Malawi has fallen three places on the 2018 Global Entrepreneurship Index (GEI) compiled by Global Entrepreneurship and Development Institute (Gedi).
The rankings, released on Wednesday, show that Malawi slipped from position 130 to 133 out of 137 global economies with a score of 12.2 points.
Malawi’s only solace on the rankings is that it managed to score better than Bangladesh, Burundi, Mauritania and Chad.
The country’s neighbours, Zambia, Tanzania and Mozambique all rank above Malawi on the index at positions 102, 115 and 124, respectively.
The Global Entrepreneurship Index is a composite indicator of the health of the entrepreneurship ecosystem in a given country.
The GEI measures both the quality of entrepreneurship and the extent and depth of the supporting entrepreneurial ecosystem.
“The top ten countries for 2018 show a pattern similar to last year’s— high-income, mostly European nations. The top countries are the United States, Switzerland, Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia, Denmark, Iceland, Ireland, Sweden and France. “The major surprise this year is the movement of the UK from 8th place to 4th place and the movement of Sweden from fourth place to nineth place,” Gedi said.
According to the index, sub-Saharan Africa where Malawi belongs, has its greatest strength is in the area of opportunity perception. It says entrepreneurs in the region are able to spot opportunities around them for starting businesses.
“The region’s lowest average scores are in the areas of startup skills, risk acceptance and risk capital. Tertiary education is not as broadly accessible as in other regions, and entrepreneurial skills are less common.
“The general risk climate is not as favorable in the region as in other areas, and the capital availability lags behind other regions,” Gedi said.
Ministry of Industry Spokesperson, Wiskes Nkombezi, Thursday questioned the results of the rankings, saying Malawi has taken significant steps in the past years to improve the operating environment to promote entrepreneurship.
Nkombezi said as the World Bank Doing Business Report for 2018 shows, Malawi has improved in easiness of doing business from position 133 to 110.
“The problem is that some of these institutions just google information about Malawi. They do not get on the ground to see what is happening,” Nkombezi said.