Rwanda, Côte d’Ivoire, and Burundi are among the 10 world economies that performed best in easing the regulatory burden on entrepreneurs, according to a World Bank report.

Sub-Saharan Africa continues to record a large number of reforms aimed at improved business regulations, with 66 reforms adopted in the past year, BusinessGhana reports.

Of the 20 economies that most improved business regulation since 2009, nine are in Sub-Saharan Africa: Burundi, Sierra Leone, Guinea-Bissau, Rwanda, Togo, Benin, Liberia, Côte d’Ivoire, and Guinea.

The report, entitled “Doing Business 2014: Understanding Regulations for Small and Medium-Size Enterprises,” showed that 31 of 47 economies in the region implemented at least one business regulatory reform in 2012-2013.

Rwanda implemented the most, with reforms in eight of the 10 areas tracked.

Three African economies made the biggest progress globally in an area measured by the report:

Burundi made the most progress globally in the ease of registering property, Benin in the ease of trading across borders, and Côte d’Ivoire in the ease of enforcing contracts.

More than twice as many economies in the region had reforms in 2012-2013 as in 2005, said Augusto Lopez-Claros, director of global indicators and analysis at World Bank Group.

Despite these achievements, there were also some setbacks, the report said.

Ghana made starting a business more difficult by requiring entrepreneurs to obtain a tax ID number prior to incorporation. Ghana ranked 67th for ease of doing business.

South Sudan, which gained independence in 2011, showed up for the first time in the rankings. Despite the challenges of creating laws and regulations from scratch, South Sudan has on the books laws governing companies, taxes and insolvency.

Singapore topped the global ranking for ease of doing business. Other top 10 economies with the most business-friendly regulations include Hong Kong, China; New Zealand; the U.S.; Denmark; Malaysia; the Republic of Korea; Georgia; Norway; and the U.K.

In addition to the global rankings, the report ranked most improved. The 10 economies topping that list in order of improvement, are: Ukraine, Rwanda, the Russian Federation, the Philippines, Kosovo, Djibouti, Côte d’Ivoire, Burundi, the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, and Guatemala.

Five of this year’s top improvers (Burundi, Côte d’Ivoire, Djibouti, the Philippines, and Ukraine) are still in the bottom half of the global rankings for ease of doing business.

The joint World Bank and IFC flagship report analyzed regulations that apply to an economy’s businesses during their life cycle – start-up and operations, trading across borders, paying taxes, and resolving insolvency. The aggregate rankings are based on 10 indicators and cover 189 economies.

The report did not measure all aspects of the business environment that matter to firms and investors. For example, it did not measure the quality of fiscal management, other aspects of macroeconomic stability, the level of skills in the labor force, or the resilience of financial systems. Its findings have stimulated policy debates worldwide and enabled a growing body of research on how firm-level regulation relates to economic outcomes across economies, the report said.

The report covered 189 economies.