Learn about barriers to market entry and local requirements, i.e., things to be aware of when entering the market for this country.
Last Published: 6/26/2017
  • Niger is a vast landlocked country and has historically relied on the Port of Cotonou (Benin) and to a lesser degree Lomé (Togo), Tema (Ghana) and Port Harcourt (Nigeria), for overseas trade.
  • Niger’s investment climate is affected by the small size of Niger's market, an unskilled and uneducated workforce, a poor transportation system, periodic shortages of water and electricity, and low per capita income.  Apart from the mining and oil sectors, the economy mainly consists of subsistence agriculture, livestock and informal market activity.
  • Security remains an issue.  Al-Qaida in the Lands of the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), a terrorist group, continues its attempts to kidnap Westerners, including U.S. citizens, in Niger, and has been successful in kidnapping Europeans in the region.  A U.S. citizen was kidnapped in 2016.  Since February 2015, Boko Haram has carried out frequent and recurring attacks in the country’s northeastern region of Diffa. The Islamic State in West Africa (ISIS-WA), a splinter group from Boko Haram, is also active along the Niger-Nigeria border, and various jihadist organizations, including AQIM, operate in Mali, regularly making incursions into Niger.
  • The banking sector in Niger is considered one of the weakest in the WAEMU.  Less than one percent of the population has a bank account.
  • Niger’s judicial system lacks independence and capacity to deal with the volume of cases.  The judiciary's independence is not respected by the executive, and rulings by the Constitutional Court and Supreme Court are often ignored.  High-ranking politicians frequently act with impunity and are rarely subject to judicial action.
  • Niger ranks 187 out of 188 countries on the 2016 United Nations Human Development Index.
  • The government has publicly acknowledged that official corruption is a problem and is making efforts to address it.  In August 2011, the GON created the High Authority to Combat Corruption and Related Crimes (Haute Autorité de Lutte contre la Corruption et les Infractions Assimilées, HALCIA).  The Ministry of Justice has also set up an anti-corruption hotline.  In April 2016, the GON jailed eight senior civil servants on allegations of corruption and fraud concerning the recruitment of 1,831 government workers in the health sector.

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