Page 57 - ie2 August 2019

Africa has arrived in the 21st century standing
tall and more ready than ever to take its destiny
into its hands
- President Wade of Senegal, at the opening
ceremony of the monument The African
Renaissance that now stands in Dakar and depicts
a couple holding their baby to the sky to beckon
the dawning of an African century

A FRICA today is definitely a ‘happening continent.’ It is

home to over half a dozen of the fastest-growing countries
of this decade. Africa’s collective GDP is expected to touch
$3.6 trillion in 2020. In 2017, the African Development
Bank reported Africa as the world’s second-fastest-growing
economy. Going by country, Ethiopia had the fastest-grow-
ing economy in the world in 2017. Ivory Coast, Tanzania,
Senegal, Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, and Mozambique are do-
ing fine, too. Several international business observers have
named Africa as the future economic growth engine of the
world. Africa is not there yet, but its growth rate is definite-
ly impressive.