Today we are tackling an issue that is on the minds of every African policy maker, and one that has captured international discussions for several years: African Debt. Debt can be an incredibly useful tool for governments when managed transparently and correctly, and when it is used to fund investments that pay off in the long term. It can fill important funding gaps that development assistance and domestic resource mobilization cannot. But several countries have found themselves in a vicious...

Economic growth in Sub-Saharan Africa is estimated to have contracted by 2.0% in 2020, closer to the lower bound of the forecast in April 2020, and prospects for recovery are strengthening amid actions to contain new waves of the pandemic and speed up vaccine rollouts, according to the World Bank’s biannual economic analysis for the region.

As we close out 2020 and look into 2021, one thing is abundantly clear: the world has changed. There is much to be concerned about against the backdrop of COVID-19, but so much to be proud of and hopeful for across Africa. This episode of Afronomics looks back over the last five decades of crises, successes, and development in Africa to see what lessons can be applied now, as the economic recovery gets underway across Africa. Host Albert Zeufack, Chief Economist for Africa at the World Bank,...

The COVID19 pandemic is taking hold in Africa, and countries are dealing with the health and economic impacts that are becoming clearer as the weeks go by. For many export-led economies, there has been a sharp decline in exports and consequently export revenues. The economic effects of the pandemic are projected to be huge. The private sector, especially small businesses, in Africa will be hard hit by this pandemic. Host Albert Zeufack, Chief Economist for the Africa Region at the World Bank,...

Timely and relevant knowledge and information sharing can help individuals change behavior, can inform countries’ responses, and can help prevent missteps from being repeated across the world. For African countries that has meant taking what we know from East Asian and European countries that faced COVID-19 a bit earlier and helping figure out what may, or may not, work in places where informality is high, or where lockdowns are not feasible. Host Albert Zeufack, Chief Economist for the...

The COVID-19 pandemic is having severe public health, economic and social impacts around the world, and Dr. John Nkengasong, Director of Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has called this public health emergency a “looming disaster” for the African continent. The Africa CDC has been at the forefront of limiting the health impact of the pandemic, coordinating efforts of member states, sourcing medical equipment globally and locally for countries on the continent, and...

The COVID-19 pandemic is only just beginning to take hold in Sub-Saharan Africa, but it is already having a huge impact. The World Bank’s recent Africa’s Pulse report found that COVID-19 is likely to drive Sub-Saharan Africa into its first recession in 25 years, with growth potentially falling as low as negative 5.1% in 2020. The crisis is likely to push millions of households into poverty. Food security is at risk because of trade disruptions, lower agricultural production and fewer food...

Ten years ago, the world was fighting its way out of a global financial crisis, but prospects were strong for Sub-Saharan Africa to quickly recover. The World Bank started publishing Africa’s Pulse at that time, as a vehicle to help us track these trends and put the economic and development outlook squarely on the agenda for our discussions with African leaders and our partners. Over the last decade, we have been riding the wave of the “Africa Rising” narrative through the economic ups and...

Part Two of our discussion on Africa’s Pulse focusses on how African countries can improve access to electricity to accelerate progress in development outcomes, jobs and prosperity. We’re speaking with special topic author, Mike Toman, and a member of the core team of economists who crafted the report, Moussa Blimpo. Technical innovations, especially in solar power, provide the possibility for faster progress in electricity provision by complementing grid expansion with mini-grids and...

Despite the incredible progress that so many African countries have made, poverty remains a defining part of the narrative around Africa. While the share of people living in extreme poverty has come down in the last decades, the number of people has gone up, due to rapid population growth during the same period, to reach nearly 416 million people. If left unchecked, extreme poverty in the world will become almost exclusively an African issue by 2030, in just ten years. In this episode of...

Part One of our discussion on Africa’s Pulse focusses on recent economic developments, how the external environment is impacting the continent’s growth and what the economic forecast looks like over the next few months. We’re speaking with Punam Chuhan Pole, who is the lead author of the report. Africa’s Pulse is a bi-annual analysis of the state of African economies conducted by the World Bank’s Africa Region.

Join World Bank Chief Economist for Africa Albert Zeufack for a discussion with lead economists Punam Chuhan-Pole, David Evans, and Cesar Calderon on the most recent economic trends that are impacting growth and development on the continent. Together they review the latest findings of the region’s flagship report, Africa's Pulse. This issue includes a special focus on Africa’s skills agenda and takes an in-depth look at the progress made so far and what more can be done by countries and...

In this edition of Afronomics, World Bank Africa Region Chief Economist, Albert Zeufack, speaks with Dr. Zaki Khoury of Microsoft at the Investing in Africa Forum in Dakar, Senegal. Dr. Zaki Khoury leads Microsoft with International, Multi-lateral, and Bi-lateral Organizations, across Middle East and Africa.

Chief Economist of the World Bank's Africa Region, Albert Zeufack, chats with Silicon Valley’s Kamran Elahian about the power of disruptive technologies when it comes to development in Africa. For Elahian, disruptive technologies coupled with ramped up broadband and electricity access opens up the democratizing force of the internet to men and women equally, empowering them to come up with the solutions of the future.

World Bank Africa Region Chief Economist, Albert Zeufack, and Africa’s Pulse Lead author, Punam Chuhan Pole, discuss the most recent Africa’ Pulse report. In this issue the Pulse tackles Sub-Saharan Africa’s projected moderate growth of 2.6 percent, which should strengthen somewhat in 2018, helped by improvements in commodity prices, a pickup in global growth, and domestic conditions. However, there is a need to spur investment in infrastructure, energy production and roads, without losing...

The 2019 World Development Report focused on the Future of Work on a global scale, highlighting the real tension between job losses in “old” manufacturing sectors that are susceptible to automation, and potential job gains driven by innovation in “new” sectors. Our Africa-focused companion report, released in July 2019, finds that Africa has a chance to take a different path – if governments and businesses can take advantage of digital technologies, and if the right policies and investments...

The 2019 World Development Report focused on the Future of Work on a global scale, highlighting the real tension between job losses in “old” manufacturing sectors that are susceptible to automation, and potential job gains driven by innovation in “new” sectors. Our Africa-focused companion report, released in July 2019, finds that Africa has a chance to take a different path – if governments and businesses can take advantage of digital technologies, and if the right policies and investments...

Discussions on Sub-Saharan Africa often center on extreme poverty: the subcontinent is home to half of the world’s extreme poor, and the number of people living in extreme poverty in Sub-Saharan Africa keeps going up even though the rates of extreme poverty have declined. At the same time, on a continent as economically diverse as Sub-Saharan Africa, the issue of inequality cannot be ignored. Eight of the ten most unequal countries in the world, when looking at the Gini coefficient, are in...

Sub-Saharan Africa is the only region where the share of adults with a mobile money account now exceeds 10 percent. That mobile revolution began in Kenya. In this episode of Afronomics, World Bank Chief Economist for Africa, Albert Zeufack, speaks with Professor Njuguna Ndung’u who is currently the Executive Director of the African Economic Research Consortium and was the Governor of the Central Bank of Kenya from 2007 to 2015. During Prof. Ndung’u’s tenure as Central Bank governor, Kenya...

In 2017, nearly third of the 38 African countries that receive the IDA concessional window, strengthened their policy and institutional quality compared to 2016. This is one of the findings of the World Bank’s Country Policy and Institutional Assessment. The CPIA, as it is called, is an annual assessment by the World Bank of the quality and institutional framework of African countries and their ability to support sustainable growth and poverty reduction. CPIA scores are composed of...

Today, there are about 120 million people living along the coast of West Africa who are threatened by coastal erosion and flooding on a daily basis. Large areas of coast line have disappeared, and with them houses, factories and roads. The economic losses are staggering. About 42% of West Africa’s GDP is generated along these same coastal areas. Preserving and protecting these fragile habitats makes dollars… and sense. To learn more, please visit:...