Gladys Josephat, 35, poses with her children in her small shop that she got from a micro finance loan run outside Lilongwe on July 14, 2011. Malawi’s microfinance lenders are giving would-be business owners access to capital in a country where 81 percent of people do not have a bank account. The system is a success for a country where frustrations at government erupted into deadly protests on July 20 and 21, leaving 19 dead in one of the world’s poorest nations. AFP PHOTO /
Getting down to business in Africa has its challenges. GlobalPost used data from the World Bank's 2011 survey on the easiest and most difficult countries to do business, to show the successes and challenges for entrepreneurs in sub-Saharan Africa.
The small Indian Ocean island nation of Mauritius ranked No. 1 in Africa for the best place to do business, ahead of South Africa, where the biggest problem for entrepreneurs is getting electricity.
Chad, the Central African Republic and the Democratic Republic of Congo ranked as the worst countires to do business in the continent. Getting credit is the only issue that is not a problem, according to the data.
Nigeria beats the rest of Africa with fastest new company growth despite it having major roadblocks with registering properties and getting electricity, according to the World Bank.
Click on a country on the map to filter results and see how they compare to others. You can also customize what you see by filtering through categories, countries and rankings.
Data researched by Dan Defraia.