Common Futures

Common Futures: India and Africa in Partnership
India and Africa: Building
for Growth
Mariam Yinusa
Mariam Yinusa is a Senior Financial Economist at the African Development Bank. She joined the
Bank in 2011 after several years in the Infrastructure Department of the Economic Community of
West African States.
24
Infrastructure, be it in the form of energy, transportation, water and
sanitation, or ICT systems, is the foundation upon which a modern
industrialized economy is built. National infrastructure is critical to
enhancing productivity, increasing participation and generating aggregate
demand to promote economic growth. The provision of adequate
infrastructure, however, is a challenge which many emerging countries
continue to grapple with. This is mainly because infrastructure systems are
heavily capital intensive, long-term and interdependent. India and the African
continent have emerged, within the last decade, as growing global economic
power houses. Fuelled by natural resource endowments, large populations
including a growing middle class and progressive industrialization, the two
regions have managed to achieve impressive economic growth rates in spite
of extensive infrastructure deficits. Bridging this infrastructure gap could
further propel their economic transformation trajectories and lift millions of
people out of poverty.
India is currently the fastest growing major economy in the world with