African Defence Budgets Ranked: The Ten Biggest Spenders

African defence budgets reached $58.2 billion in 2025, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), an 8.5% rise in real terms and the third consecutive annual increase. This ranking of African defence budgets uses SIPRI’s April release as its backbone: Algeria leads at $25.4 billion, followed by Morocco at $6.3 billion and South Africa at $3.2 billion. The guide explains the method, ranks the ten largest spenders, marks which figures come from secondary compilations and lists what SIPRI’s totals leave out, including Sudan.

African defence budgets: methodology and data sources

The ranking orders countries by their 2025 military expenditure in US dollars. The backbone is SIPRI’s fact sheet on world military expenditure, published on 27 April. Its growth rates are in real terms at constant 2024 prices. It puts world spending at $2,887 billion, of which Africa accounts for about 2.0%.

The fact sheet names only some African countries. Algeria, Morocco, South Africa, Nigeria and the Democratic Republic of the Congo are taken from it directly. Egypt, Tunisia, Kenya, Angola and Uganda are taken from a compilation by African Exponent of SIPRI’s database, which the outlet says it accessed in October. These are secondary figures and are labelled as such in the table. A reader who needs an exact figure for a legal or commercial purpose should check the country row in SIPRI’s database, which is revised when national data change.

Three limits apply. SIPRI’s Africa total excludes Djibouti, Eritrea and Sudan. The compilation shows no 2025 value for Libya. National budget laws, such as those of Morocco and Algeria, are plans in local currency and are discussed separately, not ranked.

Ranking of the ten biggest African defence budgets

Tunisia, Kenya and Angola round to the same figure, so ranks 6 to 8 depend on two-decimal values that later revisions could reorder. The ten together total about $46.5 billion, roughly four-fifths of the continental figure, though the compilation’s current-dollar values and SIPRI’s constant-price totals are not strictly additive.

Top entries explained

Algeria spent $25.4 billion, up 11%. That is 8.8% of GDP and 25% of government spending, the second-highest share in the world after Ukraine on both measures, according to SIPRI. Its military burden was 5.7% of GDP in 2016.

Morocco’s $6.3 billion, up 6.6%, is the second largest in Africa. SIPRI attributes the trend largely to tension with Algeria, especially over Western Sahara. South Africa’s $3.2 billion is the largest in sub-Saharan Africa but 19% below its 2016 level, and SIPRI notes the Auditor General is investigating about $900 million of historical irregular expenditure at the Defence Department.

Egypt’s $2.5 billion sits oddly beside its place as the best-ranked African army in the Global Firepower index. Our Egypt military strength profile explains why no two sources agree on what Egypt spends, and a SIPRI background paper has flagged gaps in the data Egypt reports.

Nigeria’s $2.1 billion, up 55%, is the second largest in sub-Saharan Africa, driven by insurgency and extremist violence. The Democratic Republic of the Congo’s $1.2 billion, up 20%, reflects escalating conflict with a Rwandan-backed armed group in the first half of 2025, before a ceasefire in July. Somalia, outside the top ten, spent $199 million, down 4.6% in a year but 173% above 2016.

Regional patterns and trends

North Africa dominates the continental total. Ecofin Agency, reporting on the SIPRI release, put North Africa at 60% of the African figure and said Algeria and Morocco together account for more than 90% of it.

By simple division, Algeria alone accounts for about 44% of the continental figure, and Algeria and Morocco together for more than half. The average military burden across Africa was 1.8% of GDP, well below Algeria’s 8.8%. The pattern is one of a few large, rivalry-driven spenders in the north and a larger group of mid-sized budgets in the south shaped by insurgency and border conflict.

Recent changes in national budgets

Budget laws point to continuity at the top. Algeria’s draft budget for the following year set defence at about 3,208 billion dinars, roughly $25 billion and almost a quarter of public spending, according to The New Arab, which called it a level maintained from 2025. Morocco’s draft Finance Bill, reported by Hespress on 20 October 2025, allocated 157.17 billion dirhams, against 133 billion the year before and 124 billion before that.

South Africa shows the gap between a budget and what is spent. The Defence vote rises from R57.6 billion to R61.5 billion, but most of the growth is the department’s own income, and a salary overspend approaching R4 billion has not been addressed, as set out in our South Africa defence budget analysis. In Nigeria, a presidential pay rise of between 30% and 80% took effect on 1 September, covered in our Nigerian Army salary guide, which may feed into personnel costs in later SIPRI estimates.

What the numbers do not show

The largest gap is Sudan. Our Sudan defence budget page notes that SIPRI’s last published Sudanese figure is for 2021, and the continental total excludes the country. Eritrea and Djibouti are also left out, and Libya has no 2025 value in the compilation.

Dollar rankings also hide how money is spent. Pay, pensions, procurement and paramilitary costs are not separated, and a currency fall can move a country down the table without any cut in local-currency spending. Budgets are plans, whereas SIPRI estimates actual spending, so overspends and off-budget items can widen the difference between the two. Rankings by share of GDP or by spending per soldier would also reorder the list: a mid-sized economy with a large army can rank high on burden and low on dollars.

Frequently asked questions about African defence budgets

Which African country has the biggest defence budget?

Algeria, with $25.4 billion in 2025 according to SIPRI, up 11% on 2024. That equals 8.8% of its GDP and 25% of government spending. Morocco is second at $6.3 billion, and South Africa is third at $3.2 billion among the countries SIPRI names in its fact sheet.

How much does Africa spend on defence in total?

SIPRI puts African military expenditure at $58.2 billion in 2025, up 8.5% in real terms and 45% above 2016. That is about 2.0% of world spending. The total excludes Djibouti, Eritrea and Sudan, so actual continental spending is somewhat higher than the headline figure.

Which African country raised defence spending most in a year?

Among the countries SIPRI highlights, Nigeria had the largest one-year rise: 55%, to $2.1 billion, linked to insurgency and extremist violence. The Democratic Republic of the Congo followed with 20%. Somalia’s spending is up 173% since 2016, but fell 4.6% in the latest year.

Why do sources disagree on Egypt’s defence spending?

Egypt’s military finances are not fully itemised, and costs linked to paramilitary activity sit outside the official budget, according to a SIPRI background paper cited in our Egypt profile. Different outlets therefore quote different totals. The $2.5 billion figure used here is a secondary compilation of SIPRI data and should be checked against the database.

Sources

• SIPRI: Trends in World Military Expenditure, 2025
• SIPRI Fact Sheet (PDF), April release
• SIPRI press release: global military spending rise continues
• SIPRI Military Expenditure Database
• Ecofin Agency: Africa’s military spending up 8.5% to $58 billion
• African Exponent: Top 10 biggest defense budgets in Africa
• Hespress: Morocco allocates record 157 billion dirhams for defense
• The New Arab: Defence remains Algeria’s top yearly expenditure