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The purpose of this study is to examine the impact of human capital on economic growth for a selected sample of nine SSA countries between 1980 and 2014 using a panel econometric approach.

The authors estimate a log-linearized endogenous using the fully modified ordinary least squares (FMOLS) and the dynamic ordinary least squares (POLS) applied to our panel data time series.

The empirical analysis shows an insignificant effect of human capital on economic growth for our selected sample. These findings remain unchanged even after adding interactive terms to human capital, which are representatives of government spending as well as foreign direct investment. Nevertheless, the authors establish a positive and significant effect of the interactive term between urbanization and human capital on economic growth.

The results emphasize the need for African policymakers to develop urbanized, “smart”, technologically driven cities within the SSA region as a platform toward strengthening the impact of human capital-economic growth relationship.

This study becomes the first in the literature to validate the human capital–urbanization–growth relationship for African countries.

African countries inevitably take loans due to lack of fiscal space more so, due to the devastating effects of the coronavirus pandemic in Africa, several loans and bailouts are expected from the West. These loans come with conditions which have policy implications. This study aims at examining the impact of loans received by selected African countries from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank during the period 1994 to 2020. The study makes use of a cross sectional panel data analysis and quantile regression models. Results indicate that IMF loans had a positively but insignificant impact on GDP whilst World Bank loans and debt service to export ratio negatively affect GDP. These finding suggest that loans are not a necessary evil in Africa but what matters is targeting debt towards growth priorities. This study recommends that policies should be put to direct the use of loans towards economic growth and sustainability in Africa.