The World Bank has declared Ghana as now the best country for doing business in West African sub region, beating Nigeria to second position, with Ivory Coast in third position.

In its yearly report on the Ease of Doing Business, the World Bank said it rated 190 countries, which indicate marginal progress in several areas.According to the rankings,

Ghana was ranked as the ninth best place for doing business in Africa after Lesotho and Zambia.

Nigeria was ranked next to Ghana based on what the bank described as factors policies inconsistent with survival of businesses in the country.

However, Nigeria recorded the highest point in the area of commerce, with 14 points out of 70 among 190 countries where it came first over all other countries in the sub region.

As was last year’s ranking, Mauritius once again ranks best in the region, with an overall Doing Business global ranking of 49.

Mauritius performs best in the areas of Protecting Minority Investors and Dealing with Construction Permits, with a rank of 32 and 33 respectively, on those indicators.

Ghana recorded its biggest jump in the area of trading across borders, going up by 13 places to 167 out of the 190 countries ranked.

It also went up by three places to 76 on the resolving insolvency indicator and two places to 122 when it comes to getting access to electricity for businesses. On the global front, Ghana’s performance went up globally by three places to 108 out of 190 countries ranked.

The World Bank rankings assessed countries based on 11 indicators such as starting a business, access to a credit facility, registering a property, access to electricity, paying taxes, protecting minority investors, trading across borders, enforcing contracts and resolving insolvency.