Malabo — Central Africa has made very little progress in terms of harnessing its plethora of natural resources for economic diversification, job creation and increased GDP over the past 30 years - according to an ECA study.
"We've observed that the subregion has remained highly undiversified and focused almost entirely on the extractive sector without developing its manufacturing sector," said Mama Keita, Chief of Reforms and Policies for Economic Diversification at the ECA Office for Central Africa (ECA/SRO-CA).
Entitled "The status of structural transformation in Central Africa: challenges and opportunities," the study argues that diversification and structural transformation are the recipes for sustainable growth in Central Africa.
It was presented during a special event on structural transformation on 25 September to experts attending the Intergovernmental Committee of Senior Officials and Experts for Central Africa (ICE2019) in Malabo, Equatorial Guinea.
In her presentation, Ms. Keita underlined that despite having a huge market of 187 million people (2017) with diverse natural resources for mining, agriculture, forestry, tourism, and energy amongst others, "Central Africa remains one of the least attractive destinations to investors and international markets."
The situation, she added, is aggravated by weak regional integration and "a growth model based on the export of raw materials."
On a positive note, she pointed out that the areas of "education and health have seen commendable improvements" but that more needs to be done.
Commenting on the way forward, Ms. Keita said: " We strongly recommend diversification and structural transformation in the subregion to reduce the over-reliance on the extractive sector to avoid a situation like the 2014 drop in oil prices that automatically triggered a recession and slowed growth in the economies."
The study recommends innovation, entrepreneurship, science and technology education, and the digital economy as some of the areas that must be promoted in addition to resolving cross-border security issues, and promoting regional integration and trade.
Addressing these issues will result in higher productivity and competitivity, make the subregion a more attractive destination for investors, lead to more sophisticated and complex export portfolios and empower the economies to create more decent jobs and attain higher levels of development and living standards.
