Structural inequalities cause of low growth in Africa – World Bank

The World Bank has identified deep-rooted inequalities as a major obstacle to Africa’s economic progress, according to its chief economist for the region.

Andrew Dabalen in an interview on Citi TV’s The Point of View, pointed to a lack of essential infrastructure and limited intra-African trade as key factors limiting growth.

“The speed at which Africa’s growth reduces poverty is only half than what we see in the rest of the world. East Asia is much higher. One of the major reasons for that is what we call structural inequalities in this report.

“There are many reasons why Africa’s growth is low, part of it is that we don’t have infrastructure in terms of energy, water and sanitation, and we don’t really trade a lot with each other.

“We have lots of shocks from either commodity prices, conflict or climate disasters. One of the important determinants of this low growth and this ability of low growth to convert to poverty reduction is inequality and structural inequality.

“They are inequalities because of circumstances an individual cannot control. You don’t have control over where you were born and who you were born to, your skin colour, or the fact that you are a man or a woman. These circumstances that you are born into account for almost 70% of all the differences you see between children’s access to education, health or nutrition.

“That is what we call structural, it’s not something you can change with your ability or something that the market can correct, it requires social policy action,” he told host Bernard Avle.

The World Bank’s Africa Pulse Report for April 2024 included some forecasts for Africa. It projected a slowdown in Ghana’s economic growth in 2024, despite expectations of increased economic activity.

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