Rwanda and Kenya are the only regional economies that have recorded improvement in the Ease of Doing Business Index in two years in a row.

A new World Bank ranking blames new laws, inability to repatriate funds, poor political environments and business registration bottlenecks for the other countries’ poor showing on the index.

Rwanda ranked position 29, from last year’s 41 while Kenya registered the biggest jump, from last year’s position 80 to 61 this year. Tanzania dropped to position 144 from 137, Uganda fell to 127 from 122.

Among the measures to which Rwanda’s good ranking was attributed was the move to replace the electronic billing machine system with freely distributed software from the Rwanda Revenue Authority (RRA) that allows taxpayers to issue VAT invoices from any computer.

Kenya’s performance was buoyed by key reforms to improve the business climate for small- and medium-sized businesses, says the World Bank Group’s Doing Business 2019: Training for Reform report. The reforms earned Kenya a spot among the global top improvers, a distinction it has earned four times in the past 11 years.

Full article: The EastAfrican