Africa’s growth potential Over the past four decades, extreme poverty rates in the world declined from around 44 percent to less than 10 percent. As of 2019, the share in Sub-Saharan Africa was around 35 percent—and is expected to have risen to 45-50 percent in the past five years. With deeper engagement of BWIs and other Multilateral Development Banks (MDBs) and International Financial Institutions (IFIs), African economies can seize the moment and become the engine of global growth.