Kenya Ranked Best African Country To Start, Manage A Business

Kenya has been ranked the best country in Africa to start and run a business.

A latest ranking by the US News and World Report indicated that Kenya improved from position 39 in 2021 to position 26 globally.

Kenya was ranked top with 53.9 points ahead of other African countries such as Ghana which was ranked position 41 globally, Cameroon (position 50 globally) and Zambia (position 62 globally).

“The list is based on respondents’ association of various countries with five particular attributes: affordable, bureaucratic, cheap manufacturing costs, connected to the rest of the world and provides easy access to capital,” read the statement in part.

In February this year, Kenya was ranked among African countries with most developed startups ecosystems.

Kenya increased one spot to rank 61st globally, first in Eastern Africa and second in Africa.

Nairobi also ranked in the top 100 globally for Foodtech, Transportation Technology, and Energy & Environment Technology.

Contributing to the improvement in Kenya’s ranking for 2021, Mombasa is new to the rankings as the 2nd city in Kenya at 756th.

This was followed by a survey by Network Readiness Index (NRI) by the Portulans Institute and Said Business School at the University of Oxford which ranked Kenya the third most tech-enabled country in Africa.

Kenya was ranked behind South Africa and Mauritius on four dimensions of digital readiness, technology, people, governance and impact. 

Other countries within the East African Community performed dismally in the global rankings, considering that the closest country was Rwanda, ranked in position 101.

Tanzania appeared in position 107 on the list, while Uganda was ranked position 116 on the global list. 

Burundi and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) were among the bottom-three countries in the rankings, considering that they were positioned 129 and 130 on the global list, respectively.