realistic or deluded? akinwumi adesina, welcome to hardtalk. it s good to see you, stephen. it s great to have you here. you need the world to believe in a bright african future. how is that going right now? it s going pretty well. if you take a look at the african economic outlook we had from the african development bank, the gdp growth rate, gdp growth rates last year was 3.1%. this year, it s 3.7%. and next year, it s going to be 4.3%. now, why that is important is that that is well above the global average. you still have ten out of the 20 fastest growing economies in the world being in africa. yeah, it s not quite as good as it sounds because you have fast rising populations across africa. yes, but when you have a lot of global shocks like we have, increasing real interest rates, and you have also a lot of geopolitical risks, you have a lot of inflation all around the world, africa still has its head above the water. yeah, i agree with you that in terms of the population
voice-over: this is bbc news. we will have the headlines for you at the top of the hour, which is straight after this programme. welcome to hardtalk. i m stephen sackur. of all the world s continents, africa is the one likely to see the greatest transformation in the course of this century. it will likely be home to almost 40% of all humanity by 2100. if, by then, africans have benefited from sustainable development, their global economic power will be enormous. if they haven t, then they could be facing cataclysmic levels of economic and environmental breakdown. my guest is the president of the african development bank, akinwumi adesina, sometimes dubbed africa s optimist in chief . is his positivity realistic or deluded? akinwumi adesina, welcome to hardtalk. it s good to see you, stephen. it s great to have you here. you need the world to believe in a bright african future. how is that going right now? it s going pretty well. if you take a look at the african economic out