President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo says after a turbulent start to the 2020s, African economies have since 2023, consolidated their recovery and demonstrated resilience and adaptability while navigating an uncertain global environment.
Putting Ghana under the spotlight, President Akufo-Addo said, economic growth in Ghana “has rebounded, with an average GDP of 3.2% for the first nine months of 2023, compared to 2.9% within the same period in 2022.
He added that, with the exchange rate becoming increasingly more stable, and interest rates softening, it is safe and right to say that “we have, indeed, turned the corner and can look forward to attaining a more resilient, transformed economy.”
Across the African continent, he said, average growth “estimated at 3.8% in 2022, stabilised at 4.1% in 2023, and is forecasted to reach 4.3% in 2024.”
President Akufo-Addo was addressing Heads of States and the international business community at the Timbuktoo: Unleashing Africa’s Startup Revolution, organised on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum, in Davos Switzerland, on Tuesday, 16 January, 2023.
He was also quick to recognise and state that the continent’s youthful demography presents massive potential for further growth and innovation, and thus explains why entrepreneurs and investors are flocking to the continent.
Whilst recognising the many challenges needed to be scaled to unlock the continent’s potential, he was happy to state that, “most countries on the continent are certainly moving in the right direction.”
“Indeed, for many African leaders, our foremost challenge now, and over the short term, is to ensure that we put in place the right structures to enable young Africans create innovative and compelling businesses that can contribute significantly to job creation and sustainable economic growth,” he said.
With such focus on job creation, primarily due to Africa’s 1.3 billion people, which is expected to double up to 2.5 billion by 2050, President Akufo-Addo added that, “Africa has the youngest population in the world, according to the U.N., with some sixty percent of the population under the age of twenty-five.”
President Akufo-Addo said with this exciting growth potential already enticing entrepreneurs and investors into the continent, it has been driven by a combination of factors including low market penetration, as well as a variety of industries which remain underserved.
Having performed way better than its South-American counterparts, he said the ravaging effects of COVID, has left sub-Saharan Africa alone in need of some US$574 billion annually, until 2030 to finance the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
However, he was hopeful that, “with initiatives like Timbuktoo, all of us, governments, the private sector and international partners, must ensure the pan-African startup ecosystem is supported with the right legal frameworks, systems and deal pipelines for us to realise not only a demographic dividend, but also create a platform for funding ground-breaking solutions to some of the most critical problems plaguing the continent.”