Services-Led Development as an Option for Africa

Recent technological advances and globalisation have an impact on world production and trade and tend to facilitate the process of tertiarisation which is shifting employment away from the primary and secondary sectors and towards the services sector. First, the author gives an overview of the global and African services trade including digital services. Then, issues in productivity, employment and comparative advantage of services are analysed in relation to technical progress. Finally, the idea that digital services trade could open a window of opportunity for African economies is explored against the background of received development strategies based predominantly on the manufacturing sector.