Africa looks to 7% annual growth to unlock benefits of a bioeconomy

Regions, such as Africa, which have significantly lower carbon emissions compared to the rest of the world, could have a competitive advantage in developing sustainable bioeconomies. Africa possesses abundant renewable biological resources, including crops, forests, fish, animals, and microorganisms, which can be utilised in a sustainable manner to produce novel food, safer medicines, environmentally friendly materials, products, textiles, and bioenergy.

A business case for a bioeconomy in Africa can be made across several dimensions: economic stability, biodiversity richness, emerging biotechnology capacity, agricultural potential, and forward-looking bioeconomy policies.

[G]rowth needs to increase to at least seven per cent per year and be consistently maintained at that level if Africa is to achieve its ambition of attaining upper-middle-income status in the medium and long term. Scholars and policymakers believe that diversifying sources of growth would help the continent reach higher growth rates.

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