Jeune Afrique ranks South Africa as top African performer
Share Article
Jeune Afrique ranks South Africa as top African performer
South Africa tops the ranking of the 20 best performing African countries.
Jeune Afrique has published a new list of its 20 best-performing countries in Africa.
To create the ranking, Jeune Afrique used a unique methodology combining three key dimensions: governance, innovation, and influence.
South Africa tops the ranking with a comfortable lead, driven by its industrial power, active diplomacy, high-quality infrastructure, innovation capacity, and internationally recognised education system.
The country ranks first in two of the three analysed dimensions: influence, particularly diplomatic, and innovation.
The top 10
Egypt and Morocco complete the top three. Beyond the leading trio, the vitality of the anglophone bloc is confirmed with Botswana (4th), Kenya (5th), Ethiopia (7th), Tanzania (8th), and Nigeria (9th). Mauritius ranks 6th.
Some countries, like Kenya and Ethiopia, benefit from the performance of flagship companies (such as Safaricom and Ethiopian Airlines), a booming digital ecosystem, and a strong geostrategic role.
Others, such as Mauritius and Botswana, capitalise on institutional stability and economic attractiveness.
Building resilient development trajectories
“This ranking highlights countries that, beyond short-term crises, are successfully building resilient development trajectories,” says Amir Ben Yahmed, CEO of Jeune Afrique Media Group.
“It’s not just about measuring a country’s wealth or size, but its ability to achieve sustainable performance across all dimensions.”
On the Francophone side, the ranking surprises by the low representation of several economically significant countries, such as Algeria, which only ranks 19th, and Mauritania, which does not appear in the top 20.
Rankings in Francophone countries
After Mauritius, Côte d’Ivoire (10th), Tunisia (12th), and Senegal (13th) achieve the highest scores among francophone countries. While these nations show strong performance in governance and innovation, their international influence still needs to be strengthened.
The ranking also gives prominence to island nations and low-population countries such as Namibia (15th), Cape Verde (16th), and Seychelles (17th).
These relatively stable, democratic, and well-governed states leverage their image, diplomacy, and roles as tourism and financial hubs to maximise their influence.
Deploying a broader methodology
Departing from traditional GDP-centric approaches, Jeune Afrique’s ranking offers a renewed analytical framework of the continent by deploying a broader methodology.
This approach is structured around 25 indicators, grouped into three dimensions, each scored out of 100: Governance (50% of the overall score) includes indicators such as GDP per capita growth, foreign direct investment, effectiveness of public policies, rule of law, and corruption perception. Influence (25% of the overall score) includes indicators such as diplomatic presence, cultural and sporting influence, and strategic weight in international organisations. Innovation (25% of the overall score) includes indicators such as educational performance, number of patents filed, capital raised by local startups, and university reputation.
Image credit: Markus Spiske from Unsplash.
Jeune Afrique ranks South Africa as top African performer
