The Ivory Coast has moved to the leading position in the Africa Prospects Indicators (APi) report released by global information and measurement company Nielsen.

The improvement of Ivory Coast to move ahead of of Nigeria in the overall country results comes as a surprise taking into account that the country only came in third on broader macro economic factors. Yet, its favourable economic growth and stable inflation climate and recent peaceful elections provide a fertile investment environment.

IT News Africa quotes Nielsen Africa Managing Director Allen Burch who says the strength of the APi lies in its ability to provide a clear ranking of countries based on multi-dimensional relative indicators across macro-economic, business, consumer and retail dimensions for nine of sub-Saharan Africa’s leading markets, where common measurement information is available. The report also assesses macro-economic and business prospects for a total of 26 countries, where extended metrics exist.

“This makes it possible to pinpoint that top performer, Ivory Coast’s position has improved based on its business outlook dimension, and it continues to rank top in terms of retail sentiment,” says Burch.

While Nigeria topped the inaugural list in 2015, in the latest ranking it drops to a more moderate 4th position, driven primarily by deteriorating macro-economic indicators as a result of a slump in commodity prices, in particular oil.

In addition, the consumer indicators and overall confidence levels have followed suit. Despite this, Nigerians continue to be some of the most optimistic consumers on the continent, with more positive sentiment for their job prospects and personal finances, even though immediate spending intentions and levels of spare cash are more strained.

Kenya and Tanzania climb the overall rankings to second and third place respectively, with both markets recording improvement on the macro ranking, which takes into account the economic growth performance in relation to the size of the economy.