By Adeyemi Adepetun
• Higher oil prices and reforms implementation to place Nigeria above others
• Yearly GDP expansion of 8.5% expected for Ghana by 2017

AN economic insight into the African region has projected that economies including Nigeria, South Africa, Botswana, Zimbabwe and Ghana will outpace global average anytime soon.



This projection was contained in a report titled: ‘Economic Insight: Africa Q3 2015’, authored by the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales (ICAEW), and produced by the Centre for Economics and Business Research Ltd (Cebr), launched on September 30 in London, and made available to The Guardian, yesterday.

According to the report, which also drew on estimates prepared by the World Bank, it disclosed that the total level of external financial inflows into Africa has increased from $40.4 billion in 2000 to $192 billion in 2013.

It noted that this was largely attributed to the inward Foreign Direct Investments (FDIs) from China with investment mainly going into primary resource sectors and infrastructure.

Regional Director, ICAEW Middle East, Africa and South Asia, Michael Armstrong, said China has approached African economies in a very different way to Europe, focusing less on official aid and engaging more aggressively through foreign direct investment and trade.

Amstrong said this has been a game changer for the development industry, forcing European countries to rethink their strategy of connecting with the continent.

He disclosed that at turn of the century, private finance constituted 62 per cent of African economies’ total inflows.

“Today, that number has risen to over 70 per cent, signalling a shift in investors’ perceptions of the market. Thanks to resource wealth, West Africa and Southern Africa are leading the way, attracting the majority of FDI; though East Africa is catching up. This is partly thanks to efforts for closer integration in the East African Community (EAC), which has involved harmonising investment regulations across the region and reducing red tape”, he stated.

Furthermore, the report observed that much of the non-resource focused growth can be attributed to African infrastructure projects and investment in consumer-oriented industries including: rail projects in Uganda, Nigeria and Zimbabwe; Ethiopia’s textile, real estate, automobile and rail industries; Eritrea and Tanzania’s shipping industries; and Kenya and Rwanda’s real estate industries.

According to Danae Kyriakopoulou, ICAEW economic adviser and the report’s author, “while economic development naturally varies across the continent, Africa’s regional outlook as a whole remains bright with a number of projects expected to bolster growth.”

The report informed that Nigeria is expected to experience growth in the medium term helped by higher oil prices and the implementation of reforms. It projected a yearly GDP expansion of 8.5 per cent for Ghana by 2017; Ivory Coast should remain on a high growth path into 2016.

Also, growth in Angola is expected at four per cent, while the pace of GDP expansion in South Africa is forecast to see a gradual pick-up over the next three years.


Source:http://www.nairausd.com/2015/10/africas-economic-growth-to-outpace.html?m=1

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