Africa is implementing impressive economic strategies, which are raising expectations about the continent's potential, and can become the equal to China or India, Director-General of the World Trade Organization Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala told media.
"Africa is doing some things that are pretty exciting. The African Continental Free Trade Area is an area of 55 countries and 1.4 billion people. When the experiment really gets going, Africans will integrate better themselves. Trading and creating a real market of 1.4 billion is equal to that of China and India," she explained.
According to the official, decentralization of production can give the continent opportunities to boost job creation as well as integration in the region.
"Decentralization of the production creates jobs for young people and women. At the same time, you bring the [African] countries there into the mainstream of trade and better integrate them," she added.
However, Africa still has challenges to overcome – it has to establish itself as a continent independent from any region, the director added, noting that Africa, for instance, imports more than 90% of its medicines and 99% of its vaccines.
According to the official, in order to achieve high rates of economic growth, Africa needs to remove trade barriers and reduce costs. This will significantly enhance the region's appeal to potential investors.
"In order to get to the process of the reglobalization, now Africa needs to convince businesses that Africa is not the big risk," stated the Director-General of WTO.
Africa's economic development is boosted by the fast growth of its population. In April, the International Monetary Fund released its report on real GDP growth, which showed that the Sub-Saharan Africa region had a rate of 3.6%, compared to the Middle East and Central Asia region at 2.9%. Even though Africa needs to reach 5-6% to compete with China and India, it is showing improvements.
Several countries in the region are enjoying particularly fast economic growth and luring investment. These are Kenya, Cote d'Ivoire, and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), whose economies grew by 5.2%, 6.7%, and 8.6%, respectively, in 2022, according to the World Bank.