Rwanda has retained its position as Africa’s most business-friendly economy, according to the Business Ready 2025 (B-Ready) report released in late December 2025 by the World Bank. The findings underline the country’s continued reform momentum as African governments face growing pressure to attract investment and create jobs for rapidly expanding populations.
B-Ready 2025 is the second edition of the World Bank’s new business environment assessment, introduced after the suspension of the Doing Business index in 2021 following data irregularities uncovered in the 2018 and 2020 reports. The revamped framework is designed to provide a more credible, comprehensive and policy-relevant view of how economies support private-sector activity.
A redesigned global benchmark
The B-Ready initiative relies primarily on large-scale surveys of around 58,000 firms and 5,000 experts across 101 economies. According to the World Bank, the methodology is intended to move beyond narrow regulatory metrics by capturing how rules are implemented and experienced in practice.
Unlike the former Doing Business index, B-Ready integrates broader considerations such as worker welfare, consumer protection and environmental quality. This shift reflects the growing recognition that business-friendly policies must align with social and environmental outcomes to support sustainable growth.
The framework combines de jure indicators, which assess laws and regulations, with de facto indicators that measure real-world implementation. This dual approach allows cross-country comparability while retaining national relevance.
Measuring the business life cycle
The ranking assesses ten domains covering a firm’s full life cycle, from entry to exit. These include business entry, location, utility services, labour, financial services, international trade, taxation, dispute resolution, market competition and insolvency.
Each domain is evaluated across three pillars. The first examines the regulatory framework governing business creation, operation and closure. The second measures the quality of public services, including institutions and infrastructure that enable compliance, such as digital platforms, tax systems and trade-related facilities. The third pillar focuses on operational efficiency, capturing firms’ lived experiences with procedures, delays and compliance costs.
Scores range from zero to 100 for each pillar and domain, with aggregated results determining overall country rankings.In Africa, the 2025 edition covers 29 countries, nearly doubling the 15 assessed in the inaugural release. Newly assessed economies include Benin, Senegal, Tunisia, Namibia and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Rwanda ranks first on the continent with an overall score of 67.94. It recorded strong results for regulatory quality at 72.54 and operational efficiency at 71.47, while public service quality lagged slightly at 59.81.
Morocco placed second with a score of 63.44, followed closely by Mauritius at 63.20. Togo ranked fourth with 61.52.
Two newcomers entered directly into Africa’s top ten. Benin ranked fifth with 60.21, while Senegal placed ninth on 56.05. Among countries assessed in the first B-Ready edition, Cote d’Ivoire ranked tenth with a score of 54.43.
The World Bank notes that economies with the greatest need to generate employment tend to post the weakest business climates. Countries with youthful populations and low growth rates lag most, a trend that places Sub-Saharan Africa at heightened risk if reforms stall.
The B-Ready 2025 findings suggest that improving regulatory quality, service delivery and operational efficiency will be critical for African economies seeking to translate demographic growth into sustainable development.
