This post is an update of July 2012’s list of African leaders with a Facebook presence. All percentage changes represent growth over an 8-month period.

Interest in Facebook pages of African heads of state is at an all-time high. Fan growth rates have once again increased over the past few months after slowing a year ago. Impressively, median the growth rate for Facebook “likes” has increased to 48% (the highest monthly growth rate in the past two years). Now, a typical African leader (a gross generalization) has over 7,000 Facebook fans – up from less than 5,000 in July 2012.

Moreover, quite a few nations have a new leader since July 2012. Ethiopia has a new Prime Minister (Hailemariam Desalegn) following the death of Meles Zenawi. John Mahama is President of Ghana following the death of John Atta-Mills. Ali Zeidan is now the Prime Minister of Libya. Hassan Sheikh Mohamoud was elected president of Somalia. And, Uhuru Kenyatta is President-elect of Kenya.

Roughly a dozen African leaders currently have an official Facebook page (most are still unofficial or fan-run). None appear to have added one in the past eight months. Still, the typical African head of state now has over 7,000 Facebook likes and is gaining about 300 new ones per month. The numbers vary widely, but are a barometer of national growth and level of democracy.

For a leader, a widely-followed page could represent:

1. Ability to utilize social media
2. General involvement with citizens
3. Efficacy
4. Media attention
5. Campaigning ability

The number of Facebook likes also tends to mirror the availability of Internet access within a country. Of course, many “likes” come from citizens living abroad, or simply those with international interests.

Growth trends & countries of interest:

• Median “like” growth rate has increased to 48% (the highest monthly growth rate in the past two years).
• The median number of likes for a leader has grown from 4,900 to 7,300, but ranges greatly from a few (Mauritania) to more than a million (Egypt).
• Only Central African Republic’s Francois Bozize’s page lost fans (likely due to the conflict [declining support] within country).
• Like count growth of leader pages with greater than 20,000 likes has increased since slowing a year ago. Rates are now solid double-digit again.
• Less than 5% growth in Algeria, Central African Republic, Morocco, Seychelles.
• Absolute numbers of fans continue to be low in Burundi, Equatorial Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Madagascar, and Sudan (plus most island nations).
• Unusually rapid growth given volume was noted for Botswana 253%, Egypt 223%, Gabon 334%, Namibia 254%, Niger 323%, Sierra Leone 213%, Swaziland 357%, Zimbabwe 689%. We are unsure why a few of these leaders (ie. Botswana, Gabon, and Niger) earned so much interest from the national and international community.
• The late Ethiopian PM Meles Zenawi’s page has gained over 30,000 likes since July. The page for the new PM has gained 6,200.
• Kenya President-elect Uhuru Kenyatta has a staggering 464,000 likes after a massive campaign and widely-followed election. By comparison, current President Kibaki has only 165,000.
• Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe now has more likes than PM Morgan Tsvangirai.
• The page for Egypt’s Mohamed Morsi somehow managed to gain over 600,000 fans in only 8 months!
• Niger’s Mahamadou Issoufou has an impressive page and fan base (27,000) given the lack of Internet access in his country.
• In order of sheer fanbase, Egypt now ranks #1 in Africa: Egypt (1.1mm), Nigeria (917k), Kenya (464k), Zimbabwe (95k), Morocco (88k), Gabon (79k)

The list as of March 23, 2013:

Country	President (or other title)	Facebook Page Type (hyperlinked)	March 2013 # of Likes	% Change since July 2012
Algeria	Abdelaziz Bouteflika	Official Page	25636	3%
Angola	Jose Dos Santos	Open Group	10547	38%
Benin	Thomas Yayi Boni	Official Page	7820	5%
Botswana	Seretse Khama Ian Khama	Unofficial Page	33724	253%
Burkina Faso	Blaise Compaoré	Unofficial Page	18906	71%
Burundi	Pierre Nkurunziza	Community Page	426	84%
Cameroon	Biya Paul	Official Page	23461	54%
Cape Verde	Pedro Pires	Community Page	106	49%
Central African Republic	Francois Bozize Yangouvonda	Personal Profile?	3474	-2%
Chad	Lt Gen. Idriss Deby	Public Profile 2	965	38%
Comoros	Ahmed Abdallah Sambi	Community Page	97	11%
Congo, Republic of	Denis Sassou-Nguesso	Official Page	8973	12%
Congo, Democratic Republic of	Joseph Kabila	Unofficial Page	8940	88%
Cote d'Ivoire	Alassane Ouattara	Unofficial Page	10051	26%
Djibouti	Ismail Omar Guelleh	Unofficial Page?	5340	8%
Egypt	Mohammed Morsi	Official Page	1137853	223%
Equatorial Guinea	Brig. Gen. (ret) Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo	Community Page	178	59%
Eritrea	Isaias Afeworki	Unofficial Page	11730	36%
Ethiopia	Hailemariam Desalegn (PM))	Unofficial Page	6168	n/a
Gabon	Ali Bongo Ondimba	Official Page	79208	334%
The Gambia	Yahya Jammeh	Unofficial Page	7292	9%
Ghana	John Mahama	Unofficial Page	18204	n/a
Guinea	Sékouba Konaté	Unofficial Page	4173	8%
Guinea-Bissau	Manuel Serifo Nhamadjo	Unofficial Page	185	80%
Kenya	Uhuru Kenyatta	Official Page	463520	n/a
Lesotho	King Letsie III (King)	Unofficial Page	6757	20%
Liberia	Ellen Sirleaf Johnson	Community Page	6123	77%
Libya	Ali Zeidan (PM)	Community Page	74	n/a
Madagascar	Andry Rajoelina	Community Page	362	44%
Malawi	Joyce Banda	Community Page	1885	76%
Mali	Dioncounda Traoré	Official Page	867	18%
Mauritania	Ba Mamadou Mbaré	Community Page	3	50%
Mauritius	Sir Anerood Jugnauth	Unofficial Page	1310	16%
Morocco	King Mohamed VI (King)	Unofficial Page	88261	0%
Mozambique	Armando Emilio Guebuza	Official Page?	9333	95%
Namibia	Hifikepunye Pohamba	Community Page	3129	254%
Niger	Mahamadou Issoufou	Official Page	26734	323%
Nigeria	Dr. Goodluck Jonathan	Official Page	917003	26%
Rwanda	Paul Kagame	Unofficial Page	27504	30%
Sao Tome & Principe	Fradique De Menezes	Community Page	20	18%
Senegal	Macky Sall	Official Page	31680	15%
Seychelles	James Michel	Public Profile	4991	1%
Sierra Leone	Ernest Bai Koroma	Community Page	9194	213%
Somalia	Hassan Sheikh Mohamoud	Community Page	29	n/a
South Africa	Jacob Gedleyihlekisa Zuma	Community Page	16334	110%
South Sudan	Salva Kiir Mayardit	Community Page	1924	72%
Sudan	Omar Hassan al-Bashir	Community Page	366	49%
Swaziland	King Mswati III (King)	Community Page	1550	357%
Tanzania	Jakaya Kikwete	Official Page	59818	57%
Togo	Faure Gnassingbe	"Fan Club"	5743	12%
Tunisia	Moncef Marzouki	Unofficial Page	2550	8%
Uganda	Lt. Gen. Yoweri Kaguta Museveni	Unofficial Page	12644	60%
Zambia	Michael Sata	Unofficial Page	3222	13%
Zimbabwe	Robert Gabriel Mugabe	Community Page	95940	689%
Zimbabwe	Morgan Tsvangirai (PM)	Official Page	82196	18%

Note: The above table lists all top African heads of state (usually President or PM) and provides a link to the most popular Facebook page, group, or profile for a given leader. The final column shows how many users “Like” (are interested in) the particular leader. In many cases a best guess has been used to determine the owner of a page.

Stats from July 2010, December 2010, March 2011, June 2011, October 2011, February 2012, and July 2012 are also available.