Kenya Ranked First in Africa Prospects Indicator 2019

Kenya has been ranked as Africa’s lead prospect, offset by a stronger macro-economic position for the second year.

The Africa Prospects Ranking survey carried out by US-based research organization, The Nielsen Company, surveyed 17 Sub Saharan Africa countries by looking at the macro, business, consumer and retail prospects of each country.

According to the survey, despite Kenya being ranked as the lead prospect, Kenya’s business and retail prospects have weakened relative to other markets.

The country’s business growth prospects are less than before, with GDP growth rates being lower than previous years and indications being that the economy lost steam in Quarter 1’2019. One-third of Kenyans were of the opinion that their personal finances are in a “not so good/bad” state, up 11 points from a year ago.

Kenya ranked fourth in the business growth prospects category out of the 17 countries surveyed, after Ghana, Nigeria, and Uganda.

Additionally, the Kenyan consumer sentiment is softer with only 41 percent of consumers feeling that their outlook for job prospects is good/excellent over the next 12 months. The country was ranked third after Nigeria and Ghana.

Nigerian consumers were found to be the most adventurous when it comes to trying new products posing a window of opportunity to reach and resonate with Nigerian consumers based on their more positive spending intentions.

Second in overall rank, was Cote d’Ivoire followed by Tanzania in third place.

Ghana and Nigeria hold on to their stronger fourth and fifth places, respectively, while Uganda slipped to sixth place, South Africa weakens to seventh and Cameroon remains in eighth place.

“Whilst there appears to be relative stability in terms of overall country rankings, this masks continuous changes and shifts within the business, consumer, retail and macro-economic dynamics” read part of the Nielsen Company survey findings.

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