africa

2. Africa’s Policy Choices in an
Era of Rapid Growth
Donald Kaberuka
African Development Bank
Africa is undoubtedly the most discussed continent currently. The discussions mainly
center on her impressive economic performance and whether the growth can be
sustained. There are three main views on Africa’s growth sustainability. First, there
are people who think that Africa is rising because the factors driving today’s growth
are different from those that drove growth in the previous decades. The second view
is that “There is no country called Africa”: that African countries are heterogeneous,
with different economic structures and human and physical endowments, so that
we cannot expect Africa to behave like a single country. The third view is that “We
have seen this over-optimism about Africa before” and it is only a matter of time
before the bubble bursts.
2.1 Rapid growth with no structural transformation
Among these contestations are facts that are known and incontestable. First, it is a
fact that Africa has recorded very impressive growth in the past decade. Sub-Saharan
Africa’s average growth rate stood at an impressive 5.2 percent between 2000 and
2013. Growth has however varied by region and production structure. The West
African region led the pack at 6.84 percent over this period, followed by East Africa
at 6.40 percent and Central Africa at 5.41 percent. Southern Africa grew at 4.49
percent and North Africa at 4.47 percent, mainly because of the effects on South
Africa of the global financial crisis and the effects on North Africa of the Arab Spring.
Net oil exporting countries grew by 5.77 percent while net oil importers grew at 4.55
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