Infrastructure investment holds key to Africa's growth

Closing Africa’s infrastructure gap is a top priority in order to put the continent on the path to double-digit growth and sustainable development, according to American economist, Professor Jeffrey Sachs. “There is no choice, Africa needs 10% per year of economic growth in the next 15 years,” he said at the Third Financing for Development Conference recently held in Addis Ababa in Ethiopia. It was organised by the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (Nepad) Agency and Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN). According to Sachs, who is the director of the SDSN and special adviser to UN secretary-general Ban Ki-moon, the only way for Africa to achieve the necessary growth is to focus on large-scale investments in trans-national infrastructure projects in power, roads, broadband and other core regional infrastructure needs. Speaking on the sidelines of the conference, Sachs said it was imperative that the global community rally around the Nepad agenda as the continent’s strategy for implementing cross-border infrastructure projects. “We need to help support Nepad achieve its goals,” he said. The Nepad agency has identified Africa’s most important infrastructure needs within the context of the programme for infrastructure development in Africa (PIDA), which provides the framework to implement 51 priority programmes and projects in the sectors of energy, transport, broadband and trans boundary water. The agency has maintained that Africa’s biggest challenge is not unlocking resources, but rather a lack of bankable projects. “We need to invest in the capacity to invest,” said Dr Ibrahim Mayaki, CEO of the Nepad agency.