Background Data
- Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) has 12 % of the world’s total population but only 2% of world GDP
- Since 2000, GDP per capita in SSA has grown by almost 5% per year, compared with 2.4% in the two preceding decades – most forecasts predict that good growth will continue in the next few years
- Since 2000, SSA’s economic size has doubled in real terms and almost quadrupled in nominal $ terms
- To put this into context, the combined national output of SSA is equivalent to the GDP of Spain
- Angola, Mozambique or Ethiopia achieved average GDP growth rates of 8% and more over the last decade – compared with that of China and exceeding that of India
- In 2012, Sierra Leone, Niger, Cote d’Ivoire, Angola, Liberia and Burkina Faso all experienced faster economic growth than China
- Total SSA exports to China, Brazil and India were larger than those to the EU in 2011
- SSA tends to export primary commodities – manufactured goods and agricultural products represent only 5% of total exports to Brazil, India and China, 10% to the US and 30% to the EU
- There has been a significant rise in intra-regional trade within SSA and this is acting as a catalyst for export diversification within the region and in particular, a rising share of manufactured products within total exports – but intra-regional trade remains low in absolute terms
- SSA is investing more heavily in tourism as a growth and development driver. Traditional destinations such as Cape Verde, Kenya, Mauritius, Seychelles have served tourists from rich advanced countries for many years; newer destinations include Rwanda and Sierra Leone
- SSA is a net recipient of remittance inflows – they were $31bn 2011 and 2012, 2.5% of SSA’s GDP – remittances provide important foreign exchange, improve the current account and add to a nation’s gross national income (GNI)
- Africa is set to become the world’s second-largest mobile telephony market behind Asia and its fastest-growing one. Mobile money systems built around extensive mobile phone penetration is fast-changing the connectivity available to the African continent.
- When it comes to social development - SSA lags in achieving all the Millennium Development Goals
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