Africa's Top Economies Post Sharp Financial Score Rebound

Twenty-one of the 29 leading African economies improved their financial performance scores in 2026, a sharp reversal from 2025, when only 10 of the 29 saw an uptick. The figures come from the 10th edition of the Africa Financial Markets Index (AFMI), released on 14 October by Johannesburg-headquartered banking group Absa and economic consultancy OMFIF in partnership with the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA).

The turnaround is attributed to a more favourable macroeconomic environment and better foreign-exchange (FX) reserve adequacy, two factors that bear directly on whether markets can operate reliably day to day. The index measures the financial development of the 29 top economies, which together account for roughly 80% of Africa’s population and gross domestic product (GDP). Jurisdictions are scored across six pillars covering market accessibility, openness and transparency, including access to FX, market depth and macroeconomic opportunity, and legal standards and enforceability. The average score now stands at 56 out of 100, the highest in the index’s decade-long history and six points above the level recorded when it launched in 2017.

South Africa tops the table year-on-year with a score of 85, followed by Mauritius (77), Namibia (71), Uganda (68) and Kenya (65). The index credits South Africa’s position to the scale and liquidity of its capital markets, a broad range of financial products, sophisticated market infrastructure and strong institutional investor participation, the practical machinery that allows transactions to be executed at volume.

At the other end, Ethiopia remains bottom of the table with a score of 41, just below Madagascar (44), Tunisia (45), Mozambique (46), and Angola, Senegal and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), each on 47. Five countries saw their scores fall from 2025: Botswana, Nigeria, Eswatini, Rwanda and Tunisia, while Ethiopia, Mozambique and Cameroon held the same score year-on-year.

Underlying delivery indicators show broad progress. All 29 countries logged stronger GDP growth scores, inflation declined in 20 countries, and external debt as a share of GDP improved in 20 economies. Zimbabwe, Malawi and Ethiopia, however, remain in debt distress, a constraint that continues to limit fiscal room for manoeuvre. FX reserve adequacy improved in 16 economies, with the largest gains recorded in Benin, Côte d’Ivoire, Senegal, Ghana, Cabo Verde and Lesotho. FX reporting standards were another area of strength, with 21 countries, including Uganda, DRC and Botswana, achieving a perfect score of 100.

Digital payment infrastructure is also expanding. Twenty-six of the 29 countries are implementing initiatives to widen access to mobile wallets and payment services, measures the index describes as particularly significant where financial exclusion remains high.

Meanwhile, the report’s sponsors framed the results as the product of deliberate reform rather than circumstance. In a foreword, OMFIF chairman David Marsh wrote that economies, both collectively and individually, have become to a greater extent than before “masters of their own destiny”, pointing to improved macroeconomic conditions and a “remarkable expansion of product diversity and sustainable finance instruments”. He added that stronger reserve buffers mark “a significant step towards overcoming a major traditional impediment to growth in many countries”, and welcomed continued gains in transparency and digital access.

Kenny Fihla, CEO of Absa, said the continent’s relative performance is “not simply the result of good fortune”. “African policymakers and regulators have led reform efforts that have led to their country’s financial market ecosystems being more open, more transparent and more accessible,” he stated, adding that the continent’s financial environment is “now more fit for purpose”.

Claver Gatete, under-secretary-general and executive secretary of UNECA, acknowledged that countries have boosted the availability of financial and macroeconomic information, expanded the instruments available to issuers and investors, and modernised parts of their legal and regulatory frameworks. But he cautioned that in many markets greater issuance has not yet produced sustained secondary-market activity, and that debt vulnerabilities continue to constrain policy space in some countries. “The central finding from the past 10 years is therefore that market expansion and market development are not the same. The next phase of reform must place greater emphasis on the quality, depth and functioning of markets,” he said.

Gatete also warned that stronger regional approaches are needed, noting that national markets “remain too small” to generate the scale, liquidity and diversity required to mobilise long-term capital effectively. “Africa requires substantially greater volumes of long-term finance for infrastructure, productive enterprises, job creation and the transition to low-carbon and climate-resilient economies. The direction of progress over the past decade of the index is evident, but the remaining agenda is substantial,” he stated.

Whether the next decade can close the gap between expanding markets and markets that actually function at depth, particularly through regional integration, remains the open question hanging over the index’s second decade.