Nigeria climbed four places to eighth on Bloomberg’s 2026 Africa investment scorecard, the biggest move in the ranking, after gains in economic strength, fiscal strength and external vulnerability.
The external score, its best mark, sits on a reserve and foreign-exchange rebuild run by the Central Bank of Nigeria. Institutions and infrastructure, untouched by that work, are still holding the country down.
The Bloomberg Economics Investment Risk-O-Meter, published with Businessweek’s 2026 Investor’s Guide to Africa, covers 19 economies. Nigeria passed Rwanda, Tanzania, Kenya and Namibia. Mauritius leads at 0.6. South Africa, first last year, slipped to second at 0.5. Nigeria’s overall rating is 0.1. A higher figure means lower relative risk.
Nigeria scored 0.4 on economic strength, 0.6 on fiscal strength and 1.4 on external vulnerability. Institutions and governance came in at −1.2. Infrastructure was −0.5.
Bloomberg does not name the Central Bank. The external metric is where its policy shows. Under Governor Olayemi Cardoso the CBN collapsed the old multiple-rate windows into the Nigerian Foreign Exchange Market, cleared a verified FX backlog and shifted trading onto an electronic matching system.
Gross reserves, $33.22 billion at the end of 2023, were above $55 billion by mid-September 2026, an 18-year high on Cardoso’s figures. Net reserves rose from $3.99 billion at the end of 2023 to $34.8 billion at the end of 2025.
Oil receipts and remittances supplied a large share of the dollars. The policy change was that those dollars now clear in one market.
Yvonne Mhango, an Africa economist quoted in coverage of the report, called Nigeria the standout mover on rebased GDP, firmer growth and the external position, “but weak institutions and infrastructure remain important constraints.”
Egypt, Ghana, Botswana and Ivory Coast all sit at 0.3, ahead of Nigeria. The Risk-O-Meter is a relative guide to where a higher return may be required, not a clearance to deploy. Contract enforcement, regulatory predictability, power and logistics are still where they were.
