By Ofentse Madisha
When my family and I crossed the border to Mozambique, I could not help but notice the dense demand for movement to and from South Africa. Homes were built up the mounding hill-edges as we entered, and as they faded, freeways stretched to the horizon with a few control stops, some questions and narration from the navigator.
We had to squint through Maputo’s overwhelming busyness, music breathing through the city, pedestrians climbing through the roadways, imported cars chiming through traffic lights and armed guards sitting outside banks. As I looked through the window of my youth, it dawned on me that the continent’s picture is framed through macroeconomic, trade and institutional indicators – whereas, people live, commute and experience something that numbers cannot fully measure.
At this point I could recall Mr Alassane D. Outtara’s address in 1999 titled “Africa: A window of opportunity” where he recommended that the continent needs to consolidate macroeconomic stability, ensure economic security, strengthen the financial sector, speed up trade liberalisation and deepen regional integration. GDP growth was expected to reach 3.5% that year, and accelerate to 5% by the year 2000. A decade later, an expansive and exciting narrative emerged describing African countries as “Lions on the Move”. It was in this story, that Africa's real-GDP came close to 5% growth between 2000 and 2008, driven by a resource boom, and its future underpinned by demographic trends, labour markets, middle-class growth and over 50% of households becoming more urbanised.