Africa > West Africa > Economy

Economy in West Africa

  • Nigeria has been one of the hardest-hit economies due to its over-dependence on oil

    NIGERIA, 2017/09/09 Since the world oil price crash in 2014, Nigeria has been one of the hardest-hit economies due to its over-dependence on oil as its major source of revenue. China’s economic slowdown, inclunding the United States’ rate hike, as well affected its economy adversely. As a result, Nigeria’s economic increase declined drastically, with its currency falling to an all-time low. In order to save the economy from a complete collapse, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) put stringent monetary policies in place, which saw investors pulling out of the country.
  • Nigeria and South Africa emerge from recession

    SOUTH AFRICA, 2017/09/09 Two of the major economies in Africa are growing again next recessions. Nigeria‘s GDP expanded by 0.55% in the second quarter of 2017 year-on-year, according to the National Bureau of Statistics, ending five consecutive quarters of contraction. Quarter-on-quarter increase for the same period was 3.23%.
  • Africa’s economic growth in 2016 was driven by East Africa

    BOTSWANA, 2017/08/20 While the continent’s major economies were hit by the fall in commodity prices in 2016, Africa retained its position as the second-fastest growing continent globally recording an average of 2.2% GDP increase, behind only South Asia, according to the African Development Bank Group (AfDB). Much of Africa’s increase in 2016, AfDB says, was driven by East Africa where several nations recorded “strong performances.” In general, of the continent’s sub-regions, East Africa posted the highest increase rate with 5.3%, led by Ethiopia.
  • West Africa BCEAO central bank holds interest rates unchanged

    BENIN, 2017/07/19 West Africa's BCEAO central bank held its benchmark interest rate unchanged at 2.5 %, the bank's director of monetary analysis Antonin Sourou Dossou said in a statement on Wednesday.
  • Africa: G20 Should Build Digital Economy Friendly to Growth, Jobs - Xi

    CHINA, 2017/07/10 Chinese President Xi Jinping says the Group of 20 (G20) members should build a digital economy that is friendly to increase and employment. He made the remarks while attending the two-day G20 summit in the German port city of Hamburg. "We should actively adapt ourselves to digital evolution, foster new economic drives, advance structural reforms and promote integrated development of digital and real economy," said President Xi.
  • Global economic gravity rapidly pulling towards Africa

    BOTSWANA, 2017/06/20 The second International Conference on the Emergence of Africa (ICEA) was held in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire, in March 2017. Since the initial conference in 2015 — at a time of robust economic increase on the continent — hopes for economic evolution have dimmed because of a crash in the price of commodities, volatile world financial markets and a slowdown in world increase. Before departing New York to attend the second ICEA conference, jointly organised by the World Bank, the African Development Bank and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), Assistant Secretary-General of the UN and chief of UNDP’s Regional Bureau for Africa Abdoulaye Mar Dieye sat down for an interview with Africa Renewal’s Kingsley Ighobor to talk about Africa’s economic development opportunities and challenges.
  • Take responsibility for transforming your countries – Akufo-Addo

    BOTSWANA, 2017/06/15 President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has urged African leaders to assume responsibility for the transformation of their economies, and depart from the mindset of aid, dependency and charity. “If we, Africans, are to transform our stagnant, jobless economies, built on the export of raw materials and unrefined goods, to price-added economies that provide jobs, to build strong middle-class societies and lift the mass of our people out of dire poverty, again we must take our destinies into our own hands and assume responsibility for this,” he stated on Monday at the same time as addressing the G-20 Partnership for Africa Summit, currently taking place in Berlin, Germany.
  • Economic headwinds look set to revive African M&A

    EGYPT, 2017/05/07 Two-thousand and sixteen was relatively quiet for African banking markets on the merger and acquisition (M&A) front. In most of the continent’s larger economies, inclunding Nigeria and South Africa, major transaction announcements were absent despite the challenging economic conditions of recent times. Buy-ins to African banks from European and Middle Eastern players were as well low, according to data from Mergermarket. This contrasts sharply from 2015 at the same time as buyers from Norway, Kuwait and the UK all made significant acquisitions on the continent. These deals were complemented by several bold intra-regional transactions, inclunding Kenya’s Equity Group acquiring a stake in a microfinance provider in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Morocco’s Banque Centrale Populaire buying a position in BIA Niger.
  • Economic headwinds look set to revive African M&A

    EGYPT, 2017/05/07 Two-thousand and sixteen was relatively quiet for African banking markets on the merger and acquisition (M&A) front. In most of the continent’s larger economies, inclunding Nigeria and South Africa, major transaction announcements were absent despite the challenging economic conditions of recent times. Buy-ins to African banks from European and Middle Eastern players were as well low, according to data from Mergermarket. This contrasts sharply from 2015 at the same time as buyers from Norway, Kuwait and the UK all made significant acquisitions on the continent. These deals were complemented by several bold intra-regional transactions, inclunding Kenya’s Equity Group acquiring a stake in a microfinance provider in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Morocco’s Banque Centrale Populaire buying a position in BIA Niger.
  • Rise of middle class, fact or fiction

    BOTSWANA, 2017/04/26 White-walled tyres on his bike appear to elevate a trendy young man from the lower classes but the question is whether he is contributing towards sustainable economic increase. THE middle classes in the world south have gained growing attention since the turn of the century, mainly through their rapid ascendancy in the Asian emerging economies. A side result of the economic increase during these “fat years” was a relative increase of monetary gain for a growing number of households. This as well benefited some lower gain groups in resource-rich African economies. A lot of part these crossed the defined poverty levels, which were raised in late 2015 from $1.25 (R16) a person a day to $1.90. As some economists had suggested, from as little as $2 they were considered as entering the “middle class”.