Intelpoint

Africa’s campaign at the 2026 FIFA World Cup ended after France defeated Morocco 2-0 in the quarter-finals. The Atlas Lions were the continent’s last remaining team and strengthened their position as Africa’s best-performing nation in World Cup history. Morocco’s 2026 run made them the first African nation to reach the quarter-finals twice, four years after becoming the continent’s first semi-finalist.

The UK made 672,400 visa decisions involving African applicants in 2025, with visitor visas accounting for the largest share at 521,400 decisions. Study visas had the highest issue rate at 88.5%, followed by family at 81.9% and work at 71.6%. Visitor visas, despite dominating the number of decisions, had a lower issue rate of 66.5%, while other routes recorded the lowest rate at 53.4%.

Nigeria’s FDI inflow returned above $4 billion in 2025 for the first time since 2014. According to UNCTAD’s latest dataset, Nigeria attracted $4.01 billion in FDI inflows in 2025, up from a revised $1.61 billion in 2024. This represents a 148% increase year-on-year. The recovery is notable, but Nigeria is still below the levels recorded during its earlier FDI boom years.

FDI is not only about money coming into countries. It also includes money going out, when companies and investors based in a country invest abroad. In 2025, Kenya and Nigeria led Africa’s outward FDI, with Kenya recording $1.26 billion and Nigeria $1.19 billion. Together, they accounted for nearly half of the $5.25 billion recorded by Africa’s top 10 sources of FDI outflows. Morocco followed with $812.8 million, ahead of Egypt’s $695.9 million.

Nigeria’s FDI inflows rose sharply in a year when Africa’s total was pulled down by Egypt’s decline. Nigeria attracted $4.01 billion in foreign direct investment inflows in 2025, up from a revised $1.61 billion in 2024. That 148% increase pushed the country to 4th place in Africa, behind Egypt, Guinea and Mozambique. Egypt remained the continent’s top FDI destination with $15.45 billion, despite a sharp fall from the previous year.

Debt relief once pushed Nigeria’s external debt service down to relatively low levels. That era has clearly faded. After years of mostly sub-$500 million annual external debt service payments, Nigeria’s payments began rising sharply from 2018 and crossed $5 billion in 2025. Between 2018 and 2025, the country paid about $22.2 billion in external debt service, roughly six times the $3.7 billion recorded between 2008 and 2017. The rising service cost comes against a larger debt stock.

Many African countries are living significantly longer today than they were at the turn of the century, with the biggest gains coming from countries that had some of the lowest life expectancy levels in 2000. Between 2000 and 2024, Malawi added 21.4 years to life expectancy at birth, the largest increase on the continent. Rwanda followed with 20.2 years, while Zambia added 20.0 years. Uganda and Angola also recorded gains above 18 years.

In 2000, Eswatini had electricity access of just 20% of its population. By 2023, that figure had risen to 86%, representing the largest improvement recorded by any African country over the period. Kenya (61 percentage points) and Rwanda (58 percentage points) followed, while East African countries accounted for seven of the continent's 15 biggest electricity access gains in 23 years. Nigeria's electricity access also improved, rising by 18 percentage points from 43% in 2000 to 61% in 2023.

Africa imported merchandise worth $788.9 billion in 2025, accounting for about 3.0% of global merchandise imports. South Africa was the continent’s largest importer at $128.1 billion, followed by Egypt with $97.5 billion and Morocco with $87.4 billion. Together, the three countries accounted for $313.0 billion, or 39.7% of Africa’s total. The five largest importers, including Algeria and Nigeria, accounted for $404.6 billion, representing 51.3% of the continental total.

Africa created the world’s largest free-trade area to help African businesses sell more across the continent. But the roads, railways, border systems and payment networks needed to make that happen are still falling short. In 2024, only 16.9% of Africa’s merchandise exports were sold within Africa. By comparison, Europe sold 65.6% within Europe, Asia sold 58.4% within Asia, and the Americas sold 54.0% within the Americas.