By:Staff writer
A US-based financial website has placed Namibia among the 12 most advanced countries in Africa able to use their natural resources to boost their economies.
A recent report posted on its website, Insider Money, an organisation headquartered in New York, based its finding on the 2022 World Intellectual Property Organisation’s Global Innovation Index to sift the countries that are the most advanced ones out of the 56 sovereign states in Africa.
The WIPO Innovation Index ranked Namibia the 8th most advanced country in Africa and 96th globally.
South Africa is ranked first in Africa while Nigeria, Africa’s largest economy or often referred to as the Giant of Africa, is conspicuously absent from the list which considers the optimum use of natural resources as its yardstick.
Other countries in the top African12 are Côte d’Ivoire (12), Zimbabwe (11), Tanzania (10), Senegal (9), Ghana (7), Egypt (6), Kenya (5), Botswana (4), Tunisia (3), and Morocco (2).
All the above countries are classified by the World Bank as having lower-middle income economies, except for Namibia, Botswana and South Africa who are placed in the upper-middle category.
The World Bank assigns the world’s economies to four income classifications: low, lower-middle, upper-middle, and high-income countries. These classifications are based on each country’s gross national income (GNI) per capita for the previous fiscal year (presently – fiscal year 2020/21), derived from the sum of the gross domestic product (GDP) for the country and net income of residents, converted into United States dollars using conversion factors derived according to the Atlas method.
The report observes that Africa is one of the richest continents in the world when it comes to natural resources. The continent has vast resources of valuable metals such as cobalt, gold, platinum and coltan, a metallic mineral which is a combination of columbite and tantalite and which is refined to produce tantalum.
“However, at the same time, it is one of the world’s least developed regions, as years of colonialism, strife, political uncertainty and conflicts have prevented the continent from growing the world’s youngest population,” the report states.
“However, Africa’s young population and the continent’s mineral resources are key to unlocking growth in the region. This is due to the fact that there is a strong potential for many industries to grow in Africa in order to move the continent away from exports and produce its own food.”
For instance, the report says: “The Republic of Namibia is a relatively younger country that gained independence in 1990 from South Africa. It has a $26 billion economy, which, due to a small population, lends it a high GDP per capita of $10,448 by African standards.”
It further states: “Manufacturing is a strong contributor to the Namibian economy, with the government offering subsidies to small and medium enterprises (SME) and opening export processing zones. The country also has an automotive parts supplier for big ticket car companies such as BMW, Audi, and Opel. It also has diamond cutting and polishing factories.”
The report concludes: “Cumulatively, these make it one of the most advanced African countries. Namibia also relies on tourism to generate revenue, with sport hunting being an important constituent. Namibians are among some of the wealthiest people in Africa, with the country having more than 3,000 U.S dollar millionaires in 2017.”
Political stability and prudent economic management have supported the decrease of poverty and helped Namibia reach upper-middle income status.
