Meeting Africa's development needs

30 Jan 2009

The African economy has seen a 5.4% growth rate over the past few years. Effectiveness in trade and industry and promotion of foreign direct investments and public-private partnerships has enabled the achievement of strong macroeconomic management, investments in resource development, and improvements in the performance of the public sector.

Since many African governments are planning to privatise some of the key sectors, development programmes implemented by government institutions and the efforts of independent and private industry operators in shareholding within the public sector, have increased opportunities to market Africa's attractiveness to FDI.

Some developed and developing countries such as South Africa, Angola, Nigeria, Kenya and the Democratic Republic of Congo among others, have recognised the need to fast-track the development of infrastructure in critical sectors such as mining, power and energy, gas, oil, agriculture and construction. The Economic Commission for Africa (ECA), in its focus as part of the United Nations development programmes for Africa, has introduced special government credits to private investors in infrastructure, the establishment of regional infrastructure banks for commercial partnerships and the obligation of special taxes to support infrastructure development in Africa.

Backing PPPs

Nowadays, the usefulness of terms such as ‘infrastructure partnerships', ‘regional integration', ‘international and intra-regional trade', ‘funding promotion', ‘financial strategies', ‘development marketing', ‘strategic management' and ‘risk management' is being reassessed in many sectors, particularly within the financial sector which is dominated by a strong ‘recession' since the world food and oil crisis in early 2008 hit the global financial market and soured the African economy.

At the G8, it was noted that new African initiatives should be implemented to enable development and economic growth for the continent, many sub-factors of this promotion are unlikely governed by socio-political issues within the continent. Therefore, in order to enable financial and productive factors to be practical, governments and international communities have a need for regulatory and structural adjustment in specific regions and sectors.

Economic integration in Africa goes back to the early 21st century with the drive taken by regional economic and development groupings such as the Southern African Development Community (SADC), the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) and the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS). With regards to PPPs initiatives, the increase in trade liberalisation in a few parts of the continent such as Southern Africa has boosted the commercial relationships between neighboring countries with organisations such as NEPAD, SADC, AfDB, REC and AU. The establishment of stable macroeconomic policies; and development of cross-border financing are the next challenges that need to be faced. While the opportunities are untapped as yet, industrialisation and privatisation are the keys to boosting the African economy and to support the regional communities and associations and promote international co-operation and global partnerships in support of development.

Round tables

“Where there is a will, there is a way”. It's in the development promotion context that high-level, annual and lucrative gatherings such as the iPAD events facilitate governments and private sectors to come together to discuss, plan and find resolutions to meet Africa's infrastructure development needs. iPAD stands for Infrastructure Partnership for African Development and takes place as conferences and expo.

Enabling businessmen to enjoy the opportunity to promote African development initiatives and creating various multi-million dollar relationships through iPAD is such an amazing experience since Africa's initiatives for infrastructure development and economic integration are discussed.