A solid stewardship of Africa’s future development requires a good understanding of the factors that shape the past and current growth processes

The resounding economic growth of the past one and a halve decades and the bright prospects for the immediately future is changing the development landscape of Africa. Growth averaged 5.1 percent between 2000 and 2012 and doubled the continent’s average growth rate in the 1990s. The rapid growth path has started to change the narrative of Africa’s development from pessimism or a hopeless continent to an unprecedented optimism - an emerging growth pole and a vibrant frontier market. This emboldens many African countries to dream of “emerging” from the least and middle income developing countries groupings by aspiring to rapid and sturdy economic growth rates, large improvements in market and institutional efficiencies and also attracting large volumes of foreign direct investments (FDIs). The celebration of the 50 years anniversary of the African Union in 2013 rekindled this optimism which informed the preparation of the Common African Position on the post 2015 development agenda and the Agenda 2063. Why should Japan or any important partner be interested in Africa’s structural transformation? The implementation of the Tokyo International Conference on African Development’s (TICAD) initiative has shown Japan as a trusted development partner in the continent. This includes the $32.0 billion pledge in 2013 for the continent’s development in the next five years. While appreciating this very significant contribution, many reasons still abound for partners’ authorities and their private sectors to be fully engaged in Africa’s transformation agenda: