Weekly Africa Macro Update: January 6-10, 2025

We analyse the latest policy pronouncements and economic indicators, providing the implications and near-term outlook for key African economies.

Weekly Africa Macro Update: December 16-20, 2024

We analyse the latest policy pronouncements and economic indicators, providing the implications and near-term outlook for key African economies.

Other - 31 OCT 2024

Macro Data Bulletin: Kenya inflation eases to 2.73%, edges close to central bank lower bound

We analyse Kenya’s latest inflation data, providing the implications and near-term outlook

Other - 19 JUN 2024

Macro Data Bulletin: Annual South Africa inflation flat at 5.2% y/y amid monthly deceleration

We unpack South Africa’s latest inflation numbers, providing the implications and near-term outlook

Other - 19 JUN 2024

Macro Data Bulletin: Nigeria inflation creeps to 33.95% in May 2024, threatens 28-year threshold

We unpack Nigeria’s latest inflation numbers, providing the implications and near-term outlook

Finance - 18 OCT 2023

Stears launches its inflation forecast solution to guide investment and policy decisions

Access monthly Pan-African inflation forecasts from October 2023 to December 2024.

How Stears accurately predicted Nigeria's election results

Stears' prediction model brings a new data understanding to elections in Nigeria.

3 takeaways from Nigeria's 2023 Presidential election

A tightly contested race, and other themes from the 2023 elections.

Stears' poll predicts who will be Nigeria's next president

A predictive analysis of polling results administered to Nigerians in anticipation of the 2023 presidential elections.

Is debt really bad for Nigeria?

We share a simple framework for analysing debt decisions by countries like Nigeria or Ghana.

How bad is Nigeria's inflation?

Perception versus reality: Nigeria's inflation story in 7 charts

What is President Buhari’s economic legacy?

Nigeria's finance has been surgically decimated—a feat so impressive it is destined as a case study in Ivy league macroeconomics courses.

Does Nigeria import too much?

Nigeria’s imports have been growing since 2015. However, Nigeria's import growth is ordinary and not enough to warrant claims of import dependence.

Is Lagos a great city to live in?

Lagos' poor liveability ranking is unanimous across every global city index.

What is the market size for African consumer products?

A data-driven analysis of the market size for consumer products in Africa

Should the CBN increase interest rates in Nigeria?

An empirical assessment of the CBN's decision to increase interest rates in Nigeria.

Are we headed towards a recession?

How should we be thinking about the current market contraction trends?

How to think about market size in Nigeria

We analyse whether Nigeria's market size justifies recent investment and valuations in the tech ecosystem.

Are Nigerian startups overvalued?

We provide useful mental models to use in thinking about the valuation of the Nigerian tech ecosystem

Why the CBN must stop funding Nigeria's Federal Government

For years, the CBN has been funding the government's fiscal activities, creating an economic timebomb.

Should Nigeria issue another diaspora bond?

Nigeria will repay its first ever diaspora bond in June 2022. Is it time to tap the diaspora for more funds?

Why every Nigerian should be excited about tech

Nigeria's technology sector is an important silver lining in a gloomy economic picture.

Explainer: Petrol scarcity, diesel prices and a stubborn subsidy

When it comes to energy, Nigeria is caught between the devil and the deep blue sea.

Nigeria is addicted to price control and it's hurting us

A deep dive into Nigeria's assertion as a market economy.

Who is building Nigeria’s startups?

A deep dive into one of the most comprehensive African funding databases to answer who is building Nigeria’s startup ecosystem.

Nigeria needs ₦350 trillion to fund its new national development plan

Saddled by debt and with declining revenues, Nigeria’s ambitious development plan seeks additional ₦350 trillion funding.

Why we should be worried about Nigeria's budget

Nigeria’s budget has a bloating problem.

Four Nigerian statistics to watch in 2022

These numbers tell us how Nigeria’s economy will look in 2022.

What does Nigeria export?

Nigeria is not the export behemoth it once was.

What the CBN can learn from Egypt

Key takeaways from Egypt's development experience

Why we need to stop celebrating GDP growth

The trouble with GDP as a measure of economic performance and wellbeing.

What Nigeria's economy will look like in five years

Snapshots of where the Nigerian economy is headed.

Why oil prices are high but Nigeria is still broke

Is Nigeria wasting another oil boom?

Nigeria is headed for a fiscal cliff, and that's not even the bad news

Debt crisis or not, Nigeria is in soup.

Nigeria's export crisis: How we are spending more than we earn

Nigeria's international trade has collapsed.

What is the Nigerian economy?

A breakdown of the major sectors in Nigeria's economy

There are no jobs in Nigeria

Nigeria is facing its worst official unemployment crisis in a half-century, and the numbers may not even capture how bad things really are.

How Covid-19 changed Nigerians

The economic and behavioural impacts of Covid-19

Why foreign direct investment in Nigeria is disappearing

FDI: Traditional foreign investment vs Nigerian startup funding.

Nigeria’s economy in 2020: What happened?

2020 was an interesting year. We look back at the economic highlights.

Financial inclusion in Nigeria: Eye service only

Ten charts on financial inclusion in Nigeria

The Nigerian economy since independence: Abuja we have a problem

An in-depth analysis of how the Nigerian economy has changed in the last forty years.

Dollar slow to enter, dollar quick to go

A detailed breakdown of where Nigeria gets its dollars and how Nigerians spend their dollars.

What happens when you invest in Nigeria

How inflation erodes investment options in Nigeria

Show me the money: An investor's guide to Nigeria’s consumer market

Which Nigerian states have the largest market size?

Finance - 18 JUL 2019

Review: Ten facts about Investment Banking in Nigeria

Frontier Capital Markets

Finance - 28 JUN 2019

Nigerian banks would lend more if they had more data

We take a look at the importance of data in Nigeria's credit market

Economy - 30 APR 2019

Nigeria's New Minimum Wage: Very Few Winners

The new minimum wage is a boon to workers, but everyone else is likely to lose out in a costly way

Finance - 15 APR 2019

In Nigeria, FinTechs show the way to alternative investments

In partnership with FINT, we take a look at the FinTech landscape in Nigeria

10 data trends from the 2019 Presidential Election Results

After looking through the election data, we take a look trends that voters and analyst need to know.

Economy - 10 JAN 2019

Ten Worrying Statistics about the Nigerian Economy

Here are the 10 numbers that make us worried about the Nigerian economy in 2019.

Development - 08 OCT 2018

Humans of New York reminds us about how poor we are

Are stories of poverty a reflection of the struggle of living in Nigeria or just poverty porn?

Economy - 11 APR 2018

Jobs cannot be created by force

African leaders often try and create jobs by fiat or decree, to the economic detriment of citizens.

Economy - 31 MAR 2017

The Potential of Diaspora Bonds in Africa

Targeting their diaspora population offers African countries another financing opportunity.