Sub-Saharan African (SSA) Growth Trajectory: How Far has Knowledge Contributed?

Abstract

Education and knowledge have become the prerequisites for the growth and development of any economy or region. Knowledge is a liberator of individuals and societies from human poverty and is a precondition for rapid advancement in today's global knowledge economy (KE). Any nation or region which does not key into the global KE trend may find it very difficult to catch up and become competitive in the global market so as to benefit from the power of knowledge. The objective of this chapter is to investigate whether knowledge and human capital have contributed to the growth of sub-Saharan African (SSA) countries. Out of the four pillars of KE – the economic and institutional regime (including governance), education and human resources, the innovation system, and information infrastructure – this study focused on education and human capital in the estimation of how knowledge has contributed to growth of SSA countries. The data for the study were sourced from World Development Indicators published by The World Bank Group. Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) model was applied and the results show that knowledge variables have a significant impact on economic growth of SSA countries. It is therefore recommended that welfare and working conditions of the labor force be improved so as to be more productive; SSA countries should key into the KE policies so as to be competitive in the production, use, dissemination and transfer of knowledge, ICT, and science.

Citation

Ukwueze, E.R., Ogbonna, O.E., Nwodo, O.S., Urama, C.E., Onyechi, T.G. and Mba, A.J. (2021), "Sub-Saharan African (SSA) Growth Trajectory: How Far has Knowledge Contributed?", Bhattacharyya, R. (Ed.) Comparative Advantage in the Knowledge Economy, Emerald Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 11-24. https://doi.org/10.1108/978-1-80071-040-520210002