ABSTRACT
Over the last two and half decades, extensive efforts have been directed at generating economic progress in Africa. These efforts include initiatives such as the structural adjustment programmes (SAPs), Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), and New Partnership for Africa’s Development (Nepad). The Nepad and MDGs are perhaps the most ambitious in their policy targets. For example, one of the goals of the Nepad and MDG is to achieve and sustain an average gross domestic product (GDP) growth rate of at least 7% per annum (p.a.) in order to reduce the share of Africans living in poverty by half by the year 2015 and, as well, put Africa on a path of sustainable growth and development and halt its marginalisation in the globalisation process. To reach this goal, however, it would need huge investment injections in various sectors of Africa’s economies such as agriculture, industry, education, and health. For instance, it is estimated that it would require incremental investment rates of 29% and 25% to be added to the current levels of investment in agriculture and industry, respectively, for Sub-Saharan African economies to catch up with Malaysia, Indonesia, and Thailand.1
