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News from Sunday, March 24, 2019
Source: ghanabusinessnews.com
2019-03-24
Copy of the report
The Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) released today, 23 March 2019, the Economic Report for Africa at the 52nd Session of the Conference of African Ministers of Finance, Planning and Economic Development, held in Marrakesh, Kingdom of Morocco.
Vera Songwe, Executive Secretary of ECA, said at the launch that Africa needs to improve its tax collection efforts to fill the gap in development finance. Currently, the content has a GDP of $ 2.3 trillion. According to Songwe, Africa must increase its tax collection from 12% to 22%.
Calling on African countries to improve their data collection for policy badysis, she said: "Without data, we can not do the right badysis. We think we can make good policies, "she added.
Adam Elhiraika, Chief of ECA's Macroeconomics Unit, urged African countries to use fiscal policy as part of domestic resource mobilization to meet the continent's financing needs.
He said Africa was progressing in social and other areas, but growth varied from country to country and "growth was slow," he said.
He noted that with a funding gap of 11 percent of GDP and a GDP of nearly $ 2 trillion, Africa needed to invest about $ 200 million a year or even $ 1.3 trillion a year to fund the Sustainable Development Goals.
He added that Africa also needed to increase its private investment and foreign trade, adding that the implementation of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) would boost growth on the continent.
Twenty-two of the 54 African countries are required to ratify the AfCFTA and deposit their instruments of ratification with the African Union Commission for the agreement to enter into force. So far, 21 countries have ratified CAFTA, with Ethiopia being the latest and 15 countries having deposited their instruments of ratification.
"AfCFTA can change the game," he said, adding that Africa must grow at least 10 percent.
While noting that the continent's poverty rate declined from 54.3 percent in 1990 to 36 percent in 2016, inequality remains high.
Ahmed Kamaly, from Egypt, urged African countries to seek funding from the private sector and civil society and called on governments to "work to change the structure of their economies".
The report notes that Africa is at a turning point in its development trajectory, noting that the policies adopted now will determine the speed with which the continent accelerates growth and creates prosperity for all.
"In 2015, African countries have endorsed two important development programs: the Global Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) for 2030, which aims to leave no one behind as countries grow, and 39; Agenda 2063 of the African Union, which defines a "We want Africa". Within a decade of the SDG target, African countries continue to seek combinations of policies to accelerate the achievement of these goals. However, for many countries, funding remains the main bottleneck, followed closely by implementation capacity, "he said.
According to the report, to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals, Africa will need to mobilize about 11 percent of GDP per year over the next 10 years to fill the financing gap.
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