Welcome to Africanews

Please select your experience

Watch Live

Business

business

Ouattara roots for private sector to power Africa's economic growth

Ouattara roots for private sector to power Africa's economic growth

Ivory Coast

Africa needs the private sector to meet its enormous challenges and ensure its development while building on a “win-win” partnership between the private and public sectors, Ivorian President Alassane Ouattara said on Monday in Abidjan.

“It’s the private sector that contributes most to accelerating the economic development of Africa,” said Ouattara while opening the Africa CEO Forum Awards, a meeting that sets the economic performance of leaders and companies in Africa.

“A long-term win-win partnership between the private sector and the public will allow our economies to prosper in a sustainable way,” Ouattara stressed before business leaders on the continent that included Aliko Dangote, the Nigerian cement king and the richest man in Africa.

The Ivorian President enumerated the “enormous” challenges facing the continent, that included “an increase in financing costs, a sluggish international environment caused by the sharp fall in commodity prices and terrorism”.

Ouattara said it was “imperative” to create jobs for young people, who are “often unfortunately exploited by terrorists.”

On Sunday, Ivory Coast paid a solemn tribute to the victims of an unprecedented jihadist attack that killed 19 people last week in the town of Grand-Bassam, a seaside resort near Abidjan.

The West African powerhouse posted a growth rate of “10.3% in 2015” compared to 8.5% in 2014.

“So our continent will create even more growth, more wealth and more jobs (…) with a private sector stimulator of innovation and technology transfer,” Ouattara said while stressing the role of the private sector in the transformation of raw materials.

The economy of the African continent is expected to grow 4.4% in 2016 and 5% in 2017, according to data from the African Development Bank (ADB).

Ghana’s president John Dramani Mahama is expected to address the forum on Tuesday.

View more