ABSTRACT
This chapter provides evidence of three sets of stylized facts about economic growth and development in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) and then attempts to draw some implications for the latter. First, the economies of SSA are characterized by low per capita incomes, low savings and investment, economic distortion, vastly underdeveloped infrastructure, weak institutions, rudimentary technology and relatively uneducated populations which adversely affect growth performance and prospects. Second, the structural disarticulation of the African economies makes them much more susceptible to external shocks, where economic growth and economic performance in general are relatively exogenous. Third, save for a few countries, SSA is mostly composed of countries with small markets and not strategically located vis-à-vis the main economic growth poles of the world.
