APA-Addis Ababa (Ethiopia) GDP growth in Africa is estimated to return to levels before COVID-19, at 3.7 percent in 2023, said Albert Muchanga African Union Commission for Trade and Industry while announcing Africa’s Development Dynamics 2023 report on Wednesday.
During the launch the report Muchanga stated that the continent’s GDP is bouncing back despite negative effects of the global crisis.
Africa needs an extra $1.6 trillion by 2030 – $ 194 billion annually – to achieve its Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), according to the 2023 edition of the report.
To attract more and better investment and fill that gap, African governments and their partners should improve information to investors, increase the capacity of African development finance institutions, and boost regional projects, the report noted.
Africa needs to take on a stronger role when it comes to investment. These are 46 billionaires in Africa, over half of them do not invest in the continent. The impact on investing and philanthropy remains small, the commissioner underscored.
“African countries should mobilize taxes efficiently as much as $500 billion and more in revenues, to enhance domestic resource mobilization,” he said.
In addition to these positive economic perspectives, the continent boasts unique human and natural assets to attract investors: half of the African population is 19 years old or younger, and the proportion of youth completing an upper-secondary or tertiary education could reach 34 percent by 2040, up from 23 percent in 2020.
Natural capital, which accounts for 19 percent of Africa’s total wealth, offers large opportunities for investing in sustainable development: for example, African forests increased the global carbon stock by 11.6 million kilotons of CO2-equivalent net emissions from 2011 to 2020, as the Congo Basin became the world’s largest carbon sink, the reported noted.
The cost of capital in Africa has also risen above the levels in other parts of the world, pricing some African governments out of bond markets while thwarting investments in transformational sectors such as renewable energy, the report added.
MG/abj/APA