Sierra Leone has been acknowledged as the Regional Best Reformers by this years ease of doing business ranking.
Last year the country was ranked 156th but this year the country has jumped 8 places to 148th. Reforms were several areas key among which were the introduction of a new company law, strengthening investor protection, enhancing access to credit, providing for reorganisation of troubled firms, and establishing a one stop centre for registration.
The biggest reversal was in the area of land issues which Oluniyi Robin Coker the private sector advisor to President Koroma acknowledged was due to domestic problems which warranted a moratorium on land sales.
That he promised would be improved upon for the coming assessment.
Liberia jumped 10 places and is being acknowledged as one of the top ten reformers in the world. They made reforms in starting a business, dealing with construction permits and trading across borders.
Rwanda was again the world’s top reformer jumping 76 places from 143rd to 67th after reforming in seven of the ten areas measured.
During a video conference organised by the World Bank group for Sierra Leone, Liberia, Mauritius, Rwanda and South Africa Penelope Brook, acting Vice President Financial and Private Sector Development of the World Bank/IFC pointed out that the statistics has led to 2.8% growth in jobs, though she acknowledged that they have not been monitoring the impact the improved statistics was having on the economies of best performing countries.
Thierry Tanoh Vice President of the IFC in Sub-Saharan Africa also disclosed that the IFC has increased its investment in Africa 13 fold from 140 million to 1.8billion in 2009.
However it was from Mauritius the only African country in the top 20 that we learnt that the improved statistics has seen inflows of Foreign Direct Investments double and though economic growth was slow but it was positive.
The Rwandan response was that their success was due to hard work and that they were “had done a major overhaul of the legal steps and they were focused on making it simple for tax payers to pay their taxes and do business.”
Trade Minister Carew promised that Sierra Leone will do more for the next ranking.
World Bank Country Manager Engilbert Gudmundsson warned that Liberia was just behind Sierra Leone and Gambia was just 8 places away. He warned that the only reward for working hard is to work harder.
By Kelvin Lewis