The group managing director/CEO designate of Skye Bank Plc, Timothy Oguntayo, has said that Africa’s sustainable economic growth rests on the faithful and committed implementation of the ongoing policy and regulatory reforms, improved governance, political stability on the continent and other business facilitation reforms.
Oguntayo stated this in a paper titled “Economic and Institutional Reforms for Sustainable Growth in Africa,” presented at the just-concluded first ‘International Conference on African Development Issues’ organised by Covenant University, Ota, Ogun State.
Giving a broad overview of Africa’s economic prospects, growth and the factors responsible for them, Oguntayo said the relative growth taking place on the continent could be attributed to improved governance, political stability and other liberal reforms, which have unleashed private sector value creation and investments in a wide range of industries.
“Post-2008 financial crisis, there are indications that African countries have grown strongly and are making steady progress in addressing most of its challenging macro-economic and governance problems; although they have not fully turned the corner. Most African countries,” according to the incoming CEO, “have successfully implemented micro-economic reforms, with those that have encouraged trade liberalisation experiencing faster growth,” he said.
He specifically referred to Mauritius and Botswana, where well-coordinated institutional reforms had benefited their economies.
On Africa’s growth prospects, Oguntayo said the continent had the capacity to significantly outperform its GDP growth in the previous years, considering the abundance of natural resources, population, and sustained democracy.
“After a long period of economic stagnation and decline, Africa experienced steady growth in the last decade, mainly due to economic reforms and attendant increased flow of funds. Average GDP growth was over 5 percent from 2000 to 2012 compared to 2 percent in the 1990s.
“In 2013, the continent grew by 4 percent and growth is projected at 4.7 percent growth in 2014, and 5 percent in 2015. Post-2008 financial crisis, growth has been stronger in Africa than the developed economies as well as Eastern Europe,” he explained.
However, for the growth to be holistic and all-inclusive, Oguntayo, who was represented by Tajudeen Ahmed, head of corporate planning and strategy of the bank, said it was imperative to address the bottlenecks and structural constraints that had made Africa’s investment climate unattractive.
He identified the constraints as leadership deficiency, political instability, cost of doing business, endemic corruption, and poor infrastructure.
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