Top 5 African countries with the most booming financial markets
Africa is home to one of the most diverse and expansive financial markets on the globe.
The continent boasts varying fiscal and economic realities and as such, offers financial securities that differ based on sub-regions.
With regard to Africa's status as a developing economy, the continent is often touted as a destination for capital investment.
This, in addition to its rapid tech adoption, a vast array of minerals, and a young demographic, ensures that almost every and any industry you can imagine would thrive in the continent, thereby generating stocks, bonds, and raw materials necessary to prop a booming economy.
However, how a country’s financial market is performing is largely dependent on some factors including measures of market accessibility openness, and transparency. With these metrics, the Absa Group Limited, formerly the Amalgamated Banks of South Africa until 2005, and Barclays Africa Group Limited, evaluated the African countries with the most thriving financial markets.
The group aims to show how economies can reduce barriers to investment and boost sustainable growth with the study titled the Absa Africa Financial Markets.
With assistance from the United Nations Economic Commission, 28 nations are now included in this year's report for Africa, including Cabo Verde and Tunisia.
To measure the performance of Africa’s financial market, Absa took into consideration 6 economic pillars including market depth, access to foreign exchange, market transparency tax and regulatory environment, the capacity of local investors, macroeconomic environment, and transparency and legal standards and enforceability.
Scores for each pillar are determined by the relative performance of each country for each indicator, which is then rebased to create a uniform scale. Overall results are calculated as an average of the scores from each pillar.
With that said, below are the top 10 African countries with the most booming financial markets.
| Rank | Country | 2023 Index | 2022 Index |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | South Africa | 88 | 89 |
| 2. | Mauritius | 77 | 77 |
| 3. | Nigeria | 67 | 68 |
| 4. | Uganda | 63 | 64 |
| 5. | Namibia | 63 | 63 |
