Industrialization in Africa must compete, connect, and create value

Industrialization drives the sustained growth in jobs and productivity that marks the developmental take-off of most developed economies and industrialization remains central to structural transformation in Africa, yet Africa’s experience has been uneven and incomplete. Our Industrialization in Sub-Saharan Africa: Seizing Opportunities in Global Value Chains, published in 2021 as part of the WBG-AFD Africa Development Forum series,challenged the prevailing pessimism about Africa’s manufacturing prospects. We found no strong evidence of premature deindustrialization, a decline in manufacturing at unusually low levels of income. Instead, Africa has experienced false starts and partial peaks – episodes of manufacturing expansion that failed to evolve into sustained growth. Continue Reading