Botswana has ranked as the fifth best African country for business and entrepreneurs, according to a study conducted by research consultants at Forbes.

In order to measure the ‘business friendliness’ of an economy, several factors were assessed – including degree of innovation, infrastructure, market size, political risk, quality of life, workforce, technology landscape, as well as several business factors such as property rights, taxes and corruption.

The United Nations, World Economic Forum and World Bank were some of the data sources.

On a global scale, the United Kingdom ranked first on the list for the second consecutive year which is a somewhat surprising result when one thinks of Brexit and its affect on trade, however the country’s strong workforce, innovation and infrastructure were all positive features.

Sweden and Hong Kong formed part of the top 3 rankings, while the Netherlands and New Zealand followed. The remaining global countries on the top 10 list were Canada, Denmark, Singapore, Australia and Switzerland.

South Africa was the first African country on the list, although it ranked 59th globally. Morocco follows in second place, while the Seychelles, Tunisia and Botswana followed in third, fourth and fifth place respectively.

Additionally, research revealed that more are choosing to do business in Africa, which is mainly due to improvements in infrastructure, growth in education and stronger leadership.