Togo leads on both sides of trade, supplying ₦211.99B in imports and receiving ₦811.97B in exports, making it Nigeria’s strongest African partner by value.
South Africa ranks second, with imports of ₦115.15B and exports of ₦473.65B, reflecting deep bilateral trade ties.
Côte d’Ivoire also features prominently, sending ₦106.15B worth of goods to Nigeria while importing ₦408.97B, showing balanced engagement.
West Africa dominates Nigeria’s intra-African trade, with Togo, Côte d’Ivoire, and Ghana collectively accounting for a significant share of regional exports.
Nigeria ranked first in Africa, with 880 H-1B visas issued in FY 2024, far ahead of Ghana (499) and Egypt (364).
East and Southern Africa featured prominently, with Kenya (320), South Africa (208), and Zimbabwe (132) among the top 10.
North African representation was modest, with Morocco (78) and Egypt (364) being the only countries in the region on the list.
Despite these numbers, Africa’s collective total is marginal globally, especially compared to India’s ~150,000 issuances and China’s large volumes.
President Donald Trump’s $100,000 fee for new U.S. H-1B skilled worker visas will have limited impact on Africa, which has historically received only a small fraction of these visas.
South Africa is the clear leader, recording a bond market volume of $328.8 billion and 2,952 issuances, far ahead of all other African economies.
Egypt and Morocco follow as strong contenders with bond volumes of $188.8 billion and $116.4 billion, respectively, though both trail South Africa by wide margins.
Côte d’Ivoire, Algeria, and Nigeria represent the mid-tier, each exceeding $65 billion, showing notable regional financial activity.
Smaller markets like Tunisia and Angola feature relatively lower volumes ($16.9 billion and $28.4 billion) but maintain significant issuance activity.
From 1970 through the early 2000s, Egypt’s debt interest payments hovered mostly under $1.5 billion, with fluctuations tied to global oil shocks and debt rescheduling.
Payments remained relatively moderate, ranging between $0.7–$1.0 billion annually.
Following Egypt’s 2016 IMF programme and rising external borrowing, payments jumped dramatically, climbing from $1.53 billion in 2016 to $6.13 billion in 2022.
Interest payments hit an all-time high of $9.47 billion in 2023, underscoring the heavy burden of Egypt’s rapid debt accumulation and exposure to global financing costs.
Mauritius is the fastest-growing hub with a 63% surge in millionaires, highlighting its rising financial services sector and favourable investment climate.
Rwanda (+48%) and Morocco (+40%) also show strong upward trends, driven by economic diversification and political stability.
Nigeria (-47%), Angola (-36%), and Algeria (-23%) recorded the steepest declines, reflecting oil dependence, currency challenges, and political instability.
Africa overall saw a -5% dip, showing that while select countries are thriving, the continent’s wealth distribution has shifted unevenly.
Egypt and South Africa dominate Africa’s space presence, with 14 and 13 satellites respectively, accounting for nearly one-third of the continent’s total.
Nigeria (7), Algeria (6), and Morocco (5) form the next tier, highlighting North and West Africa as emerging hubs in satellite development.
The majority of other African countries with satellites, including Rwanda, Ethiopia, Zimbabwe, Djibouti and Angola, have two satellites each.
Out of 54 African nations, only 18 have any satellites in orbit, underscoring the vast disparity in space investment and technological capacity across the continent.
