The President of the African Development Bank (AfDB), Akinwumi Adesina, said that the major impediment to economic growth in Africa is insecurity.
He expressed his thoughts in a thread of tweets that drew a link between insecurity and the continent’s development.
He added that Africa’s investment space continues to contract, as it was at the mercy of insecurity bedeviling the continent.
Adesina urged that “security and development” be combined to “ensure security stability” on the African continent.
He said, “Insecurity is now the number one challenge to Africa’s development. Terrorism is shrinking Africa’s investment space.
“Insecurity is no longer a political issue. Insecurity is an economic issue.
“We must no longer decouple security and development. We must ensure security stability in Africa.
“Africa needs new financial instruments to protect and secure investments in countries and regions against rising insecurity.”
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According to data from the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the economic cost of terrorism in Africa between the years of 2007 and 2016 is, at a minimum, $119 billion.
Although, it notes that the figure is much higher when GDP losses are also estimated.
Other factors that are accounted for are refugee/IDP costs, extra security costs, loss of activities in the informal sector.
It stated that the impact of terrorism in Nigeria is 19 times more than in Libya that ranks number two on the list of countries with the highest cost of terrorism over a ten-year period.
