Maina wa Njuguna
The true or more accurate economic conditions or prosperity of a country is better assessed through GDP PER CAPITA.
The higher the GDP PER CAPITA, the more affluent the market is. It also denotes a better distribution of resources within the country.
GDP PER CAPITA – summation of total value of goods and services produced in a particular year for a particular country divided by the population of that year.
The most affluent or prosperous countries in Africa are as follows –
(1) Seychelles 🇸🇨: $19,470.00 – fishing and tourism – classified as an upper-middle income country.
Seychelles Factoids:
• Its one of the world’s smallest countries. It is a multilingual country with three official languages—English, French, and Creole
• Seychelles is an archipelago (115 chain of islands) located 1,000 miles off the coast of East Africa in the Indian Ocean.
• Its a host to the world’s largest & heaviest seed – coco de mer palms which weighs between 30 and 55 pounds.
• The island’s average temperature ranges from 76°F to 88°F – all year round.
• It is one of the world’s few matriarchal societies. Mothers are the dominant figures in Seychellois.
• The island chain boasts breathtaking landscapes and some of the rarest plant and animal species in the world.
• Home to the largest and free roaming tortoise. Esmeralda is the largest Aldabra tortoise on record, is estimated to be 175 years old and weighs 672 lbs.
• It was at one time a pirates ☠️ hideout in the 1500s. Le Buse’s treasure valued today at USD 1.4 billion is believed to be buried somewhere on the island. There are a few people dedicated to finding the treasures to this day.
(2) Equatorial Guinea 🇬🇶: $11,500.00 – oil revenues – exports timber, natural gas, cocoa and fish – Spain is the main export partner accounting for 15%.
(3) Gabon 🇬🇦: 10,150.00 – large foreign investments – most forested country in the world (88% of all land) – petroleum and minerals – manganese.
(4) Mauritius 🇲🇺: $10,120.00 – agriculture – exports: clothing and sugar – financial services: banking, capital markets – tourism.
(5) Botswana 🇧🇼: $7,260.00 – second largest diamond producer – large coal, copper, and uranium deposits – fiscal stewardship – tourism.
(6) South Africa 🇿🇦 : $6,700.00 – diversified economy – agriculture, finance, private enterprises, manufacturing, mining, tourism, trade – world’s largest producer of platinum and chromium.
In nominal terms, South Africa is Africa’s largest economy with an estimated GDP of nearly $400 billion.
South Africa major export partners for 2020 are China with a share of 11.4% ($9.7 billion total exports), the USA with a share of 8.3% ($7.1 billion total exports), Germany with a share of 8.2% ($7 billion total exports), the UK with a share of 4.9% ($4.2 billion total exports), Japan with a share of 4.4% ($3.8 billion total exports).
Image source: /Export Genius/
(7) Libya 🇱🇾: $6,500.00 – oil revenues – petroleum sector, which represents over 95% of export earnings and 60% of GDP.
(8) Namibia 🇳🇦: 4,750.00 – export driven economy- agriculture, mining, fishing, and tourism.
(9) Egypt 🇪🇬: – agriculture, petroleum imports, natural gas, and tourism – 60% of Egyptians live near or under the poverty line – the country is heavily indebted – USD 52 billion to multilateral institutions and some western countries.
Egypt is the third largest economy in Africa in nominal terms with a GDP of $358 billion dollars.
