Africa The Next Economic Battleground

[Music] today when every major country is thinking to invest in asia to take advantage of their growing population there are some big countries and even companies which are showing interest to invest in africa countries like us china europe and india are already seeing africa as a potential future market but why africa stick around to find out well historically africa had a number of rich empires trading in many parts of the world however european colonization and the subsequent challenges created by decolonization resulted in environmental economic and social instability in africa it was similar to what happened due to colonial rule in most of the asian countries but the asian countries started to overcome those challenges before africa for example china started its economic growth after the 80s and india started to grow economically in the 90s yet in africa the economic growth started in the late 2000s and this economic growth began due to two main players one is america's big tech companies and the second is china the tech companies are always looking for bigger markets and africa is showing great signs because of its growing population and economic growth the 54 countries in africa have a combined population of 1.3 billion people with an average age of 19. and more than half of global population growth over the next 30 years will happen there in 2019 six of the top 15 fastest growing economies in the world were projected to be in africa and according to a london-based think tank africa's total gdp could hit 2.6 trillion dollars this year their gdp growth is projected to accelerate to 4.1 percent so all these things are attracting global companies to africa yet today the major problem for the economic development of africa is their poor infrastructure till now only 43 percent of the population has access to electricity and internet in the african continent and this is only 40 compared to the global 62 percent but when it comes to africa's infrastructure programs china plays an important role in it over the past two decades china has helped africa to meet their infrastructure financing needs till now china has participated in over 200 african infrastructure projects including highways electricity railways and many more also huawei has built nearly 70 percent of africa's 4g networks similarly american companies like google facebook and amazon are also helping to improve africa's infrastructure for example facebook is building a massive underwater cable around africa this is to bring more of the continents one point three billion inhabitants online facebook claims that this thirty seven thousand kilometers network will be nearly equal to the circumference of the earth likewise google is also working on creating an infrastructure for cheaper internet access for africa google's new cable named equiano will have 20 times the capacity of the most recent projects laid in the region yet it is not just foreign players africa's startup industry is also accomplishing new milestones african startups last year reached 2.02 billion dollars in equity funding startups like jamia are the future of the african tech industry jumia is the amazon of africa and it is the first african tech company that was listed on the new york stock exchange at the end it is an economic battleground and whoever will build africa's infrastructure fastest will get the most out of it and it seems that china is winning in africa although some african countries are concerned about china's increasing debt and their debt trap diplomacy still china is playing an important role in africa's infrastructure program and because of this investment we have seen massive economic growth and lifting millions of people out of poverty even though the coveted crisis could slow down the economic development but this will be only for a short duration so with good governance and a massive infrastructure development program africa could become a major economic powerhouse so what are your views about this video let us know in the comments section below and we are glad to watch the full video please hit the subscribe button and give this video a like thank you

Channel: Global Economics

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Keywords: nigeria economy, africa the next economic battleground, africa economy 2020, facebook africa, africa economy, united states economy, south africa economy, rwanda economy, ethiopia economy, china usa, china united states, documentary, economic collapse 2020, fastest growing economies, africa investing, africa free trade, china investing, huawei investing, china africa, united states africa, documentaries, china debt, jumia, infrastructure africa, india economy, china economy

Id: 518nvoXac1c

Length: 4min 22sec (262 seconds)

Published: Tue Aug 18 2020