What can Sub-Saharan Africa learn from Mauritius’s successful development?

Mauritius’s development story is a fairy tale in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). No other country in SSA has managed its economy so successfully: from a sugarcane-based, low-income country with a per capita income of $260 in the 1960s, the island has transformed itself into an upper-middle income country with a per capita income that now exceeds $10,000. Moreover, as an enduring democracy, Mauritius continues to be a regional leader when it comes to political stability, and was ranked first among the 54 African nations in the 2021 Ibrahim Index of African Governance.

Notwithstanding its small size—with a population of 1.3 million in 2023—and remote location—off the eastern coast of the African continent, about 500 miles east of Madagascar in the Indian Ocean—Mauritius stands out as a shining example of successful diversification. From a monocrop agriculture-based economy, it has diversified its production base towards tourism, textile and apparel, and fisheries. Over the past decade, the production base has also gradually expanded to include agriculture value-addition products, financial services, and information technology. More recently, and especially after the COVID-19 pandemic, the government has made it a priority to develop the pharmaceutical industry and to export high-value medical devices as part of its economic diversification agenda. If economic development can be summarized as a process of sustained high economic growth and transformation from low- to higher-productivity activities, Mauritius is among the very few countries in SSA that have successfully embarked on that path.

There are many small and big resource-rich economies in SSA that depend largely on oil and mineral wealth – for example, Angola relies on oil, Botswana on diamonds, the Democratic Republic of Congo on minerals, Seychelles on tourism, and Zambia on copper. These countries have so far been unable to achieve successful and sustained diversification. Can the lessons from Mauritius show them the path to implementing successful development strategies based on diversification and structural transformation? Are there other complementary factors (e.g., human capital enhancement) that they should consider to achieve these objectives?