Cape Verde - a picture of stability and vitality among African nations

Cape Verde is consistently recognized as a standout among the 50-plus nations in Africa. There are various authorities who benchmark countries across the globe on various measures of performance, including the World Heritiage Foundation, the US Central Intelligence Agency, The World Health Organization, the United Nations, among others.

Cape Verde also has excellent international relations and is a member of: United Nations, World Trade Organization, the European Union's Cotonou partnership with 79 African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) states, as well as the lusophonic groups CPLP (a community of Portuguese language countries) and PALOP (the group of Portuguese-speaking African countries).

Cape Verde consistently ranks very high among the various measures and sponsors of independent evaluation. In particular, there is one widely recognized measure of governance among African countries that is compiled by an independent African authority - the Ibrahim Index of African Governance.


The Ibrahim Index is compiled by the Dr. Mo Ibrahim Foundation with the technical assistance from experts at the US Brookings Institution. It's ultimate goal is to provide not only a ranking but to engage the governments and citizens of the African countries in an honest dialogue that leads to improvements in their governance.

Cape Verde ranks high on the governance index. It was the 4th best African nation based on the 2010 index. Here's a summary of the 2010 Index Top 5 rankings overall and in each category.

Overall
1. Mauritius
2. Seychelles
3. Botswana
4. Cape Verde
5. South Africa

Safety and Rule of Law
1. Mauritius
2. Botswana
3. Cape Verde
4. Seychelles
5. Namibia

Participation & Human Rights
1. Cape Verde
2. Mauritius
3. Botswana
4. South Africa
5. Seychelles

Sustainable Economic Opportunity
1. Mauritius
2. Botswana
3. Cape Verde
4. Seychelles
5. Tunisia

Human Development
1. Seychelles
2. Libya
3. Tunisia
4. Mauritius
5. Botswana

Cape Verde ranked 9th on the Human Development measure. Among the smaller African nations, it actually ranked 2nd in this category. The only reason it ranked 9th in this category is because other large African countries such as South Africa, Egypt, Libya, Algeria and Tunisia had a better education system. But even so, it was still ranked 9th in the education subcategory among all African nations regardless of size.

These impressive statistics demonstrate that Cape Verde is the country in Africa that provides US investors the best opportunity to capitalize on well conceived investments. The opportunity is much closer to the US, both literally and figuratively, than many Americans might imagine Africa to be.