Top 10 African countries with the most transparent GDP data

The legitimacy of data, regardless of scale or function cannot be overstated. It is paramount that accurate data is made available to the public and primary stakeholders, in order for development to take place, particularly when it comes to public data.

As a result, it is easy to see why most of the successful governments, are also some of the most transparent. The information they make available to the public helps procure solutions for national and socio-economic issues. 

Of these issues, the most prevalent lies with issues facing government funds and budget, which in turn is subject to how much revenue the country is generating. It is important that people know how well their economy is performing, and the foremost indicator of this is a country's gross domestic product. 

World Economics, a data platform that augments official (usable) data with regular quarterly surveys, has developed the Global GDP Data Quality Ratings 2023, (Updated March 2023) to review the usefulness of official GDP data of individual countries. 

These data rankings are produced from scores in five areas: Base year recency, Standard of National Accounts SNA version, Informal economy size; research resources available, and the likelihood of Government interference. Scores are based on a 0-100 scale. An elaborate breakdown of these metrics is available on the World Economics site. 

The World Economics ranking is based on a grading system, A is as good as it gets, B is good, C is use with caution, D is poor, and E is extremely Poor. However, these grades are based on an aggregate score of the aforementioned metrics. 

It should be noted that there are frequent discrepancies between what nations actually use and what the International Monetary Fund and World Bank describe as their most current Base Year and/or SNA in use.

This is sometimes brought on by the international organizations' frequent and inevitable time gaps in receiving information on local developments, and it also occasionally results from human mistakes.

However, for this ranking, World Economics claims to use the data it deems most authentic and recent. With that being said, below are 10 African countries with the best GDP Data Quality Ratings.