PR TIMES AFRICA PRTimesAfrica (March 2016) | Page 60

AFRICA
CAN CREATE A
$2 TRILLION
ECONOMY
ing an annual deficit of almost $50 billion.
Thus, as Côte d’Ivoire’s President Alassane
Ouattara aptly put it, Africa’s greatest chal-
lenge is ensuring that its transformation
is bolstered by sufficient and innovative
sources of funding.
“One solution would be to speed up the de-
velopment of our financial markets with a
view to sparking the transformation of Afri-
can economies,” President Ouattara told the
Ninth African Development Forum in Mo-
rocco last year. “To do so, we must come up
with innovative financial products and set
up effective national and regional financial
institutions and services.”
While Africa is fully cognisant of the signif-
icant strides it has made since the Monter-
rey Consensus in March 2002 in mobilizing
financial and technical resources for devel-
opment, it contends that there is a huge gap.
“Current policy, financing and investment
patterns are not delivering the future we
want. There are enormous unmet financing
needs for sustainable development. Esti-
mates vary due to the complexities of quan-
tifying needs, but consistently point to a
60 | PRTIMES AFRICA MARCH 2016