SSA Must Embrace Data, Techniques, People to Boost Growth – BCG

Countries in Sub-Sahara African have been urged to strive for improvements in the areas of data aggregation, developmental techniques and empowerment of people, to enable them meet the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG’s) in the region by 2030.

Tolu Oyekan, Partner at Boston Consulting Group (BCG) made the call while highlighting the challenges that are hindering development in SSA countries and proffering possible solutions to address the numerous problems in the region.

Oyekan said: “The UN has set a target of 2030 to reach the SDG’s goals and in effect, eliminate the developmental obstacles to growth and minimum livelihoods that hold back SSA and other countries around the world. For SSA, that is an ambitious deadline.”

He, however, suggested that for SSA countries to meet the set target, various governments and citizens must gather more and better data and utilize them more effectively.

He added that the governments must also increase and adjust the developmental techniques they employ to ensure they sufficiently address local concerns and issues while taking advantage of existing best practices, even from other disciplines.  He added that SSA must enlarge the tent to bring a wider and more diverse group of people into the design and implementation process.

The BCG Partner emphasized that when effectively used, data, developmental techniques and human capital can help SSA countries achieve meaningful developmental gains, thereby making the region more competitive.

According to Oyekan, statistics reflect that the region has an alarming poverty rate as about 40 percent of sub-Saharan Africa, or over 400 million people, live on less than $1.90 a day, defined as the extreme-poverty line.

He however stressed that good data from the SSA region is mandatory as that would enable the people understand the prevailing challenges and conditions; and can also be used as a yardstick in comparing SSA countries with other countries of the world.

Oyekan further pointed out that for meaningful development to be achieved, SSA countries must implement developmental techniques and methods that are aligned with unique regional needs.

He said: “For instance, behavioural techniques can encourage desirable actions by sub-Saharan individuals and groups, which in turn can help in local development.”

While speaking in terms of people, Oyekan appealed for a push to increasingly widen the participation of African people in the campaigns to solve Africa’s problems.

He believes that stakeholders are pivotal for the success of SSA developmental efforts; noting that these stakeholders include women, young people, the bottom of the economic pyramid, the private sector and small businesses