Download or read book Raising Growth and Investment in Sub Saharan Africa written by Mr.Ernesto Hernández-Catá and published by International Monetary Fund. This book was released on 2000-05-01 with total page 27 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This paper argues that sub-Saharan Africa’s growth performance needs to be improved substantially in order to raise standards of living to an acceptable level and achieve a visible reduction in poverty. The paper provides a broad overview of the explanations for sub-Saharan Africa’s unsatisfactory growth performance in the past, paying particular attention to the empirical literature. It argues that growth has been hampered by economic distortions and institutional deficiencies that have increased the risk of investing in Africa, and lowered the rates of return on capital and labor as well as the growth of total factor productivity.

Download or read book Raising Growth and Investment in Sub Saharan Africa written by Ernesto Hernanadez-Cata and published by . This book was released on 2012 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Sub-Saharan Africa's long-term growth performance will need to improve significantly for the region to visibly reduce poverty and raise the standard of living to an acceptable level. Appropriate actions will also be needed to ensure that an adequate share of the growing income is devoted to reducing poverty. The key policy question for these countries and their development partners is how to spur economic growth. Empirical studies suggest that the contributions to growth of physical investment and total factor productivity in sub-Saharan Africa have been low in comparison with other regions and have declined over time. These trends have reflected inefficiencies in resource allocation, poor delivery of public goods, notably health care and education; and the high risk of doing business in many parts of the region. Moreover, although the labor force has expanded rapidly, its productivity has remained relatively low because of generally poor standards of health and education.

Download or read book Raising Growth and Investment in Sub Saharan Africa what Can be Done written by Ernesto Hernández-Catá and published by . This book was released on 2000 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Promoting Growth in Sub Saharan Africa written by Mr.Anupam Basu and published by International Monetary Fund. This book was released on 2000-10-02 with total page 24 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Africa is the world’s poorest continent, but amid all the bad news, there is hope for change. This pamphlet examines the lessons to be learned from some of the more successful economies south of the Sahara, and discusses a policy framework to promote sustainable economic growth and reduce poverty across the region.

Download or read book Sub Saharan Africa written by World Bank and published by . This book was released on 1989 with total page 324 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 3. Investing in people.

Download or read book Growth in Sub Saharan Africa written by Mr.Dhaneshwar Ghura and published by International Monetary Fund. This book was released on 1995-12-01 with total page 32 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The paper investigates empirically the determinants of economic growth for a large sample of sub-Saharan African countries during 1981-92. The results indicate that (i) an increase in private investment has a relatively large positive impact on per capita growth; (ii) growth is stimulated by public policies that lower the budget deficit in relation to GDP (without reducing government investment), reduce the rate of inflation, maintain external competitiveness, promote structural reforms, encourage human capital development, and slow population growth; and (iii) convergence of per capita income occurs after controlling for human capital development and public policies.

Download or read book Adjustment and Growth in Sub Saharan Africa written by Mr.Anupam Basu and published by International Monetary Fund. This book was released on 1999-04-01 with total page 36 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This paper analyzes the factors affecting economic growth in sub-Saharan Africa, using data for 1981–97. The results indicate that per capita real GDP growth is positively influenced by economic policies that raise the ratio of private investment to GDP, promote human capital development, lower the ratio of the budget deficit to GDP, safeguard external competitiveness, and stimulate export volume growth. The favorable evolution of these variables played an important role in the region’s apparent postreform recovery of 1995–97. The paper also discusses a policy framework to promote sustainable economic growth and reduce poverty in sub-Saharan Africa

Download or read book Foreign Direct Investment in Sub Saharan Africa written by Laurence Cockcroft and published by World Bank Publications. This book was released on 1991 with total page 74 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Foreign investment is even less likely to meet Sub-Saharan Africa's rising foreign exchange and savings gaps in the 1990s than in the dismal 1980s. Investors interested in Sub-Saharan Africa are more likely to commit technology and management than equity capital. Economic activity and overall economic policy may be more effective at raising the total volume of investment than special fiscal and other incentives.

Download or read book Boosting Productivity in Sub Saharan Africa written by Cesar Calderon and published by World Bank Publications. This book was released on 2021-12-17 with total page 325 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Economic growth in the Sub-Saharan Africa region has been plagued by a series of shocks—wars, political instability, natural disasters, epidemics, terms-of-trade deterioration, and sudden stops in capital inflows—that have had lingering effects on productivity and growth. Within the overall productivity gap of the region are substantial differences across the sectors of economic activity and production units. Boosting Productivity in Sub-Saharan Africa: Policies and Institutions to Promote Efficiency documents the productivity trends in Sub-Saharan Africa in three different dimensions, assessing productivity at the aggregate level, the sectoral level, and the establishment level. It characterizes the evolution of productivity in the region relative to other countries and regions, as well as country groups in Africa, classified by their degree of natural resource abundance and condition of fragility. The volume suggests that the persistence of the productivity gap in Africa vis-à -vis the technological frontier can be attributed to the slow accumulation of physical and human capital relative to the region’s growing population, as well as the poor allocation of these resources. These allocative inefficiencies are the outcome of policies and institutions that introduce distortions in the decision-making process of individuals. Hence, the volume assesses the implications of production decisions across agricultural farms and manufacturing firms. It presents evidence on aggregate productivity from the perspective of production units, using recent household surveys for farmers and firm-level surveys for select countries, as well as frontier estimation techniques. It documents the extent of severe resource misallocation across agricultural and manufacturing production units. These distortions decelerate the growth of the production units, disincentivize their adoption of productivity-enhancing technologies, and reduce the ability of their peers to learn new techniques. Boosting Productivity in Sub-Saharan Africa highlights the adoption of digital technologies to reduce some of these market frictions. Mobile money has increased financial inclusion in several countries, and digital financial technologies have given individuals access to savings instruments and loan products. Enhancing access to credit can help individuals invest in schooling and overcome the costs of formality. The volume discusses further avenues of research that may provide additional insights on the productivity dynamics across countries in the region, and it identifies the different channels of policy transmission to enhance productivity. The empirical work presented can help to guide the design of policy in the region.

Download or read book From Mines and Wells to Well Built Minds written by Bénédicte de la Brière and published by World Bank Publications. This book was released on 2017-05-17 with total page 172 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Sub-Saharan Africa's natural resource-rich countries have poor human development. Children in these countries are more likely to die before their first birthday, more likely to be stunted, and less likely to attend school than children in other countries with similar income. Despite the current price downturn, extractives will remain an important part of Sub-Saharan Africa's growth story—using resource rents wisely remains a long term challenge. Governments must choose how to allocate resource rents between spending, investing in human or physical capital, or investing in global financial assets. The return to investing in physical and human capital will be high in countries where the capital stock is low. Moreover, higher levels of human capital make investments in physical capital more productive, which suggests that the optimal portfolio will involve investing in both. Human capital should be prioritized in many of Sub-Saharan Africa’s resource-rich countries because of the low starting point. Investing effectively in human capital is hard because it involves delivering services, which means coordinating a large number of actors and activities. Three dimensions of governance are key: institutions, incentives and information. Decentralization and leveraging the private sector are entry points to reforming institutional structures. Revenues from natural resources can fund financial incentives to strengthen performance or demand. Producing information, making it available, and increasing social accountability helps citizens understand their rights and hold governments and providers accountable. Improving the quality of education and health services is central to improving human capital. Two additional areas are promising. First, early child development—mother and newborn health, and early child nutrition, care, and education—improves outcomes in childhood and later on. Second, cash transfers—either conditional or unconditional—reduce poverty, increase household investments in child education, nutrition, and health, and increase the investment in productive assets which foster further income generation.

Download or read book Investing in Africa written by Vijaya Ramachandran and published by . This book was released on 2000 with total page 84 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this essay, Dr. Ramachandran examines the constraints to private sector growth in Sub- Saharan Africa. She addresses two sets of issues--the constraints on firm-level productivity and the barriers to investment in the private sector. Focusing on the manufacturing sector, the author identifies and analyzes several key problems that are responsible for low productivity and investment levels in Africa. Finally, she outlines policies that may lead to the improvement of productivity and investment levels, and the role of national and international agencies in promoting these strategies. The author begins by comparing manufacturing sector productivity across developing countries and then examines some of the reasons for the gap between African productivity and that of the rest of the developing world. The key questions with regard to the productivity gap include the following: Can African labor compete with labor from other developing countries? Is the vintage of capital equipment a barrier to raising productivity? How can African firms build export capacity and become competitive in global markets? What types of firms are growing the fastest in Africa? How efficient is the market for credit in the private sector and how does this impact firm-level productivity? Recognizing that Africa's potential to attract private sector investment is at the heart of its ability to achieve a high rate of economic growth, the author identifies some of the major problems faced by investors in the private sector. In particular, she focuses on foreign direct investment because of its critical role in generating growth in the early stages of industrial development. By using case studies and othermaterial, she examines foreign investment trends in Africa, the impact of this investment in terms of output and employment, and the problems faced by new investors in Sub-Saharan Africa. The author concludes with specific recommendations for generating growth in the private sector and for improving productivity and investment levels in Africa. Finally, she suggests concrete steps that national and international policymakers can take to improve the climate for investment in Africa.

Download or read book Which Way to Livable and Productive Cities written by Kirsten Hommann and published by World Bank Publications. This book was released on 2019-04-18 with total page 59 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: For African cities to grow economically as they have grown in size, they must create productive environments to attract investments, increase economic efficiency, and create livable environments that prevent urban costs from rising with increased population densification. What are the central obstacles that prevent African cities and towns from becoming sustainable engines of economic growth and prosperity? Among the most critical factors that limit the growth and livability of urban areas are land markets, investments in public infrastructure and assets, and the institutions to enable both. To unleash the potential of African cities and towns for delivering services and employment in a livable and environmentally friendly environment, a sequenced approach is needed to reform institutions and policies and to target infrastructure investments. This book lays out three foundations that need fixing to guide cities and towns throughout Sub-Saharan Africa on their way to productivity and livability.

Download or read book Promoting U S Investment in Sub Saharan Africa written by R. Hendrickson and published by Springer. This book was released on 2014-08-19 with total page 301 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Addressing an under-studied aspect of U.S. foreign policy towards sub-Saharan Africa, Hendrickson provides a critical historical analysis of institutions designed to promote private investment in the region. She draws attention to the interaction between strategic factors, domestic interests, and the ideas used to achieve consensus on policy.

Download or read book Public Investment Efficiency in Sub Saharan African Countries written by Karim Barhoumi and published by International Monetary Fund. This book was released on 2018-07-06 with total page 51 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: There is significant room to improve public investment efficiency in sub-Saharan Africa. Investment in sub-Saharan African countries is lagging vis-à-vis peers such as emerging and developing Asia as well as Latin America and the Caribbean, and the region’s infrastructure is perceived as being of relatively low quality. Improving the efficiency of sizable investment programs in the region could contribute to more solid economic growth and help achieve desired social priorities and development goals. Results point to some variability in public investment efficiency within the region. Comparing efficiency scores across country groups suggests that investment efficiency in sub-Saharan African oil exporters tends to be lower than in sub-Saharan African non-resource-intensive countries. Additionally, countries in East African Community (EAC) perform better than those in Central African Economic and Monetary Community (CEMAC) and West African Economic and Monetary Union (WAEMU). Stronger institutions could foster more efficient public investment. The regression results in this paper show a positive correlation between public investment efficiency and the quality of institutions, suggesting that devel-oping stronger institutions in sub-Saharan Africa could lead to a significant improvement in investment efficiency. This is particularly relevant for coun-tries with weak institutional quality, where governments may use capital spending as a vehicle for rent-seeking, leading to inefficient spending. Given the current drive for scaling up investment in sub-Saharan Africa, the task of improving institutions quickly should become a priority.

Download or read book Independent Power Projects in Sub Saharan Africa written by Anton Eberhard and published by World Bank Publications. This book was released on 2016-04-18 with total page 385 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Inadequate electricity services pose a major impediment to reducing extreme poverty and boosting shared prosperity in Sub-Saharan Africa. Simply put, Africa does not have enough power. Despite the abundant low-carbon and low-cost energy resources available to Sub-Saharan Africa, the region s entire installed electricity capacity, at a little over 80 GW, is equivalent to that of the Republic of Korea. Looking ahead, Sub-Saharan Africa will need to ramp-up its power generation capacity substantially. The investment needed to meet this goal largely exceeds African countries already stretched public finances. Increasing private investment is critical to help expand and improve electricity supply. Historically, most private sector finance has been channeled through privately financed independent power projects (IPP), supported by nonrecourse or limited recourse loans, with long-term power purchase agreements with the state utility or another off-taker. Between 1990 and 2014, IPPs have spread across Sub-Saharan Africa and are now present in 17 countries. Currently, there are 125 IPPs, with an overall installed capacity of 10.7 GW and investments of $24.6 billion. However, private investment could be much greater and less concentrated. South Africa alone accounts for 67 IPPs, 4.3 GW of capacity and $14.4 billion of investments; the remaining projects are concentrated in a handful of countries. The objective of this study is to evaluate the experience of IPPs and identify lessons that can help African countries attract more and better private investment. At the core of this analysis is a reflection on whether IPPs have in fact benefited Sub-Saharan Africa, and how they might be improved. The analysis is based primarily on in depth case studies, carried out in five countries, including Kenya, Nigeria, South Africa, Tanzania and Uganda, which not only have the most numerous but also among the most extensive experience with IPPs.

Download or read book Financial Development in Sub Saharan Africa written by Mr.Montfort Mlachila and published by International Monetary Fund. This book was released on 2016-09-14 with total page 79 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This paper discusses how sub-Saharan Africa’s financial sector developed in the past few decades, compared with other regions. Sub-Saharan African countries have made substantial progress in financial development over the past decade, but there is still considerable scope for further development, especially compared with other regions. Indeed, until a decade or so ago, the level of financial development in a large number of sub-Saharan African countries had actually regressed relative to the early 1980s. With the exception of the region’s middle-income countries, both financial market depth and institutional development are lower than in other developing regions. The region has led the world in innovative financial services based on mobile telephony, but there remains scope to increase financial inclusion further. The development of mobile telephone-based systems has helped to incorporate a large share of the population into the financial system, especially in East Africa. Pan-African banks have been a driver for homegrown financial development, but they also bring a number of challenges.

Download or read book FinTech in Sub Saharan African Countries written by Mr.Amadou N Sy and published by International Monetary Fund. This book was released on 2019-02-14 with total page 61 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: FinTech is a major force shaping the structure of the financial industry in sub-Saharan Africa. New technologies are being developed and implemented in sub-Saharan Africa with the potential to change the competitive landscape in the financial industry. While it raises concerns on the emergence of vulnerabilities, FinTech challenges traditional structures and creates efficiency gains by opening up the financial services value chain. Today, FinTech is emerging as a technological enabler in the region, improving financial inclusion and serving as a catalyst for the emergence of innovations in other sectors, such as agriculture and infrastructure.