Question

Is industrial policy necessary for African countries? Explain why.

Answer 1

Africa Industrialization has been a campaign promise across the African continent, with its acknowledged ability to bring prosperity, new jobs and better incomes for all. Yet the continent is less industrialized today than it was four decades ago as it needs an active industrial policy to sustain its growth.In most African countries, there was no private sector that could rush in to fill the vacuum left behind by the shrinking state. Even in countries where the private sector was reasonably developed, it could not thrive in an environment of vastly heightened import competition and collapsing public investments in infrastructure, education and skills.

Few African countries have been able to convert their recent resource bonanza into a more sustainable industrial base.

Over the past decade many African countries have increased, rather than reduced, their reliance on primary commodities, whose notoriously large price fluctuations make sustained growth difficult.

Hence the growing interest among the African countries in industrial development through more active industrial policy.