Growth in Sub-Saharan Africa to jump 5.2%

Nairobi - Growing investment in Africa's natural resources and rising household spending will accelerate economic growth in Sub-Saharan Africa to 5.2% in 2014 from 4.7% in last year, the World Bank said on Monday.

New oil and gas discoveries in countries including Angola, Mozambique and Tanzania underpinned rising capital inflows into the region, though a chronic energy deficit and poor transport links continued to curb growth levels regionally, the bank said.

"Poor physical infrastructure will...continue to limit the region's growth potential," Makhtar Diop, the World Bank's vice president for Africa said in a statement.

"Significantly more spending is needed in most countries in the region if they are to achieve a lasting transformation of their economies."

In its Africa Pulse report, the Washington-based body said capital flows into Sub-Saharan Africa rose to an estimated 5.3% of regional Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in 2013, outpacing the global developing-country average of 3.9%.

Net Foreign Direct Investment into the region jumped 16% to a near-record $43bn as foreign firms exploited hydrocarbon finds, including those in eastern Africa where massive gas finds have been made in Tanzania and in Kenya where commercial quantities of oil have been struck.