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Africa export revenue is expected to fall to US$251 billion in 2009 because of the global financial crisis. The affected African counties are mainly the members of World Trade Organisation (WTO). Similarly, oil exporting countries will take the biggest hit, with a shortfall of US$200 billion in 2009. Dr. Sibry Tapsoba, Head, African Development Institute at the African Development Bank (AFDB), announced this at the 6th Trade Policy Course in Accra last week. The course was organised by the World Trade Organisation (WTO), the Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) and the African Development Bank. The training course brought together over 100 participants from most of the African countries, including the host Ghana. Dr Tapsoba indicated that with exports declining faster than imports, trade balance will deteriorate in most counties. Exports for 2009 and 2010 have been revised downwards by 40%. As a result, from a comfortable overall current account surplus of 2.7% of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) for both 2008 and 2007, the continent will record an overall deficit of 4.3% of GDP in 2009. He reiterated that the continent has been severely hit by the financial crisis, with its growth rate forecasted to be at 2.8% in 2009. Sub-Sahara Africa is expected to grow at 2.5% while middle income countries have been hit severely due to their relatively higher integration into the global economy. He added that the slowdown in growth is primarily due to a decline in trade-flow. Africa has made significant and continuous progress in economic growth, as evidence by the average annual rate of 5.8% before the occurrence of the economic and financial crisis.This relatively good result has been attributed to various reforms undertaken by African governments to stabilise and liberalize their economies as well as stimulate growth. However, despite substantial progress in reforming the overall policy environment, Dr Tapsoba said it would appear that many African counties may not achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). The reason is partly attributable to a lack of capacity in public and private sectors in Africa, which has been acknowledged as a major impediment in the attainment of poverty reduction goals. Dr Tapsoba has said that �it is therefore evident that, no matter the amount of Financial Resource Mobilization for Africa�s Development, such funds would yield only limited or modest results if companies do not have human organizational and institutional capacity to absolve and effectively utilize them�.