How to create growth in Africa, France, Italy, and Germany

What will be the growth rate in sub-Saharan Africa, France, Germany, and Italy ?

It is quite likely that sub-Saharan African countries that collaborate with European industrialized countries as part of the United States of Sub-Saharan Africa industrialization program will often see their growth explode and that the entire continent will benefit. Some countries may even boast double-digit growth rates in the long term.

As soon as we start to build scenarios, the figures become dizzying. We then realize that the possibilities are endless and the prospects for growth virtually unlimited, but it is above all the material resources of a France that has become too deindustrialized and has lost many industrial companies and engineers that will be lacking and will ultimately determine our limits in helping many sub-Saharan African countries to industrialize. Of course, as soon as we begin to take this new turn, France's long experience in industry and the hundreds and thousands of industrial companies that will want to invest in new markets, the excellence of our engineering schools, a high level of research, and above all the volume of capital that such an unprecedented international project, which could involve some 50 African and Western partner countries, is sure to mobilize, will enable us to rapidly increase our capacities and build a new industry in France and Africa. We can probably count on Germany and Italy, which have managed to retain more industry but whose growth rates are now sluggish, to take up the challenge alongside us. They would thus benefit from France's unique relationship with the region and the leadership of a project already known to most African economic and political actors.

How many growth points could France gain from cooperating in the industrialization of a region of dozens of countries without industry, which will have a population of nearly 2 billion within 20 years? There are so many parameters to take into account that 10 studies commissioned from different economic consultancies would certainly never produce the same figures for the respective future growth rates that could be achieved by sub-Saharan African countries, France, Germany, and Italy. Taking into account macroeconomic and structural knock-on effects, it seems realistic and reasonable to expect a range of 1.5 to 2% additional annual growth in France within five years, reaching or exceeding 4 or 5% annual growth in around eight or nine years.

A partner country such as Italy could benefit from comparable growth, while Germany's growth could prove to be even higher. Ultimately, this shared growth, the improved health of French companies, and the hundreds of thousands of additional jobs created each year in France, which will generate social security contributions and tax revenues, will solve the problem of pension financing, rebalance deficit budgets, and gradually reduce debt.

Francis Journot is a consultant, entrepreneur, and economic researcher. He is the founder of the United States of Sub-Saharan Africa project and the Program for the Industrialization of Sub-Saharan Africa, or Africa Atlantic Axis. He is also the initiator of the International Convention for a Global Minimum Wage.