Global Competitiveness Report 2018: African economies rank low – Read the full document here!

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Global Competitiveness Report 2018: African economies rank low – Read the full document here!

8:37 CAT | 25 Oct 2018

Adding up the numbers. File photo: Reuters

African economies will require significant work to compete at on global scale.

In the latest Global Competitiveness Index—a report compiled by the World Economic Forum—African countries make up 17 of the bottom 20 nations. While the global median score is 60, the median in sub Saharan Africa (45.2) is the lowest for all the regions analyzed. The annual index ranks countries based on 12 pillars based broadly on these factors: an enabling environment, markets, human capital and an innovation ecosystem. Each of the 140 countries are ranked based on their scores out of 100.

Mauritius and South Africa are among the few bright spots with both being the only two African nations in the top half of the index. Mauritius’ top ranking is hinged on scoring high on pillars, especially strong institutions. Its 62.9 score on institutions is particularly considered a “considerable competitive advantage” in sub Saharan Africa as 65% of economies in the region score below 50.

Top ten ranked African countries	Rank	Score
Mauritius	49	63.7
South Africa	67	60.8
Seychelles	74	58.5
Morocco	75	55.6
Tunisia	87	54.5
Botswana	90	55.6
Algeria	92	54.5
Kenya	93	53.8
Egypt	94	53.8
Namibia	100	52.7

Across the board, sub Saharan Africa posts the weakest average regional performance on 10 out of the 12 pillars analysed, including information communications technology adoption and the human capital pillars of health and skills.

By Yomi Kazeem