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Quickstart
Create an API key and make your first authenticated request for African country data.
Create an API key, then request Nigeria's country signals. The examples below use a shell with curl.
Create an API key
Open the dashboard, create an account or sign in, then generate an API key.
Export your API key
export AFRICA_API_KEY="your_api_key_here"Fetch a country snapshot
curl "https://api.africa-api.com/v1/countries/ng/signals" \
-H "Authorization: Bearer $AFRICA_API_KEY"The response combines available observations for Nigeria. Check the observation dates: sources update on different schedules. Coverage lists the topics available by country.
Query one indicator
Use /v1/data when you need a specific metric. This request asks for the latest available population observation for Kenya:
curl "https://api.africa-api.com/v1/data?country_code=ke&metric_key=population_total&latest=true" \
-H "Authorization: Bearer $AFRICA_API_KEY"latest=true selects the most recent stored observation; it does not imply a measurement from today. See Data for year filters and time-series queries.
Data routes require an API key. Keep production keys on your server and out of public client-side code. See Authentication.
Try another route
For reference fields such as a country's name and codes:
curl "https://api.africa-api.com/v1/countries/ng" \
-H "Authorization: Bearer $AFRICA_API_KEY"For a country trade overview:
curl "https://api.africa-api.com/v1/trade/overview/ng?top_limit=5" \
-H "Authorization: Bearer $AFRICA_API_KEY"Handle errors and quotas
A missing or invalid key returns 401. A 429 can mean a per-minute limit or an exhausted monthly quota; the retry behavior differs. See Errors and Rate limits.