Economy · Africa ranking
Lending Interest Rate by African country
Zimbabwe has the highest bank lending interest rate of any African country, at 68.9%, ahead of Madagascar and Malawi.
Bank rate that usually meets the short- and medium-term financing needs of the private sector. 42 of 54 countries, ranked · World Bank — World Development Indicators, 2024.
By region
Full ranking
| # | Country | Lending Interest Rate | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Zimbabwe | 68.9% | |
| 2 | Madagascar | 60% | |
| 3 | Malawi | 37.1% | |
| 4 | Somalia | 33.7% | |
| 5 | Egypt | 24.3% | |
| 6 | Democratic Republic of the Congo | 23.3% | |
| 7 | Gambia | 22% | |
| 8 | Mozambique | 21.7% | |
| 9 | Sierra Leone | 20.6% | |
| 10 | Uganda | 19.8% | |
| 11 | Angola | 19.4% | |
| 12 | Sao Tome and Principe | 17.8% | |
| 13 | Mauritania | 17% | |
| 14 | Tanzania | 16.7% | |
| 15 | Kenya | 16.6% | |
| 16 | Rwanda | 16% | |
| 17 | South Sudan | 14.7% | |
| 18 | Nigeria | 14% | |
| 19 | Liberia | 13.3% | |
| 20 | Guinea | 12.9% | |
| 21 | South Africa | 11.6% | |
| 22 | Burundi | 11.2% | |
| 23 | Lesotho | 11.2% | |
| 24 | Namibia | 11% | |
| 25 | Eswatini | 10.9% | |
| 26 | Seychelles | 9.8% | |
| 27 | Zambia | 9.5% | |
| 28 | Mauritius | 9.4% | |
| 29 | Comoros | 8% | |
| 30 | Algeria | 8% | |
| 31 | Ethiopia | 8% | |
| 32 | Cabo Verde | 7.8% | |
| 33 | Botswana | 6.3% | |
| 34 | Benin | 6.3% | |
| 35 | Burkina Faso | 6.3% | |
| 36 | Libya | 6% | |
| 37 | Cote d'Ivoire | 5.3% | |
| 38 | Guinea-Bissau | 5.3% | |
| 39 | Mali | 5.3% | |
| 40 | Niger | 5.3% | |
| 41 | Senegal | 5.3% | |
| 42 | Togo | 5.3% |
Get this ranking via API
One call to /v1/data returns the latest Lending Interest Rate figure for every country you pass — JSON, with source metadata on each observation.
curl "https://api.africa-api.com/v1/data?metric_key=lending_interest_rate_pct&latest=true&country_codes=NG,KE,ZA,EG" \
-H "Authorization: Bearer $AFRICA_API_KEY"Cite or republish this ranking
Data: Africa API — World Bank — World Development Indicators, 2024. Free to republish with a link to this page. Pull the live figures via the API above so your version never goes stale.
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Frequently asked questions
Which African country has the highest bank lending interest rate?
Zimbabwe has the highest bank lending interest rate in Africa at 68.9% (2024), followed by Madagascar and Malawi.
Which African country has the lowest bank lending interest rate?
Togo has the lowest bank lending interest rate of the 42 African countries with data, at 5.3% (2016).
How many African countries report Lending Interest Rate data?
42 of 54 African countries have a recent Lending Interest Rate figure in the Africa API. Each value links to the country's full series with source and history.
How do I get this ranking via API?
Call GET /v1/data?metric_key=lending_interest_rate_pct&latest=true with the country codes you need and a free Africa API key — the response returns the latest value per country as JSON.
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