Experts predict positive growth for EAC’s economy at WEF Africa

Although the growth across the continent has shown a declining growth trend, experts are optimistic that the East Africa region is poised for a positive growth, another optimism

The growth according to Joe Eshun, Deputy Chief executive Officer, East Africa for Deloitte Consulting ltd says that although there has been a decline on the continent growth to 3.5 percent from the earlier projected over five percent, the East Africa region continues to perform well.

“But the bright side is that while the broader Africa is not experiencing kind of  growth we want, East Africa  is defying all the odds,” Eshun said during the World economic Forum on Africa-WEF Africa2016 on Wednesday.

The  forum  that is hosted in  Kigali from May 11-13th has brought together over 1,200 business, political, policy making and other leaders to discuss current economic and social issues, problems, ideas and possible solutions and mainly  looking at using technology to spur  continent’s growth.

But of course several factors, experts say has driven the great growth and are expected to continue to spur growth as more countries now focus at shifting the focus to less reliance on natural resources.

“I think the growth of east Africa has been built on the backbone of infrastructure, political stability and to some extent the lack of reliance on commodities and the east Africa integration,” he added.

But   the efforts    use of technology in key economic sectors has also motivated further growth of the region and notably financial inclusion with more people accessing finance.

“The ability to use technology and innovations to propel growth is another reason East Africa is experiencing a lot of growth,” he added.

Nevertheless, the region still faces challenges of less investments in regional infrastructure, high numbers of unemployment use and low levels of motivation towards encouraging more innovations in the region which need to be addressed.