World Bank ranks regional ports

There are some surprising comparisons between the different port-operating countries in southern Africa in the World Bank’s “Doing Business” scorecard. In the “trading across borders” category Mozambique is the clear leader for exports – it is ranked 91st in the world, and has the lowest time and cost, with the exception of export documentation, where South Africa is nearly three times cheaper. South Africa is third regionally, after Mozambique and Namibia. Tanzania has the lowest global ranking (183rd), and is joint worst with Angola in the time to export (96 hours). For imports, the country to ship goods through is
Namibia, which has the lowest costs and least time in all categories. Tanzania is the country to avoid, as it takes longest and has the highest cost, with the exception of documentary compliance, where the (dis)honours go to Angola. Doing Business records the time and cost associated with the logistical process of exporting and importing goods. It excludes tariffs and focuses on the time and cost associated with three sets of procedures – documentary compliance, border compliance and domestic transport – within the overall process of exporting or importing a shipment of goods. The most recent round of data collection was completed in May 2018.