According to a ranking released on September 14, 2026, by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), only four African countries scored more than 50 points out of 100 on a measure of productive capacities. These countries are the Republic of Mauritius, Seychelles, South Africa, and Cape Verde. The ranking is part of the third generation of the Productive Capacities Index (PCI, 3rd Generation), which was previously published in 2021 and 2023. This index aims to evaluate the economic potential of countries by looking at various factors that contribute to their ability to produce goods and services. UNCTAD assesses productive capacity using 43 different indicators across eight areas: human capital, natural resources, energy, transport, information and communication technologies (ICT), institutions, private sector development, and structural transformation. These indicators are used to evaluate the productive potential of 195 economies between 2000 and 2024. Each indicator is adjusted to a common scale from 0 to 100 for easier comparison. The overall score for each country is calculated using the geometric mean, a type of average that ensures a country cannot have a high overall score if it has a very low score in any key area. The Republic of Mauritius leads in Africa with an overall score of 55 points, placing it 56th globally. It performs particularly well in the institutional dimension (72.8 points), ICT (72.7 points), and energy (68 points). Seychelles comes in second in Africa and 68th globally, while South Africa ranks third in Africa and 70th globally. Cape Verde follows in fourth place in Africa and 72nd globally. Tunisia, Morocco, Botswana, Namibia, Algeria, and Egypt make up the rest of the top 10 African countries in the ranking. Globally, Denmark holds the top spot with an overall score of 70.9 points, followed by the United States, Australia, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom. This global ranking highlights the diverse levels of productive capacity among nations and underscores the challenges many countries face in developing their economic potential.