List of Top 10 African Export Countries

Exports from Africa were worth US$373.1 billion in 2015, down by -39.8% since 2011 and down by -34.9% from 2014. African exports represent an estimated 2.3% of total world exports which were $16.239 trillion during 2015.

Based on statistics from the International Monetary Fund’s World Economic Outlook Database, the total Gross Domestic Product for African countries amounted to roughly $5.809 trillion in 2015.

Therefore, exports account for about 6.4% of Africa’s total economic output.

Given Africa’s population of about 1.153 billion people, the total $373.1 billion in 2015 African exports translates to roughly $323 for every person on the continent.

Top African Export Countries

Below are the top African export countries that achieved the highest dollar value in global shipments during 2015. Also shown is each country’s percentage share of African exports.

Rank	Exporter	2015 African Exports	% African Total
1.	South Africa	US$81.5 billion	21.9%
2.	Nigeria	$49.5 billion	13.3%
3.	Algeria	$34.6 billion	9.3%
4.	Angola	$34.1 billion	9.1%
5.	Morocco	$22.2 billion	6%
6.	Egypt	$20.1 billion	5.4%
7.	Tunisia	$12.9 billion	3.5%
8.	Ghana	$10.3 billion	2.8%
9.	Libya	$9.5 billion	2.6%
10.	Côte d’Ivoire	$8.4 billion	2.2%

The top 10 African countries provided 75.9% of African exports for 2015.

Among the top 20 African exporters, the only countries to increase the value of their exports were Ethiopia (up 92.3% from 2011 to 2015), Cameroon (up 83.6%) and Morocco (up 2.7%).

Western Sahara led all decliners with a -65.4% drop, followed by Mali at -62% deterioration and Nigeria at -60.6%.

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