Overview

Doing Business in Mozambique 2019—the first subnational Doing Business study for Mozambique—assesses the regulatory environment for small and medium-size enterprises in the country. It measures ten provinces in the areas of starting a business, registering property and enforcing contracts: Cabo Delgado, Gaza, Inhambane, Manica, Maputo City, Niassa, Nampula, Sofala, Tete and Zambezia. It also measures trading across borders in three major seaports, Beira port, Maputo port and Nacala port, as well as one land border crossing, Ressano Garcia.

Where is it easiest to do business in Mozambique?

Main findings

• No single Mozambican province dominates the indicator rankings across all areas benchmarked, leaving room for all locations to learn from each other’s good practices.
• Gaza stands out by ranking in the top third on two indicators—third in starting a business and second in registering property.
• If the country adopted the good practices already in place, Mozambique would jump from 135 to 113 in the global Doing Business ranking.
• Compared globally, Mozambican locations’ performance underperform on the quality indices. Regulatory quality depends greatly on national agencies and policies, but provincial and municipal governments also play a role especially in accessibility of cadastral records and of information in property registries.
• Action areas addressing common themes across indicators—such as internal coordination within different agencies and increasing the capacity of public officials —will improve the prospect that reforms will bear fruit.