Rwanda has been ranked Africa’s most business-friendly economy in the World Bank’s Business Ready 2025 (B-Ready) report, reinforcing its position as a regional leader in investment reforms, regulatory clarity and enterprise support.

The country recorded an overall score of 67.94, placing it ahead of Morocco and Mauritius in the continental league table. The latest edition, released in December 2025, marks the second publication of B-Ready, the World Bank’s flagship replacement for the now-defunct Doing Business index.

The new framework was introduced after the earlier index was suspended in 2021 following data integrity concerns, with the World Bank promising a more transparent and comprehensive way of measuring business conditions.

How B-Ready measures business climates

Unlike its predecessor, the B-Ready framework blends both legal analysis and real-world business experience. It is built on surveys from 58,000 companies and 5,000 experts across 101 economies, giving it one of the largest data pools of any global business climate index.

The methodology combines:

• De jure indicators, which examine laws, regulations and formal requirements
• De facto indicators, which measure how those rules are applied in practice

This structure allows the index to capture not just what governments promise on paper, but how firms actually experience procedures, delays and compliance costs.

The assessment spans 10 domains that cover the full business life cycle, including business entry, access to utilities, labour regulation, financial services, taxation, trade, competition, dispute resolution and insolvency.

Each domain is evaluated through three pillars: the regulatory framework, the quality of public services, and operational efficiency. Scores range from 0 to 100, with the combined result producing the overall country ranking.

Why Rwanda leads the continent

Rwanda’s strong showing reflects years of reform aimed at making it easier to start, run and close businesses.

In the 2025 edition, the country posted particularly strong results in regulatory quality with a score of 72.54, and in operational efficiency at 71.47, indicating that firms are not only supported by modern laws but also face fewer bottlenecks in practice.

Its weaker point was public service quality, where it scored 59.81, suggesting room for improvement in areas such as infrastructure, digital systems and administrative capacity.

Still, Rwanda’s overall performance put it comfortably ahead of its regional peers.

Africa’s shifting business landscape

Morocco ranked second in Africa with a score of 63.44, while Mauritius slipped to third at 63.20. Togo placed fourth on 61.52.

Two countries made notable debuts. Benin entered directly at fifth place with 60.21, while Senegal secured ninth position with 56.05, both appearing in Africa’s top 10 for the first time under the new B-Ready system. Ivory Coast rounded out the top 10 with a score of 54.43.

The World Bank expanded its African coverage in 2025 to 29 countries, up from 15 a year earlier. New entrants included Benin, Senegal, Tunisia, Namibia and the Democratic Republic of Congo, giving a broader view of the continent’s investment climate.

Jobs, growth and the business environment

One of the clearest messages from the 2025 ranking is the link between job creation and business conditions. The World Bank found that countries with the greatest need to generate employment often have the weakest business climates.

This is especially relevant for Sub-Saharan Africa, which hosts many of the world’s youngest populations. Where regulatory systems are slow, costly or unpredictable, private companies struggle to expand and absorb new workers, increasing the risk of social and economic strain.

Rwanda’s strong performance suggests that sustained reform can break that cycle. By reducing friction for businesses and improving how rules are applied in practice, it has positioned itself as one of Africa’s most competitive destinations for domestic and foreign investment.

As more African economies come under the B-Ready spotlight, the rankings are likely to play a growing role in how investors, development partners and governments judge the continent’s progress toward building stronger, job-creating private sectors.