a five per cent improvement. It was Kenya’s best-ranked indicator at position 29 in what the World Bank attributed to enforcement of credit reference bureaus.   

Other indicators that registered marked improvement included starting a business (2.67 per cent), dealing with construction permit (2.46 per cent), paying taxes (2.47 per cent), and trading across borders (1.25 per cent).

Kenya also registered an improvement in ease of paying taxes for the first time in the World Bank ranking.

“Kenya made paying taxes easier by implementing an online platform, iTax, for filing and paying corporate income tax and the standards levy. Kenya also reduced the time for import documentary compliance by utilising its single window system, which allows for electronic submission of customs entries,” said the report. Industrialisation Cabinet Secretary Adan Mohammed expressed delight at the new ranking.

“Kenya delivered the highest number of business-related reforms on the African continent last year,” he said.