The African Development Bank (AfDB) African has projected economic growth to rise from 3.4 per cent in 2019 to 3.9 per cent in 2020 and 4.1 per cent in 2021.
The AfDB President, Dr Akinwumi Adesina disclosed this during a public presentation of African Economic Outlook 2020 in Abidjan on Thursday.
Adesina said that this aggregate growth rate masks was highly diversified and in resilient growth patterns.
He explained that 20 countries were projected this year to grow at three to five per cent while 20 countries were projected to achieve growth rates of five per cent and above which he said was impressive.
He added that African economies were growing well, higher than the global average.
“Even more impressive is that six of the 10 fastest growing economies in the world are now in Africa.
Adesina announced the countries as “Rwanda with 8.7 per cent Cote d’Ivoire 7.4 per cent, Ethiopia 7.4 per cent, Ghana 7.1 per cent, Tanzania 6.8 per cent and Benin 6.7 per cent.
“Some regions are growing faster than others. East Africa is the fastest growing region with growth rate of five per cent in 2019, followed by North Africa 4.1 per cent, West Africa 3.7 per cent, Central Africa 3.2 per cent and Southern Africa 0.7 per cent.
“For the first time in more than one decade, growth in Africa is due largely to expansion of investments rather than consumption, as well as from exports.
“Just think of the following, Foreign Direct Investment to Africa rose by 11 per cent in 2019, compared to just four per cent in Asia, while it declined by -13 per cent globally and by -23 per cent for developed economies” he explained.
Adesina however said Africa faced important economic headwinds that could affect future growth.
According to him, global trade tensions have weakened global trade volumes, whose growth rate declined from 5.7 per cent in 2017 to just 1.1 per cent in 2019 is one of the problems.
“Another challenge has been the impact of climate change, especially from the extreme weather patterns such as cyclones that devastated Mozambique, Malawi and Zimbabwe, as well as widespread drought across southern Africa and East Africa.
The African Development Bank provided 106 million dollars to support Mozambique, Zimbabwe and Malawi in the immediate aftermath of the cyclones, in addition to other emergency support.
“African countries cannot continue to reel from one emergency to another emergency”
The president said the Bank had used its Africa Disaster Risk Insurance Facility to pay for insurance premiums for countries facing extreme weather events that had helped to provide 36 million dollars in payout to countries.
He added that It was time now for the international community to help scale up this facility to reach many more countries.
