The World Bank’s ranking of selected cities and key towns shows that Malaba in Western Province of Kenya is the best place to do business.

Speedy issuance of construction permits and better enforcement of contracts in the past 12 months helped the town on the Kenya-Uganda border to improve its standing.

It now takes a businessperson 64 days to get a permit, putting the border town ahead of South Africa’s average of 127 days.

The survey found that lengthy procedures for starting a business, weak enforcement of contracts and slow registration of property are key obstacles to entrepreneurship in key towns, especially in the capital city, Nairobi.

The ranking examines the business environment for SMEs in 13 towns, including Nairobi, Mombasa, Nakuru, Eldoret, Kisumu, Malaba, Thika, Nyeri, Kakamega, Isiolo, Narok, Garissa and Kilifi.

The survey does not cover foreign-owned businesses and focuses on four thematic areas: ease of starting a business, ease of dealing with construction permits, ease of registering a property, and ease of enforcing contracts.

Kenya has significantly improved the speed with which construction permits for warehouses are issued, taking position 37 out of the 183 countries surveyed, according to the survey.

The World Bank said that economies that score well on issuance of permits tend to have rigorous but expeditious and transparent processes.

In the past eight years, Kenya has reformed its business licensing regime, which resulted to the simplification or elimination of 694 out of the total 1,325 licences.

The effort has helped businesses to save Sh5.2-billion ($62-million) per year, according to the World Bank’s private financing arm the International Finance Corporation (IFC).

However, bureaucracy, corruption and lack of access to finance are  major obstacles to doing business in the country.

Source: Business Daily

 

 

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