Kenya’s performance was boosted by the social, and entrepreneurship and opportunity indicators/XINHUA-File
The largest regional economy improved four positions since the 2012 Africa Prosperity Report, which looks at measuring the growth and prosperity of economies across the continent.
Kenya’s performance was boosted by the social, entrepreneurship and opportunity indicators, which stood at position six and nine respectively out of the eight indicators measured in the survey carried out between 2012 and 2014.
Legatum Institute Research Analyst Solene Dengler said Kenya’s Small and Medium Enterprise sector is going to be one of the major drivers of the economy, given proper focus.
“The report indicates that indeed business is thriving in the country mostly due to technology,” Dengler said during an interview with Capital FM Business in Nairobi.
Other measured indicators in the survey were governance, education, health, economy, safety, security and personal freedom.
Kenya’s main challenge was on safety and security which stood at position 32, followed by economy and education at 22 and 15 respectively.
Botswana was the most prosperous country in Africa and has maintained the lead in the last three consecutive years.
“Botswana best performance is in the governance sub-index where it ranks first in 2014. However the lowest ranking is in the economy sub-index, where it ranked position 17,” Dengler explained.
Rwanda was leading in the East Africa region as the most prosperous, emerging position 10 out the 38 countries. The fast growing country improved five positions since the 2012 annual prosperity index.
Burkina Faso was the most improved in education while Egypt ranked last in personal freedom. Malawi fell 11 places in two years due to a drop in the economy sub-index.
The Eastern Africa region saw the largest increase in prosperity in the past three years.
“The region has improved most on economy, health and entrepreneurship and opportunity. However, none of the Eastern Africa Countries are in the top 10 of the economy sub-index in 2014,” Dengler noted.
Looking at the other regions on the continent, Southern Africa countries are all in the top 10 for education, governance, entrepreneurship and opportunity.
All northern Africa countries are in the bottom third for personal freedom while only two Western African countries, Ghana and Benin, rank above the African average in education.
The majority of the data and analysis is within the full report taken from the Legatum Prosperity Index, an annual report which explores a total of 142 countries across the globe.
