Africa’s ‘optimist-in-chief’ on the continent’s renaissance: ‘Don’t just believe me, believe the data’

‘The global financial crisis that brought the world down in 2008, that was not in Africa. We have no Wall Street,’ said the Nigerian former minister. Photograph: Joel Saget/AFP/Getty Images

Africa holds the future workforce for the ageing economies of the west, according to one of the continent’s leading financial figures, who also said it was time to ditch the myths around corruption and risk.

In an exclusive interview before this weekend’s World Bank meetings in Morocco, Akinwumi Adesina said there was a resurgence of belief in Africa’s economic prospects and attacked negative stereotyping, adding that there was “every reason to be optimistic”.