Africa must tackle poverty to share benefits of strong growth according to IMF’s Lagarde

This would ensure that revenues and benefits from the continent’s mineral riches – Africa has more than 30 percent of the world’s mineral reserves – could be better captured for national budgets and generating more jobs.  Lagarde said Africa needed to “build people” to reap the dividends of its rapid population growth.

She cited estimates that a one percentage point increase in the working age population could boost GDP growth by half a percentage point.  Lagarde said, “For this to happen, however, ‘good’ jobs need to be created in the private sector. Today, only one in five people in Africa finds work in the formal sector.” .

Lagarde also said, “This must change. With wider access to quality education, healthcare and infrastructure services, it can change.”  Technology could extend access to financial services to millions, and this was already happening in several countries, such as Kenya.  She then concluded, “Africa Rising will benefit the lives of people on the continent. Beyond that, Africa Rising will benefit the world.”

Source:  The Africa Report