Since the launch of the Visa Africa Integration Index in 2013 the African economy has extended its best period of economic growth on record by delivering growth of 4.8 percent in 2013. With annual economic growth averaging in excess of five percent since 2000, Africa’s economic growth has outpaced the global average by more than two percent per annum since the turn of the millennium.At an individual level, a number of African countries have enjoyed faster economic growth than the established Asian economic success stories in recent years, and six of the world’s ten fastest-growing economies between 2001 and 2010 were African. 

It is widely expected that this feature of buoyant economic growth will continue for the foreseeable future and it is likely that the African economy will achieve a growth rate approaching 5.5 in 2014. With a collective gross domestic product (GDP) of over $1.9 trillion – a figure that is expected to exceed $2.6 trillion by 2020 – Africa today is one of the world’s fastest growing regions, which translates into exciting investment prospects. To this end, whilst Africa’s economic fate for a long time was associated with a reliance on foreign aid, the region now boasts the highest rate of return on investment of any region in the world. Although boundless opportunities in natural resources currently serve as a key driver of this growth, Africa’s billion-strong youthful and increasingly urbanised population is translating into booming consumer and labour markets that will drive economic growth for years to come making Africa’s much-vaunted potential a reality. Notably, this bullish economic outlook represents a break with the past.