The World Bank Group’s flagship Doing Business 2014 report: Understanding Regulations for Small and Medium-Size Enterprises, has been released.
This year’s 11th edition presents data for 189 economies, including data for the first time on Libya, Myanmar, San Marino and South Sudan.

The Doing Business project measures the efficiency and strength of laws, regulations and institutions that are relevant to domestic small and medium-sized companies throughout their life cycle.
By gathering and analyzing comprehensive quantitative data to compare business regulation environments across economies and over time, Doing Business encourages countries to adopt more effective regulations; offers measurable benchmarks for reform; and serves as a resource for academics, policymakers, private-sector executives and others interested in the business climate of each country.

The good news for Africa is that the region continues to record a large number of reforms aimed at easing the regulatory burden on local entrepreneurs, with 66 reforms adopted in the past year. Three African economies made the biggest progress globally in an area measured by the report: Burundi in the ease of registering property, Benin in the ease of trading across borders, and Côte d’Ivoire in the ease of enforcing contracts.

Uganda made one reform this year in the area of registering property: transferring property was made easier by eliminating the need to have instruments of land transfer physically embossed to certify payment of the stamp duty. The Doing Business 2014 report ranks Uganda 132 out of 189.