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East African economies are outperforming the rest of the continent — but while investors are bullish, the public isn’t buying it.
While the World Bank projects economies in the East African Community bloc to grow at 4.7% in 2024 and 5.7% in 2025–26, led by Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania, and Uganda, consumers don’t seem to be feeling the growth. Speaking at the Semafor Fall World Economic Summit, Equity Group CEO James Mwangi said the East African growth was due to regional integration, which had boosted cross-border trade, as well as investments in infrastructure and energy, but that consumer non-performing loans were still “unreasonably high.”
Sim Tshabalala, CEO of Johannesburg-based Standard Bank, Africa’s largest bank by assets, also acknowledged East Africa as the fastest growing region: “Generally the East African region has been acting increasingly on an integrated basis, reducing tariff barriers and non-tariff barriers, making it easier to move stuff in that region — resulting in faster growth,” he said.
But Kenya has been gripped by massive youth-led protests over tax hikes and Uganda has also been rocked by demonstrations over alleged government corruption.
Meanwhile, the World Bank revised Sub-Saharan Africa’s growth down to 3% in 2024 from an earlier forecast of 3.4%.
