ZIMBABWE has moved 15 places up, to becoming number 140 out of 190 countries on the World Bank’s ease of doing business index.
This is according to the new rankings, the country’s position moved after scoring credit on five areas of reform, earning a total score of 54.5 points.
“In dealing with construction permits,” reads the report, “investors now spend less than 30 days, earning the country plus 2 points.
“When resolving insolvency, debtors have been granted the possibility of getting post commencement finance, earning the country plus 2.5 points while starting a business using the online name search now consumes less than five days with the overall process duration having been reduced from the usual 132 days to 27.
However, the country did not perform well on areas like getting electricity, resolving insolvency, trading across borders and enforcing contracts.
The report said economies in Sub –Saharan Africa continued to improve their business climates, with the region’s largest economy, Nigeria earning a place among the year’s top global improvers alongside Togo.
Economies in this region enacted 73 reforms in the 12 months leading to May 1, down from a record high of 108. The number of countries implementing at least one reform fell from 31 to 40.
The regional average ease of doing business was 51.8 on a scale of 0 to 100.
Togo is on the list of top improvers for the second year in a row owing to reforms lowering fees for construction permits and streamlining property registration procedures, among other measures.
Nigeria has been credited for conducting reforms impacting six indicators, including making the enforcement of contracts easier.
