Rand Merchant Bank, a corporate and investment bank in Africa, ranked Nigeria as the 9th most viable country to invest in Africa, in its recent report titled “Where to Invest in Africa 2024”.
Although the bank classified Nigeria as one of the ‘Highflyer’ countries with higher scores on the overall RMB ranking model owing to its large population, the country still scores poorly in terms of market accessibility and innovation.
“Being one of the largest economies on the continent and having the largest population gets Nigeria to an overall ranking of ninth,” the report stated.
The bank ranked 31 African countries based on four pillars and 20 metrics, including social and human development, economic stability and investment climate, market accessibility and innovation, and economic performance and potential.
Nigeria ranked 2nd in economic performance and potential, and 15th in social and human development, classified as excellent and satisfactory respectively.
However, it ranked 21st in economic stability and investment climate and 29th in market accessibility and innovation, both classified as less satisfactory.
“Nigeria’s political stability repeats the nation’s complexity ranking of 29th on the model. This expansive nation of many languages and cultural groupings, a complex and nuanced system of a presidency that alternates between the Christian south and the Muslim north, coupled with an insurgency problem, makes this a politically fraught place for investors. All these make for a challenging business environment where great benefits are available to those who succeed,” the report stated.
However, Nigeria has become an easier place for investors to succeed since 2016. “Its 2016 ranking on the Ease of Doing Business index was 169 out of 190 countries. It rose to position 131 in the 2020 edition,” it said.
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“Putting these elements together translates into a ranking across the 31 countries. Using the four pillars, and the weighted Z-scores, the two small island economies of Seychelles and Mauritius rank as the most attractive investment destinations on the continent while the significantly larger economies of Egypt South Africa and Morocco follow next in the attractiveness ranking,” the report said.
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