Oil Wealth in Central Africa


Book Description

Despite its vast oil wealth, central Africa still struggles to sustain strong, inclusive economic growth and to generate sufficient employment opportunities, particularly for its fast-growing youth population. Drawing on new research, Oil Wealth in Central Africa lays out the macroeconomic and growth challenges facing the region; examines oil wealth management and its implications for poverty reduction; and includes four case studies that exemplify lessons learned.




Oil to Cash


Book Description

Oil to Cash explores one option to help countries with new oil revenue avoid the so-called resource curse: just give the money directly to citizens. A universal, transparent, and regular cash transfer would not only provide a concrete benefit to regular people, but would also create powerful incentives for citizens to hold their government accountable. Oil to Cash details how and where this idea could work and how policymakers can learn from the experiences with cash transfers in places like Mexico, Mongolia, and Alaska.




Central African Economic and Monetary Community (CEMAC)


Book Description

Regional growth weakened in 2013 due to a fall in oil production in most countries. GDP growth is expected to pick-up in 2014 due to the recovery of oil production and the continuation of the implementation of public investment plans in most of CEMAC countries. Despite large spending of oil wealth during the last years, poverty, income inequality and unemployment remain high. The business climate is one of the most challenging in Africa. The region’s most pressing challenge is to implement structural reforms to promote sustainable and inclusive growth while adopting macro policies to preserve financial stability, ensure an efficient use of oil revenues and increase resilience to shocks.




Central African Economic and Monetary Community


Book Description

This paper discusses the common policies adopted by the members of the Central African Economic and Monetary Community (CEMAC). The macroeconomic performance was good in 2011 with improved fiscal balances, public investment programs, and higher reserves. However, CEMAC is facing challenges from deep-seated structural problems, including uncoordinated fiscal policy, financial sector weaknesses, and obstacles to growth and competitiveness. The Executive Board recommends monetary policies for financial stability and suggest making monetary policies an efficient tool of macroeconomic management. Also, the Board recommends strengthening of governance of CEMAC’s common institutions.




Oil Wealth and Insurgency in Nigeria


Book Description

Omolade Adunbi investigates the myths behind competing claims to oil wealth in Nigeria's Niger Delta. Looking at ownership of natural resources, oil extraction practices, government control over oil resources, and discourse about oil, Adunbi shows how symbolic claims have created an "oil citizenship." He explores the ways NGOs, militant groups, and community organizers invoke an ancestral promise to defend land disputes, justify disruptive actions, or organize against oil corporations. Policies to control the abundant resources have increased contestations over wealth, transformed the relationship of people to their environment, and produced unique forms of power, governance, and belonging.




Geological Resources and Good Governance in Sub-Saharan Africa


Book Description

This book looks at the distribution, occurrences, potential and prospects for good governance, transparency and sustainable development of geological resources in Sub-Saharan Africa. By bringing together numerous different point of views, it is carried out in a holistic, interdisciplinary and scientific way.The states of Sub-Saharan Africa are amon




Introduction to Central African Republic


Book Description

The Central African Republic (CAR) is a landlocked country in the heart of Africa. Its population of around 5 million inhabitants is one of the poorest in the world, despite the presence of valuable mineral resources such as diamonds, gold and uranium. CAR has a diverse ethnic makeup, with over 80 ethnic groups, each with its own language and traditions. One of the country’s largest ethnic groups is the Bayaka, who are traditionally hunter-gatherers, while the Bantu peoples are the largest group in terms of population. CAR has experienced significant political instability since its independence from France in 1960. The country has been plagued by coups, rebellions, and armed conflicts, which have severely impacted the country’s economic and social development. The two most recent crises took place in 2013 and 2020, with the former leading to a period of sectarian violence and displacement, and the latter leading to the overthrow of the incumbent president, Faustin-Archange Touadéra, by a coalition of rebel groups. Despite the country’s challenges, efforts are underway to stabilize the political situation and to address the humanitarian needs of the population.




The Oil Curse


Book Description

Explaining—and solving—the oil curse in the developing world Countries that are rich in petroleum have less democracy, less economic stability, and more frequent civil wars than countries without oil. What explains this oil curse? And can it be fixed? In this groundbreaking analysis, Michael L. Ross looks at how developing nations are shaped by their mineral wealth—and how they can turn oil from a curse into a blessing. Ross traces the oil curse to the upheaval of the 1970s, when oil prices soared and governments across the developing world seized control of their countries' oil industries. Before nationalization, the oil-rich countries looked much like the rest of the world; today, they are 50 percent more likely to be ruled by autocrats—and twice as likely to descend into civil war—than countries without oil. The Oil Curse shows why oil wealth typically creates less economic growth than it should; why it produces jobs for men but not women; and why it creates more problems in poor states than in rich ones. It also warns that the global thirst for petroleum is causing companies to drill in increasingly poor nations, which could further spread the oil curse. This landmark book explains why good geology often leads to bad governance, and how this can be changed.




Oil, Democracy, and Development in Africa


Book Description

This book focuses on the history, key industry and policy actors, and political economic outcomes in oil-producing African states, filling a gap in the literature on resource-abundant countries by providing an optimistic assessment of circumstances in contemporary Africa.




The CFA Franc Zone


Book Description

About one-third of countries covered by the IMF's African Department are members of the CFA franc zone. With most other countries moving away from fixed exchange rates, the issue of an adequate policy framework to ensure the sustainability of the CFA franc zone is clearly of interest to policymakers and academics. However, little academic research exists in the public domain. This book aims to fill this void by bringing together work undertaken in the context of intensified regional surveillance and highlighting the current challenges and the main policy requirements if the arrangements are to be carried forward. The book is based on empirical research by a broad group of IMF economists, with contributions from several outside experts.