Benin Named Fastest Place to Start Business Online — Thanks to COVID
Voice of America
COTONOU, BENIN - Benin set up a service early in the COVID-19 pandemic to allow people to register their business online, and now the West African country is the world's fastest place to start a business, according to a U.N. agency.
Sandra Idossou, owner of a store selling art in Cotonou, Benin, submitted her business application online and received approval and legal documents within three hours. She said if the e-registration system did not exist and she instead had to go stand in line to start a business, she never would have done it. To create her business, Idossou went online to monentreprise.bj, a platform in Benin to create and formally start a business. The site was launched in February 2020 by the country's Investment and Export Promotion Agency, which did not want people to come into their offices during the pandemic.Palestinians gather at the site of an Israeli strike on a camp for internally displaced people in Rafah on May 27, 2024. Fire rages following an Israeli strike on an area designated for displaced Palestinians, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip, in this still picture taken from a video, May 26, 2024. Palestinians gather at the site of an Israeli strike on a camp for internally displaced people in Rafah on May 27, 2024. A member of the bomb squad of the Israeli police collects debris after a rocket fired by Palestinian militants struck in the Israeli city of Herzliya on May 26, 2024.