Signals

Use country signals for a compact current snapshot across indicators, FX, local prices, transport, grid conditions, climate, humanitarian displacement, disaster alerts, markets, trade, and government context.

Country Signals

GET/v1/countries/{country_code}/signals

Returns a compact current snapshot for one country.

This endpoint is the simplest way to combine:

latest selected macro and infrastructure indicators
latest local fuel and food price notices where official country sources exist
latest power-system condition signals where official operators publish current status
latest airport and port operations where official operators publish monthly traffic
latest weather and rainfall signals where trusted current climate sources exist
latest humanitarian displacement signals where UNHCR publishes country-of-asylum totals
latest disaster alerts where GDACS flags an active country-linked event
latest FX rates tied to the country
latest commodity benchmark prices used as global reference signals
latest exchange-level market snapshots when country-linked market coverage is available
compact trade context
compact government context

Signals can now mix:

slower annual backbone metrics
fresher monthly operational metrics
central-bank published current rates where a country source is wired in
central-bank published current bill or money-market rates where a country source is wired in
central-bank published current rates where a country or currency-union source is wired in
official local price notices where a regulator publishes current retail prices
official local food price notices where a country source publishes current wholesale staples
official grid and outage status signals where a national operator publishes current system conditions
official airport and port traffic signals where operators publish monthly throughput or movement totals
daily weather and rolling rainfall signals where a current climate source is wired in
latest UNHCR displacement counts where official annual country totals are available
current disaster alerts where GDACS publishes an active country-linked event

Monthly/latest observations include as_of_period so clients can tell which month the signal actually represents. Location-specific signals also include location_name.

Use it when you want a fresh operational summary without composing several endpoint families yourself.

Requires an API key.

country_codestringrequired

ISO alpha-2 code such as ng, ke, za

Request

curl "https://api.africa-api.com/v1/countries/ke/signals" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $AFRICA_API_KEY"

Response

{
  "data": {
    "country": {
      "code": "ke",
      "name": "Kenya",
      "capital": "Nairobi",
      "region": "East Africa"
    },
    "observations": [
      {
        "metric_key": "inflation_cpi_latest_yoy_pct",
        "name": "Inflation (Latest YoY)",
        "value": 4.8,
        "unit": "percent",
        "year": 2025,
        "frequency": "monthly",
        "source": "cbk_ke_signals",
        "freshness": "current",
        "as_of_period": "2026-01",
        "retrieved_at": "2026-03-09T18:00:00Z"
      },
      {
        "metric_key": "policy_rate_pct",
        "name": "Policy Rate (Latest)",
        "value": 8.75,
        "unit": "percent",
        "year": 2026,
        "frequency": "ad_hoc",
        "source": "cbk_ke_signals",
        "freshness": "recent",
        "as_of_period": "2026-02-10",
        "retrieved_at": "2026-03-09T18:00:00Z"
      },
      {
        "metric_key": "petrol_price_local_per_liter",
        "name": "Petrol Price (Latest)",
        "value": 186.31,
        "unit": "local_currency_per_liter",
        "year": 2026,
        "frequency": "monthly",
        "source": "epra_ke_fuel_signals",
        "freshness": "current",
        "as_of_period": "2026-03",
        "location_name": "Nairobi",
        "retrieved_at": "2026-03-15T09:00:00Z"
      },
      {
        "metric_key": "maize_wholesale_price_local_per_kg",
        "name": "Maize Wholesale Price (Latest)",
        "value": 70.74,
        "unit": "local_currency_per_kg",
        "year": 2026,
        "frequency": "monthly",
        "source": "world_bank_ke_food_signals",
        "freshness": "current",
        "as_of_period": "2026-03",
        "location_name": "Market Average",
        "retrieved_at": "2026-03-21T09:00:00Z"
      },
      {
        "metric_key": "precipitation_7d_mm",
        "name": "Precipitation (7 Day Total)",
        "value": 16.0,
        "unit": "millimeters",
        "year": 2026,
        "frequency": "ad_hoc",
        "source": "nasa_power_climate_signals",
        "freshness": "current",
        "as_of_period": "2026-03-05 to 2026-03-11",
        "retrieved_at": "2026-03-16T09:00:00Z"
      },
      {
        "metric_key": "refugees_hosted_total",
        "name": "Refugees Hosted",
        "value": 626546,
        "unit": "persons",
        "year": 2025,
        "frequency": "annual",
        "source": "unhcr_displacement_signals",
        "freshness": "recent",
        "retrieved_at": "2026-03-16T09:00:00Z"
      },
      {
        "metric_key": "load_shedding_stage",
        "name": "Load Shedding Stage (Latest)",
        "value": 0,
        "unit": "stage",
        "year": 2026,
        "frequency": "ad_hoc",
        "source": "eskom_za_grid_signals",
        "freshness": "current",
        "as_of_period": "2026-03-12",
        "retrieved_at": "2026-03-12T18:00:00Z"
      },
      {
        "metric_key": "mobile_subscriptions_per_100",
        "name": "Mobile Cellular Subscriptions",
        "value": 118.6,
        "unit": "subscriptions_per_100_people",
        "year": 2024,
        "frequency": "annual",
        "source": "world_bank_wdi",
        "freshness": "recent",
        "retrieved_at": "2026-03-09T11:39:09Z"
      }
    ],
    "disaster_alerts": [
      {
        "event_key": "1102919:1:fl:ke",
        "event_type": "FL",
        "name": "Flooding in Kenya",
        "description": "Heavy rain and flooding conditions",
        "alert_level": "orange",
        "alert_score": 2.4,
        "severity_value": 120.0,
        "severity_text": "Heavy rain",
        "severity_unit": "mm/24h",
        "event_from_at": "2026-03-13T09:00:00Z",
        "event_to_at": "2026-03-16T09:00:00Z",
        "source_modified_at": "2026-03-13T10:30:00Z",
        "report_url": "https://www.gdacs.org/report.aspx?eventid=1102919",
        "details_url": "https://www.gdacs.org/report.aspx?eventid=1102919&episodeid=1",
        "source_system": "GDACS",
        "source": "gdacs_disaster_alerts",
        "freshness": "current"
      }
    ],
    "commodity_benchmarks": [
      {
        "commodity_key": "crude_oil_benchmark_usd_per_bbl",
        "commodity_name": "Crude Oil Benchmark",
        "unit": "usd_per_bbl",
        "currency_code": "USD",
        "price_date": "2026-01-01",
        "price_value": 74.8,
        "source": "world_bank_pink_sheet_signals",
        "freshness": "recent"
      },
      {
        "commodity_key": "maize_benchmark_usd_per_mt",
        "commodity_name": "Maize Benchmark",
        "unit": "usd_per_mt",
        "currency_code": "USD",
        "price_date": "2026-01-01",
        "price_value": 215.0,
        "source": "world_bank_pink_sheet_signals",
        "freshness": "recent"
      }
    ],
    "fx_rates": [
      {
        "base_currency": "USD",
        "quote_currency": "KES",
        "rate": 129.44,
        "date": "2026-03-08",
        "source": "fx_usd_daily",
        "freshness": "current"
      }
    ],
    "market_snapshots": [],
    "trade": {
      "latest_year": 2024,
      "granular_latest_year": 2024,
      "granular_years": [2023, 2024]
    },
    "government": {
      "current_head_of_state": {
        "leader_name": "William Ruto",
        "role_type": "head_of_state"
      }
    },
    "generated_at": "2026-03-09T18:00:00Z"
  }
}

Current Coverage Today

Use this table as the live coverage map for the signals layer:

Country or scope	Live signal families
Kenya	central bank, fuel prices, food prices, climate
Morocco	central bank
Namibia	central bank
Nigeria	central bank, grid, climate
South Africa	central bank, grid, fuel prices, airport traffic, airport on-time performance, port operations, climate
Tanzania	central bank, climate
Tunisia	central bank, climate
Countries with active GDACS alerts	disaster alerts
Countries with UNHCR totals	displacement context
All 54 countries	historical highlight observations in the same payload

For a broader product view, see Coverage.

Service Coverage Matrix

Country or scope	Macro	Prices	Power	Airports	Ports	Climate	Risk context
Kenya	Yes	Fuel and maize	-	-	Yes	Yes	GDACS and UNHCR when present
Morocco	Yes	-	-	-	-	Historical backbone	GDACS and UNHCR when present
Namibia	Yes	-	-	-	-	Historical backbone	GDACS and UNHCR when present
Nigeria	Yes	-	Yes	-	-	Yes	GDACS and UNHCR when present
South Africa	Yes	Fuel	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	GDACS and UNHCR when present
Tanzania	Yes	-	-	-	-	Yes	GDACS and UNHCR when present
Tunisia	Yes	-	-	-	-	Yes	GDACS and UNHCR when present
WAEMU countries	BCEAO policy rates	-	-	-	-	Historical backbone	GDACS and UNHCR when present
CEMAC countries	BEAC policy rates	-	-	-	-	Historical backbone	GDACS and UNHCR when present

South Africa Full Example

South Africa Signals

curl "https://api.africa-api.com/v1/countries/za/signals" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $AFRICA_API_KEY"

Representative Mixed Response

{
  "country": {
    "code": "za",
    "name": "South Africa",
    "capital": "Pretoria",
    "region": "Southern Africa"
  },
  "observations": [
    {
      "metric_key": "policy_rate_pct",
      "value": 7.5,
      "unit": "percent",
      "frequency": "ad_hoc",
      "source": "sarb_za_signals",
      "as_of_period": "2026-01-30"
    },
    {
      "metric_key": "petrol_price_local_per_liter",
      "value": 20.3,
      "unit": "local_currency_per_liter",
      "frequency": "monthly",
      "source": "dmre_za_fuel_signals",
      "as_of_period": "2026-03",
      "location_name": "Gauteng Zone 9C"
    },
    {
      "metric_key": "load_shedding_stage",
      "value": 0,
      "unit": "stage",
      "frequency": "ad_hoc",
      "source": "eskom_za_grid_signals",
      "as_of_period": "2026-03-12"
    },
    {
      "metric_key": "airport_passengers_ytd_total",
      "value": 34282784,
      "unit": "passengers",
      "frequency": "monthly",
      "source": "acsa_za_airport_signals",
      "as_of_period": "2026-01"
    },
    {
      "metric_key": "airport_on_time_performance_latest_month_pct",
      "value": 90.66,
      "unit": "percent",
      "frequency": "monthly",
      "source": "acsa_za_on_time_performance_signals",
      "as_of_period": "2026-02"
    },
    {
      "metric_key": "port_container_throughput_latest_teu",
      "value": 373644,
      "unit": "teu",
      "frequency": "monthly",
      "source": "tnpa_za_port_signals",
      "as_of_period": "2025-06"
    },
    {
      "metric_key": "precipitation_7d_mm",
      "value": 9.1,
      "unit": "millimeters",
      "frequency": "ad_hoc",
      "source": "nasa_power_climate_signals",
      "as_of_period": "2026-03-05 to 2026-03-11"
    }
  ],
  "fx_rates": [
    {
      "base_currency": "USD",
      "quote_currency": "ZAR",
      "rate": 15.58,
      "date": "2026-03-14",
      "source": "fx_usd_daily"
    }
  ],
  "market_snapshots": [
    {
      "exchange_code": "JSE",
      "latest_trade_date": "2026-03-14",
      "source": "jse_yahoo_eod"
    }
  ],
  "trade": {
    "latest_year": 2024,
    "granular_latest_year": 2024
  },
  "government": {
    "current_head_of_state": {
      "leader_name": "Cyril Ramaphosa",
      "role_type": "head_of_state"
    }
  }
}

When To Use Signals

Use /v1/countries/{country_code}/signals when you need:

a dashboard card payload
an agent-friendly current snapshot
a compact country summary for operational use
benchmark commodity context without querying another endpoint family

Use /v1/data when you need:

full time series
multi-country comparisons
explicit metric/frequency filtering
direct source pinning

Transport operations now include South Africa airport and port signals plus Kenya port signals, so /v1/countries/za/signals and /v1/countries/ke/signals both carry official live logistics context.

Example for a latest monthly signal through the canonical observation endpoint:

Latest Monthly Signal Via /v1/data

curl "https://api.africa-api.com/v1/data?country_code=ke&metric_key=inflation_cpi_latest_yoy_pct&latest=true" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $AFRICA_API_KEY"

Freshness Model

Each signal carries a simple freshness label:

current
recent
historical

That label is derived from frequency, year, retrieved timestamp, or market/FX trade date.

Signals do not replace the historical observation layer. They are a convenience view over the platform's latest useful country-level state.

Where a central-bank source is available, /signals will prefer that country-specific source over a broader monthly feed for the same latest-signal metric. Today that includes Kenya, South Africa, and Nigeria.

Some current price signals are local or market-specific rather than national. Kenya fuel prices currently reflect the official EPRA Nairobi notice, South Africa fuel prices reflect the official DMRE Gauteng reference zone and national paraffin retail cap, and Kenya food prices reflect the latest World Bank Kenya market estimates. These carry location_name and other source context so clients can label them accurately.

Some current operational signals are national system statements rather than economic statistics. South Africa power-system signals come from Eskom’s power status updates, Nigeria power-system signals come from NISO’s daily grid statement, South Africa airport traffic and on-time performance come from ACSA’s monthly operational statistics, and South Africa port operations come from TNPA’s monthly national port statistics. These are best treated as operational context rather than long-run structural indicators.

Some current climate signals are daily point-based estimates rather than annual national indicators. NASA POWER temperature, humidity, and rolling rainfall values are included as current operational context and are best interpreted as recent geospatial climate signals.

Some current risk signals are event-driven rather than periodic statistics. GDACS disaster alerts indicate active country-linked floods, cyclones, earthquakes, wildfires, volcanic events, and related emergencies when GDACS currently reports them.

Commodity benchmarks are global reference series. They are included in /signals as current context, not as country-specific observations.