High life expectancy is an indicator of good health in a population; according to the World Bank, 9 of the 10 countries that have improved the most between 2000 & 2012 in terms of life expectancy (additional years gained) are located in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) with Rwanda (+16), Zambia (+15) ...
By 2040, the market for electricity in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) will have grown significantly with projections by McKinsey & Company showing annual electricity consumption reaching 1,600 terawatt hours – about four times the consumption in 2010. From a global perspective, SSA’s electricity consumption in 2040 will be equivalent to the ...
Data from the WEF’s Global Information Technology Report (2014) reveals that South Africa (4.8), Rwanda (4.8) and Mauritius (4.5) have the three most developed legal systems relating to the use of ICTs in Africa, and these three countries outperform China (4.3), India (4.2), Brazil (4.2), and Russia (3.5) – scores ...
PWC’s Paying Taxes Report (2015) evaluates tax regimes in 189 countries around the world. The report reveals that Africa’s Total Tax Rate (TTR, overall tax burden imposed on business) has been continuously reduced since 2005 such that 15 African countries including Zambia, Ghana and Rwanda have lower TTRs than 7 ...
Trade data from the World Bank’s (WB) Enterprise Survey (2014) of 130,000+ firms in 135 countries reveals that sales for export constitute a higher proportion of total sales for Moroccan (23.5%) and Kenyan (11%) firms as compared to Korean (6.9%), Chinese (5.4%) and German (4.9%) firms. In addition, Ghana (3.8%) beats ...
The World Bank’s Doing Business Report 2015 reveals that over 2013 and 2014, Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) had the highest number of business reforms for any region in the world - 75 out of 230 (33%) - with 39 reforms to reduce complexity and cost of regulatory processes and 36 to ...
Foreign Policy magazine’s 2014 Baseline Profitability Index (BPI) assesses levels of profitability and pretax returns on investment in 112 countries covering 3 thematic areas. Sub-Saharan Africa’s (SSA) attractiveness for investment is strong, with Botswana leading the world with a BPI score of 1.31, outscoring Hong Kong (1.22), Taiwan (1.20), Singapore ...
The 2014 Rule of Law Index (RLI) measures the level of adherence to national laws in 99 countries based on 9 sub-indices (scores from 0 to 1, 1=High). One sub-index measures the level of government transparency and accessibility, and Ghana (0.5) outperforms Italy (0.49) as well as Russia (0.43) and ...
The Legatum Prosperity Index (LPI) 2014 assess levels of prosperity in 142 countries by combining 8 core sub-indices including safety and security, personal freedom, governance and economy (standardized scores from -5=Low to 5=High). Six of the 10 most improved countries on the LPI (2013 to 2014) are in Sub-Saharan Africa ...
The Economist’s 2014 Global Microscope Index and Report (GMI) assesses the regulatory environment for financial inclusion in 55 emerging economies across 12 indicators (scored out of 100, 100=best). Six of the top 20 economies on the GMI are from Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) and include Tanzania, Kenya and Rwanda - outperforming ...
On a scale of 1 (low) to 5 (high), the Private Sector in Rwanda (1.7) and Kenya (2.7) is perceived as less corrupt than Denmark (3.0), Switzerland (3.1) and Finland (3.3) – this is according to the Global Corruption Barometer (GCB) 2013. Similarly, the Judiciary in Rwanda (2.0) outscores Switzerland ...
The United Nations E-Government Development Index (EGDI) quantifies the level of ICT usage (on a scale of 0 to 1) by governments in 193 countries when providing public services. Led by Tunisia, Africa’s top 6 countries on the EGDI (in descending order) include Mauritius, Egypt, Seychelles, Morocco and South Africa ...
The Global Gender Gap Index (GGGI) quantifies gender-based equality in health, education, economy and politics in 142 countries. In her debut appearance on the GGGI (2014), Rwanda has emerged the 7th most gender balanced country in the world and the best in Africa. Overall, 13 African countries including Mozambique and Kenya have ...
According to the 2014 Ibrahim Index of African Governance (IIAG), Mauritius, Rwanda and South Africa have Africa’s 3 best business environments - scoring 90, 79 and 78 out of 100 points respectively. Between 2009 and 2013, Rwanda’s business environment score rose by 14 points, making Rwanda the country with the ...
The mobile ecosystem’s economic contribution (% of GDP) is highest in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), contributing 6% of GDP (2012) and poised to reach 8% by 2020 – this is in comparison to 4% and 1.4% of GDP in Latin America and Asia Pacific (2012). SSA accounted for 37% (3.3M people, ...
Africa’s infrastructure development is gaining momentum following strong support and commitment from African governments and pan-African organizations including the African Development Bank. According to KPMG, Africa’s top 6 infrastructure projects are among the world’s top 100, based on their level of innovation and sustainability, among other criteria. Among the 6 ...
Stock markets are a key measure for raising capital to enable growth of African business. From just 5 stock exchanges in 1989, there are now 28 stock exchanges in Africa with an estimated total market capitalization of over US$732 billion representing a 300% jump from US$245 billion in 2002 and ...
In recent years, intra-African trade has been on the increase. In the period between 2005 and 2012, intra-African trade (excluding informal cross border trade) increased from US$62 billion to US$147 billion - an increase of more than 100% that accounted for 12% of overall African trade. In terms of global ...
As of the first quarter of 2014, there were 6.8 billion mobile subscribers in the world, a figure that is expected to grow to 9.2 billion by the end of 2019. Today, Africa has 12% (835 million) of the total mobile subscriptions worldwide, making it the third largest region worldwide, ...
Ernst & Young says Africa’s perceived attractiveness as an investment destination has improved greatly over the past decade, moving from the third-from-last position in 2011 to the second-most attractive investment destination in the world in 2014 – second only to North America. The 2013 total Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) into ...
The African consumer market has grown by $568 billion between 2000 and 2010 and is expected to grow a further $410 billion to hit the $1.4 trillion mark by 2020. These consumption figures are further supported by the 2012 household final expenditure figures (% of GDP) where several African countries ...
There are 4.5 billion people at the base of the economic pyramid (BOP) in 92 developing countries and emerging markets and they form a significant market for consumer goods including health products worth $5 trillion (measured in 2005 purchasing power parity (PPP) dollars). Health products and services alone account for ...
Travel and Tourism (T&T) is an increasingly important industry for Africa. In the 2000-2012 period, the number of international tourists into Africa increased by over 140% to reach 64 million, and with it came an increase in revenue of over 300% bringing in US$44 billion into Africa. In 2012, Africa ...
The World Bank classifies a country as middle income if it has per capita gross national income (GNI) between US$906 and US$11,115. By the end of 2013, almost 50% of the 48 countries in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) had attained middle-income status, up from 27% in 2006 and with additional 10 ...
The International Telecommunication Union (ITU) projects that 55% of the world's 2.3 billion mobile-broadband subscriptions will be in the developing world by the end of 2014. Double-digit mobile-broadband subscription growth rates have been observed in all regions across the globe but Africa stands out with a projected 43% growth rate ...
As of June 2013, 98 million (48%) of the 203 million registered mobile money accounts globally were in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) - East Africa holding the lion's share of SSA’s total and accounting for 34% of the global total. In addition, 9 African countries including Kenya, Tanzania and Cameroon have ...
UNESCO’s Education For All Global Monitoring Report (2013/14) measures governmental financial commitment to education by assessing governments’ budgetary expenditure allocations towards education. Sub-Saharan Africa’s (SSA) expenditure on education, at 18.7% of total government expenditure, is the highest globally. This highlights SSA’s strong commitment to improving education standards and quality. Read ...
Economic Freedom (EF) measures the degree to which citizens are able to control their own labor and property. The Heritage Foundation in partnership with the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) scores EF as an index from 0 to 100 by analyzing commitment to the rule of law, principles of limited government, ...
Africa’s proven oil reserves have grown from 57 billion barrels in 1980 to 124 billion barrels in 2012 with an additional 100 billion barrels estimated to be offshore. Four of the top 20 countries with the most proven oil reserves are African, namely Libya, Nigeria, Algeria and Angola and together ...
Africa continues to be regarded as the next frontier for Private Equity (PE) investments. There were 84 PE deals in 2013, rising 52% from 54 deals in 2012. In money terms, 2013 saw US$3.7 billion of PE investments throughout Sub-Saharan Africa, more than triple the US$1.13 billion invested in 2012. ...
