Overview

Doing Business dans les Etats membres de l’OHADA 2017 is the second report in the Doing Business series covering OHADA (Organization for the Harmonization of Business Law in Africa) Member States—Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, the Central African Republic, Comoros, the Democratic Republic of Congo, the Republic of Congo, Côte d’Ivoire, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Guinea, Mali, Niger, Senegal, and Togo. This second edition tracks regulatory reforms since 2011 in five Doing Business indicator areas covered by the OHADA Uniform Acts and regulations—starting a business, getting credit, protecting minority investors, enforcing contracts and resolving insolvency.

Main Findings

• Throughout OHADA economies, entrepreneurs face different regulatory burdens depending on where they establish and run their business, but some economies are top performers on multiple indicators. For example, starting a business, enforcing contracts and resolving insolvency are easier in Côte d’Ivoire than in any other OHADA economy.
• The rankings on each indicator show that although some economies lead the pack in certain areas, no economy is the best or worst performer in all areas. This means all Member States have good practices to share.
• The difference in the performance of OHADA economies is widest on three indicators—starting a business, resolving insolvency and enforcing contracts.
• Since 2011 two OHADA Uniform Acts have been revised: l’Acte uniforme relatif au droit des sociétés commerciales et du groupement d’intérêt économique and l’Acte uniforme portant organisation des procédures collectives d’apurement du passif.
• There is still significant room for OHADA economies to converge among themselves and with the average for the rest of Sub-Saharan Africa. The good news is that Member States have maintained a strong pace of reforms since 2011. Over five years, they implemented 95 reforms across the areas measured, and were the most reform-minded group of economies in 2015/16.

The Doing Business in OHADA 2017 report was produced by the Global Indicators Group (Development Economics) and funded by the OHADA Business Law Reform Program of the World Bank Group. The program includes support to OHADA Member States and the OHADA Permanent Secretariat in reforming and implementing the common set of laws.

Source: Doing Business database.

Note: OCDE is the average for high-income OECD economies; OHADA is the average for the 17 OHADA economies; Afrique subsaharienne sans l’OHADA is the average for the 31 other economies of Sub-Saharan Africa.