Malawi

Ease of Doing Business in

Malawi

This page summarizes Doing Business 2013 data for Malawi. The first table lists the overall "Ease of Doing Business" rank (out of 185 economies) and the rankings by each topic. It also lists the economy's distance to frontier (DTF)** measure. The rest of the tables summarize the key indicators for each topic and benchmark against regional and high-income economy (OECD) averages.

Economy Overview

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Economy Summary
Starting a Business
Dealing with Construction Permits
Getting Electricity
Registering Property
Getting Credit
Protecting Investors
Paying Taxes
Trading Across Borders
Enforcing Contracts
Resolving Insolvency
Region Sub-Saharan Africa
Income Category Low income
Population 15,380,888
GNI Per Capita (US$) 340
Doing Business 2013 Rank Doing Business 2012 Rank Change in Rank
157 151 down -6

Doing Business 2013 DTF** (% points) Doing Business 2012 DTF** (% points) Improvement in DTF** (% points)
49.9 51.0 down -1.1
Topic Rankings DB 2013 Rank DB 2012 Rank Change in Rank
Starting a Business 141 139 up -2
Dealing with Construction Permits 175 174 up -1
Getting Electricity 179 178 up -1
Registering Property 97 94 up -3
Getting Credit 129 127 up -2
Protecting Investors 82 79 up -3
Paying Taxes 58 30 up -28
Trading Across Borders 168 165 up -3
Enforcing Contracts 144 145 up 1
Resolving Insolvency 134 135 up 1

Economy Profile

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Starting a Business

Info

The challenges of launching a business are shown below. Included are: the number of steps entrepreneurs can expect to go through to launch, the time it takes on average, and the cost and minimum capital required as a percentage of gross national income (GNI) per capita.

DB 2013 Rank 141 DB 2012 Rank 139 Change in Rank down-2
DB 2013 DTF** (% points) 66.1 DB 2012 DTF** (% points) 65.3 Improvement in DTF** (% points) up0.8
Indicator Malawi Sub-Saharan Africa OECD

The total number of procedures required to register a firm. A procedure is defined as any interaction of the company founders with external parties (for example, government agencies, lawyers, auditors or notaries).

View methodology Procedures (number)
10 8 5

The total number of days required to register a firm. The measure captures the median duration that incorporation lawyers indicate is necessary to complete a procedure with minimum follow-up with government agencies and no extra payments.

View methodology Time (days)
39 34 12

Cost is recorded as a percentage of the economy’s income per capita. It includes all official fees and fees for legal or professional services if such services are required by law.

View methodology Cost (% of income per capita)
83.7 67.3 4.5

The amount that the entrepreneur needs to deposit in a bank or with a notary before registration and up to 3 months following incorporation and is recorded as a percentage of the economy’s income per capita.

View methodology Paid-in Min. Capital (% of income per capita)
0.0 116.0 13.3
No. Procedure Time to Complete Associated Costs
1 Initiate a company name search. 1 day MWK 500
2 Submit application for a Certificate of Incorporation to the Registrar General, Ministry of Justice. 3-7 days if done in person, 14 days by mail MWK 1,000 + MWK 100 for first MWK 1,000 of capital, and MWK 15 for every MWK 2,000 or part of capital thereafter
3 Register for payment of income tax with the Malawi Revenue Authority 1 day if application is hand delivered no charge
4 Obtain a company seal 3-4 days MWK 19,000
* 5 File an application form to obtain a license from the City Assembly 29 days including time of publication, simultaneous with procedure 4 MWK 400 Blantyre City Assembly
* 6 Inspection of premises for the issue of the license 14 days, simultaneous with procedure 5 no charge
* 7 Pay license fee upon approval of license and obtain license 1 day, simultaneous with procedure 5 20,000
* 8 Apply for a registration of the workplace 28 days, simultaneous with procedure 5 MWK 1,000, depends on the number of employees
* 9 Inspection of premises by the Occupational Safety, Health, and Welfare Department 7 days, simultaneous with procedure 5 no charge
* 10 Register for PAYE and fringe benefit tax with the Malawi Revenue Authority by mail 1 day no charge
* Takes place simultaneously with another procedure.

** The distance to frontier (DTF) measure shows the distance of each economy to the "frontier," which represents the highest performance observed on each of the indicators across all economies included in Doing Business since each indicator was included in Doing Business. An economy’s distance to frontier is indicated on a scale from 0 to 100, where 0 represents the lowest performance and 100 the frontier. Read more...

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