Comparing five countries on one sheet, and where the comparison breaks down

A single-sheet comparison is useful for a first pass and misleading if treated as the final answer. Registration speed, for instance, can be compared directly, Nigeria's Corporate Affairs Commission at 3–5 business days, Kenya's e-Citizen portal at 7–10 days, South Africa's CIPC at 5–7 days, because all three figures measure the same step.

Sector restrictions don't compare the same way. Nigeria's local content requirements apply specifically to oil and gas regardless of company size, Kenya's local shareholding rule applies to public procurement bids above a value threshold, and Rwanda has no general local-ownership requirement outside a short list of restricted sectors. Putting these three rules in adjacent cells on a matrix makes them look like variations on the same requirement, when they apply to different activities entirely, which is the main limit of any comparison format.

The matrix download is built to make that limit visible rather than hide it, with a note under each row pointing to where the comparison stops holding. For a comparison scoped to your specific sector and shortlist of countries, that is what the market research service produces, priced from $300 for a single-market report. Get in touch about market research.