Africa is one of the fastest-growing consumer markets in the world. Africa’s consumer expenditure has been growing at a compound annual rate of 3.9% since 2010. This market is expected to reach $2.1 trillion by 2025  and $2.5 trillion by 2030. The implementation of the AfCFTA will help to...

The Africa Competitiveness Report 2017 is a special project within the framework of the World Economic Forum’s Global Competitiveness and Risks Team. It is the result of collaboration between the World Economic Forum, the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development/ the World Bank, and...

The international development community commemorated World Water Day on March 22, 2017. The focus was on wastewater. For more than five decades, the African Development Bank has been at the forefront of funding wastewater management programs. Turning wastewater into wealth, the AfDB argues is...

"Progress has been achieved in delivering water to rural communities in the world," the 7th Rural Water Supply Network (RWSN) Forum concluded. However, more needs to be done to complete the task of providing access to drinking water to over 660 million people globally and 280 million people in...

In advanced economies, only firms who have relatively grown in size and need more capital for operations approach capital markets for finance, implying that their ownership would be diffused and enlarged. To attract more investors, corporate governance standards that could protect the interests of...

Economic stability of any country goes beyond exposure to endogenous factors but a host of exogenous factors it receives from other countries through foreign trade and international financial flows. Hence, exposure to exogenous factors poses both opportunities for growth and challenges of economic...

International capital flows not only offer a great deal of benefits to financially integrated countries, they also pose numerous macroeconomic challenges (Reinhart and Reinhart, 2008; Furceri, Guichard and Rusticelli, 2011). While countries with some degrees of financial openness are able to share...

Given the livelihood options outside smallholder farming for the largest set of the population in developing countries and in recognition of the potential for market to unlock economic growth and development gave rise to market led rural development paradigm during the 1980s (Timmer, 1997). For...

Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) is a main source of much desired capital flow as it is capable of facilitating technological spillovers, job creation and improves managerial skills and productivity in recipient countries (Blomstrom and Kokko, 1997; Jensen, 2003). Experts argue that FDI has the...