TOP TEN RICHEST COUNTRY IN AFRICAN 2023

Using gross domestic product (GDP) to measure the wealth of African countries While there are several ways to compare various nations' wealth, one of the best methods is to evaluate each country's gross domestic product, or GDP. This is the value of all the goods and services produced by a nation in a given year. GDP is typically expressed in one of two ways. The first is in current US dollars (USD or US$). The second method is slightly more complex, but designed to make country-to-country comparisons more precise. In the second method, GDP is first adjusted for Purchasing Power Parity (PPP), which modifies each country's GDP in relation to its local cost of living, then expressed in a fictional currency called international dollars (INT). Results and rankings may differ depending upon which of the two methods is used. Top 10 Richest African Countries by Overall GDP (current US$ - World Bank)*: Nigeria — $440,834 million South Africa — $419,015 million Egypt — $404,143 million Algeria — 163,044 million Morocco — $142,866 million Ethiopia — $111,271 million Kenya — $110,347 million Ghana — $77,594 million Ivory Coast — $70,043 million Tanzania — $67,404 million Ranked by GDP in current USD, Nigeria comes out as the richest country in Africa during the year 2021. Nigeria is the most populous country in Africa, with 211 million residents—nearly twice the population of Egypt—contributing to its GDP. Nigeria is a lower-middle-income, mixed economy focused upon petroleum and (to a lesser extent) agriculture. It is also an emerging market with growing financial, service, communications, and technology sectors. Shortcomings of GDP and strengths of GDP per capita and GNI per capita Although GDP is an extremely valuable metric, it is also quite broad. For example, it disregards the number of citizens contributing to a country's GDP, which means a country with a vast, but less effective workforce can post a higher GDP than a country with a smaller, but more efficient workforce. GDP can also be distorted by the financial sector in tax haven countries (though this is a much greater concern in Europe than in Africa). To overcome these shortcomings, economists often turn to GDP per capita, which divides gross domestic product by the number of people in the country, and to gross national income (GNI) per capita, which does the same and is less impacted by tax haven activity. Richest African Countries by GDP per Capita (current US$ - World Bank)*: Seychelles — $14,653.3 Mauritius — $9,106.2 Gabon — $8,635.3 Equatorial Guinea — $7,506.7 South Africa — $7,055.0 Botswana — $6,805.2 Libya — $6,357.2 Namibia — $4,856.6 Eswatini — $3,978.4 Tunisia — $3,807.1 Switching the measurement to GDP per capita has a significant impact on the list of Africa's richest countries. Seychelles is the richest country when using this metric. The Seychelles economy is primarily driven by fishing, tourism, boat building, processing coconuts and vanilla, and agriculture, especially cinnamon, sweet potatoes, tuna, and bananas. Its public sector contributes the most employment and gross revenue, employing two-thirds of the total labor force. Although Egypt has the highest total GDP of any African country, it ranks only eighth in terms of GDP per capita. What's more, Nigeria doesn't even make the new list—in fact, it's in 22nd place. Gross national income (GNI) per capita of African economies A final metric often used by economists to compare the wealth of different countries is gross national income, or GNI. While GDP measures the value of the goods and services a country creates, GNI measures the total income obtained through those goods and services. This makes GNI a bit better at avoiding the artificially inflated totals that can distort the GDPs of countries that are known international tax shelters. Richest African Countries by GNI per Capita (Atlas method, current US$ — World Bank)*: Seychelles — $14,540 Mauritius — $9,920 Libya — $8,700 South Africa — $6,530 Gabon — $6,440 Botswana — $6,430 Equatorial Guinea — $5,150 Namibia — $4,650 Algeria — $3,660 Eswatini — $3,650 Once again, Seychelles ranks first, with Mauritius close behind and countries including Botswana, Libya, Equatorial Guinea, and Gabon slotting in underneath. However, Egypt, which had the highest overall GDP in all of Africa, has fallen completely out of the top 10 (it was actually 13th in 2021). How do Africa's richest countries compare to the richest countries on other continents? Viewed on a global scale, even Africa's richest nations pale in comparison to those on most other continents. The average GNI per capita in North America was $68,599 USD in 2021, and the European Union's average GNI per capita was $37,779. However, Seychelles is ahead of the 2021 global average of $12,023 USD, and several other African countries have the potential to meet and exceed that goal as well.