By Tony Obiechina, ABUJA
The African Development Bank (AfDB) says West Africa’s economic growth depends on Nigeria’s efficient management of its economy and successful conduct of the last general elections in the country.
Speaking at the public launch of the 2019 African Economic Putlook and the West African Regional Economic Outlook in Abuja, AfDB’s Senior Director in Nigeria, Mr. Ebrima Faal stated that “with the successful conduct of the 2019 general elections and the government’s commitment to the implementation of the Economic Recovery Growth Plan, the future looks bright for the region.”
The success of the elections he said has heightened “expectation that foreign capital inflows will increase post-election and oil prices and production are favorable, optimism for macroeconomic progress and stability in Nigeria is strong.”
He stated further, “Nigeria’s dominance in the region continues to overshadow other smaller economies to define the economic performance of the region. This was evident during the 2016 economic recession and even last year’s much improved growth rate of 1.9 percent masks faster growth in some economies in the region such as Côte d’Ivoire (7.4 percent) and Senegal (7 percent).”
The AfDB chief said, “Nigeria has recovered from the last recession. This will have positive spillovers for the region’s growth trajectory over the short to medium term.”
On the issue of external debts, Ebrima Faal lamented that “average external debt is rising in the region and has nearly doubled over the past six years to 23.6 percent of GDP at end-February 2019 compared with 13.5 percent in 2013.”
According to him, the external debt growth “has increased the burden of serving external debt. The delicate security situation in some parts of the region also continue to impede economic performance and social stability in West Africa region.”
He said migration is another concern, “fundamentally driven by rising youth unemployment. It is important for us to know and understand these challenges, because these issues need to be present in the dialogue we engage with our regional member countries, and factored in when designing development projects and programs.”
Ebrima Faal noted that “between 2017 and 2018, the continent’s average economic growth was 3.5 percent. This rate falls short of the desired rate of 7 percent required to tackle poverty and create productive and sustainable jobs, especially among the youth.”
The drivers of economic growth he noted “are gradually changing in Africa. Historically, commodity prices and domestic consumption have been the key drivers of growth, but the contribution of investment to real GDP growth has increased dramatically in recent years, partly due to public infrastructure development but also in response to macroeconomic stability, and improved business environment in a number of countries. Nonetheless, the services sector remains the dominant sector in Africa’s growth trajectory.”
Regards the new continental and regional documents, Ebrima Faal revealed that the documents have been translated into Hausa and Yoruba languages among other African languages.
According to him, “in order to expand the readership of the African Economic Outlook report and disseminate its messages, we started releasing highlights of the report in local languages widely spoken on the continent – Arabic, Hausa, and Kiswahili in 2018. This year, we added Amharic, Pidgin English, and Zulu to the pool, and the Yoruba version has just been released.”
Also speaking at the launch, Nigeria’s Minister of Finance Mrs Zainab Ahmed, represented by the Permanent Secretary Dr Mahmoud Isa Dutse said the Federal Government’s “investments and reforms in the energy sector are consistent with the recommendation contained in the African Economic Outlook 2019, notably the need to consolidate regional power pools across the continent and strengthen the regulatory bodies and frameworks.”
She however noted that, “the process of diversification and infrastructural development requires massive and considerable finance, both from the private sector and development partners. As a government, we are already utilising the capital market to raise infrastructure financing through the SUKUK bonds. Recently, the President signed Executive Order No. 8, which allows the private sector to invest in infrastructural development with a negotiated tax compensation.”
The government she added is “committed to our partnership with the African Development Bank and other critical stakeholders that can provide innovative financing to support the country’s ambition for large scale infrastructure development and Economic diversification, both of which are critical to tackling the country’s endemic poverty and inequality.”
