africa-api-mcp

Africa API MCP Server

An MCP server that gives Claude direct access to the Africa API — comprehensive data on all 54 African nations including economic indicators, markets, trade, government, elections, and policies.

Quick Start

1. Get an API key

Sign up at africa-api.com and create an API key from your dashboard.

2. Connect your client

The server runs on demand via npx — nothing to install or host. Pick your client:

Claude Code (one command):

claude mcp add africa-api -e AFRICA_API_KEY=your-api-key-here -- npx -y africa-api-mcp

Claude Desktop — add to ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json (macOS) or %APPDATA%\Claude\claude_desktop_config.json (Windows), then restart:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "africa-api": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "africa-api-mcp"],
      "env": { "AFRICA_API_KEY": "your-api-key-here" }
    }
  }
}

Cursor — add to ~/.cursor/mcp.json (global) or .cursor/mcp.json (per project) with the same mcpServers block as above.

VS Code (Copilot agent mode) — one command:

code --add-mcp '{"name":"africa-api","command":"npx","args":["-y","africa-api-mcp"],"env":{"AFRICA_API_KEY":"your-api-key-here"}}'

Any other MCP client works with the same npx -y africa-api-mcp command plus the AFRICA_API_KEY environment variable. The server is also listed in the MCP Registry as io.github.africa-api/africa-api-mcp.

What You Can Ask Claude

Once connected, Claude can answer questions like:

• "What's the GDP of Nigeria vs South Africa over the last 10 years?"
• "Show me current FX rates for East African currencies"
• "Who is the head of state of Kenya and when did they take office?"
• "What elections are coming up in Africa this year?"
• "What are Nigeria's top 5 export products?"
• "Show me the policy timeline for Rwanda"
• "Rank African countries by life expectancy"
• "What stocks are listed on the Nigerian Exchange?"
• "Compare trade flows between Kenya and Tanzania"

Available Tools

41 tools across 9 domains:

Domain	Tools	What It Covers
Countries	4	Country details, profiles, real-time signals for all 54 nations
Indicators & Data	4	200+ indicators (GDP, population, health, energy, trade, etc.), time-series queries, country rankings
Government	6	Heads of state, cabinets, leadership terms — current and historical
Elections	5	Election results, upcoming elections, country overviews
Markets	8	Stock exchanges, index levels, listed securities, price history, FX rates
Trade	4	Bilateral trade flows, top partners, product breakdowns
Policies	6	Laws, regulations, policy timelines, lifecycle events
Sources & platform	3	Data provenance and platform info — World Bank, IMF, UN, Ember, central banks
Geographies	1	Continent / region / subregion hierarchy

All tools are read-only (annotated readOnly + idempotent) and return both human-readable text and structured JSON output for programmatic clients.

Configuration

Environment Variable	Required	Default	Description
AFRICA_API_KEY	Yes	—	Your Africa API bearer token
AFRICA_API_BASE_URL	No	https://api.africa-api.com	Override for local development

Development

git clone https://github.com/africa-api/africa-api-mcp.git
cd africa-api-mcp
npm install
npm run build

# Run directly
AFRICA_API_KEY=your-key node dist/index.js

# Test with MCP inspector
AFRICA_API_KEY=your-key npx @modelcontextprotocol/inspector node dist/index.js

License

MIT