Doing Business in Africa: A profile of Senegal

Figure 2:

How the World Banks Conceptualizes Credit Acquisition

When it comes to protecting investors and minority shareholders Senegal continues to do poorly. Here, the country ranks 167^th out of 183 countries – making it a poor one for shareholders. Senegal received this score because while it has moderately strong disclosure requirements for corporate officials, it has little in the way of director liability laws and is a relatively difficult place to bring shareholder lawsuits.

Senegal does even worse when it comes to paying taxes. The World Bank estimates that pleasing the tax man in Senegal requires a total of 59 payments over the course of a year which take up to 666 hours to complete and can consume up to 46 percent of a company’s profits. Accordingly, Senegal’s tax burden is ranked 170^th out of 183 nations – one of the worst in the world in this category.

Fortunately, when it comes to engaging in cross-border trade, Senegal receives a much better score. In Senegal, to import goods into the country one needs five documents for customs officials to inspect. On average, it takes 14 days to import goods into Senegal costing $1,940 (excluding tariffs) per container shipped into the country.

The cost to export goods is somewhat lower. Senegal requires six documents to be inspected by customs officials. The total cost (excluding tariffs) is $1,098 per container, with delivery taking up to 11 days from point of origin. Compared to global averages this nets Senegal a ranking of 67^th out of 183 on ease of engaging in cross-border trade.

Senegal returns to pattern when it comes to contract enforcement. It ranks 148^th out of 183 countries. On average, reports World Bank analysts, it takes 44 legal procedures to take a contract from dispute to resolution, at the cost of 780 days — or a little over two years — spent in court or otherwise attending to legal issues. The financial cost of pursuing a contract claim, says the bank, typically accounts for 26.5 percent of the value of the claim.

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