African economies looking for a sustainable industrialisation model find themselves at a crossroads with little time to decide the way forward
Lack of industrialisation is often pointed out as the key factor behind Africa's underdevelopment. Among those supporting the idea are Mike Morris and Judith Fessehaie, who wrote in their 2014 paper, The Industrialisation Challenge for Africa: "Only a massive industrialisation effort will enable Africa to eradicate poverty and achieve sustainable development". According to United Nations (UN) statistics from 2019, Africa is home to more than 1.2 billion people or 16% of the world's population, 85% of whom "are still poor if judged by the standards of upper-middle income countries".
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