The Cape Verdean government argued on Monday (5) that it is possible to triple the country’s gross domestic product (GDP) per capita — wealth per inhabitant — within ten to twelve years, turning the archipelago into a high-income country.
“If today we grow at 6% to 7% [per year], if we invest in crucial areas, I have no doubt that we can quickly reach double-digit growth, and if we manage to do that consistently over a decade, at most 12 years, we will reach 15,000 dollars in GDP per capita,” which would allow Cabo Verde to “catapult itself into a high-income country,” said Olavo Correia, Vice-Prime Minister.
Among the crucial areas identified are connectivity, digital transition, energy transition and the qualification of human capital.
The official, who is responsible for Finance and the Digital Economy, was speaking at a press conference in which he said that, with the 2026 State Budget (OE), “the journey begins” for the archipelago to move up another rung, after being promoted in 2025 to an upper-middle-income country by the World Bank.
Legislative elections will take place in the coming months (on a date to be set by the President of the Republic), but Olavo Correia noted that Cabo Verde is a “stable” and “predictable” country, and that the next government will decide what to do with the State Budget and other instruments.
“The results we have achieved so far are what we have up our sleeve to show that it is possible” to reach this ambition, he explained. In addition, Olavo Correia pointed to “very positive trends, in tourism and beyond”.
“If we manage to make the leap in critical sectors, I have no doubt that we will attract more private investment and more international public investment, not in the form of grants, but through other financing instruments,” he added, stressing: “However, this will have to be a collective mission, not just the government’s. It is a mission within our reach.”
Olavo Correia also referred to the country’s recent sporting achievements to support his arguments. “If you had asked me months ago whether Cabo Verde could be in the football, basketball and handball world championships, and in the Women’s Africa Cup of Nations, I would surely have said no, because there is no money for travel, for this or that. But it was possible,” he concluded.
The 2026 State Budget amounts to 95.7 billion escudos (870 million euros) and, at the macroeconomic level, forecasts growth of around 6%, inflation of about 1.6%, an unemployment rate of 7.3% and a budget deficit of 0.9% of GDP.
As for public debt, it is expected to fall to 97.4% of GDP in 2026.
The document was approved by Parliament at the end of November and promulgated a month later by the President of the Republic, José Maria Neves.
