THE Foreign Direct Investment (FDI), attracted by the Africa’s emerging markets and fast urbanisation, stood at $56.5 billion in 2016 and is projected to reach $57 billion in 2017.
Such investment has diversified away from the natural resources sector to construction, financial services, manufacturing, transport, electricity, and information and communication technology.
This is the content of the African Economic Outlook (AEO) 2017 released Monday, May 22 at the African Development Bank Group’s 52nd Annual Meetings.
“Although economic headwinds experienced in the last two years appear to have altered the ‘Africa rising’ narrative’, we firmly believe the continent remains resilient, with non-resource dependent economies sustaining higher growth for much longer spell. With dynamic private sectors, entrepreneurial spirit and vast resources, Africa has the potential to grow even faster and more inclusively,” stated Abebe Shimeles, Acting Director, Macroeconomic Policy, Forecasting and Research Department, at the African Development Bank.
Specifically, Nigeria as well as other African countries has been urged to unlock the potentials of entrepreneurship in order to accelerate Africa’s industrial transformation.
In the latest publication, the need for African governments to integrate entrepreneurship more fully into their industrialisation strategies was seriously appreciated.
It stated that in 2016, Africa’s economic growth slowed down to 2.2 per cent from 3.4 per cent in 2015 due to low commodity prices, weak global recovery and adverse weather conditions.
According to the report, Africa’s growth increasingly relies on domestic sources, as shown by dynamic private and government consumption that combined, accounted for 60 per cent of growth in 2016.
It further stated that African governments need to push their agenda for job creation with more ambitious and tailored policies.
However, despite a decade of progress, 54 per cent of the population in 46 African countries is still trapped in poverty across multiple dimensions – health, education and living standards. “And demands for better employment opportunities are the main reason behind continued public protests, having motivated a third of all public demonstrations between 2014 and 2016 – albeit in a context of decreasing levels of civil unrest.
“With the size of the workforce likely to increase by 910 million between 2010 and 2050, creating more and better jobs will remain the core challenge for African policy-makers.
and then