In the Global Competitiveness Report 2019, Haiti ranked dead last, 141st out of 141 countries, for entrepreneurial dynamism. Not near the bottom. At the very bottom. Behind every country in Sub-Saharan Africa. Behind every country in South Asia. Behind every conflict-affected state in the dataset.
This ranking reflects a business environment that is hostile to entrepreneurship at every level: regulatory, institutional, infrastructural, financial, and political. But the obstacles are not abstract. They are specific, identifiable, and, crucially, addressable. Through research conducted for my Master's thesis at ISTEAH, I identified nine principal barriers to business creation in Haiti. Each one is documented below, along with a reform proposal.
Barrier 1: Obsolete and Complicated Legislation
Haiti's Commercial Code was drafted in 1826 and last modified in 1944. The law governing corporations dates to 1955, with minor amendments in 1967 and 1979. Banking regulations date from 1980. The law on interest rates in commercial lending dates from 1979. There is no law governing electronic commerce. Citizens cannot legally transact in digital currencies.
A country attempting to build a twenty-first-century economy on an eighteenth-century legal framework is fighting with both hands tied behind its back. The Investment Code of 1989, updated in 2002, offers general guarantees to investors, but most have remained theoretical rather than operational.
Reform: Comprehensive modernization of commercial law, including digital commerce legislation, simplified corporate structures, and a regulatory framework that reflects the realities of contemporary global trade.
Barrier 2: Complex Procedures and Administrative Harassment
Twelve procedures. Nearly a dozen institutions. Approximately one hundred days. A cost exceeding the average annual income. And that is for businesses in the capital. Outside Port-au-Prince, the process is even longer because all documents must be transferred to the capital for processing.
In the United States, Canada, and even the Dominican Republic, business registration can be completed entirely online. In Haiti, an entrepreneur may need to physically visit multiple government offices, often repeatedly, over a period of months.
Reform: Digital one-stop registration platform accessible from every department, with a maximum processing time of fifteen days.
Barrier 3: Difficulty Accessing Finance and Credit
Haiti's banking sector consists of eight commercial banks, with just three of them, Unibank, Sogebank, and BNC, controlling 80 percent of total banking assets and 75 percent of the loan portfolio. More strikingly, 70 percent of all loans are monopolized by just 10 percent of borrowers. The remaining 90 percent of borrowers must compete for 10 percent of available credit.
Microfinance institutions, the only alternative to traditional banking for most entrepreneurs, charge interest rates exceeding 40 percent over the loan period, making them prohibitively expensive for startup ventures.
Reform: Government-backed SME guarantee funds, targeted credit lines for micro and small enterprises, digital financial services expansion, and regulatory incentives for banks to increase lending to underserved segments.
Barrier 4: Corruption in Public Administration
In Haiti, administrative processes move faster when accompanied by unofficial payments. Public servants may refuse to perform their duties or cite persistent system problems until a bribe is offered. According to Transparency International's 2019 Corruption Perceptions Index, Haiti scored 18 out of 100, ranking 168th out of 180 countries, making it among the most corrupt nations in the Caribbean.
A 2018 U.S. State Department report confirmed that American companies cite corruption as a major obstacle to effective commercial operations in Haiti. Corruption increases costs, introduces unpredictability, and disproportionately burdens small entrepreneurs who lack the connections and resources to navigate the system.
Reform: Digital processes that eliminate discretionary human gatekeeping, transparent fee schedules, anti-corruption enforcement mechanisms, and whistleblower protections.
Barrier 5: Insufficient State Entities for Entrepreneurship Promotion
The Center for Investment Facilitation (CFI) is essentially the only state entity dedicated to entrepreneurship promotion, and its primary focus is attracting foreign investors rather than supporting Haitian entrepreneurs. Programs initiated by the Ministry of Commerce, including the Microenterprise Support Program, the Enterprise Modernization Program, the Center for Enterprise Development, and the Electronic Single Window, have remained largely theoretical.
France, by comparison, maintains multiple dedicated entities: the Agency for Business Creation (APCE), the Contract for Business Project Support (CAPE), the Aid for Unemployed Business Creators (ACCRE), and the Association for the Right to Economic Initiative (ADIE).
Reform: Creation of a national entrepreneurship development agency with a mandate to build entrepreneurial culture, integrate entrepreneurship education into the school curriculum from primary school through university, and provide incubation and acceleration services in every department.
Barrier 6: Absence of Basic Infrastructure
Haiti ranks last globally, 141st out of 141 countries, for infrastructure quality. The country has just two international airports, two international ports, 4,370 kilometers of roads of which only 1,714 are paved, and no rail transport. In rural areas, only 3 percent of the population has access to electricity.
The port system illustrates the concentration problem: Port-au-Prince handles 86.6 percent of all port traffic. The Cap-Haitien port, despite having a capacity of 1,000 containers per month, receives only 300.
Reform: Sustained, multi-year infrastructure investment financed through a combination of public expenditure, international development finance, and public-private partnerships, with explicit prioritization of secondary cities and provincial corridors.
Barrier 7: Recurring Socio-Political Crises
Political instability undermines investor confidence in a way that no incentive program can offset. Long-term investments, which are only profitable over extended periods, cannot be sustained in an environment where each new government adopts different policies, and where regular protests, sometimes violent, paralyze economic activity across entire regions.
Reform: Cross-partisan commitment to a national economic framework that survives changes in government, institutional continuity in key economic agencies, and credible rule of law that protects property and contracts regardless of political transitions.
Barrier 8: Failure to Implement Existing Rules and Decisions
Haiti's problem is not always the absence of good policy. It is the failure to implement and sustain policies that already exist. Between 2012 and 2014, the government made progress toward reducing business registration to fifteen days and enabling online name verification. When the government changed, the digital platform became dysfunctional. Programs like PAPEJ have been initiated by successive administrations but never sustained long enough to produce measurable results.
Reform: Independent implementation agencies with mandates and budgets that survive political transitions, performance monitoring systems, and public reporting on policy implementation progress.
Barrier 9: Concentration of Public Services in Port-au-Prince
Haiti's centralized state structure means that virtually all business registration and licensing functions must be processed in the capital. Entrepreneurs in provincial cities, from Cap-Haitien to Les Cayes, must either travel to Port-au-Prince or submit documents through departmental offices that forward everything to the capital for processing, adding weeks or months to an already lengthy timeline.
This centralization does not merely inconvenience provincial entrepreneurs. It actively suppresses economic activity outside the capital, contributes to rural-to-urban migration, and prevents the development of regional economic centers that could diversify and strengthen the national economy.
Reform: Full decentralization of business registration services, with autonomous departmental offices empowered to process and approve applications locally, supported by a national digital infrastructure that connects all offices in real time.
The Compound Effect
These nine barriers do not operate independently. They compound each other. Obsolete laws make complex procedures more rigid. Complex procedures create opportunities for corruption. Corruption diverts resources from infrastructure. Absent infrastructure raises the cost of doing business. High costs push entrepreneurs into informality. Informality reduces the tax base. A reduced tax base limits public investment. Limited public investment perpetuates infrastructure deficits. The cycle reinforces itself.
Breaking this cycle requires simultaneous action on multiple fronts. No single reform will suffice. But each reform makes the others more achievable. Simplifying procedures reduces corruption opportunities. Building infrastructure enables digital services. Digital services enable decentralization. Decentralization enables provincial entrepreneurship. Provincial entrepreneurship diversifies the economy. A diversified economy generates the revenue to fund further reform.
Haiti's entrepreneurial potential is enormous. The country is full of unsolved problems, which means it is full of business opportunities. What is missing is not talent or ambition. What is missing is an environment that allows talent and ambition to translate into legal, sustainable, growing enterprises.
This article is adapted from the Master's thesis 'Analyse des barrieres a la creation d'entreprise en Haiti: accent mis sur les villes de province' by Dieulin Napoleon, presented at ISTEAH, June 2020. Research directed by Professor Samuel Pierre, Ph.D.
References
World Bank Doing Business Reports (2011-2020). | Global Competitiveness Report (2019). World Economic Forum. | Transparency International (2019). Corruption Perceptions Index. | U.S. Department of State (2018). Haiti Investment Climate Statement. | MCI (2013). Recensement des entreprises. | Gauthier, P. (2008). La demarche entrepreneuriale. | Pierre, S. (2019). Entrepreneuriat et developpement en Haiti. | UN Report A/71/210 (2016). Entrepreneurship for Development.