Global economic spotlight shifts to Africa this week

AFRICA sometimes flies under the global radar, despite its growing economic power. However, that is changing this week. On Dec 1 (Sunday), South Africa assumed the G20 presidency for the next year, and US President Joe Biden is travelling to the continent from Monday to Wednesday, potentially his last overseas trip as president.

Both moments are big firsts. No African nation has ever held the G20 before. Moreover, Biden’s trip reportedly to Cape Verde and Angola is his first to the continent as US president, as he seeks to showcase to his successor, Donald Trump, and the wider West the strategic importance of Africa in the second half of the 2020s.

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa has said he will use South Africa’s G20 year, which will reportedly see 130 meetings in the next 12 months, to put the spotlight on the huge economic potential of the continent, which is increasingly seen to have the potential to become the main driver of global growth. According to the World Bank, between 2017 and 2021, average global growth was 2.4 per cent, compared with 3.7 per cent between 1996 and 2000.