Summary

Africa enjoys significant economic momentum heading into the 2020s. The past two decades have seen a doubling of public capital in sub-Saharan Africa, led by Kenya and Gabon; access to electricity has expanded by as much as 50%; and the region has recorded some of the best growth rates in the world, growing by 5% on average from 2010-2014.

Yet even with this impressive performance, the region still lags behind its global peers: infrastructure deficits remain pronounced, with access to critical finance increasingly pushed toward high-yield vehicles; growth is wildly disparate among regional economies; governments are spending more than they take in, with an increasing amount of expenditures going toward debt servicing; and debt-to-GDP levels continue to tick upward toward dangerous levels. This last point is of particular concern heading into 2020, as many Sub-Saharan African (SSA) economies remain undiversified and commodity-focused, leaving them particularly vulnerable to global shocks.