We Show the Working.
Most advisory firms publish the conclusion and keep the method. Their country scores and risk ratings are proprietary, so the reader is asked to trust the institution. This page is the other approach. Everything below describes exactly how the research on this site is produced, so any claim can be checked rather than believed.
What Is Actually Here.
These are counted from the records when the site is built. If a briefing is added or withdrawn they move on their own.
8
Markets with a published briefing
76
Distinct sources cited
24
Figures carrying their reference year
125
Statements traced to a named source
37
Questions published as unsettled
Four Rules, Enforced by the Model.
These are not editorial aspirations. Three of the four are enforced by the data model itself, which is why they hold on a slow week as well as a good one.
- 01Every figure carries its yearA number without a reference year is not information, it is decoration. The country model cannot store a figure without one, so an undated statistic cannot reach a page even by accident.
- 02Missing beats inventedWhere the research did not establish an answer, the field stays empty and the page renders nothing. No estimate, no industry average, no rounded guess borrowed from a neighbouring market.
- 03Fact, analysis and open question are labelledA reader should never have to work out whether a sentence is something we checked, something we think, or something we could not settle. Each is drawn differently and labelled on the page.
- 04Review dates are realEach briefing carries the date a person last checked it and the date it is next due. Those are review events, not build timestamps, and they are printed whether or not they flatter us.
Every Source Labelled by What It Is.
A description, not a ranking. A central bank is not senior to a regulator and a multilateral is not a consolation prize. They are different kinds of authority and the label says which.
- GovernmentA national government body or ministry.30
- MultilateralAn intergovernmental or development institution.20
- Central bankThe monetary authority for the currency in question.7
- RegulatorThe authority that licenses or supervises the activity described.6
- Professional sourceSpecialist analysis, not the operator of the thing described.4
- National statisticsThe national statistics office that compiled the figure.3
- Standard-setting bodyWrites the standard that governments or industry then adopt.3
- Industry authorityA private or industry body whose standard the market actually uses.2
- International schemeOperates the certification scheme being described.1
Three Kinds of Sentence, Drawn Differently.
- Verified fact
- Something checked against a named source, cited on the page.
- Capital Africa analysis
- Our reading of what the facts mean. Clearly ours, and clearly not a fact.
- Requires further review
- Something the research could not settle. Printed rather than dropped.
What This Is Worth to You.
- A claim you can check in a minute. Every figure carries its year and links to the body that published it, so you can take our research into a board paper and defend it.
- Structure you can act on. How a market is actually organised, which authority governs what, and what an operator has to satisfy to work there.
- Research your own advisers can build on. Your counsel and your accountants get a sourced starting point instead of a blank page, which is where their fees usually go.
- A current picture. Each briefing carries the date a person last checked it and the date it is next due, so you always know how fresh the ground under you is.
Every source on this site is named and linked, so you can go and read it yourself. If you know one of these markets better than the page does, we would genuinely like to hear from you.