According to the IMF latest forecast, real GDP growth in Sub-Saharan Africa for 2024-2026 is weak, despite the region being resource intensive.
Resource-intensive countries, especially oil exporters, such as Angola, Chad, and Nigeria, have slowed sharply compared with non-resource intensive countries like Ethiopia, Rwanda and Senegal. This marks the sharp contrast when the resource intensive region has experienced growth, leading up to 2014.
However, the non-resource intensive countries lead the region afterwards with around 6% growth in 2024, the highest among all groups. This indicates that the diversified economies provide a sphere of safety nets against external shocks such as the commodity prices, conflict and climate risks whereas the oil dependent resource intensive countries are growing slowly, with 3.8% in 2024.
They further dip in 2025 and recovering slightly by 2026. The fluctuating global oil prices, limited diversification, domestic economic challenges and governance and investment bottlenecks are the key causes of volatility.
