This study assessed the effects of business regulatory reforms on economic growth in Rwanda using annual time series data from 1996–2020 in order to achieve the main objective. The specific objectives were to determine effect of business regulatory reforms on economic growth in Rwanda, to ensure that regulation works effectively and is in the public interest and to provide recommendations for the improvement of business regulatory reforms on economic growth. This study used various time series techniques such as Augmented Dickey Fuller, Johansen–Cointegration test, VECM to find out the short-run and long-run equilibrium dynamics among the variables under consideration. The variables used in this study were Gross domestic products (GDP) as the dependent variable while Business regulatory Reforms (BRRs) is independent variable. Physical capital, Labour force rate and Trade openness (TOP) are considered to be control variables in the study. The findings revealed that there is long-run relationship between business regulatory reforms and economic growth where business regulatory reforms proxied by 4WGI (i.e., Political Stability and Absence of Violence/Terrorism, Government Effectiveness, Regulatory Quality, and Control of Corruption) affect positively economic growth by approximately 0.62%, trade openness by approximately 2.06%, labour force by approximately 30.15%, and physical capital by approximately 0.78%.  Based on the findings, its recommended to provide infrastructures that should reduce the production cost including shipping cost which are recognised to fluctuate market prices in Rwanda and enhancing human capital development in general for improving Total Factor Productivity. Also, it is recommended to conduct other researches in this sector as they are few.

Keywords:  Economic Growth and Business regulatory reforms