African Countries by GDP (2025)

Nominal GDP in current US dollars, rounded, from IMF World Economic Outlook (April 2025) estimates for 2025. GDP per capita is calculated from these GDP figures and UN population estimates for 2025, so it can differ slightly from IMF per-capita figures. Estimates for countries at war or with limited data (Sudan, South Sudan, Somalia, Eritrea, Libya) are especially uncertain. Nigeria update: Nigeria rebased its national accounts in 2025 (new base year 2019), raising nominal GDP by over 40%. The IMF’s October 2025 World Economic Outlook, which includes the rebased data, puts Nigeria’s 2025 GDP at about $285 billion — enough to rank it third in Africa, ahead of Algeria. The table below still uses the April 2025 release for all countries so that the figures are comparable.

Concentration of African Economic Output

The five largest economies — South Africa, Egypt, Algeria, Nigeria and Morocco — produce about half (roughly 49%) of Africa's GDP. The 20 smallest economies together produce less than 3%.

The ranking of the top four changes from year to year, mainly because of exchange rates. Nigeria was Africa's largest economy in dollar terms for most of 2014–2022, but the sharp fall of the naira after 2023 cut its dollar GDP by more than half; Egypt's 2024 devaluation had a similar, smaller effect.

GDP per Capita: A Different Picture

Total GDP shows size, not prosperity. Per person, small or resource-rich economies lead: Seychelles (about $16,500 using UN population figures), Mauritius (about $12,600), Gabon, Botswana and Equatorial Guinea. Populous economies such as Nigeria (about $800), Ethiopia (about $870) and DR Congo (about $650) are far below. See the richest and poorest African countries.

AfCFTA and the African Common Market

The African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) entered into force in 2019 and trading under it began on 1 January 2021. It has been signed by 54 of the 55 African Union member states (all except Eritrea) and covers a market of about 1.5 billion people. Tariff cuts are being phased in gradually. Intra-African trade is only about 15% of Africa's total trade, compared with over 60% within Europe, so the agreement aims to raise this share substantially.

Sectoral Patterns

Africa's economies remain unusually concentrated in commodities — oil (Nigeria, Algeria, Angola), gas (Algeria, Egypt, Nigeria, Mozambique), copper (Zambia, DRC), gold (Ghana, South Africa, Mali), cocoa (Côte d'Ivoire, Ghana) and diamonds (Botswana, DRC). Services and manufacturing sectors are growing rapidly, especially in Kenya, Nigeria, Egypt, South Africa, Morocco and Côte d'Ivoire.

How African GDP Is Measured

Gross domestic product measures the total value of all goods and services produced within a country in a year. The figures in the table above are nominal GDP in current US dollars, the most common basis for international rankings because it converts every economy to a single, comparable currency. Nominal GDP is the headline number quoted by the IMF in its World Economic Outlook and by the World Bank in its national accounts data, and it is what most "biggest economy" league tables are built from.

There is a second widely used measure: GDP at purchasing power parity (PPP). PPP adjusts for the fact that a dollar buys far more in Lagos or Addis Ababa than it does in New York or London. Because prices for housing, food and local services are lower across much of Africa, most African economies are considerably larger when measured at PPP than at market exchange rates. Egypt, Nigeria, Ethiopia and Algeria, for example, all rank higher on PPP tables than on nominal tables. Neither measure is "right" — nominal dollars are better for comparing the size of internationally traded output, while PPP is better for comparing real living standards and the volume of goods a population actually consumes.

One consequence of using current US dollars is that rankings can shift even when nothing changes in the real economy. When a national currency such as the Nigerian naira, the Egyptian pound or the South African rand weakens against the dollar, that country's GDP can fall sharply in dollar terms while local output is flat or even rising. This is why the order of Africa's largest economies has changed several times in recent years, and why the IMF and World Bank revise their estimates periodically as exchange rates, inflation data and rebased national accounts come in. Some governments also "rebase" their GDP — updating the base year and methodology — which can lift the reported figure substantially overnight, as Nigeria did in 2014 and again in 2025.

GDP by Region

Using the UN geoscheme (the same regions used across this site), approximate 2025 GDP by region is:

Region (UN)	GDP 2025	Share of Africa	Largest economies
North Africa	about $910 billion	32%	Egypt, Algeria, Morocco
East Africa	about $590 billion	21%	Kenya, Ethiopia, Tanzania
West Africa	about $570 billion	20%	Nigeria, Côte d'Ivoire, Ghana
Southern Africa	about $450 billion	16%	South Africa, Botswana, Namibia
Central Africa	about $310 billion	11%	Angola, DR Congo, Cameroon

North Africa is the largest regional economy, with relatively diversified manufacturing, energy, tourism and agriculture. East Africa (which in the UN definition includes Mozambique, Zambia and Zimbabwe) has been the fastest-growing region, led by Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda and Rwanda. West Africa depends heavily on Nigeria, but Côte d'Ivoire, Ghana and Senegal have grown quickly. In the UN definition Southern Africa has only five countries and South Africa accounts for about 90% of its output. Central Africa is rich in oil and minerals (Angola, DR Congo, Gabon, Equatorial Guinea) and its GDP closely follows commodity prices.

Fastest-Growing African Economies

Africa is home to several of the fastest-growing economies in the world, and the African Development Bank routinely highlights a cluster of standout performers. Ethiopia has expanded at high single-digit and occasionally double-digit rates for much of the past two decades, powered by large public investment in infrastructure, manufacturing and hydropower, though it has also faced bouts of debt stress and currency pressure. Rwanda has become a byword for disciplined economic management, posting consistently strong growth built on services, tourism and a business-friendly regulatory environment.

In West Africa, Côte d'Ivoire has rebounded into one of the continent's most dynamic economies on the back of cocoa, agriculture and infrastructure, while Senegal began producing offshore oil in 2024 and gas in 2025. Benin has quietly become one of the region's faster-growing economies through agricultural processing, port logistics and prudent fiscal policy. These countries share common ingredients: relatively stable governance, investment in roads, ports and power, and a gradual shift from raw commodity exports toward processing and services.

Rapid growth from a low base is easier to sustain than growth from a high one, so headline percentage rates in these economies often exceed those of larger, more mature economies like South Africa. Translating that growth into higher living standards, however, depends on whether it outpaces population growth and reaches ordinary households — a challenge explored further below.

Resource-Dependent vs Diversified Economies

A defining divide in African economics is between economies that depend heavily on a single commodity and those that have diversified their output. Resource-dependent economies — such as Nigeria, Angola, Algeria and Libya (oil), Botswana (diamonds), Zambia and the DRC (copper and minerals), and Equatorial Guinea and Gabon (oil) — can enjoy very high GDP figures when global prices are favourable. Botswana and Gabon, for instance, post some of the highest GDP-per-capita figures on the continent largely because of mineral and oil wealth spread across small populations.

The drawback is volatility. When oil or metal prices fall, government revenue, the currency and overall GDP can contract sharply, a pattern often called the "resource curse." Heavy reliance on extractive exports can also crowd out manufacturing and agriculture, leave economies exposed to global price swings, and concentrate wealth without creating broad-based employment.

Diversified economies — Morocco, Egypt, Kenya, South Africa and increasingly Côte d'Ivoire — spread their output across agriculture, manufacturing, tourism, finance and a growing services and technology sector. These economies tend to be more resilient to commodity shocks and to generate more jobs per unit of GDP. Much of Africa's long-term economic strategy, including the goals behind AfCFTA, is aimed precisely at helping more countries move up the value chain from exporting raw materials to processing and manufacturing them domestically.

GDP per Capita and Living Standards

Total GDP measures the size of an economy; GDP per capita — output divided by population — is a better guide to average prosperity. The two rankings look very different. Seychelles (about $16,500 per person) and Mauritius (about $12,600) lead the continent despite being among its smallest economies. Resource-rich Gabon, Botswana, Equatorial Guinea and Libya, together with South Africa and Algeria, also have per-capita GDP above about $5,500.

At the other end, several large economies fall well below the African average of about $1,800 once population is taken into account. Nigeria's GDP per capita is only about $800 at 2025 exchange rates, and DR Congo and Ethiopia are below $900. Burundi, South Sudan, Malawi, the Central African Republic and Madagascar have the lowest figures, all below about $600, reflecting deep poverty and, in several cases, conflict.

Even GDP per capita has limits as a welfare measure. It is an average, so it can mask sharp inequality, and it does not capture the large informal economy that supports hundreds of millions of Africans, the value of unpaid work, or differences in the cost of living. This is one reason analysts pair it with PPP-adjusted figures and with broader indicators such as the Human Development Index when assessing real living standards.

Challenges: Informality, Debt and Currency Volatility

Several structural challenges shape African GDP figures and complicate the task of measuring them. The first is the informal sector. Across much of the continent, a large share of economic activity — street trade, smallholder farming, artisanal mining, unregistered services — takes place outside formal records. Statistical agencies estimate it as best they can, but it means official GDP almost certainly understates true activity and makes year-to-year figures less precise than in advanced economies.

A second challenge is public debt. After a wave of borrowing in the 2010s, a number of African governments now spend a large portion of revenue servicing debt, which constrains their ability to invest in infrastructure, health and education. The IMF and World Bank have repeatedly flagged debt sustainability as a risk in countries that borrowed heavily, and several have had to restructure their obligations. High debt-service costs can slow growth and leave economies vulnerable to shifts in global interest rates.

A third is currency volatility and inflation. Sharp depreciations in currencies such as the naira, the Egyptian pound, the Ethiopian birr (floated in 2024) and Zimbabwe's currency (replaced by the ZiG in 2024) can drive up the price of imported goods, erode household purchasing power and shrink reported dollar GDP even when domestic output holds steady. Managing exchange rates, taming inflation and building foreign-currency reserves are recurring policy priorities across the continent and a major reason GDP rankings are revised so often.

Outlook: AfCFTA, Demographics and Industrialization

The long-term outlook for African GDP rests on three powerful forces. The first is the African Continental Free Trade Area. By gradually dismantling tariffs and trade barriers among its 54 signatory states, AfCFTA aims to lift intra-African trade — historically only around 15% of the continent's total — and to give manufacturers a market large enough to justify investment. The World Bank has estimated that full implementation could add substantially to regional income over the coming decades, though progress depends on better transport links, harmonized rules and political will.

The second force is demographics. Africa has the youngest and fastest-growing population in the world, projected to grow from about 1.55 billion in 2025 to about 2.5 billion by 2050. A large, young workforce can power a "demographic dividend" of rising output and consumption — but only if economies create enough jobs and invest in education, health and skills. Without that, rapid population growth can outpace GDP growth and hold down GDP per capita, as it already does in several countries.

The third is industrialization and the digital economy. Many governments and the African Development Bank are pushing to move economies up the value chain — processing commodities domestically, expanding manufacturing, and building out financial technology, mobile money and digital services where African firms such as those in Kenya and Nigeria are already global pioneers. If these trends combine — deeper continental trade, a productive young workforce and a shift toward higher-value industry — Africa's share of global GDP is widely expected to rise meaningfully over the coming decades.

Frequently Asked Questions

Which African country has the largest GDP?

South Africa has the largest nominal GDP in Africa in the IMF's 2025 estimates, at about $410 billion, followed by Egypt (about $350 billion), Algeria (about $270 billion) and Nigeria (about $190 billion before its 2025 GDP rebasing; about $285 billion in the IMF’s October 2025 estimate, which would place it third). The order changes often with exchange rates: Nigeria was the largest for most of 2014–2022, and its 2025 GDP rebasing may move it up again in later IMF releases.

What is the total GDP of Africa?

The combined nominal GDP of Africa's 54 economies is about $2.8 trillion in 2025 (IMF estimates), roughly 2.5–3% of world GDP, although Africa has about 19% of the world's population. Measured at purchasing power parity (PPP), Africa's share of world output is considerably larger.

Which African country has the highest GDP per capita?

Seychelles has the highest GDP per capita in Africa, followed by Mauritius, Gabon, Botswana and Equatorial Guinea. These are small or resource-rich economies. Burundi has the lowest GDP per capita.

What is AfCFTA?

AfCFTA is the African Continental Free Trade Area. It entered into force in 2019, trading began in January 2021, and it has been signed by 54 of the 55 African Union member states. It aims to create a single market of about 1.5 billion people by gradually removing tariffs and trade barriers.

Which African economies are growing fastest?

Several East and West African economies have grown by 6% a year or more over much of the past decade, including Ethiopia, Rwanda, Côte d'Ivoire, Benin, Tanzania and Uganda. Senegal and Guinea are growing quickly thanks to new oil, gas and mining projects.

Last updated: September 2026. GDP: IMF World Economic Outlook (April 2025), estimates for 2025, nominal US dollars, rounded. Population for per-capita figures: UN World Population Prospects 2024. Estimates are revised in every IMF release.

Related Pages

• Africa population by country
• Top 15 richest African countries
• Poorest countries by GDP per capita
• African currencies