AfDB chief says African economies showing good signs

President of the African Development Bank (AfDB), Akinwumi Adesina, has lauded development progress being made across the African continent, which he said is spurring economic growth.

Adesina said the African economies are growing at an average 3.7 percent annually, showing signs of better prospects in the coming years.

He said that the African continent would enjoy an economic growth rate of 4.7 percent by 2017.

"The countries from East African block are leading and have shown good progress that ranges from 6 to 7 percent in recent past," Adesina told reporters in the Kenyan capital Nairobi on Thursday evening.

He said that Kenya, Tanzania, Rwanda, Mozambique, Democratic Republic of the Congo and Cote d'Ivoire were fast realizing good development progress.

He however said that the continent faced challenges from the decline in oil prices and rising domestic fiscal imbalances.

"The countries need to pay more attention to micro-economic stabilization and rapidly have economic diversification by industrializing and not do one type of business trend year in year out," the AfDB chief said.

He said that African countries needed to invest in industrialization and embark on adding value to exports to be able to fetch good prices globally.

Adesina said that the problem of joblessness amongst the youth in Africa was causing economic risks to the continent.

He lamented that a third of the African youth were in vulnerable employment despite graduating from public universities.

He announced that AfDB will support a project aimed at generating 25 million jobs for young Africans aged 18-35 in the next ten years.

He also called on African governments to mobilize domestic resources for their development, adding that the future of Africa lies on domestic financing as opposed to external finances. Endit