Demographic Transition and Underdevelopment in Sub-Saharan Africa: An Obdurate Conundrum
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Date
2020
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Global Journal of Applied, Management and Social Sciences (GOJAMSS);
Abstract
African economic development (particularly in the Sub-Saharan region) since the turn of the twentieth
century till recent times has been described by scholars as poor and unpromising. The one-time burgeoning
economic prosperity of the 1950s, 60’s and ‘70s of many African states has become moribund and in
comatose, gradually nudging into a colossal growth and development crisis. One prevailing argument and
explanation among demographers, sociologists, and economists for such diminutive social and economic
growth in Africa is situated within the wider thesis that underscores the inability of many African states to
wriggle through ‘demographic transition’. With its current demographic shift, a significant number of
countries in Africa is yet to grapple with and manage the intricacies associated with their ever-soaring rates
of mortality, fertility and obdurate unrestrained population growth. Hence, their current underdevelopment
status occasioned by lopsided demographic transition and slow economic growth rate, and which has
nonetheless portrayed the region as the world poorest. Based on the foregoing, this article relying on
secondary data sources traced, analysed and presented the trajectory of demographic transition of selected
African states and the attendant implications of such on social and economic outcomes. By this, the paper,
discusses historically the deep-seated African demographic shift, and canvasses how African states can
achieve a sincere and purposeful ‘demographic bonus and dividend.’
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Keywords
Demographic transition, Demographic shift, Demographic dividend, Demographic bonus, Underdevelopment, Sub-Saharan African, Conundrum