Ghana is the Global Top Reformer

Ghana is the Global Top Reformer in Improving

Access to Credit and still Overall, the Easiest Place To Do Business in

West

Africa.

Accra,

Ghana, November 4, 2010  Ghana

has established Africas newest centralized

Collateral Registry and by improving credit information and legal

rights

through granting an operating license to a private credit bureau, the

West

African country led the world in making it easier for businesses to

obtain

credit.

This

is a finding of Doing Business 2011: Making a Difference for

Entrepreneurs,

the eighth in a series of the flagship annual reports published by IFC

and the

World Bank benchmarking the regulations that enhance business activity

and those

that constrain it. The

report presents

qualitative indicators on business regulation and the protection of

property

rights for 183 economies  from Afghanistan to Zimbabwe. The data are current as of

June 2010.

In

the past year 27 economies in Sub-Saharan

Africa implemented 49 regulatory reforms to improve their business

environment. Three

countries  Rwanda,

Cape Verde and Zambia  rank among the top 10 worldwide on improvement

in the

ease of doing business based on the number and impact of changes to

business

regulations between June 2009 and May 2010.

In

the sub region, Ghana

remains overall

the easiest place to do business and ranks tops in 2 other indicators 

Registering Property and Paying Taxes.

Sierra Leone is the easiest place in Start a Business and

provides the

best Protection for Investors; Burkina Faso provides simplified

regulations for

getting a Construction Permit, Cape Verde tops in Trading Across

Borders and

Enforcing Contracts while neighbouring Cote dIvoire makes it easiest

in legally

Closing a Business.

I

am pleased that Ghana implemented

reforms in Getting Credit, one of the 9 indicators of the report and

has

maintained its overall ranking as the easiest place to do business in

West

Africa. IFC working

with SECO has provided

advisory support in improving Secured Transactions in Ghana. However, there are

clearly

opportunities

especially in deepening the products and scope of the financial markets

to

ensure that the legal and regulatory framework established by the

Borrowers and

Lenders Act; the credit reference bureau and the Collateral Registry

actually

translates into affordable long term credit for firms, especially the

large SME

market said Mary Jean Moyo, IFC Country Manager for Ghana. Interest rates in Ghana

remain high and there

are other areas such as infrastructure and the provision of reliable

and

affordable energy which while not measured by the Doing

Business report has a direct impact on the overall

investment

climate and thus the ability of Ghana to develop a true competitive

edge in the

region and globally.

This

year, Doing Business 2011 introduces

a new indicator  Getting

Electricity. This

and the Employing

Workers indicators are not included in the ranking on the on the

overall ease

of doing business ranking. This

report

also features cumulative 5 year trends of the focus and pace of legal

and

regulatory reform in the economies surveyed.

Since

2005, about 85% of the worlds

economies have made it easier for local entrepreneurs to operate,

through 1,511

improvements to business regulation.

Among the 30 most-improved economies during those five

years, a third

are in Sub-Saharan Africa  Burkina Faso, Ghana, Madagascar, Mali,

Mauritius,

Mozambique, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal and Sierra Leone.

About

the Doing Business

report series

Doing

Business analyzes

regulations that apply to an economys businesses during their life

cycle, including start-up and operations, trading across borders,

paying taxes,

and closing a business. Doing

Business

does not measure all aspects of the business environment that matter to

firms

and investors. For

example, it does not

measure security, macroeconomic stability, corruption, skill level, or

the

strength of financial systems. Its

findings have stimulated policy debates in more than 80 economies and

enabled a

growing body of research on how firm-level regulation relates to

economic

outcomes across economies. For

more

information about the Doing Business report series, please visit:

www.doingbusiness.org

Ease of Doing Business 2011 in

Ghana data double click on link below

http://bit.ly/aWXsdK

Doing Buinsess 2011 Africa

Regional Press Release

http://bit.ly/b43NiT

Doing Business 2011 Video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2zuRH1TiAT0

Doing Business 2011

Africa Regional Fact Sheet

http://bit.ly/adgjs1

Doing Business 2011 ECOWAS

profile

http://bit.ly/aYeCnF

For

Doing

Business 2011 Full Report

http://bit.ly/aAC1Va

About

the World Bank Group

The

World Bank Group is one of

the largest sources of funding and knowledge for developing countries. It comprises

five closely

associated

institutions: the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development

(IBRD)

and the International Development Association (IDA), the International

Finance

Corporation (IFC); the Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA);

and the

International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID). Each

institution plays a

distinct role in the

mission to fight poverty and improve living standards for people in the

developing world. For

more information,

please visit www.worldbank.org,

www.miga.org,

and www.ifc.org.

Contacts

for region-specific queries on Doing Business 2011:

Sub-Saharan

Africa - Anglophone

Nana

Yaa Ofori-Atta +233 (244) 343-888

E-mail: noforiatta@ifc.org

Ghana

Kafu Kofi Tsikata +233 (244) 312-540

E-mail : Ktsikata@worldbank.org