West Africa
Nigeria
According to the World Bank, the Nigerian economy is projected to grow by 2.8% in 2023, down from 3.3% projected in 2022. This forecast was supported by expected growth in services, trade, construction, manufacturing, and agriculture. Economic growth is expected to accelerate slightly to an average annual rate of 3% in 2024/25.
Liberia
President George Manneh Weah has signed into law the national budget for the fiscal year 2023 to the tune of US$782,943,000, a US$5 million increase to the version submitted by the Executive.
Senegal
The World Bank has granted Senegal USD150 million in financing to accelerate the country’s digital transformation. The funds will notably be used to improve the legal, regulatory and institutional environment for the digital economy; improve the adoption of digital public services through improved literacy and digital skills; increase access to digital health solutions (electronic medical records, telemedicine, immunisation management applications) to enhance service delivery; and develop a resilient broadband infrastructure with a focus on the national fibre-optic backbone and last mile connectivity in the Casamance and the Groundnut Basin areas.
Ghana
The International Monetary Fund lowered Ghana’s 2023 economic growth rate forecast to 1.6% from its earlier projection of 2.8%. This comes after the World Bank cut the country’s economic growth rate forecast to below 2.0%. The revised growth is due to the weakness of economic activities in Ghana amid global shocks and heightened macroeconomic instability.
Headline inflation decelerated to 45.0% y-o-y in March from 52.8% y-o-y in February. Details from the inflation report showed that food inflation slowed to 50.8% y-o-y in March from 59.1% y-o-y in February, while non-food price growth slowed to 40.6% y-o-y from 47.9% y-o-y.
East and Southern Africa
Kenya
Data from the Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) showed that diaspora remittances increased to KSh 48.1 billion in March 2023. This represents a 15.5% growth from KSh 41.7 billion reported in the previous month. “The cumulative inflows for the 12 months to March 2023 totalled $4,020 million (KSh 541.7 billion) compared to $3,912 million (KSh 527.1 billion) during the same period in 2022.
Tanzania
Tanzania’s consumer prices rose 4.7% year on year in Mar-2023 versus +4.8% year on year in Feb-2023, according to the National Bureau of Statistics Tanzania.
Zambia
The IMF has reached a staff-level agreement with Zambian authorities on the first review of the nation’s economic program under an Extended Credit Facility for a total of $1.3bn. Zambia will have access to $188.0mn in financing once the IMF management approves the review.
Mozambique
Headline inflation in Mozambique accelerated to 10.8% year-on-year (y-o-y) in March from 10.3% year-on-year in February. An advance in food and beverage prices underpinned the acceleration in inflation. While headline inflation in the country quickened in March, Mozambique continues to run the highest real interest rate in Southern Africa. This is a function of the aggressive post-pandemic tightening by the Bank of Mozambique. Mozambique has hiked rates by a cumulative 700 basis points (bp) since the end of 2020, as a way of containing inflation and inflation expectations.
Central Africa
Cameroon
According to a document released by the national stats agency Cameroon’s trade deficit went down from CFA344.3bn (5.9% of GDP) in Q3 2021 to CFA307.0bn (5.4% of GDP) in Q3 2022.
Extracts from the document also revealed that the slight reduction is the result of an increase of 1.2% in the volume of exports coupled with a decline of 0.5% in that of imports (which was mainly driven by a lower import of services of 4.9%, which offset the slight increase in the import of goods (+0.4%)).
S&P Global Ratings affirmed Cameroon’s Local and Foreign Currency LT credit rating at “B-“. The rating agency also announced that the country’s outlook is stable.
Cameroon’s economy minister Alamine Ousmane Mey said his country has started talks with Washington for admission back into Africa Growth and Opportunities Act (AGOA), which grants African countries tariff-free access to the U.S. market. In 2019, the US kicked Cameroon out of the AGOA program for rights violations by security forces in the restive southwest and northwest regions.
Read Also: Business Trends, Industry Insights & Policy Changes – Vol 9
