Governance and Economic Growth in Africa

Good governance is essential for economic development as it enhances the effectiveness of economic policies undertaken by the government. The aim of this paper is to study the relationship between governance and economic growth in Africa. Using the World Bank governance indicators we construct a composite index to resume all the indicators in one variable that will be used to measure the impact of governance on growth. The main result of this study is that a change in the governance index of a unit is likely to produce an increase of 1.7% in real GDP. This result seems to be extremely important considering the shortage of financial resources in Africa. Improving governance seems to be the best and the less expensive way the boost economic growth. Thus, African countries need to strengthen their economic efficiency by promoting results-based fiscal management, improving their doing business environment and investing in education to improve the quality of human factor.