Generally, Africa in the last few years has witnessed some economic and social reforms geared towards setting the continent on the path of development. The continent still depends on minerals and hydrocarbons. To move the continent from its dependence on these minerals, reforms on the following areas must take place:
- Sustainable growth in the real sector of the economy
- Physical Infrastructure: Power, Energy & Transportation
- Agriculture
- Human Capital Development: Education & Health
- Security, Law and Order
- Combating Corruption
The world is experiencing new dimensions in knowledge creation that is global, dynamic, fluidic, adaptive and innovative. Those that respond creatively with reap the benefits of world trade. This underscores the importance of knowledge driven African economy. Figure below shows that Africa lags well behind other global trade blocks in major factors used to measure the knowledge economy index (KEI). Improving those factors will determine the abilities of African Union member states to transform into global economic powers.
Figure: KEI for Africa, USA, Europe and Central Asia
The Knowledge Indexes were designed as an interactive tool for benchmarking a country’s position vis-a-vis others in the global knowledge economy. It was created by the World Bank Institute using the Knowledge Assessment Methodology (KAM). (wikipedia)