A new report analyzing global startup activity has ranked Lagos as the leadin cityg in Africa, and 70th in the world, placing it among the top 100 cities with vibrant startup ecosystems.
Lagos is one of only two African cities in the global top 100. The second African city on the list is Cairo, the capital of Egypt, which ranks 97th.
The report by StartupBlink presents the latest research on the global startup economy and includes rankings for 100 countries and 1,000 cities. It contains detailed information on the startup scene of 100 countries and includes insights into their:
- Most innovative cities
- Emerging startup industries
- Startup success stories, and
- Notable organizations that contribute to local innovation
The report indicates that Nigeria has six cities in the global top 1,000, with Kano joining the index this year [2024]. The cities listed are:
- Lagos
- Abuja
- Ibadan
- Enugu
- Port Harcourt, and
- Kano
“Lagos is the strongest startup ecosystem in Nigeria, with a total score of more than 15 times greater than Abuja, the 2nd ranked city, showing strong centralization. Lagos excels in the Consumer Goods industry, ranking 1st in Africa for this industry,” the report stated.
“Cairo secures a position in the top 100, ranking 97th. Since 2021, its upward trajectory has been marked by consistent double-digit jumps each year, progressively closing the overall score gap with Africa’s regional leader, Lagos, from 1.4 to 1.2 times.”
Beyond the top 100, more African cities emerge with the Africa & Middle East region having 56 cities ranked within 201 to 1,000.
4 cities across Africa have entered the top 1,000 category, and these cities are:
- Alexandria, Egypt
- Kano, Nigeria, and
- Kisumu, Kenya
When we look at a country level, several countries from Africa are ranked among the best 100 in the world, in the following order:
- South Africa
- Mauritius
- Kenya
- Nigeria
- Egypt
- Cape Verde
- Senegal
- Namibia
- Ghana
- Tunisia
- Morocco
- Uganda
- Rwanda
The Global Startup Ecosystem rankings are arrived at using hundreds of thousands of data points processed by an algorithm which takes into account several dozen sets of parameters.
StartupBlink collects its data through crowd-sourcing whereby startups can directly add their own data, and works closely with numerous global data partners, such as Crunchbase, SEMRush, Statista, and BrightData to supplement data from these unique sources.
They have also partnered with more than 100 ecosystem partners, most of which are government agencies, and receive data about their ecosystems.
You can find the full report here.
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