Between 2018 and 2021, adult literacy rates across African nations exhibited significant disparities. Seychelles and South Africa led with literacy rates of 96% and 95%, respectively, indicating a high proportion of literate adults. Conversely, Chad had the lowest literacy rate during this period.
These statistics underscore the uneven progress in educational attainment across Africa, highlighting the need for targeted interventions to improve literacy in lower-performing nations.
The Global Innovation Index 2024 reveals a striking contrast in innovation performance between countries globally and across Africa. Switzerland leads the global rankings with an impressive score of 67.5, followed by Sweden (64.5) and the USA (62.4), highlighting their sustained investments in research, development, and technological advancement.
In Africa, Mauritius takes the top spot with a score of 30.5, followed closely by Morocco (28.8) and South Africa (28.3). However, even Africa's most innovative nations achieve less than half the score of global leaders, indicating a significant innovation gap.
Nigeria ranks 15th in the African ranking and 113th globally, out of 133 countries, with a score of 17.1.
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.
The 2024 Global Peace Index reveals a decline in peacefulness in 97 countries, the highest since the index began.
Nigeria is among the nations affected by regional conflicts and rising violence. With a peace index score of 2.91, Nigeria is facing increasing challenges.
A deteriorating peace score impacts foreign investment and economic stability. Global economic losses due to violence reached $19.1 trillion in 2023.
Nigeria occupies the 30th spot globally in the English Proficiency Index, achieving a score of 557, just behind Kenya (581) and South Africa (594). As one of Africa's linguistic leaders, this ranking highlights Nigeria’s strength in English proficiency, a vital skill driving communication, business, and education across the continent.
This data comes from the EF English Proficiency Index, which aggregated the test results of 2.2m adults from 113 countries and regions. Countries where English is the primary native spoken language are not included in this ranking. Ranks are determined by each country’s average score in the EF Standard English Test (EF SET).
Over the years, many African countries, including Nigeria, have experienced economic turbulence caused by fluctuating global markets and domestic challenges. However, amidst these challenges, there’s hope as IMF economic forecasts point toward growth.
According to the IMF, GDP per capita in Nigeria and Africa is projected to increase from 2025 after years of stagnation and decline. Nigeria’s GDP per capita fell sharply from $2,197 in 2022 to $877 in 2024. Encouragingly, growth is expected with projections of $1,047 for Nigeria by 2029, signaling a slow but steady improvement in living standards.
In 2022, the top 50 terrorist attacks claimed 2,088 lives across 11 countries, with African nations significantly affected. Seven of these nations are African, and together they account for over half of the fatalities. Mali alone recorded 421 deaths, Burkina Faso recorded 317 deaths, while Nigeria and Somalia saw 212 and 200 lives lost, respectively.
Nearly half (46%) of Nigerian households struggle with electricity access, with the Northern region facing the most significant challenges. The three Northern geopolitical zones have access rates below the national average, whereas South East Nigeria has the highest access, with only 25.4% of households lacking electricity.
The average number of bribes paid per person in Nigeria marginally reduced from 5.4 to 5.1. However, this decrease had no impact in the North East, where bribe-payers nearly doubled the amount paid in 2019, increasing from 4.5 to 8.4. In contrast, other regions recorded slight declines in bribes paid.
On this International Day for the Abolition of Slavery, it’s important to face the harsh realities of modern slavery worldwide. As of 2022, 22 million people globally were forced into marriages, and 27.6 million were subjected to forced labour. Africa alone accounted for 3.8 million in forced labour and 3.2 million in forced marriages, making up a significant number of this global issue.
Africa’s numbers were lower than Asia & the Pacific’s, with a total of 29.3m modern slaves. In Africa, people face daily struggles in exploitative labour conditions, from children forced to work on farms to women coerced into early or abusive marriages. These realities explain the broader statistics and call for efforts to address modern slavery in all its forms.
While several African nations have state-controlled telcos, some private operators have extended their presence across the continent. Notably, none operates in all countries on the continent.
MTN Group and Orange are present in 17 countries, with MTN having a stronger presence in Southern Africa than Orange. Francophone West Africa and North Africa are Orange's primary markets.
Many African countries can't grow apples naturally due to unfavourable climate and the required chilling hours.
Despite this, Africa's share of global apple output has grown from 0.66% (1962) to nearly 4% in 2022, averaging 2.3% over 60+ years. South Africa has been the biggest contributor, but Egypt, Morocco, and Algeria also play key roles, with the top four countries making up 96% of Africa's total production in 2022.
Since 1961, South Africa has led Africa in apple production, consistently topping the charts.
In 1961, China produced just 167,000 tonnes of apples, accounting for a mere 1% of global production.
Over the next six decades, this figure surged by 28,300%, reaching 47.5 million tonnes by 2022 and capturing 50% of global production — growing at an average rate of around 7.5% per year.
China's rise began with agricultural reforms in the late 1970s and gained momentum in the 1980s and 1990s.
These are the top ten apple-producing countries over the years.
Nigeria’s GDP for 2024 is up by 3.2% so far, with key sectors driving the growth. In the first nine months of 2024, Finance and Insurance took the lead with a 30.3% increase, followed by Water Supply & Waste Management at 8.3%, and Mining and Quarrying with 5.7% growth.
These are the sectors leading Nigeria’s real GDP growth.
