Q&A: The World Bank’s Makhtar Diop on how to accelerate economic growth in Africa
With sub-Saharan Africa seeing its lowest growth rate in two decades amid low commodity prices, the World Bank is urging the continent to seize the moment to make change. Policy reform and economic diversification is the formula the bank hopes can help propel Africa out of its downward turn.
There are a growing number of reasons to be hopeful. Commodity and oil exporting countries such as Angola and Nigeria were hit hard by the fall in global commodity prices. Yet other noncommodity exporters including Tanzania, Ethiopia, Cote d’Ivoire and Senegal continue to record improved economic growth.
“The theme of urgency and accelerating the pace is critical in what we will be doing,” Makhtar Diop, World Bank’s vice president for Africa, told Devex, explaining the institution’s priorities and approach to eliminate poverty from the continent.
“What we want is to move into full-fledged programs that will enable us to diversify our economies and have the structural changes that are needed for Africa,” he said.
Diop explained that this would require investing in nontraditional commodity exporting sectors, boosting intra-Africa trade, building infrastructure needed to drive and sustain economic activities, and addressing the critical economic bottlenecks.
One of the most vital is energy access, he said. The institution plans to work with African countries to make energy more available and affordable, as a way of addressing the shortage of power supply on the continent. An improved power supply can help rebound growth rates, as more countries have the electricity needed to drive major business activities.
Improving the lives of people in rural areas is another priority, as are the continent’s youth. “What we would like to do is to make sure that the work of youth in Africa becomes more central in the design of our programs,” Diop told Devex. Click the link to read the full conversation:
