While most favor bottom-up, entrepreneur-led efforts to develop robust entrepreneurial ecosystems, in Africa especially, what the government does actually matters a great deal. In the third of four posts this month on Africa, I look at Rwanda and find a country where smart government engagement has created a favorable climate for entrepreneurs.
In the 2010 Ease of Doing Business ranking from the World Bank, Rwanda made a spectacular leap—from 143rd on the list to 67th. It had a better business environment than Italy, Turkey and Poland. That same year, the Heritage Foundation’s Index of Economic Freedom showed similar results as Rwanda had improved on half of the ten indicators of economic freedom, achieving the fourth largest score gain among 179 countries. On the ground, those improvements translated into real impact: per capita GDP had almost quadrupled since 1995, life expectancy had increased by 23 years, the country’s primary school enrolment had risen by 50 percent and 18,447 new businesses were registered in 2010 alone.
To read the original article: Rwandas Rush to Recovery - Entrepreneurship.org
