Annual publication · open access
WAEMU Investment Barometer
Reliable data on investment in francophone West Africa does not exist — or it is dated, partial, paywalled. We publish the report we ourselves wanted to find.
The Barometer will be published every year, free and without a paywall. Leave your email to receive it as soon as it is out.
Why we publish it
Because the data is missing
Africa investment reports cover four or five anglophone markets. The WAEMU zone appears in a footnote, when it appears at all.
Because it drives decisions
Without comparables, an investor cannot value and a founder cannot position themselves. Missing data is not neutral: it makes capital more expensive for everyone.
Because it must be free
Paywalled reference data never becomes a reference. We publish it openly — our contribution to the ecosystem, and our way of being judged on results.
What each edition will contain
- Amounts invested and ticket sizes observed, by sector and by country
- Mapping of the investors genuinely active in the zone
- Financing stages: exactly where the bottleneck sits
- Field signals: what gets financed, and what should
- Open methodology, cited sources, stated limitations
Our method, and its limits
We will cross-reference publicly disclosed transactions, statements from active investors and our own field observations. We will publish the methodology and name what we cannot measure — a share of transactions stays confidential, and an honest barometer says so rather than filling the gaps with flattering estimates.
Get the first edition
The Barometer is sent to subscribers of Real Markets Insider, our letter on real-economy investment in West Africa.