Livestock herding in Niger (photo credit: ILRI/Stevie Mann).

The African livestock sector should be booming. Demand for animal-source foods is rising exponentially here. By mid-century, meat and milk consumption on the continent are expected to increase by a whopping 145% and 155%, respectively, over 2005/07 levels. As demand for livestock foods rises, so do the opportunities for Africa’s businesses, governments and many poor livestock farmers and sellers. What’s holding back the sector, says senior World Bank economist Nancy Morgan, is simply a dearth of data on livestock.

Without the data, it’s difficult to invest. If you can’t measure it, you can’t manage it.

In an interview by CNBC/ABN Digital, Morgan makes the case for collecting the data needed by investors to grab the economic opportunities livestock offer Africa. She says, for example, that while Ethiopia has the largest inventories of animals in Africa, without livestock data, investors don’t know where to…