The African Business Review May-Jun 2014 | Page 17

Emerging African
economies:
strategies for coping
with global financial
crisis
By Akanni, K.A.

The recent global economic recess has far
reaching implications on the stock market,
employment of labor and survival of the
production sector. Investors are poorly
compensated, jobs are lost in thousands
and hitherto viable industries are folding up.
The African economy is not spared either.
Policy makers and technocrats are now being
challenged in an attempt to arrive at workable
solutions to the current economic quagmire. In
this paper therefore, several economic indicators
were examined. The implications of the various
manifestations of the global financial crisis on
the economic indicators of the African economy
were investigated. These indicators include the
gross domestic product, GDP, foreign reserves,
employment opportunities among the active
working population and rate of inflation on
consumable goods and services, level of exports
and interest rates, and so on. Some stopgap
measures put in place by the African countries
to circumvent or mitigate the effects of the global
crisis were identified and many relevant policy
frameworks were suggested for implementation.
To avoid an unmanageable economic recession
therefore, it was suggested that more attention
be paid to the efficiency of resource use and
minimization of leakages or wastages in the
African economies.
Introduction

Following the global financial crisis which reared its ugly head
late last 2008, the level of unemployment in the United States
and many European countries (particularly Britain, Germany
and France) hit all-time high levels (IMF, 2009). The number of
people on low wage part-time jobs had spiraled in those countries.
Again, there are observable frenzied stock markets and social
dislocations in these hitherto booming economies. The general
manifestation of this scenario is that there is a negative growth
across the various sectors in most developing economies. In
addition to this, it is very clear that no African country is safe
from the global financial crisis and slowdown in the over- all

The African Business Review | 17