EXECUTIVE SUMMARY –
Niger is projected by the World Bank to be Africa’s fastest-growing economy in 2025, with a record 14.4% GDP growth driven by oil production, mining nationalization, and agricultural expansion. This surge comes amid the country’s political shift away from French influence, aligning with broader Sahel anti-imperialist movements alongside Burkina Faso and Mali.
Keywords: Niger, World Bank, GDP growth, fastest-growing economy, oil production, mining nationalization, agriculture, Sahel, anti-imperialism, France, Abdourahamane Tchiani, Burkina Faso, Mali, Senegal.
People’s Dispatch (Johannesburg) By Pedro Stropasolas
The Sahel country has been experiencing a rift with France and the West since the new government took office on July 26, 2023
A new World Bank report states that Niger will be the fastest-growing economy in Africa in 2025. Based on results through July and projections, the financial institution shows that the Sahel country has reached an impressive 14.4% annual GDP growth rate, surpassing its previous historical record of 8.9% set in 2024.
The increase in revenues from the nationalization of mining companies and sales at international price parameters; revenues from oil, whose production quadrupled in just over two years; and the development of agriculture on a larger scale are the three pillars that explain the record growth.
The figures are impressive when compared to the past, when the country was still under the tutelage of governments aligned with France, the former colonizer of this region of the African continent.
Between 1961 and 2024, the annual GDP growth rate in Niger averaged 3.84%. The country reached a historic low of -17.06% in the fourth quarter of 1973, according to the Central Bank of West African States (BCEAO).
In the World Bank’s report, Senegal, led by President Bassirou Diomaye Faye, comes in second place with 12.1%. Senegal has also been implementing anti-imperialist measures in its governance, following the example of countries in the Alliance of Sahel States, such as Niger.
In turn, the two most complicated economies are Sudan, in civil war, and South Sudan, also in a situation of internal conflict.
Anti-imperialist uprising in Niger
In recent years, military and popular uprisings in Niger, Burkina Faso, and Mali have put an end to military cooperation with France in the Sahel countries, a semi-arid strip just below the Sahara Desert in North Africa. The process is known on the streets as the “real independence” of this region of the African continent.
Since July 2023, Niger has been ruled by General Abdourahamane “Omar” Tchiani, part of a group of progressive military officers who channel widespread popular frustration with French neocolonialism.
This article was first published by Brasil de Fato in Portuguese.
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