A new global logistics survey has placed Kenya among the top four countries in Africa with the largest economic growth potential in the next five years.
Kenya has been ranked behind South Africa and Nigeria but ahead of Ghana and Angola in the list of top five promising states in terms of the economic growth.
Among the factors that have placed Kenya among the top African countries economically are the recent low global oil prices, the start of the exploration of oil in Turkana County, effort by the government to better the infrastructure as well as bettering the business environment in the country. Corruption however, still remains a challenge.
According to the survey, Kenya earns a lot of her revenue from the export of horticultural products, tea as well as tourism. Kenya has also been vetted as the top emerging market in terms of air exports with a great potential to beat South Africa, Nigeria and India.
Business environment in Africa is still made difficult by such factors as poor infrastructure, illiteracy, high costs of energy and the high costs of production. There is also rampant corruption in Africa, a factor that has often driven investors away to other continents where the environment is much convenient.
Globally, China which has always been the second-largest economy, topped the global ranking followed ahead of the United Arab Emirates, India, and Malaysia with Saudi Arabia completing the list of the top countries economically.
Globally also, in terms of the African nations, South Africa was placed at position 16, Nigeria placed at position 17, Morocco at position 20, Egypt at position 22, Algeria at position 30, Ethiopia at position 37, Tanzania at position 40, Libya at position 41, Kenya at position 43 while Uganda was placed at position 45.
Article by Juma Fred.