Speakers on the second day of the 2nd edition of the African Economic Symposium (AES) highlighted the importance of diversifying African economies, improving productivity and promoting access to finance to foster inclusive and resilient growth.
On this occasion, Professor at the British Academy and SOAS University of London, Arkebe Oqubay Metiku, pointed out that over the last 50 years, Africa’s economic growth has averaged 3.5% compared to 4.9% in Asia, thus highlighting the delay in structural transformation in Africa, in terms of productive capacities, exports and economic diversification.
For her part, the President of the African Centre for Economic Transformation in Ghana, Mavis Owusu-Gyamfi, highlighted the regression of economic diversification which, over the past twenty years, has fallen by 5.9 points and of export competitiveness which has fallen by 0.9 points, stressing the importance of economic resilience in the face of shocks.
As for the senior advisor at the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change, Taffere Tesfachew, he specified that the quality of economic transformation in Africa remains limited, penalized by the limited productive capacity and the absence of improvement in productivity.
On financing, Mr. Tesfachew stressed domestic resource mobilization as a key source of financing, noting that revenues collected by African governments average 17% of GDP, compared to about 40% in developed countries and 25-30% in emerging developing countries.
For his part, Director and CEO of the Institute of Industrial Development Studies in India, Nagesh Kumar, noted similarities between the development trajectories of India and several African countries, including the fact that they are going through a phase of demographic dividend with a rapidly expanding youth population.
However, for this demographic dividend to turn into an advantage, it is crucial to invest in the digital revolution and industry 4.0, which are changing the structure of the labor market, he said.
A second panel dedicated to the role of development financing in resolving social challenges highlighted the limits of internal financing to implement structural transformation in Africa and Morocco, thus paving the way for increased dependence on external financing.
Experts discussed the importance of finding sustainable ways to combat multidimensional poverty and finance social protection projects without worsening inequalities, stressing the need to mobilize domestic resources while improving the efficiency of public spending to maximize the impact of social investments.
Organized on July 11 and 12, under the theme “Promoting Africa’s economic transformation through innovative financing”, this edition of the AES aims to explore the new challenges of macroeconomic management and to focus on promoting Africa’s economic transformation.
2024-09-10 18:13:26