Kenya has improved its ranking in the World Bank Group’s bi-annual “Logistics Performance Index 2016”, jumping from 74th in 2014 to 42nd in 2016 among 160 countries.
The report ranks countries on a number of dimensions of supply chain performance, including infrastructure, quality of service, shipment reliability, and border clearance efficiency.
In Africa, Kenya was ranked the second best performing country behind South Africa. Kenya had an LPI score of 3.33 with a rating of 72.3%. The lower-middle-income group was led by India and Kenya as shown in the table below.Regional Performance
East Africa showed consistent improvement in integration and corridor performance which benefited several countries. Kenya, Rwanda, and Uganda region were among the list of countries that were over-performing their income group peers, as shown in the table below.
According to the World Bank, the improvement in the region’s ranking is attributed to the strong political will among the East African member states who have aligned their efforts in implementing administrative reform. The Bank also acknowledged the Northern Corridor which links Burundi, Rwanda, and Uganda with the port of Mombasa in Kenya and also serves eastern parts of the Democratic Republic of Congo, South Sudan, and Tanzania.
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The region was also ranked the most improved out of 160 countries surveyed, Kenya is in position 42, Uganda 58, Tanzania 61, Rwanda 62 and Burundi occupies position 107.
The performance of the single customs territory which allows quicker clearance of goods; and other Northern Corridor Integration Projects initiatives were the key contributors to this performance, according to the new release. This means final customs clearances for free circulation can be made already at the port of entry in Mombasa, this in turn reduces cost of doing business by about 50 percent.
Within the low income group, East African countries are leading the performance in this year’s edition as shown below.
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