Sub-Sahara Africa's Economies to create Jobs
THE ability of Sub-Saharan Africa’s economies to generate enough jobs for its young and growing population rests on the successful implementation of urgent reforms to boost productivity.
This is according to the key finding of the Africa Competitiveness Report 2017, published last week.
The report indicated that without urgent action to address stagnating levels of competitiveness, Africa’s economies will not create enough jobs for the young people entering the job market
“If current policies remain unchanged, less than one-quarter of the 450 million new jobs needed in the next 20 years will be created
“Policy priorities include reform to improve the quality of institutions, infrastructure, skills and adoption of new technology. House construction and better urban planning present opportunities for short-term competitiveness gains,” the report indicates.
The biennial report comes at a time when growth in most of the region’s economies has been slowing despite a decade of sustained growth, and was likely to stagnate further in the absence of improvements in the core conditions for competitiveness.
The report indicated that compounding the challenge to Africa’s leaders is a rapidly expanding population, which is set to add 450 million more to the labour force over the next two decades. Under current policies, only 100 million jobs look set to be created during this period.
Findings of the report indicates that Africa’s young, dynamic population does, however, possess the potential to lead an economic revival in the region, backed by targeted long- and short-term reforms in key areas.
The report states that priority action areas for improved competitiveness include strengthening institutions to enable faster and more effective policy implementation as failure of implementation in the past had often been attributed to weak institutions
Improved infrastructure, to enable greater levels of trade and business growth was another area to consider in the long term.
The report states that developing value-chain links to extractive sectors to encourage diversification in resource-rich countries and increasing housing construction through investment, better urban planning and less bureaucracy was key in short term
World Economic Forum head, centre for Global Agenda and member of the managing board Richard Samans, said removing the hurdles that prevent Africa from fulfilling its competitiveness potential was the first step required to achieve more sustained economic progress and shared prosperity.
World Bank Group Director of the Trade & Competitiveness Global Practice, which contributed to the report, Klaus Tilmes advised African governments to enact polices that improve levels of productivity and the business environment for trade and investment to meet the aspirations of their growing youth populations.
“The World Bank Group is helping governments and the private sector across Africa to take the steps necessary to build strong economies and accelerate job creation to benefit from the potential demographic dividend,” he said.
African cities have to update their urban plans, taking into account demographic and economic developments in the last decades.
This is crucial to address the shortage of urban infrastructure and availability of land for residential housing.
This is according to the key finding of the Africa Competitiveness Report 2017, published last week.
The report indicated that without urgent action to address stagnating levels of competitiveness, Africa’s economies will not create enough jobs for the young people entering the job market
“If current policies remain unchanged, less than one-quarter of the 450 million new jobs needed in the next 20 years will be created
“Policy priorities include reform to improve the quality of institutions, infrastructure, skills and adoption of new technology. House construction and better urban planning present opportunities for short-term competitiveness gains,” the report indicates.
The biennial report comes at a time when growth in most of the region’s economies has been slowing despite a decade of sustained growth, and was likely to stagnate further in the absence of improvements in the core conditions for competitiveness.
The report indicated that compounding the challenge to Africa’s leaders is a rapidly expanding population, which is set to add 450 million more to the labour force over the next two decades. Under current policies, only 100 million jobs look set to be created during this period.
Findings of the report indicates that Africa’s young, dynamic population does, however, possess the potential to lead an economic revival in the region, backed by targeted long- and short-term reforms in key areas.
The report states that priority action areas for improved competitiveness include strengthening institutions to enable faster and more effective policy implementation as failure of implementation in the past had often been attributed to weak institutions
Improved infrastructure, to enable greater levels of trade and business growth was another area to consider in the long term.
The report states that developing value-chain links to extractive sectors to encourage diversification in resource-rich countries and increasing housing construction through investment, better urban planning and less bureaucracy was key in short term
World Economic Forum head, centre for Global Agenda and member of the managing board Richard Samans, said removing the hurdles that prevent Africa from fulfilling its competitiveness potential was the first step required to achieve more sustained economic progress and shared prosperity.
World Bank Group Director of the Trade & Competitiveness Global Practice, which contributed to the report, Klaus Tilmes advised African governments to enact polices that improve levels of productivity and the business environment for trade and investment to meet the aspirations of their growing youth populations.
“The World Bank Group is helping governments and the private sector across Africa to take the steps necessary to build strong economies and accelerate job creation to benefit from the potential demographic dividend,” he said.
African cities have to update their urban plans, taking into account demographic and economic developments in the last decades.
This is crucial to address the shortage of urban infrastructure and availability of land for residential housing.