Ibrahim Foundation has shown that the quality of governance in African countries is not an indicator of economic growth as top performing economies on the continent rank low on the quality of governance index.

The Ibrahim Index of African Governance (IIAG) provides an annual assessment of the quality of governance in African countries under four main conceptual categories: Safety and rule of law, participation and human rights, sustainable economic opportunity and human development.

Although it noted that average overall governance performance has slightly improved, the report is a call for action to the continent as some categories show that the ‘Africa Rising’ narrative may be making economies across the continent relent, with sectors like banking showing weakness. Some trends over the past five years show Africa must buckle up.

The most deteriorated indicators over the last five years were Soundness of Banks, Domestic Armed Conflict and Gender Equality in the Workplace. This should make Africa worry, as the banking sector was seen as one of the most stable sectors since the financial crisis of 2008.

The most deteriorated sub-category over the past five years was accountability, while the most deteriorated category was the safety and rule of law.

Mauritius topped this year’s IIAG, scoring 81.7 percent. South Africa was fourth with an overall score of 73.3 percent. Seychelles was sixth with 73.2 percent.

East Africa’s largest economy, Kenya, ranked 17th on the quality of governance index, six places below fellow East AFrican country, Rwanda, whose economic growth has been widely attributed to the leadership of President Paul Kagame.

Nigeria may be Africa’s largest economy and may be recording an average growth of 6 percent, but the West African powerhouse came 37th on the list, scoring  45.8 percent.

War-ridden Central African Republic scored 24.8 percent to come 51st on the list. Somalia was considered the country with the poorest governance, coming last on the 52-country list.