Friday, March 29, 2024

Unlock Africa’s Public Finance Potential

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By Bitange Ndemo

Unknown to the conference participants was the fact that McKinsey in its recent study, Unlocking Africa’s $100 billion public-finance opportunities, argue that although “African governments’ combined budget deficits exceeded $100 billion in 2018,…with public-finance reforms, if scaled up across the continent, could close the entire fiscal deficit.”

In spite of Africa being the poorest continent, the report argues, it is making progress in key areas that would boost economic growth.

The study highlights some of the reforms that have a significant impact. These include: Doubling spending on infrastructure to about $80 billion every year; improved ease of doing business, investments in health systems have led to significant gains including a 50 percent reduction in infant mortality rates since 1990; and an increase in the time African children spend in school, which has nearly doubled since 1990, contributing to raising the continent’s youth literacy rate to 70 percent…Read more>>

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