Africa and Middle East

The rebasing of Nigeria’s GDP in 2014 has made it Africa’s largest economy. There are hopes that the new democratically elected president, former military man Muhammadu Buhari, might steer Africa’s most-populous country towards its potential. But Nigeria has serious challenges to overcome before it can get down to business.

1. Security
   Boko Haram insurgents have killed thousands of people, pushed their war across borders and declared allegiance to Isis. Regionally co-ordinated military action has won back ground but the group still carries out bombings, suicide attacks and raids. Buhari was elected partly due to his military background and pledge to defeat Boko Haram so 2016 is when he must deliver on that promise. But this “is just one element in a portfolio of security challenges”, says Antony Goldman, director at business-risk consultancy Promedia Consulting. The oil-producing Niger Delta in the south remains a renegade region, while piracy is rising in the increasingly lawless Gulf of Guinea.

2. Corruption
   Nigeria has a problem with corruption, from the petty extortions of street bribery to the grand theft of government oil income. Most damaging is graft orchestrated by political elites. Buhari is famed for his “War Against Indiscipline” when, as military ruler from 1983 to 1985, he cracked down on corruption while paying little heed to human rights. Buhari echoed that initiative in October when he promised to check “unruly behaviour”.

3.
Oil prices
The collapse in world oil prices could be a blessing or a curse for Nigeria. About 95 per cent of the country’s export earnings are from oil and this may be the push needed to diversify. There is huge agricultural potential, while the sheer weight of human capital in a country of more than 160 million is immense. Equally, it may be calamitous if the government fails to pay salaries, debt piles up and the fuel subsidies that are the basis of Nigeria’s social contract become impossible to meet. Whichever way it goes, Goldman says 2016 “could prove a critical moment, even for a country so well-versed in dancing on the edge”.

Rawabi (“The Hills”) is a $1.2bn (€1.1bn) new city in the West Bank, the brainchild of Palestinian-US millionaire Bashar Masri. Delayed by issues with access roads and water pipelines that go through Israeli-controlled land, Rawabi is now set to house about 2,000 people by the start of 2016, a fraction of the 40,000 capacity planned.

The city is a middle-class dream if you overlook the Israeli checkpoints on the road to Ramallah and the many Jewish settlers hostile to the project. Still, Rawabi is already one of the largest job providers in the West Bank and Masri wants the city to become a technology hub. Next year will test whether the model can work.

Ameenah Gurib-Fakim brings intellectual heft to Mauritius’s presidency. One of the island nation’s leading scientists, a former university dean and the head of her own biodiversity research company, Gurib-Fakim succeeded in becoming the country’s first female head of state in June.

Although her role may be mostly ceremonial, she hasn’t wasted any time in pushing for science-friendly policies including a 10-year tax holiday for those professionals who are returning to Mauritius. It’s all part of a greater bid to reverse the brain drain that Mauritius – like a number of other African countries – suffers from. Gurib-Fakim is also a welcome case of brains trumping brawn in a region where politics is replete with ageing despots and upstart coup leaders.