Moghalu Criticizes Africa’s Focus on GDP Growth

Former presidential candidate and economist Kingsley Moghalu has criticized Africa’s focus on Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth, calling it a “misguided worship” that has impeded the continent’s true development potential.

In a statement on Saturday via X, Moghalu argued that the exclusive emphasis on GDP has hampered Africa’s progress and advocated for a more holistic development approach.

Moghalu identified five crucial pillars for Africa’s development:

1. Adopting an “endogenous mindset” that prioritizes internal development.
2. Developing a strategy to combat poverty through effective education and skills for productivity.
3. Ensuring the availability of reliable electric power infrastructure.
4. Translating scientific inventions and innovations into commercially viable products through mass production.
5. Providing accessible “pipeline capital” to SMEs and MSMEs at affordable interest rates through microfinance banks, while central banks should not directly fund these initiatives.

Moghalu emphasized that Africa must shift its development approach to address these foundational areas for genuine progress.