Top Exports |
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Other Oily Seeds |
Rice |
Uranium and Thorium Ore |
Radioactive Chemicals |
Refined Petroleum |
Top Imports |
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Cars |
Packaged Medicaments |
Excavation Machinery |
Cement |
Rice |
Niger, officially the Republic of Niger, is a landlocked country in Western Africa, named after the Niger River. Niger is bordered by Libya to the northeast, Chad to the east, Nigeria and Benin to the south, Burkina Faso and Mali to the west, and Algeria to the northwest. Niger covers a land area of almost 1,270,000 km2, making it the largest country in West Africa, with over 80 percent of its land area covered by the Sahara Desert. The country's predominantly Islamic population of 17,138,707 is mostly clustered in the far south and west of the country. The capital city is Niamey, located in the far southwest corner of Niger.
Niger's financial system remains weak and shallow with money supply accounting for only 18.8 percent of the GDP in 2010, well below the 41 percent sub-Saharan average. The deposits to GDP ratio is one of the lowest in the WAEMU, with the banking systems aggregate balance sheet only 5.3 percent of the total of all member countries. The number of available financial instruments is limited, and scarce access to financing hinders dynamic business activity.
As in most African low-income countries, the banking sector, which counts 10 commercial banks, is heavily concentrated and dominates the financial sector. Together, the four major commercial banks control about 90 percent of total financial sector assets. The country's deposit to GDP ratio is among the lowest in the West African Economic and Monetary Union (WAEMU).
Access to finance is limited, with less than 5 percent of the population using any form of financial products. Enormous bank fees, which can reach 30 percent of average monthly income, contribute to the low figure. In an effort to expand access to finance, the government has established a Microfinance Regulation Agency with a mandate to supervise and strengthen the sector.
Agriculture | Pearls millet, Sorghum, cassava, rice, potatoes, wheat, peppers, garlic. |
Manufacture | Textiles, Uranium mining, cement, food processing, chemicals, brick. |
Agriculture | 39% |
Industry | 16.3% |
Services (Including financial) | 41.6% (2011 estimate) |
Company | Industry |
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Air Niamey | Airline |
COMINAK Basic | Resources |
Dounia TV | Media |
NIGELEC | Electricity |
Office of Radio and Television of Niger | Media |
Societe Nigerienne de Transports de Voyageurs | Industrial |
SOMAIR | Basic Resources |
SONIDEP | Oil & gas |
SONITEL | Telecom |
Tele Sahel | Media |
Top Exports |
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Other Oily Seeds |
Rice |
Uranium and Thorium Ore |
Radioactive Chemicals |
Refined Petroleum |
Top Imports |
---|
Cars |
Packaged Medicaments |
Excavation Machinery |
Cement |
Rice |
The Bourse Régionale des Valeurs Mobilières SA ("Regional Securities Exchange SA") or BRVM, is a regional stock exchange serving the following West African countries: Benin, Burkina Faso, Guinea Bissau, Côte d'Ivoire, Mali, Niger, Senegal, Togo.
The exchange is located in Abidjan, Cote d'Ivoire. Market offices are maintained in each country. BRVM is a private corporation with 2,904,300,000 CFA francs in capital.
The mission of the BRVM is to:
Time line Market integration by the BRVM is a political, institutional and technical success. The Bourse Régionale and Dépositaire Central/Banque de Règlement (DC/BR) were established in several phases:
In January 2000, Niger's newly elected government inherited serious financial and economic problems including a virtually empty treasury, past-due salaries (11 months of unpaid salaries) and scholarship payments, increased debt, reduced revenue performance, and lower public investment. In December 2000, Niger qualified for enhanced debt relief under the International Monetary Fund program for Highly Indebted Poor Countries and concluded an agreement with the Fund on a Poverty Reduction and Growth Facility (PRGF).
In addition to changes in the budgetary process and public finances, the new government has pursued economic restructuring towards the IMF promoted privatization model. This has included the privatization of water distribution and telecommunications and the removal of price protections for petroleum products, allowing prices to be set by world market prices. Further privatizations of public enterprises are in the works.
In its effort to comply with the IMF's Poverty Reduction and Growth Facility plan, the government is also taking action to reduce corruption and, as the result of a participatory process encompassing civil society, has devised a Poverty Reduction Strategy Plan that focuses on improving health, primary education, rural infrastructure, and judicial restructuring.
A long-planned privatization of the Nigerien power company, NIGELEC, failed in 2001 and again in 2003 due to a lack of buyers. SONITEL, the nation's telephone operator which was separated from the post office and privatized in 2001, was renationalized in 2009. Critics have argued that the obligations to creditor institutions and governments have locked Niger into a process of trade liberalization that is harmful to small farmers and in particular, rural women.
Niger is a developing country, and is consistently one of the lowest-ranked in the United Nations' Human Development Index (HDI); it was ranked last at 188th for 2014. Much of the non-desert portions of the country are threatened by periodic drought and desertification. The economy is concentrated around subsistence and some export agriculture clustered in the more fertile south, and the export of raw materials, especially uranium ore. Niger faces serious challenges to development due to its landlocked position, desert terrain, inefficient agriculture, high fertility rates, and resulting overpopulation without birth control, poor education, and poverty of its people, lack of infrastructure, poor health care, and environmental degradation.
Nigerien society reflects a diversity drawn from the long independent histories of its several ethnic groups and regions and their relatively short period living in a single state. Historically, what is now Niger has been on the fringes of several large states. Since independence, Nigeriens have lived under five constitutions and three periods of military rule. Following a military coup in 2010, Niger has become a democratic, multi-party state. A majority live in rural areas and have little access to advanced education.
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Mahamadou Issoufou (President) |
Brigi Rafini (Prime Minister) |
Ali Lamine Zeine (Minister of Finance) |
Ousseini Tinni (President of National Assembly) |
The West African CFA franc (French: franc CFA;Portuguese: franco CFA or simply franc, ISO 4217 code: XOF) is the currency of eight independent states in West Africa: Benin, Burkina Faso, Guinea-Bissau, Ivory coast, Mali, Niger, Senegal and Togo. These eight countries have a combined population of 105.7 million people (as of 2014), and a combined GDP of US$78.4 billion (as of 2012).
The acronym CFA stands for Communauté Financière d'Afrique ("Financial Community of Africa") or Communauté Financière Africaine ("African Financial Community"). The currency is issued by the BCEAO (Banque Centrale des États de l'Afrique de l'Ouest, "Central Bank of the West African States"), located in Dakar, Senegal, for the members of the UEMOA (Union Économique et Monétaire Ouest Africaine, "West African Economic and Monetary Union"). The franc is nominally subdivided into 100 centimes but no centime denominations have been issued.
The Central African CFA franc is of equal value to the West African CFA franc, and is in circulation in several central African states. They are both the CFA franc.
National Song | "La Nigérienne" |
Currency | West African CFA franc (XOF) |
Languages | French |
Population | 18.194 Millions |
GDP / GDP Rank | 20.144 Billion USD |
GDP Growth Rate | 4 Percent |
GDP Per Captial | $1107.179 (PPP) |
Size | 1,267,000 km² |
Inflation | 1.097 Percent |
Time Zone | UTC+01:00 (WAT) |
Interest Rate | 4.50% |
Religion | < 1.0% Christians 98.4% Muslims < 1.0% Hindus < 1.0% Buddhists < 1.0% Jews < 1.0% Other Religions |
Ethnic Group | Haoussa 55.4% Djerma Sonrai 21% Tuareg 9.3% Peuhl 8.5% |
Government | Republic President – Mahamadou Issoufou Prime Minister – Brigi Rafini |
Website | Go to the web |
Driving Side | RIGHT |
Public Debt | 45.941 Percent |
Import | $2.194 Billion |
Export | $1.177 Billion |
Unemployment Rate | 2.634 Percent |
Labor Force | 4688000 |
Labor Force (Occupation) | - |
Culture | - |