Business is Booming – In Africa

Africa

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While much of Africa ranks near the bottom in major economic and quality-of-life categories, there are signs that the continent’s outlook is improving.

Near the Bottom

There’s no doubt African countries are some of the poorest in the world.

GDP by country (most recent year available) in U.S. dollars

U.S. 15,940,000,000,000

China 12,610,000,000,000

India 4,761,000,000,000

Japan 4,704,000,000,000

Algeria 277,400,000,000

Angola 130,400,000,000

Benin 15,840,000,000

Botswana 32,060,000,000

Burkina Faso 24,690,000,000

Burundi 5,578,000,000

Cameroon 51,610,000,000

Cape Verde 2,214,000,000

Central African Republic 3,955,000,000

Chad 21,000,000,000

Comoros 887,400,000

Congo 19,410,000,000

Côte d’Ivoire 41,010,000,000

Democratic Republic of Congo 28,030,000,000

Djibouti 2,418,000,000

Egypt 548,800,000,000

Equatorial Guinea 19,600,000,000

Eritrea 4,468,000,000

Ethiopia 105,000,000,000

Gabon 25,910,000,000

Gambia 3,459,000,000

Ghana 83,740,000,000

Guinea 12,370,000,000

Guinea-Bissau 1,963,000,000

Kenya 77,140,000,000

Lesotho 4,131,000,000

Liberia 2,719,000,000

Libya 78,630,000,000

Madagascar 21,760,000,000

Malawi 14,500,000,000

Mali 18,280,000,000

Mauritania 7,824,000,000

Mauritius 20,530,000,000

Morocco 174,000,000,000

Mozambique 26,690,000,000

Namibia 17,030,000,000

Niger 13,340,000,000

Nigeria 455,500,000,000

Rwanda 15,740,000,000

Sao Tome and Principe 408,600,000

Senegal 27,010,000,000

Seychelles 2,355,000,000

Sierra Leone 8,412,000,000

Somalia 5,896,000,000

South Africa 592,000,000,000

South Sudan 10,620,000,000

Sudan 86,670,000,000

Swaziland 6,345,000,000

Tanzania 75,070,000,000

Togo 7,024,000,000

Tunisia 107,100,000,000

Uganda 51,270,000,000

Zambia 24,360,000,000

Zimbabwe 7,366,000,000

American Samoa 575,300,000

Tuvalu 37,610,000

But things are getting better – the continent’s total GDP has gone up by about 135% in the past decade. By comparison, the European Union’s collective GDP went up by about 37% during the same period.

Total African GDP by year

2004 851,858,000,000

2005 1,005,560,000,000

2006 1,140,594,000,000

2007 1,339,944,000,000

2008 1,562,460,000,000

2009 1,479,652,000,000

2010 1,738,634,000,000

2011 1,883,468,000,000

2012 2,006,779,000,000

Cause for Celebration

Educational expansion and increased infrastructure are two of the major reasons African countries have some of the fastest growing economies in the world.

Education

Average adult illiteracy rate

1990-2002 2005-2010

41% 32%

Enrollment in primary school (boys and girls)

1990 2000 2005 2010-12

75.3% 86.5% 98.0% 100%

Energy production

Total electrical production (in kilowatt hours)

2007 2008 2009

614,788,000,000 624,705,000,000 633,546,000,000

Hydroelectric production (in kilowatt hours)

2007 2008 2009

96,922,000,000 96,621,000,000 100,320,000,000

Thermal production (in kilowatt hours)

2007 2008 2009

504,345,000,000 512,557,000,000 517,429,000,000

Basic infrastructure

Country Paved routes (% of total) Telephone lines (per 100) Cell phone subscribers (per 100)

Algeria 74 8.5 99

Angola 10.4 1.5 48.4

Burkina Faso 15.3 0.8 45.3

Congo 6 0.2 93.8

Djibouti 16 2 21.3

Ethiopia 13.7 1 16.7

Niger 20.9 0.6 27

Uganda 23 1.3 48.4

Signs of Growth

Which areas of Africa are becoming center of development?

Six of the world’s 10 fastest growing economies of the past decade are in sub-Saharan Africa.

And a spate of major development projects are in the works.

Great Inga Dam

Location: Democratic Republic of the Congo

Work to begin: October 2015

Will produce 40,000 megawatts of energy. That’s twice as much as China’s Three Gorges Dam, currently the world’s largest.

Total cost: $80 billion

Mobusa – Kampala – Kigali railway project

Location: Kenya/Uganda/Rwanda

Will be completed: March 2018

Stretching almost 3,000 kilometers and connecting three East African countries, the railway could be the continent’s answer to the Orient Express.

Total cost: $13.5 billion

Konza City

Location: Kenya

A technology and financial metropolis project located southeast of Nairobi, the project is the Kenyan government’s plan to improve the quality of life for its citizens. The government expects the city to provide 100,000 jobs and will include a business district, a university, residential areas and city parks.

Total cost: $9.2 billion

Ethio-Djibouti railway

Location: Ethiopia/Djibouti

The 650-kilometer railway is part of the Ethiopian government’s Growth and Transformation plan. It will connect the Ethiopian capital of Addis Ababa and the Port of Doraleh in the small Red Sea nation of Djibouti.

Total cost: $1.2 billion.

The Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam

Location: Ethiopia

To be completed: July 2017

The Renaissance Dam will sit on the Blue Nile river in the Benishangul-Gumuz region. Creating 12,000 jobs and generating 6,000 MW of energy, the dam will also serve neighboring Sudan and Egypt, which both rely on the Nile River’s water resources.

Total cost: $4.7 billion

Jasper Power Project

Location: South Africa

Project began: May 2013

The project will be a 96 MW solar photovoltaic (PV) plant in South Africa’s Northern Cape — one of the biggest solar installations in the continent. The project will create 300 construction jobs and 50 permanent operational jobs.

Total Cost: Google has invested $12 million

Lagos Metro Blue Line

Location: Lagos

Completion date: Launch has been pushed back to 2015.

A major cosmopolitan transport project to connect Nigeria’s largest city, the Lagos Metro Blue Line is designed to ease congestion and speed up journey times for the city’s inhabitants.

Total cost: $1.2 billion

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Sources:

http://edition.cnn.com

http://www.uneca.org

http://politicalcalculations.blogspot.com

http://www.uneca.org

https://www.cia.gov