Curated Reports

SPECIAL ECONOMIC ZONES

Source: World Investment Report     Report Date: May 2020

Direct and indirect economic contributions of SEZs Zones can give a boost to investment, exports and jobs. However, they are neither a precondition nor a guarantee for above-average performance on FDI and GVC participation. The overall impact on economic growth tends to be temporary: after a build-up period, most zones grow at the same rate as the national economs. Investment attraction. Zones are a key investment promotion tool and can play an important role in attracting FDI (figure IV.18). Through adequate infrastructure and best practice, zones can to a certain degree compensate for an adverse investment climate. Unfortunately, the impact... Read Full Report
INDUSTRIAL CLUSTERS

Source: Brookings & Partners     Report Date: May 2020

What is needed for effective SEZ development? Africa has been a relative latecomer to the use of SEZs, and part of the reason for the failure of African SEZs may simply be poor timing. The rapid growth and contribution of economic zones to export-led growth in East Asia was in part driven by an unprecedented era of globalization (Farole and Moburg 2014). Because most African countries launched their programmes later, they faced a more competitive environment, especially after the expiration of the MFA. But bad timing alone does not tell the whole story. Many African zones have failed to take... Read Full Report
IRENA Energy Prospects for the African Power sector

Source: IRENA     Report Date: May 2020

Costs for African projects tend to be higher than in other countries due to the need to import equipment, as well as higher internal transportation costs and import levies. There are often gaps in infrastructure, engineering and institutional capacity that can also raise costs. However, where components can be constructed locally, costs can be reduced significantly. For example this is the case for hydropower dams and the foundations and towers for wind turbines. However, when projects are located in remote areas, the cost of extending transmission systems must be added. (…) African economies have been growing at an average rate... Read Full Report
The New Deal on Energy for Africa

Source: AfDB     Report Date: May 2020

What does the New Deal aim to achieve? To reach the goal of providing energy access to over 645 million people and sufficiently power business, Africa must achieve four targets: • Increase on-grid generation to add 160 GW of new capacity by 2025 • Increase on-grid transmission and grid connections that will create 130 million new connections by 2025, 160 per cent more than today • Increase off-grid generation to add 75 million connections by 2025, 20 times what we have today • Increase access to clean cooking energy for around 130 million households. The New Deal is built on... Read Full Report
Developing Export-Based Manufacturing in Sub-Saharan Africa

Source: UKDID     Report Date: May 2020

African countries are increasingly exporting manufactures (34% of the total) to each other and other developing regions (see Figure 2). Between 2005 and 2014, the share of intra-African manufacturing exports in the total value of African manufacturing exports increased by nearly 15 percentage points to reach 34%. (…) Exports of road vehicles, iron and steel, essential oils for perfume materials and cleaning preparations, non-metallic mineral manufactures and manufactures of metal made the largest contributions to intra-Africa manufacturing exports. The technology intensity of African manufacturing exports is gradually increasing, with some growth in the relative share of exports of medium-technology (automotive,... Read Full Report
AFRICA STILL RISING

Source: ISPI     Report Date: May 2016

Africa has been changing fast over the past fifteen to twenty years. Both the growth performances and the international image of the continent went through surprising U-turns, from widespread stagnation and pessimism to unprecedented progress and new prospects. The turnaround of economic performances began as early as the mid-1990s and led to a number of sub-Saharan countries achieving record growth rates for the better part of the following decade. Economic recovery, in turn, fostered a dramatic improvement in the way the continent was perceived and represented by the international media, where talk of ‘Africa rising’ or ‘emerging Africa’ became gradually more frequent, stimulating a growing interest in the region. What was largely a neglected continent during the 1990s, from around 2000 became the terrain of a new scramble for positioning by advanced as well as emerging economies. China’s trade with the region, for example, went up almost twenty fold in little more than a decade, with Beijing becoming the continent’s main commercial partner. Meanwhile, the US had declared the region “a high priority” of “growing geo-strategic importance”1 and renewed its African aid, trade and military policies, culminating in an unprecedented US-Africa Leaders Summit held in Washington D.C. in 2014.... Read Full Report
Africa’s Pulse (April 2016 – Volume 13)

Source: World Bank     Report Date: April 2016

Growth in Sub-Saharan Africa decelerated to an estimated 3 0 percent in 2015, from 4 5 percent in 2014, driven by low commodity prices, weak global growth, rising borrowing costs, and adverse domestic developments in many countries. The slowdown was especially sharp in the region’s largest commodity exporters. But there were some bright spots, such as Côte d’Ivoire, which continued to experience robust, broad-based growth, supported by rising investment, and Kenya and Rwanda, where growth remained buoyant, helped by infrastructure spending, strong consumer demand, and a growing services sector. Read Full Report
Africa Emerging Opportunities

Source: The Economist Special Report     Report Date: May 2012

Ten years ago, The Economist ran a cover with the title “Africa: The Hopeless Continent”. Today, this has been replaced by “Africa Rising” (last December’s issue)—a reflection of the changes that the continent has experienced over a decade. What has engineered Africa’s rise through difficult times? It is predominantly the emergence of the BRICs, particularly India and China, that has helped to put Africa back on the map of development and investor interests. This paper looks at what is in store for Africa, its growth trajectory, other key driving forces, and the opportunities and risks for investors going forward. Africa today is for the most part at the beginning of the industrialization stage. Take Eastern Europe 20 years ago or India in 1994—this is the stage of development in Africa at the moment. However, the last ten years have been positive for Africa. Growth has been rising by 5-6% per year, on the back of ongoing reforms, a fall in political risk, debt write-off and the well-documented commodity prices story. What does this mean for Africa going forward? In economic terms: Despite the growth seen in the last decade, and although there was a setback in 2008 owing to the global crisis, the continent still managed growth of 2%. In a scenario like this, which would have happened a decade ago, Africa would have had negative growth of almost 10%, and would have failed to recover for a very long time. So this is simply an indicator of where it… Read Full Report
Driving Economic and Social Development through Mobile Services-Final Report

Source: Africa Mobile Observatory     Report Date: December 2011

The mobile industry in Africa is booming. With over 620 million mobile connections as of September 2011, Africa has overtaken Latin America to become the second largest mobile market in the world, after Asia. Over the past 10 years, the number of mobile connections in Africa has grown an average of 30% per year and is forecast to reach 735 million by the end of 2012. Read Full Report
The Africa Competitiveness Report 2011

Source: World Economic Forum     Report Date: December 2011

The Africa Competitiveness Report 2011 comes out as the world emerges from the most significant financial and economic crisis in generations. While many advanced economies are still struggling to get their economies back on a solid footing, Africa has, for the most part, weathered the storm remarkably well. Indeed, despite a small dip in growth during the crisis period, Africa has staged a quick and strong comeback. Between 2001 and 2010, growth in gross domestic product (GDP) on the continent averaged 5.2 percent annually, with the African Economic Outlook (AEO) projecting 5.2 percent growth in 2011 as well, higher than the global average of 4.2 percent projected by the International Monetary Fund (IMF). The key challenge for the continent is how to turn the ongoing recovery into strong, sustained, and shared growth that will lead to notable improvements in people’s lives. Read Full Report