Learn what businesses should assess before entering African markets, from registration and payments to logistics, labour, regulation and foreign exchange.
Starting a business in another African country can look deceptively simple from the outside.
You might see a large population, a growing middle class, rising internet use and a government actively looking for investment. The market can look attractive on paper, and yet the first few months of actually operating there can feel very different.
You still have to find customers. You need a legal entity, a bank account, payment channels, employees, suppliers and distributors. If you are importing anything, you have to get it through customs. If you are employing people, you need to understand labour rules. If the business makes money, you eventually need to move that money between countries.
These are separate problems.
A country can make company registration relatively straightforward and still have difficult foreign-exchange conditions. Another can have sophisticated financial services but a much smaller domestic market. One may have strong digital payments but complicated employment rules. Another may offer a useful regional base while requiring you to understand a completely different legal and linguistic environment.
That is why comparing African markets only by GDP, population or headline investment figures can give a misleading picture of what it is actually like to enter them.
The World Bank's Business Ready programme, known as B-READY, now looks at several parts of the business environment separately, including business entry, labour, financial services and international trade. Its 2025 data cover more than 100 economies, including a growing number of African countries.
For a company considering expansion, that way of looking at markets is much closer to reality.
So what actually changes from one African market to another?
1. Finding customers is a different problem in every market
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Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda were among the markets with the highest levels of mobile-money ownership globally.
The first question when entering a new market is usually straightforward: are there enough customers for the business?
But population size only gives you a starting point. A country can have millions of people and still be difficult for a particular business to reach. What matters is how customers discover products, how they pay, what they can afford, how much of the market is formal, and how comfortable they are buying from a new company.
The way people pay is one part of that access. If customers mainly use cash, a company may need a physical sales network or agents. If they rely heavily on bank transfers, the business needs a payment system that works with local banks. And where mobile money is widely used, the company needs to understand that system before deciding how customers will pay.
Mobile money is particularly important across Sub-Saharan Africa. The GSMA's 2026 State of the Industry Report on Mobile Money found that 40% of adults in the region had a mobile-money account in 2024, while 20% relied on mobile money as their only financial account. Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda were among the markets with the highest levels of mobile-money ownership globally.
Kenya shows why this matters at the level of an individual market. Mobile money is deeply established in everyday commerce, and the country's 2025 Economic Survey reported 42.3 million mobile-money subscriptions in 2024. During the same year, mobile-money transfers reached KSh8.7 trillion across 2.7 billion transactions, while mobile commerce was valued at KSh22 trillion.
The significance for an incoming business is not that all of those transactions represent potential sales. They do not. However, a large share of commercial activity is already happening through a payment system that customers know and use. A company entering Kenya can therefore design its payment process around an existing customer habit rather than asking customers to learn an entirely different way of paying.
That is why we advise clients that looking at payment adoption is more useful than looking at population alone. Two countries can have similarly large populations and very different ways of buying, paying and receiving money. Those differences can affect how a company prices its product, collects payments, chooses sales channels and even designs the product itself.
2. Registering a company can take very different amounts of work
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Rwanda provides a useful example of a country where the formal registration process is relatively short.
Once there is a customer opportunity, the next problem is becoming a legal business.
The first step is usually company registration, but that is only one part of setting up a business. A company may also need tax registration, sector-specific licences, immigration documents for foreign employees, investment approvals, a bank account and other permissions before it can actually begin operating.
The World Bank's Business Ready programme, or B-READY, is useful for looking at these differences because it does not treat "doing business" as one single number. B-READY examines the rules businesses operate under, the public services available to them and how efficiently those systems work. Its assessment covers areas including business entry, labour, financial services and international trade. That makes it more useful for this discussion than simply asking how many days it takes to register a company.
This is where country differences become very visible.
Rwanda provides a useful example of a country where the formal registration process is relatively short. The World Bank's B-READY 2025 data records one day as the total time required to register a new domestic firm and one day for a new foreign firm.
That does not mean an investor can arrive in Kigali on Monday morning and have every licence, bank account, immigration document and sector approval completed by Tuesday.
Company registration is one process. Starting operations is another.
The same B-READY framework separates business entry from other parts of the business environment for exactly this reason. Its assessment looks at the regulatory framework, public services and operational efficiency rather than treating incorporation as the entire market-entry process.
Côte d'Ivoire is another example.
Its investment promotion agency, CEPICI, operates a one-stop system for business formalities and investment applications. Under its investment framework, projects below CFA50 million can fall under a declaration regime, with the agency stating that this can be obtained 48 hours after submission. Larger qualifying projects can fall under an approval regime, with the agency stating a 21-day processing period after submission.
B-READY's 2025 assessment also gives Côte d'Ivoire a business-entry score of 70 out of 100. But its international-trade score is 41, and its operational-efficiency pillar across the overall framework is weaker than its regulatory-framework score.
That is exactly why a single "ease of doing business" label can hide useful information.
A company may find it reasonably straightforward to establish itself and still encounter more work once it begins importing, exporting or dealing with other parts of the public system.
Morocco offers yet another example.
Its investment framework is designed to attract foreign and domestic capital, and foreign investors can generally establish wholly owned subsidiaries, although sector-specific rules and restrictions still need to be checked. Morocco also has a developed financial system and Casablanca Finance City has been developed as a regional financial hub.
For a company considering North Africa, this makes Morocco a different proposition from entering a market primarily because of its domestic consumer population. It can also be considered as a base for regional operations, finance and connections beyond the country itself.
Nigeria has a different starting point.
The Corporate Affairs Commission is the body responsible for company registration, and its current registration process is digital. The process includes name availability, name reservation, submission of registration documents, payment of statutory fees and issuance of registration documents through the Company Registration Portal.
But incorporation is only one piece of market entry.
Depending on the business, an investor may also need to deal with the Nigerian Investment Promotion Commission, immigration requirements, sector-specific regulators, tax registration, licences and foreign-investment documentation.
All we're saying is: when researching a market, do not ask only, "How long does it take to register a company?"
Ask what has to happen after the certificate arrives.
3. Getting paid depends on the financial system people actually use
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For a company considering Morocco, this means the country can offer more than access to its own customers.
The payment system is part of the market.
In Kenya, a business can build around a population that is already accustomed to mobile money. Tanzania offers a similar opportunity, although its experience with transaction levies shows that policy can alter payment costs quickly.
Elsewhere, bank accounts and mobile money may coexist differently.
Mauritius is a useful contrast though.
The African Development Bank describes Mauritius as having a well-developed financial sector and an international financial centre that connects the country to global markets. In simpler terms, businesses can use its financial system for more than collecting money from customers in Mauritius. It also supports international payments, investment and other transactions across countries.
That is useful for a company that wants to use Mauritius as a base for regional business rather than serving only the local market. A company might, for example, use the country to manage investments, handle cross-border transactions or support operations in other African markets.
Let's also look at Morocco. The country has a developed financial system and access to international financial markets. It has also built a financial and business hub called Casablanca Finance City.
Created in 2010, Casablanca Finance City was designed to attract financial institutions, multinational companies, investment firms and other businesses that want to operate across Africa. It is based in Casablanca, a city positioned between African, European and Mediterranean markets. The centre now brings together companies working across finance, investment, professional services, regional headquarters and other areas of business.
For a company considering Morocco, this means the country can offer more than access to its own customers. Its financial infrastructure and regional connections can also be useful to companies that want to manage operations, investments or expansion into other African markets from North Africa.
Before you begin operations of a company in any country, ensure you get answers to this checklist we created at the Colony for our clients:
Can customers pay me?
Can my company receive money efficiently?
Can I pay suppliers?
Can I collect across different channels?
Can I obtain the foreign currency I need?
What documentation will my bank require?
It's important that you answer these questions before your company starts operating across borders.
4. Distributors can be harder to find than customers
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For years, foreign investors in Ghana faced minimum capital requirements under the country's investment framework.
A market can look attractive online and still be difficult to reach physically.
This matters especially for consumer goods, pharmaceuticals, food, beauty products, electronics and other businesses that depend on wholesalers, distributors, retailers or local agents. Having customers who want a product is only part of the equation. The business also needs a practical way to get that product from the port or manufacturer to the businesses and people who will sell or use it.
Côte d'Ivoire is a good example. Abidjan is the country's main commercial centre and an important hub for trade and transport. The African Development Bank's latest country outlook also identifies trade, transportation and telecommunications among the areas contributing significantly to economic activity.
For a company entering the Francophone West Africa, Ivorian market, that creates a different set of questions from simply asking whether there is demand for its product or finding a distributor in Côte d'Ivoire. Where will goods enter the country? Who will move them from the port? Which distributors already reach the cities and retailers the company wants to serve? How much of the country can they realistically cover? What are the regional trade rules? Does the company's product need additional approvals?
Those questions can determine how easily a product gets from a business's supply chain into the hands of its customers.
Ghana is another example of how the rules for entering a market can change.
For years, foreign investors in Ghana faced minimum capital requirements under the country's investment framework. In practice, this meant that some foreign businesses had to commit a specified amount of capital before they could operate in Ghana. The requirement could create a higher financial barrier for smaller businesses or companies that did not need a large amount of money to start operating.
Ghana changed this in 2026 through the Ghana Investment Promotion Authority Act, 2026 (Act 1173). The new law removed the general minimum capital requirements for most foreign-owned businesses and joint ventures. There are still specific requirements for certain businesses. Foreign companies engaged in trading, for example, must meet a US$500,000 minimum cash-equity requirement and have at least 75% skilled Ghanaian employees. Some activities are also reserved for Ghanaian citizens or Ghanaian-owned businesses.
So if a company was researching Ghana based on information published before the new law, it could arrive with the wrong idea about how much capital it needs to enter the market.
This buttresses all we've been saying. Market-entry research cannot rely only on information that has been accurate for years. Companies need to check the current rules for their particular type of business, because the requirements can change when legislation changes. We can help you carry out market research (market read).
5. Hiring people introduces another layer of regulation
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Under the new rules, employers with 50 or more employees must meet additional employment-equity requirements.
Once a business has customers and revenue, it needs people.
Labour rules are a silent cost of expansion because the issue is rarely just the minimum wage or the cost of hiring someone.
Companies need to understand employment contracts, working hours, social-security obligations, termination rules, work permits and, in some markets, requirements around the composition of the workforce.
South Africa is another example of a market where the work does not stop once the company is registered. Hiring can bring its own set of requirements.
South Africa's Employment Equity Amendment Act came into effect on 1 January 2025. Under the new rules, employers with 50 or more employees must meet additional employment-equity requirements. Regulations introduced in April 2025 set five-year employment-equity targets for 18 economic sectors.
In practical terms, a qualifying employer has to look at the make-up of its workforce and set targets for improving representation as part of its Employment Equity Plan. The targets differ by sector, so a company in one industry may have different requirements from a company in another.
The rules have been challenged in court. In May 2026, the Constitutional Court dismissed an application seeking to stop their implementation, and the Department of Employment and Labour said the rules would continue to be implemented.
For a company entering South Africa, this means labour research needs to happen before hiring begins. The company needs to know whether it falls under the rules, what targets apply to its sector and what it will need to include in its employment plan.
Mauritius presents a different situation. It has a relatively small domestic market, so a company looking only at the number of local customers may see limited room for growth. At the same time, Mauritius has a well-developed financial sector and a large international-business component. Companies can use the country for activities that extend beyond the local market, including investment, cross-border transactions and regional business operations.
Whereas, Morocco has a broader domestic market and a different investment picture. The country has been attracting investment into areas including manufacturing, infrastructure, agriculture and tourism, while also pursuing policies designed to encourage more private investment. For a company considering Morocco, the question may therefore be both how to serve customers in the country and how its investment fits into the sectors Morocco is actively developing.
So just before you decide to start your business in any country, carry out the required research, don't fall into the pit hole of asking; which labour system sounds easier. Rather, your focus should be on whether the labour system fits the kind of company you are building.
A ten-person software company, a factory employing 2,000 people and a foreign trading company will encounter very different labour issues in the same country.
6. Moving goods exposes the infrastructure underneath the market
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A third may have good infrastructure around one commercial corridor and very different conditions elsewhere.
A customer may be easy to reach digitally and difficult to reach physically. This is where logistics enters the picture.
The World Bank's previous Logistics Performance Index gives us one way to see these differences. The index looked at six parts of international logistics: how efficiently customs worked, the quality of transport infrastructure, how easy it was to arrange shipments, the quality of logistics services, the ability to track goods and whether shipments arrived on time. Countries received an overall score from 1 to 5, with a higher score indicating stronger reported logistics performance.
In the 2023 edition, South Africa scored 3.7 out of 5, while Nigeria scored 2.6. These figures were based on assessments from international logistics professionals, so they should be read as a broad measure of how the two countries' logistics systems were perceived, rather than as a prediction of how long or how much it will cost to move a particular shipment.
There is now an important update for anyone using logistics data today. The World Bank has replaced the survey-based LPI with LPI 2.0. The new system uses actual supply-chain tracking data from 2023 and 2024, including data on air cargo, containers and postal shipments. It contains 21 country-level indicators and does not produce one overall country ranking. Instead, it allows users to examine different parts of logistics performance separately.
This LPI 2.0 is very useful and more effective for businesses because moving goods involves several different stages. A country may have good transport infrastructure but slower customs processes, or efficient customs but weaker connections for moving goods beyond the main port. Looking at the individual parts gives a more useful picture of what a company may actually encounter when moving products.
A country can have strong air connectivity and weaker maritime performance. Another can have reasonable port access but longer inland delivery times. A third may have good infrastructure around one commercial corridor and very different conditions elsewhere.
South Africa, Egypt and Morocco can therefore serve very different logistics purposes.
Morocco has developed substantial industrial and logistics capacity and has continued to invest in infrastructure and industrial development. The African Development Bank also identifies industrial and logistics sectors as areas where additional financing can support growth.
Egypt is important for a different reason. Its geographical position gives it an obvious role in routes connecting Africa, the Mediterranean and the Middle East, but the cost and reliability of moving goods still depend on the specific port, corridor, customs process and destination.
For a company importing into Africa, "What is the nearest port?" is rarely enough.
The better question is:
What happens to the product after it reaches the port?
7. Regulation can change the economics of an entire business
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You should book our services to carry out market research for your company before you enter that African market.
Some markets are difficult because there are many rules. Others are difficult because the rules are changing.
Ghana is a good current example. Act 1173 has changed foreign-investment registration, capital requirements, trading rules, expatriate quotas and the institutional role of the investment authority.
Côte d'Ivoire provides another example of why investors need to examine the details rather than rely on a broad country reputation. Its B-READY 2025 data show a business-entry score of 70, while international trade scored 41. The same assessment records differences between the regulatory framework, public services and operational efficiency.
Senegal is also worth including because it shows how this type of analysis can be extended beyond the better-known African investment markets.
The World Bank's B-READY 2025 assessment gives Senegal a Business Entry score of 59, with separate scores for its regulatory framework, public services and operational efficiency.
That is more useful to an investor than simply describing Senegal as "business friendly" or "difficult."
It tells you where to investigate next.
Regulation also has to be examined at the sector level.
A fintech company, a pharmaceutical company, a food importer and a marketing agency can face completely different licensing requirements in the same country. This is one reason country-level rankings can be a poor substitute for actual market research. You should book our services to carry out market research for your company before you enter that African market. Book here
8. Institutional conditions affect how much friction a company encounters
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A score of 0 represents a very high perceived level of corruption, while 100 represents a very low perceived level.
There is another part of market entry that is harder to capture in a company-registration checklist: how businesses experience public institutions.
Transparency International's Corruption Perceptions Index, or CPI, gives us one measure of this. The CPI scores countries from 0 to 100 based on perceived levels of public-sector corruption. A score of 0 represents a very high perceived level of corruption, while 100 represents a very low perceived level. It is based on assessments from experts and businesspeople, so it measures perceptions rather than the actual number of corrupt transactions in a country.
The CPI does not tell us how long it takes to register a company, how much it costs to clear goods through customs or how quickly a bank processes a payment. Those are different questions.
In the 2025 CPI, Seychelles scored 68, Cabo Verde 62, Botswana 58 and Rwanda 58. Ghana and Côte d'Ivoire both scored 43, while South Africa scored 41. Kenya scored 30 and Nigeria 26. These figures give us a sense of how public-sector corruption is perceived across these markets, but they should not be treated as a direct measure of how easy or difficult it is to do business.
Rwanda is an example of why we need more than one measure. Its 2025 B-READY data records one day to register both a domestic and a foreign firm, while its CPI score was 58. The two figures tell us different things. The first describes the registration process. The second describes perceptions of public-sector corruption.
Botswana shows another side of the same issue. Its CPI score was 58, but the country has a much smaller economy and population than markets such as Nigeria, Egypt or South Africa. A company could therefore find the institutional environment worth examining while still deciding that the domestic market is too small for the scale of business it wants to build.
This is why market entry requires more than one question. A company needs to look at how easy it is to establish the business, how institutions function, how goods and money move, and how large the potential customer base is.
9. Getting foreign currency is not the same as getting money out
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One document that can be important is the Certificate of Capital Importation (CCI).
There is another question a company needs to answer before entering a market: how easily can it get and move foreign currency?
For an international business, there are two different things to check.
First, can the company obtain the foreign currency it needs to pay suppliers, investors, lenders or other businesses outside the country?
Second, once the company has made money, can it send profits, dividends or its original investment back to another country?
These questions are connected, but they are not the same.
Let's make an example with Nigeria.
Its investment framework allows foreign investors to repatriate, meaning send money back out of Nigeria to another country, subject to the relevant foreign-exchange rules and documentation.
One document that can be important is the Certificate of Capital Importation (CCI). A CCI is evidence that foreign investment capital was brought into Nigeria through the formal banking system. For example, if a foreign company sends US$1 million into Nigeria to fund its local business, the CCI records that foreign capital entering the country. That documentation can then be important when the investor later wants to repatriate eligible capital or other permitted funds.
Dividends, which are profits paid by a company to its shareholders, are also subject to withholding tax. Current tax summaries generally put the withholding rate on dividends at 10%.
There is, however, another question that a foreign investor needs to ask. Having a legal right to repatriate money does not automatically mean the company can obtain US dollars whenever it wants them. Foreign-exchange availability can affect how quickly a business can make international payments or move money out of the country.
So a company entering Nigeria needs to look at two separate things: what the law allows it to send out of the country, and whether it can actually obtain the foreign currency needed to make that transfer when the time comes.
Egypt shows how quickly those conditions can change. In March 2024, Egypt moved to a more flexible exchange-rate system and unified its exchange-rate market. The Egyptian pound depreciated sharply at the time, while the IMF reported that foreign-exchange demand backlogs at banks, estimated at US$7–8 billion, were subsequently cleared. Egypt also received a US$35 billion investment commitment for the Ras El-Hekma development from Abu Dhabi-based ADQ, which helped ease immediate pressure on the country's balance of payments.
Egypt's experience shows that foreign-exchange availability can change as a country's reserves, exchange-rate policy, external financing and investment flows change. A company assessing the market therefore needs to look at current access to foreign currency, rather than treating it as a fixed condition.
Ethiopia provides another example. In July 2024, the National Bank of Ethiopia introduced a market-based foreign-exchange regime. In February 2026, it announced that foreign investors could send net profits or dividends through commercial banks without first obtaining approval from the central bank, provided the required documents were submitted and verified.
That does not mean every kind of money can leave Ethiopia under the same conditions. The rules can depend on what the payment actually is.
For a company entering a new market, therefore, "Can I repatriate my money?" is too broad a question. It needs to ask what kind of transaction it is dealing with.
Is the money a dividend? A repayment of a loan? The sale of an investment? The return of original capital? Or payment to an overseas supplier?
Each can be subject to different rules and documentation.
In practice, a company needs to understand both sides: what the rules allow it to transfer, and how it will obtain the foreign currency required to make the transfer.
10. Regional access can change the calculation
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For a company looking at Francophone West Africa, its regional connections can be part of the market-entry calculation.
A company does not always enter a country because it expects most of its customers to live there. Sometimes the country is useful because of the connections it gives the business to other markets.
Morocco is one example. Casablanca Finance City has helped establish the country as a financial and business hub, with a focus on attracting companies and investment linked to African and international markets. Its location also gives businesses access to Europe and the wider African market.
Mauritius has a different geographical position but serves a related function. The African Development Bank describes the country as an international financial centre integrated into global markets, with cross-border investment activity and a developed financial sector.
In West Africa, Côte d'Ivoire is worth looking at from a regional perspective too. The African Development Bank identifies it as the largest economy in the West African Economic and Monetary Union, and the country has substantial activity in trade, transportation and telecommunications. For a company looking at Francophone West Africa, its regional connections can be part of the market-entry calculation.
Senegal offers another option in the same broad regional market. A company with plans that extend beyond Senegal itself may want to examine its transport links, regional trade position and business environment alongside the size of its domestic market. Its participation in the World Bank's B-READY programme also provides comparable data on specific aspects of doing business.
Nigeria works differently. Its domestic market is large enough for a company to build a substantial business without treating the country mainly as a gateway to somewhere else. At the same time, its commercial connections can make it relevant to a wider West African strategy.
So when a company is comparing markets, the question may not stop at, "How many customers are here?"
It may also need to ask:
"If we operate from here, which other markets can we reach?"
11. The real cost of entering a market is the friction between all these systems
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A software company that sells remotely has a different problem from a manufacturer importing machinery.
This is where country comparisons become useful. Imagine a company entering Africa with a consumer product.
In Kenya, the company might spend significant time understanding mobile-money behaviour, merchant payments and distribution.
In Tanzania, the same company would need to understand mobile money deeply while also paying attention to transaction taxes and regulatory changes.
In Rwanda, company registration may be relatively quick, but the company would still need to investigate its sector licence, staffing, payments, taxes and customer acquisition.
In Ghana, the investment regime changed significantly in 2026, so a market-entry plan based on older minimum-capital rules could already be outdated.
In Côte d'Ivoire, the company could find a formal investment and business-registration structure through CEPICI, while international trade presents a separate set of issues.
In Morocco, the company could be interested in the financial system, industrial base and regional connections as much as the domestic market.
In Mauritius, the financial and international-business environment may be more important than the size of the local consumer market.
In South Africa, a company with a large workforce would need to take the employment-equity framework seriously from the beginning.
In Egypt, foreign-exchange conditions need to be monitored because the country's exchange-rate system has undergone major changes.
In Ethiopia, the foreign-exchange framework has also been changing since the 2024 reform, with further liberalisation measures introduced in 2026.
In Nigeria, foreign-exchange documentation, sector regulation, incorporation and repatriation all need to be considered as separate parts of the expansion plan.
None of these produces a single answer about which market is "easiest." They show why the answer depends on the business.
A software company that sells remotely has a different problem from a manufacturer importing machinery. A consumer brand has a different problem from a professional-services firm. A fintech company has a completely different regulatory map from an education company.
What a company should actually compare before entering an African market
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Instead of asking for one country ranking, it is more useful to build a market-entry checklist.
Instead of asking for one country ranking, it is more useful to build a market-entry checklist.
Customer access
How large is the addressable customer base?
How do people discover and pay for products?
How much of the market is digital?
Can the product work with the payment channels customers already use?
Business registration
How long does incorporation take?
What documents are required?
Are there separate requirements for foreign-owned companies?
What licences are required after incorporation?
Financial services
Can the company open a corporate bank account?
How easy is it to receive local payments?
Can it receive international payments?
What are the requirements for foreign-exchange transactions?
Distribution
Who controls distribution?
How formal is the wholesale sector?
Are there reliable logistics providers?
Can one distributor serve multiple regions?
Labour
How easy is it to recruit?
What employment obligations apply?
Are there requirements around local employees?
What work-permit rules apply to foreign staff?
Logistics
Where do goods enter the country?
How long do customs procedures take?
How reliable is inland transport?
What happens after goods leave the port or airport?
Regulation
Which regulator controls the sector?
How frequently do the rules change?
Are licences national or regional?
Are there restrictions on foreign ownership?
Institutional environment
How predictable are government processes?
How transparent are administrative requirements?
What dispute-resolution mechanisms are available?
What does the evidence say about public-sector corruption?
Foreign exchange
Can the business access the currency it needs?
What documents are required?
Can profits and capital be repatriated?
What taxes apply to dividends, interest or other cross-border payments?
Regional strategy
Is the company entering for domestic customers?
Or is it choosing the country as a base for a wider African strategy?
That final question can change the entire calculation.
Africa does not have one market-entry problem
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A useful African market-entry strategy is therefore not the one that finds a supposedly perfect country.
There is a tendency to talk about entering "the African market" as if Africa were one commercial environment. It is not.
The differences are visible in payment systems, company registration, labour law, foreign ownership, logistics, taxation, financial markets, foreign-exchange rules and regional integration.
The countries themselves also change over time.
Ghana's investment rules changed in 2026. Ethiopia's foreign-exchange system has been under reform since 2024 and was amended again in 2026. South Africa's employment-equity framework changed from 2025. The World Bank has replaced its old survey-based logistics approach with LPI 2.0.
That means an article, market-entry plan or investment memo can become outdated without the underlying country becoming fundamentally different.
The practical way is to stop looking for one number that tells you how easy a country is.
Look at the specific friction your business will face.
For a fintech company, payments and financial regulation may dominate the calculation.
For a manufacturer, logistics, power, customs, labour and foreign exchange may matter more.
For a professional-services company, registration, tax, hiring and repatriation may be the bigger questions.
For a consumer company, distribution and payment behaviour may matter more than almost anything else.
A useful African market-entry strategy is therefore not the one that finds a supposedly perfect country. It is the one that understands exactly what the business needs, then finds the markets where those requirements can actually be met.
