Nigeria, Africa’s biggest economy, ranked 79th out of 193 countries in terms of soft power, according to a 2024 Global Soft Power report by Brand Finance, an international brand evaluation and strategy consultancy.
Brand Finance defines soft power as a nation’s ability to influence the preferences and behaviours of various actors in the international arena (states, corporations, communities, public, etc.) through attraction or persuasion rather than coercion.
The index takes into account a wide range of indicators, that are grouped into four categories (familiarity, influence, reputation, and perceptions). The company surveyed 170,000 respondents in around 100 countries to compile the index.
Nigeria moved up by 14 places from 93rd in the previous index. It scored high on familiarity, reputation, and influence metrics, which are major determinants of how a country is perceived.
According to the report, familiarity is the measure of how much a particular country is known elsewhere, with greater familiarity strengthening that country’s soft power.
Influence assesses the extent to which the country in question exerts influence in the respondent’s country and also the wider international arena. Reputation focuses on whether or not a country has a positive global image.
“Large regional powers India, Brazil, and South Africa struggling to fulfill their Soft Power potential all three have relatively high familiarity and influence, especially in their home regions, but lower reputation; often score high on culture and heritage but low on key metrics such as business and trade,” the Index report said.
“All are seeing their scores increase this year again, but not fast enough to rise in the ranking: world’s most populous nation India slips down to 29th, highest ranked Latin American nation brand Brazil stagnates in 31st,” it added.
Authors of the report noted that Sub-Saharan Africa’s ranking leader, South Africa dropped to an all-time low of 43rd.
“Perhaps more conscious efforts to grow soft power are needed – stronger economic credentials would help but a more focused investment in other areas like international relations and culture and heritage can also bring positive effects as in the case of Turkey,” the report said.
Of the 193 countries included in the index, the top three were the U.S.A., the U.K. and China.
“China’s significant edge on key driver attributes across business, trade, education, and science in general and a score improvement in both areas this year in particular, coupled with a marked rank improvement in all other pillars this year have allowed China to overtake both Japan and Germany in the GSPI 2024 ranking.”
