Former Vice President, Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia has underscored the transformative power of “smart formalisation” in driving Africa’s economic growth and resilience.
He believes that embracing digitalisation is the most viable path for the continent to achieve sustained high growth rates and lift millions out of poverty.
He said this when he gave the keynote address at the Cambridge Africa Business Conference themed ‘Africa’s Digital Transformation: Building Resilient Economies Through Innovation,’ Saturday May 17, 2025.
According to Dr. Bawumia, the only way African economies can survive the complex risks they currently face is by consistently achieving very high growth rates.
Dr. Bawumia explained that “smart formalisation” involves building integrated systems that enable governments to know their citizens better and interact with them efficiently and affordably.
“Smart formalisation will speed Africa’s economic growth and make our economies more resilient,” he stated. “
He continued: “The only way we will survive the risks we are presently confronted with will be to achieve very high economic growth rates (10% or above) consistently for a sustained period. This is what happened in Asia to lift billions of people out of poverty.”
He further argued that replicating Asia’s success story in Africa would depend on the widespread adoption of smart formalisation, with digitalisation at its core.
“The only way I see this happening in our generation is the widespread adoption of ‘smart formalisation’ through digitalization of our economies in particular, and societies generally.”
Highlighting the urgency of the moment, Dr. Bawumia noted that Africa is already in the midst of the Fourth Industrial Revolution. He cautioned against relying on outdated methods of development, urging a shift towards modern, tech-enabled solutions.
“We need to achieve this because the 4th industrial revolution is truly underway, and we cannot get ahead by doing things of old.”
While reaffirming the importance of industrialisation, he stressed that Africa must focus on “smart industrialisation” and collaboration along value chains, powered by digital infrastructure.
“Industrialisation is important and indeed imperative, but the emphasis must be more on smart industrialization and value-chain collaboration with other nations, all bound together in digital technologies which facilitate seamless processes,” he added.
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