Zimbabwe is ranked 159 among 190 economies in the ease of doing business, according to the latest World Bank annual ratings. Though this ranking is abysmally low it’s actually an improvement from last years ranking -161- and our all-time low of 171 back in 2011.
On the opposite spectrum the easiest place to conduct business, is New Zealand, followed by Singapore and Denmark in second and third place, respectively.
Our neighbours Botswana and South Africa are not faring too terribly as they rank 81st and 82nd respectively.
So what other rankings affect the rating?
The World Bank looks at a number of factors such corruption, internet speed, and competitiveness.
Corruption
Anyone and everyone reading about this will know that corruption is (unfortunately) a routine occurrence. Out of the 190 countries, Zim ranked 157. How unfortunate is that? VERY UNFORTUNATE.
We scored 22 out of 100 on the 2017 Corruption Perceptions Index reported by Transparency International.
Compared to our neighbour Botswana, who is in the Top 50 at number 34. This means we’re about 4.6 times more corrupt than them. I hear someone yelling, “What about SA?” in the background. Well, when it comes to corruption they are our younger siblings with a ranking of 71 out of 190. 2.2 times more corrupt than South Africa.”Surely, we are not more corrupt than Nigeria”, someone else yells. My friend, WE ARE. According to the World Bank, Nigeria is ranked at 148.
This stat was shocking to me but because of the fact that we have become numb to corruption as a nation we fail to see just how bad it is on the ground.
Oh, there are those wondering who takes the crown of most corrupt nation on earth. Well that dishonour goes to Somalia.
Internet Speed
The average internet speed in Zimbabwe is claimed to be around 3.6 MB/s as of January 2017. Compared to the average of 28.5 MB/s in South Korea –the leading nation- we still have a lot of ground to cover.
The speeds are also expected to decrease going forward which may be as a result of more people connecting and thus congesting the networks. Hopefully this expected curve does not become a reality.
Competiveness
In terms of competitiveness, Zim is ranked at number 124 but before you rejoice and think we’ve escaped the 150’s, that’s not really the case. We are only 124 taking into account that there are ties throughout the list. The most competitive country is Switzerland, followed by USA and Singapore in second and third place.
The most competitive African countries are Rwanda (58), South Africa (61), and Botswana (63).
You can check out Trading Economics for more details and interesting stats like the ones above.
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4 comments
Think ranking is really true and allot to reflect on… This so called new dispensation is really a ruse and we most certainly need a new captain… Time to get them out and recover our loses
You don’t change your ranking in 6 months.
Where do you get your information?
“The speeds are also expected to decrease going forward which may be as a result of more people connecting and thus congesting the networks. Hopefully this expected curve does not become a reality.”
I smell opinions, not facts.
Blame it to the Sanctions so we always say