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.