Despite global headwinds and regional shocks, Africa’s economic performance held steady and is projected to grow an average of 3.7 percent in 2016 and pick up to 4.5 percent in 2017 considering that global economy strengthens and commodity prices recover. This was contained in the African Economic Outlook 2016 released at the African Development Bank Group’s Annual Meeting.
Net financial flows to Africa in 2015 were estimated at $208 billion representing a 1.8 percent decline compared to 2014 and this is due to contraction in investment. At $56 billion in 2015, however, official development assistance increased by 4 percent; and remittances remained the most stable and important single source of external finance at $64 billion in 2015.
According to Abebe Shimeles, Acting Director, Development Research Department of the bank, “African countries, which include top worldwide growth champions, have shown remarkable resilience in the face of global economic adversity. Turning Africa’s steady resilience into better lives for Africans requires strong policy action to promote faster and more inclusive growth.”
Urbanisation is happening at an accelerated rate in the continent in line with historic demographic levels. The number of people that reside in the cities has doubled from 1995 to 472 million in 2015.
According to the authors of the report, costly urban sprawl is engendered by lack of planning. The population of Accra, Ghana, for instance, experienced growth between 1991 and 2000, increasing from 1.3 million to 2.5 million people at an average annual growth rate of 2.7 percent.
It is estimated that two-thirds of Africans are expected to live in cities by 2050. Nevertheless, the two-thirds of investments in urban infrastructure until 2050 have yet to be made. Hence, the scope is large for new, wide-ranging urban policies to turn African cities and towns into engines of growth and sustainable development for the continent as a whole.
Adequate policies are vital to engender urbanisation that can advance economic development through higher agricultural productivity, industrialization, services stimulated by the growth of the middle class, and foreign direct investment in urban corridors.
It is also a means to promote social development through safer and inclusive urban housing and robust social safety nets. Finally it can promote quality environmental management by dealing with the impact of climate change as well as the scarcity of water and other natural resources, controlling air pollution, developing clean cost-efficient public transportation systems, improving waste collection, and increasing access to energy.
Mario Pezzini, Director of the OECD Development and Acting noted that “Africa’s ongoing, multi-faceted urban transition and the densification it produces offer new opportunities for improving economic and social development while protecting the environment in a holistic manner. These openings can better be harnessed to achieve the Sustainable Development Goal – especially SDG 11 on sustainable cities and communities – and the objectives of the African Union’s Agenda 2063.”
