South Africa remains the best African start-up ecosystem, ahead of Mauritius, Kenya, Nigeria, and Egypt. Lagos is the only African city in the Top 100 of "start-up friendly" cities worldwide.

Fifteen African countries feature in the top 100 ecosystems conducive to the emergence and development of ecosystems worldwide, according to a report published by startup ecosystem map last May 30.  To establish this ranking, the research firm focused on more than 30 indicators divided into three main categories. 

The first category is quantity, which uses indicators like the number of start-ups, coworking spaces, accelerators, start-up-related meetings, etc. The second is quality, using indicators like total investment in start-ups, number, and size of unicorns, presence of R&D centers set up by major international technology companies, the presence of subsidiaries of multinationals, etc. The last category is the business environment, which is measured using indicators like Internet speed, R&D spending, tax rates applied to start-ups, availability of various technological services such as electronic payment and cryptocurrencies, level of corruption, etc.

The report, entitled "Global Startup Ecosystem Index 2023", reveals that South Africa (53rd in the world) has the best startup ecosystem in Africa, despite falling four places in the global ranking compared with 2022. The Republic of Mauritius (61st worldwide) occupies second place in Africa, ahead of Kenya (62nd worldwide), Nigeria (64th worldwide), and Egypt (67th worldwide).

They are followed by Ghana, Cape Verde, Senegal, Namibia, and Tunisia, closing the African top 10. The report also points out that five African countries have improved their overall ranking. Mauritius and Senegal made the strongest progress compared with the 2022 edition, gaining 10 places each. The two countries entered the Top 100 best start-up ecosystems in 2021 and 2022 respectively.

The biggest declines were recorded by Morocco, which dropped 14 places compared with 2022 to 93rd position worldwide this year, and Rwanda (-11 places). Uganda is the only African country to re-enter the index in 2023 after it dropped out of it in 2022.  

The report also ranked 1,000 startup cities worldwide. Lagos (82nd worldwide) is the only African city in the Top 100. The Nigerian economic hub owes its ranking to its highly dynamic ecosystem, with over 400 start-ups, including unicorns Jumia and Flutterwave, and 35 active incubators.

The best-represented countries in the ranking of the 1,000 cities with the best start-up ecosystems in the world are Nigeria (5 cities), South Africa (4 cities), and Kenya (2 cities). Victoria (Seychelles) made the greatest progress, moving up 592 places to the 232nd position. It was followed by Port-Louis (+269), Dakar (+155), Tunis (+57), Cairo (+36), and Accra (+28).