Rwanda, the most visa-open country on the continent, is the top‑ranked African economy in the 2025 World Bank business environment rankings, leading the continent with an overall score of 67.94. The World Bank covered 29 African economies in the 2025 report. ALSO READ: Rwanda ranked fourth investment destination in Africa Rwanda, Morrocco, and Mauritius, respectively, and seven other African countries emerged as the continent’s top performers in the 2025 World Bank business environment rankings, demonstrating notable progress in regulatory reforms, operational efficiency, and governance. Rwanda performs particularly well in regulatory framework (72.54) and operational efficiency (71.47), although there is room for improvement in public service quality (59.81). It also stands out for streamlined procedures, reduced compliance costs, and increasing digitization of services that support business operations. In late December 2025, the World Bank published the second edition of its Business Ready (B‑Ready) 2025 report, which replaces the earlier Doing Business index. The B-Ready index is broader than the old Doing Business measure. It combines laws and regulations with how things actually work in practice, especially how firms experience compliance costs, procedures, and administrative systems on the ground. B‑READY 2025 builds on the previous 2024 edition, which covered 50 economies, and draws on insights from nearly 5,000 local respondents, including legal experts and sector specialists. The methodology reported by the World Bank for the latest edition included surveys of 58,000 firms and 5,000 experts across 101 economies, a much larger business‑level sample. It tracks the life cycle of a firm and is designed to guide reforms that improve investment, innovation, and job creation. It assesses the business environment of 101 economies worldwide using surveys of firms and experts and three core pillars: regulatory framework, quality of public services, and operational efficiency of processes and procedures. Morocco is the second in Africa with a score of 63.44, above the global average and ahead of many regional peers. It has improved its regulatory framework and public services, scoring higher than regional averages in several key areas like utilities and international trade, even though operational efficiency remains a relative challenge. Mauritius, ranked third with a score of 63.20, stayed near the top of the continental rankings. Although it slipped one spot compared with previous assessments, Mauritius remains a stable and attractive environment for business within Africa.
