Africa-Press – Namibia. NAMIBIA has been ranked as the 10th most industrialised nation on the continent, beating Ethiopia, Angola, Ghana and even Rwanda, a recently released African Development Bank (AfDB) ranking index shows.
This is, however, the lowest the country has been ranked, as it had always been in the top 8 since 2010.
The rankings are based on the Africa Industrialisation Index, which rates the country-level assessment of 52 African countries’ progress across 19 key indicators.
The 19 indicators cover manufacturing performance, capital, labour, business environment, infrastructure, and macroeconomic stability.
The index also ranks African countries’ industrialisation across three dimensions: performance, and direct and indirect determinants.
Direct determinants include endowments such as capital and labour and how these are deployed to drive industrial development. Indirect determinants include enabling environmental conditions such as macroeconomic stability, sound institutions and infrastructure.
Namibia is at the bottom of what has been considered the top quintile together with African heavyweights such as Nigeria, Kenya, Senegal, Egypt, Morocco and South Africa.
Gambia is the least industrlised nation, and shares the bottom quantile category with Burundi, Comoros, Malawi and diamond-rich Sierra Leone.
Countries such as Rwanda, Ethiopia, Botswana, Zimbabwe and Tanzania are in the mid-quantiles, and many of them have improved in terms of the indicators.
The bank said it was important to rank and report on the countries so that African governments can identify comparator countries to benchmark their own industrial performance and identify best practices more effectively.
According to the bank, “industrialisation is central to Africa’s development. Building productive industry is the most promising strategy for creating formal jobs at scale and promoting growth whose benefits are widely shared”.
Though a top performer, South Africa has shrunk to 0,8404 points in 2021 from 0,8957 in 2010 – its highest score in the 2010-2021 period.
It now stands 0,1596 points away from the frontier mark of 1, which shows why the country stands as the top-ranked.
In 2010, Namibia’s development score was at 0,6106 and dropped to 0,6014 in 2021.
The bank said the index reveals bright spots of successful industrialisation are emerging across Africa, and that several countries are making steady progress in putting in place the essential elements for industrial transformation.
“Yet overall, the pace of industrial development remains too slow. Jobs are not being created at the pace required to match rapid population growth and take advantage of the resulting demographic dividend,” reads the commentary report.
There is, however, a growing consensus that African countries need more proactive industrial policies, to foster growth in the most promising industries.
To support this industrialisation, the AfDB said it has a strategy in place to foster successful industrial policies, catalyse funding for infrastructure and industry projects, grow liquid and effective capital markets, promote and drive enterprise development, promote strategic partnerships, and develop efficient industry clusters.
The full report is available on the AfDB website.
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This is, however, the lowest the country has been ranked, as it had always been in the top 8 since 2010.
The rankings are based on the Africa Industrialisation Index, which rates the country-level assessment of 52 African countries’ progress across 19 key indicators.
The 19 indicators cover manufacturing performance, capital, labour, business environment, infrastructure, and macroeconomic stability.
The index also ranks African countries’ industrialisation across three dimensions: performance, and direct and indirect determinants.
Direct determinants include endowments such as capital and labour and how these are deployed to drive industrial development. Indirect determinants include enabling environmental conditions such as macroeconomic stability, sound institutions and infrastructure.
Namibia is at the bottom of what has been considered the top quintile together with African heavyweights such as Nigeria, Kenya, Senegal, Egypt, Morocco and South Africa.
Gambia is the least industrlised nation, and shares the bottom quantile category with Burundi, Comoros, Malawi and diamond-rich Sierra Leone.
Countries such as Rwanda, Ethiopia, Botswana, Zimbabwe and Tanzania are in the mid-quantiles, and many of them have improved in terms of the indicators.
The bank said it was important to rank and report on the countries so that African governments can identify comparator countries to benchmark their own industrial performance and identify best practices more effectively.
According to the bank, “industrialisation is central to Africa’s development. Building productive industry is the most promising strategy for creating formal jobs at scale and promoting growth whose benefits are widely shared”.
Though a top performer, South Africa has shrunk to 0,8404 points in 2021 from 0,8957 in 2010 – its highest score in the 2010-2021 period.
It now stands 0,1596 points away from the frontier mark of 1, which shows why the country stands as the top-ranked.
In 2010, Namibia’s development score was at 0,6106 and dropped to 0,6014 in 2021.
The bank said the index reveals bright spots of successful industrialisation are emerging across Africa, and that several countries are making steady progress in putting in place the essential elements for industrial transformation.
“Yet overall, the pace of industrial development remains too slow. Jobs are not being created at the pace required to match rapid population growth and take advantage of the resulting demographic dividend,” reads the commentary report.
There is, however, a growing consensus that African countries need more proactive industrial policies, to foster growth in the most promising industries.
To support this industrialisation, the AfDB said it has a strategy in place to foster successful industrial policies, catalyse funding for infrastructure and industry projects, grow liquid and effective capital markets, promote and drive enterprise development, promote strategic partnerships, and develop efficient industry clusters.
The full report is available on the AfDB website.
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