The CEO Brief
Weekly flagship
A weekly read of what moved across African markets, what it means for a business like yours, and the one or two decisions it should change.
Helps you decide: where to lean in this month, and what to hold.
SME Intelligence · Six African markets
GrowthIntelAfrica turns the noise of African markets into clear, evidence-backed intelligence a founder can act on. Weekly briefs, quarterly research and hands-on advisory, for owners and managers of businesses with 5 to 500 people.
Think Bloomberg's discipline, Morning Brew's readability and McKinsey's rigor, aimed at the African SME. We report, research and advise. The goal is simple: be the place a serious operator checks before a real decision.
What GrowthIntelAfrica does
Weekly flagship
A weekly read of what moved across African markets, what it means for a business like yours, and the one or two decisions it should change.
Helps you decide: where to lean in this month, and what to hold.
Quarterly · six markets
Quarterly SME confidence across six African markets, with sector indices and the State of African SMEs. Open methodology, and a country's number is published only once its sample is real enough to be honest.
Helps you decide: whether the quarter ahead favours expansion or caution.
Diagnostics & growth strategy
Diagnostics and growth strategy for SME leadership teams. We sell outcomes, not slide decks: find what is holding the business back, then fix the sequence of moves that changes it.
Helps you decide: the highest-return move to make next, with the reasoning shown.
Put the research to work
The Business Health Check and the Decision Centre run against your own figures, free. The Operator's Report is the paid depth tier that reads your score against a real cohort.
Helps you decide: where your business stands, and what to do about it.
The Decision Centre
Four tools free, always. One paid depth tier — the Operator's Report — built on GI·Research data.
Markets at a glance
Why it matters: Just under half of firms expect output to rise over the coming year — optimism held but dipped to a three-month low (Stanbic IBTC PMI, August).
Why it matters: Headline is easing (July, 2nd month down), but food inflation is still climbing — the CBN stays at 26.5%, so borrowing stays dear this quarter.
Why it matters: If you import stock or inputs, a weaker naira lifts your landed costs into next quarter's pricing.
Why it matters: Above 50 means private-sector activity is growing — August's rise was the joint-largest in over two-and-a-half years, a seventh straight month of strengthening (Stanbic IBTC, August).
FX rates from ExchangeRate-API, updated daily (as of 24 Sept 2026). Bitcoin is live via CoinGecko; gold, Brent & cocoa are from Yahoo Finance futures (as of 18 Sep 2026). Stock indices are from Mansa Markets (African exchanges) and Yahoo Finance (S&P 500), each shown at its own latest available close — the date is on every tile, because not every exchange refreshes on the same day. Output optimism, inflation & PMI are from NBS / CBN / Stanbic IBTC (Aug 2026). Confidence and sentiment on this board are national PMI readings, not the GIA Operator Outlook, which stays honest and empty until its own sample is real.
Why operators trust it
Most of what gets published about African business is guessed, rounded up, or quietly modelled. We do the opposite. Every figure traces back to a method you can read. When a market's sample is too thin to be honest, we label it coverage building and show no number at all. A market at “building” is always better than a fabricated one.
Coverage Map
Tap a country to see its coverage status.
GrowthIntelAfrica launches with deep Nigerian coverage — the market we've reported on for six years. Ghana, Kenya, South Africa, Egypt and Morocco follow through 2026, as the Operator Outlook and industry desks extend market by market.
Explore each economy →
This week · 3 developments that matter
Nigeria's CPI eased to 15.4% but food hit 20.3%; Kenya's 6.6% hides transport at 15.7%; Ghana's 5.0% masks tomatoes up 458%. Three markets, three lived squeezes, one comforting average.
→ Stop pricing to the national CPI. Build your own basket index and price to what your customers actually pay.
Cooking jollof for five rose 158% in Nigeria and 51% in Ghana over 2.5 years — yet a pot now costs more in dollars in Accra than Lagos, because naira depreciation masks how far local costs have climbed.
→ If you earn naira, benchmark costs in naira — the dollar view flatters and misleads.
With food supply-driven and import-dependent, Nigeria's Oct–Nov main harvest will move inflation more than the CBN's rate — and FEWS NET warns flooding could deepen the squeeze.
→ Don't lock 2027 food-cost assumptions before the harvest is in. Contract flexibly; keep a second supply origin.
The Flagship — Every Monday
EDITION №07 · FRIDAY, 18 SEPTEMBER 2026
The cost-of-living squeeze has stopped being a shock and become the baseline. This week we introduce the Real Basket Index across all six markets, and the two macro shocks, a firmer dollar and higher oil, now point the same way rather than cancelling out. Where momentum is building, where risk is rising, and three moves to make now.
Weekly Market Intelligence · Six markets
Industry Intelligence Index · Quarterly
The Industry Intelligence Index scores each sector on four things: demand, margin conditions, credit conditions and hiring, so a founder sees at a glance whether their world is opening up or tightening.
It is quarterly, and it is honest: a sector shows a number only once its inputs are compiled under the published method. No desk is scored yet, so none carries a figure. When one does, clicking it will show the data behind the score, the Brief coverage and the Business Autopsy files.
Ask a real business question. GrowthIntel answers from our research, the CEO Brief and sector data — then points you to the right tool or advisor. Evolving into a full Decision Assistant that asks the questions back.
Conversational Decision Assistant launches Q4 2026. Join the newsletter for early access.
Who it is for
Primary
Businesses of 5 to 500 people, in Nigeria today and across five more markets through 2026. You make the decision. We give you the reading behind it, in language that respects your time.
Also read by
Anyone who needs a ground-level, honestly-sourced view of the African SME economy rather than a headline number with no method behind it.
Create a free founder account, pick your sector, and the dashboard, index, Brief and tools re-rank around what matters to you — your industry, your risks, your saved Health Check score over time.
Product Roadmap — a multi-year platform
GrowthIntelAfrica is founded and written by Olawale Osoba — the operator behind Naijabusinessguy, six years of daily Nigerian business coverage and the Weekly Market Watch that became the CEO Brief. Every edition carries his read, and his record: the calls are made on the page, scored on the page, and corrected on the page when they miss.
That is the standard the whole platform is built on — decision intelligence you can trace to a named analyst who stands behind it. In Nigeria, we publish as Naijabusinessguy. Across Africa, as GrowthIntelAfrica. Same desk, same standard.
GI·Advisory · Booking Open
Diagnostics and growth strategy for SME leadership teams — evidence first. Tell us where you are; we'll bring the analysis.
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