The African Development Bank (AfDB) painted a desolate picture of employment creation in Africa, calling for focus on the manufacturing sector and intra-Africa trade to arrest the continent’s spiralling unemployment.
The bank forecast growth in southern Africa to remain moderate in 2019 and 2020 after a modest recovery in 2017 and 2018. “Southern Africa’s subdued growth is due mainly to South Africa’s weak performance, which affects neighbouring countries,” it said. The lender also found that investment is highest in north and east Africa, at 25 to 27 percent of gross domestic product (GDP), and lowest in West Africa, at 15 percent of GDP.
The bank’s director of macroeconomic policy forecasting Hanan Morsy said at the current rate of labour force growth, Africa needed to create about 12 million new jobs every year to prevent unemployment from rising.
“Manufacturing-driven growth has the highest impact on job creation,” Morsy said. The bank in its Africa Economic Outlook report, however, warned that the continent was still battling with a lack of infrastructure issues. The bank said the continent’s infrastructure needs were $130 billion (R1.8 trillion) to $170bn a year, with a financing gap of $68bn to $108bn.
The AfDB also said that while the continent still collected more than $520bn a year in domestic taxes, it was still victim to widespread tax evasion.
Article was sourced from Business Report
