ACET president, K.Y. Amoako, along with co-authors Daniel Hamilton and Eveline Herfkens acknowledge that the proposed Trans-Atlantic Trade and Investment Partnership between the United States and the European Union promises to boost North Atlantic economies. However, the parties will have to make adjustments to fit 21st century realities. The agreement must update old US and EU trade preference schemes for Sub-Saharan Africa by providing equal opportunity for all SSA countries, and accepting....

As part of its centennial anniversary celebrations, the Rockefeller Foundation in collaboration with the African Center for Economic Transformation (ACET) held the final Future Scenario Workshop of the Informal City Dialogue (ICD), on Wednesday April 24, and Thursday April 25, 2013 at the Afia Beach Resort in Accra, Ghana. At this workshop, participants were allowed to immerse themselves in an exploration of urban life 27 years from today. Participants were also encouraged to use their im....

True or False? Only one fifth of the population of Sub Saharan Africa has access to electricity compared with one half in South Asia and four fifths in Latin America.
True. It gets worse - Africa’s power costs around US$0.18 per kilowatt-hour on average to produce (about twice as expensive as elsewhere). The World Bank cites that African countries will fail to reach universal access to electricity by 2050. With such dire facts, is there any hope? The Addax Bioenergy project....

At a JICA-ACET Industrial Policy Dialogue, experts urge African leaders  to look to East Asia for inspiration and lessons of "what works". Successful East Asian countries may represent better models of economic development for Africa to learn from because they have had “the dual experiences” of being both recipients and donors of aid, and can identify with many of the challenges which lie ahead of African economies. Professors Kenichi Ohno and Izumi Ohno of the National Graduate Institut....

In a recent article, Nobel Laureate and Chair of ACET's Advisory Group Joseph Stiglitz  addresses the question of how countries can turn the resource curse into a blessing. Professor Stiglitz argues that while well known antidotes to the curse exist (such as a low exchange rate, a stabilization fund, careful investment of resource revenues, a ban on borrowing against resources, and transparency), there is a growing consensus that these measures, while necessary, are insufficient. Newly enric....

After decades of decline, a number of factors are aligning and provide a window of opportunity for jump-starting manufacturing in the region. With good reason, manufacturing continues to be seen as the Holy Grail of economic transformation. After all, historically it has been the one special engine that has powered the economic rise of nations. Manufacturing is special because of its potential for impact through multiple channels. First, jobs in the sector potentially produce wage incr....

National long-term planning appears to have come full circle in many countries across the West African region. From its highest point during the waves of national independence in the 1960s and 70s – when most countries had long term plans – to its lowest when Structural Adjustment Programs were introduced in the 1980s, long-term planning is now gaining popularity again....

Recently, the New York Times carried a story titled “Africa on the Rise”, by one of its leading columnists Nicholas Kristof who is on an Africa tour. He writes: “Generations of Americans have learned to pity Africa. It’s mainly seen as a quagmire of famine and genocide, a destination only for a sybaritic safari or a masochistic aid mission. So here’s another way to think of Africa: an economic dynamo.” It’s remarkable how quickly Africa’s image has soared across the globe in the l....

African Business magazine’s 2012 rankings is a good insight into the state of corporate Africa. But a broader performance measure is needed.  African Business magazine has released its rankings of Africa’s top 250 companies. The rankings themselves have not changed much from last year’s – the top five remain the same, and South African companies still dominate the top nine spots. But something else has changed. In the 2011 report, the combined market value of the continent’s biggest corpo....