Kenya, Nigeria and 11 other countries have been listed under the Lower Middle-Income Countries by the United Nations Industrial Development Organisation (UNIDO) in a report submitted to the just concluded G20 Summit held in China.
The 11 other countries which were classified under the lower-middle-income countries are Cape Verde, Cameroon, Republic of Congo, Côte d’ivoire, Djibouti, Ghana, Lesotho, Mauritania, São Tomé and Príncipe, Swaziland and Zambia.
In Sub-Saharan Africa, countries with a gross domestic income (GDI) per capita of between $1,026 and $12,475 in 2015 and were classified as middle-income countries. These are Angola, Botswana, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Mauritius, Namibia and South Africa who have a GDI of at least $4,036.
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“Of the Africa’s 54 countries, 48 are in sub-Saharan Africa and six in North Africa; 26 are middle-income countries, 34 LdCs, one is a high-income country, 16 are land-locked developing countries and six are Small Island developing states.” Reads the report.
It continues “The world has 48 LdCs: 34 being in Africa, 13 in Asia and the Pacific and one in Latin America. With more than 880 million people – 12 per cent of the world’s population, they account for less than 2 per cent of global GDP and about 1 per cent of global trade in goods.”
The organisation encourages Africa to build strong institutions and viable investment climates in order to realise the full potential of public– private partnerships (PPPs) and the opportunities for collaboration among industry, governments and other stakeholders.
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The report sees agribusiness as having a huge potential in Africa and LDCs,however, it notes that productivity is low and inefficient but stronger links between farmers and agro-industry and tighter clusters of small producers can enhance supply-chain efficiencies, improve access to local and global markets and increase real incomes of farmers, farm workers and their families.
