Africa’s Blue Economy: potentials and challenges for more locally beneficial development

SUMMARY

Africa has massive potential for a vibrant ‘Blue Economy’: 70% of the countries in the continent have territorial coastlines and extensive kilometres of exclusive economic zones (EEZs) in the sea that are still largely untapped for economic development. This analysis on sub-Saharan Africa’s positioning in the new framework of the Blue Economy, as well as the defining bottlenecks of maritime insecurity and weak governance, finds that Africa’s coastal states lack financial and technological capacity to harvest ocean assets, and are plagued by the corrupt tendencies of the political elite. There is a need to deploy strategic use of the states’ advantageous maritime resources for more locally beneficial development.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Note on contributor

Eddy Akpomera holds a Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) degree in International Relations, and currently teaches at the Department of Political Science, University of Benin, Benin City, Nigeria. His research interests are in political economy, international migration and gender, development and media communication.

Notes

1 The United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea in 1982 prescribed the Exclusive Economic Zone of 12 nautical miles (370 kilometres) off the coast of sovereign states as a maritime area of special rights of coastal states for the exploration and use of marine resources.

2 Seas are defined as wide bodies of water partially enclosed by land and found on the margins of oceans; the latter are expansive bodies of water in terms of size.

3 Stable Seas is a programme run by the non-governmental organisation One Earth Future ‘to eliminate marine activities that finance and facilitate organized political violence’ (https://www.stableseas.org/).