TRADE AND INVESTMENT

                             

Niger’s economic freedom score is 54.7, making its economy the 137th freest in the 2020 Index. Its overall score has increased by 3.1 points due to an improvement in the fiscal health score. Niger is ranked 25th among 47 countries in the Sub-Saharan Africa region, and its overall score is approximately equal to the regional average and well below the world average. The Nigerien economy has been mostly unfree for well over a decade. The economy has been expanding at a healthy rate, however, driven by agriculture, donor-financed infrastructure projects, and exports of oil, uranium, and gold. Niger has simplified business regulation by reducing the cost of building permits, improving access to electricity, making property registration faster, and improving the process to enforce contracts This report states that Niger is largely self-sufficient in essential foodstuffs; local diets have improved substantially and are generally well-balanced between main components; surpluses, particularly of millet and sorghum, which are exported to neighboring countries, have occurred regularly in recent years NATURAL RESOURCES The natural resources of Niger include uranium, coal, gold, iron ore, tin, phosphates, petroleum, molybdenum, salt, and gypsum. Niger has some of the largest uranium reserves in the world. It also has a good amount of oil reserves. Experts state that Niger's exports are likely to expand significantly