As of 2022, only seven African countries met the WHO's recommended doctor-to-population ratio of 10 doctors per 10,000 people.
Cape Verde, Seychelles, Libya, Eswatini, Tunisia, Mauritius, and Algeria are leading the way in healthcare accessibility in Africa. However, the continent still averages only 2.6 doctors per 10,000 people.
In 2023, South Africa led Africa's exports with a value of $110.7 billion, nearly double Nigeria's $60.7 billion. Key exports include gems, vehicles, and mineral fuels.
The top 15 African exporters contribute 84% to the continent's trade, with South Africa, Nigeria, Algeria, Morocco, and Egypt leading with a combined 52%.
South Africa and Egypt generated 239 terawatt-hours (TWh) and 201 TWh of electricity, respectively, in 2022, accounting for a combined 50% of Africa's 881 TWh. These countries, along with Algeria, Morocco, and Nigeria, accounted for 68% of the continent's total.
Despite being one of Africa's largest economies and having the continent's largest population, Nigeria's electricity generation has historically been lower than its potential.
In 2022, Egypt, South Africa, Nigeria, Algeria, and Morocco collectively consumed an average of 2.712 million barrels of oil per day (Mb/d), 61% of the continent's daily oil consumption (4.478 Mb/d). African countries consumed 4.7% of the global usage (99.8 Mb/d).
Egypt used the most (850.5 thousand barrels per day (Kb/d)), followed by South Africa (601.2 Kb/d) and Nigeria (514.5 Kb/d).
A country with strong infrastructure, affordable services, and high digital literacy, enabling everyone to use fast and reliable mobile internet will have a perfect score (100) on the GSMA's Mobile Connectivity Index 2023. South Africa leads in Africa with 69.53.
Globally, Singapore is first, with a score of 93.7, setting the benchmark for mobile internet adoption. Only four African countries — South Africa, Mauritius, Seychelles, and Egypt — surpassed the global average score.
Tunisia, Ghana, and Nigeria scored below the global average.
The Mobile Connectivity Index analysed measured 173 countries' mobile internet adoption from 2014-2023, normalising indicators to a 0-100 scale for consistency. The factors assessed include infrastructure, affordability, digital literacy, and policy frameworks.
Argentina, Egypt, and Ukraine were the IMF’s top three debtors as of June 26, 2024, accounting for $51 billion (46%) of the total debt. Egypt, Angola, and Kenya occupy the top three spots in Africa on the IMF’s debtors’ list.
As of December 2023, Kenya's public debt stood at Ksh11.14 trillion (approximately $76.8 billion). By June 2024, its debt to the IMF had increased by 245% from $744 million in August 2020.
This increase has coincided with protests in Kenya, where citizens opposed a proposed finance bill aiming to raise additional taxes to reduce the budget deficit and state borrowing.
Surfshark's data reveals that 17.2b online accounts have been compromised globally since 2004, with African countries accounting for 250.7m (1.45%).
South Sudan has the highest number of breached online accounts in Africa, with over 89 million compromised accounts.
South Africa and Egypt follow with 0.2% and 0.13% of the global figure, respectively. Nigeria ranks fourth with 19.3 million breaches.
Although Africa's share of global breaches is relatively low, the potential harm is significant. Recently, unauthorised websites reportedly sold Nigerians' data, including NIN, BVN, and driver's licenses, for as little as ₦100.
These breaches pose serious privacy, financial security, and national safety risks, calling our attention to the urgent need for robust data protection measures.
In 2022, the US hosted a diverse African immigrant community, totaling over 2.75 million. Nigerians make up the largest group at 448,405 (16.3%), followed by Ethiopians (10.6%), Egyptians (8.3%), and Ghanaians (7.8%).
Nigerian academic IELTS test takers scored an average of 6.7 out of 9 in 2022, placing the country joint 5th globally with Ghana, Hong Kong, and Indonesia. Spanish academic IELTS test takers topped the list with an overall score of 7.1.
Newzoo, a provider of video game and gamer data, reported that in 2023, Nigerian mobile gamers spent approximately $229.7m — the highest expenditure in Africa — boasting a sizable 14.7m spenders.
Egypt's gamers spent an estimated $212.6m and occupied second place in Africa's mobile gaming expenditure ranking.
