Africa's average governance score climbed by just 0.8 points between 2016 and 2025, reaching a marginal 50.1 out of 100 according to the latest Ibrahim Index of African Governance. Although foundational economic opportunities and human development metrics showed modest gains, overall security, rule of law, and civil participation steadily eroded. The assessment evaluates 96 constituent indicators to measure the public goods delivered across 54 sovereign countries. Foundation leadership warned that these persistent institutional weaknesses leave newly built economic momentum exposed to severe fragility.
Key points
Expanding mobile phone connectivity exposes rampant public misconduct but cannot produce…: Expanding mobile phone connectivity exposes rampant public misconduct but cannot produce accountability without independent domestic courts.
Continental progress is sharply divided, with 30 countries improving while 23 nations exp…: Continental progress is sharply divided, with 30 countries improving while 23 nations experienced tangible governance regressions.
Economic and human development milestones remain acutely vulnerable until governments fir…: Economic and human development milestones remain acutely vulnerable until governments firmly reinforce democratic protections and institutional rule of law.
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The west has never been short of advice on how Africa should govern itself. It has produced rankings, attached conditions to aid and delivered lectures on corruption, often while its own banks and corporations have profited handsomely from the continent’s governance weaknesses.
So, there was something refreshing about sitting in Cairo, listening to a Sudanese-born, self-made telecommunications entrepreneur and billionaire on why Africans needed to measure their own governments.
At the launch of the 2026 Ibrahim Index of African Governance (IIAG), now two decades in existence, Mo Ibrahim returned to a question he attributed to Nelson Mandela: “How could Africa be so rich while so many Africans remained poor?” His answer was blunt: “It is governance.”
Yet, what Ibrahim means by governance is considerably more demanding than the narrow assessments so often used to pass judgment on developing countries. The foundation defines it as the provision of the political, social, economic and environmental public goods that citizens have a right to expect from their governments. It asks whether people are safe, children educated, hospitals functioning, women protected, opportunities expanding and…
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