Why Seychelles is the richest country in Africa

It will interest you to know that Seychelles is the least corrupt country in Africa. This has also aided in making the country the richest in terms of per capita GDP and most developed in Africa. Question is, what makes the smallest country in Africa the richest and most developed in the region? Well, that's what we're about to answer in this video. Before we go on, kindly subscribe to our channel if you're new here. Also turn on notifications to always get notified each time we drop a video. Stay tuned. Seychelles is an island country in the Indian Ocean. It is made up of around 115 small islands. With a population of only 92,000, it has the tiniest population of any country in Africa. It ranks as the richest country of Africa with a reported per capita GDP of $16,322 in 2021. Seychelles is characterized as a highly developed country. However, income inequality is also rampant. The country's economy is largely based on tourism. Fishing and the processing of natural resources such as coconuts also play an important role. Before tourists began to visit the country, plantations used to drive the economy of Seychelles. In recent decades, the government has tried to come up with initiatives to reduce the dependence on tourism. Although it has been suspected that Seychelles may harbor offshore oil reserves, to this date none have been found. Seychelles was uninhabited prior to being encountered by the Europeans in the 16th century. It faced competing French and British interests until coming under full British control in the late 18th century. Since proclaiming independence from the United Kingdom in 1976, it has developed from a largely agricultural society to a market-based diversified economy characterized by rapidly rising service, public sector, and tourism activities. Growth has been led by the tourist sector which employs about 30% of the labor force compared to agriculture which today employs about 3% of the labor force. As of 2013, the main export products are processed The prime agricultural products currently produced in Seychelles include sweet potatoes, vanilla, coconuts, and cinnamon. These products provide much of the economic support of the locals. Frozen and canned fish, copra, cinnamon, and vanilla are the main export commodities. From 1976, year of Seychelles independence to 2019, nominal GDP grew nearly 700% and purchasing power parity nearly 1,600%. Since the late 2010s, the government has taken steps to encourage foreign investment. Today, Seychelles boasts the highest nominal per capita GDP of any African nation. It has the second highest human development index of any African country after Mauritius. It is one of the only two African countries classified as a high-income economy by the World Bank with the other being Mauritius. Since the worldwide economic crisis of 2008, the Seychelles government prioritized a curbing of the budget deficits including the containment of social welfare costs and further privatization of public enterprises. The government has a pervasive presence in economic activity with public enterprises active in petroleum product distribution, banking, imports of basic products, telecommunications, and a wide range of other businesses. According to the 2013 Index of Economic Freedom, which measures the degree of limited government, market openness, regulatory efficiency, rule of law, and other factors, economic freedom has been increasing each year since 2010. The national currency of Seychelles is the Sichelloi Rupee. Initially tied to a basket of international currencies, it was unpegged and allowed to be devalued and floated freely in 2008 on the presumed hopes of attracting further foreign investment in the Sichelles economy. Sichelloi culture and society is an eclectic mix of French, British, and African influences with more recent infusions of Chinese and Indian elements. The country is a member of the United Nations, the African Union, the Southern African Development Community. Sichelles has emerged as the least corrupt country in Africa in the latest Corruption Perception Index report released by Transparency International in January 2020. This has played a major role in making Sichelles Island the country that it is today. Don't forget to subscribe to our channel if you are yet to. Give this video a like if you enjoyed it and feel free to drop a comment in the comment section below. Thanks for watching.