Nairobi ranked among 50 worst cities to work in

Nairobi has been ranked 208th out of 251 cities by an international research organisation which examines the best places to do business worldwide says. According to the Worldwide Quality of Living survey produced by Mercer, Nairobi is ranked the 43rd worst city to live in for expatriate businessmen.

Moved up

Three other East African cities are in the bottom 50 with Sudan’s capital Khartoum rated the fifth worst place in the world to do business, followed by Addis Ababa (19th worst) and Dar es Salaam at 27th.

The good news for Nairobi and Dar es Salaam, however, is that they have both moved up in the 2009 rankings. The rankings are based on 39 criteria including factors such as internal stability, crime, air pollution and hospital services. The ranking for city infrastructure is based on seven criteria — electricity, water availability, telephone, mail, public transport, traffic congestion and airport facilities.

The report is intended mainly for multinational companies and governments to determine suitable hardship allowances for each country. “Research is carried out by means of a detailed questionnaire with pre-defined criteria and a specific scoring system. Researchers and consultants in Mercer offices worldwide analyse the data which is then cross-checked against various sources by experts,” the survey says.

The survey, which covers 215 cities, rated Vienna in Austria as the best city in the world, with Zurich in Switzerland second.
The worst place to do business was again Baghdad. The only African cities in the top 100 were Port Louis in Mauritius (82) and the South African cities of Cape Town 87), Port Elizabeth (93) and Johannesburg (97).