Africa Needs to stop Emerging and Just Emerge

The phrase Africa is emerging or Africa is the next frontier has been a catch phrase for many in the last decade.  To be honest very little has changed, most African countries are still struggling, underdeveloped, burdened by corruption and many more challenges.

To date it has been the largely role of Multinationals, foreign governments, aid agencies, International NGOs to improve Africa’s socio-economic status. Multinationals such as Tullow Oil ,Shell, Coca Cola among others are often forced to take up public responsibilities such as building schools, Hospitals ,roads in the form of corporate social responsibilities. Such initiatives are most likely not informed by Government strategic plans such as Vision 2030 in Kenya hence may not be of high priority to the socio-economic development of the country.

I like most of us believe that the challenges faced by African states need local home grown solutions. For example African states must foster greater and more inclusive collaboration among itself, indigenous businesses and civil society instead of working in isolation or at loggerheads. African states must further harness private sector entrepreneurship and investment to create social wealth and deal with the structural problems at local level.

There is a growing school of thought that believes indigenous private sector development instead of aid is the fastest, most effective and most sustainable path toward self-reliance and prosperity for Africa.

African states must also rethink its current development agenda together with the business eco-system where most states leverage its natural resources through extraction and sale at source an option that leaves local economies poor and dependent.

Most African countries export their natural resources raw with all the value addition taking place outside the continent and eventually are imported back at exorbitant prices. In contrast Africa must refocus from extracting its natural resources raw from the land and instead develop and support manufacturing of end products from its natural resources.

African states must diversify and reduce its reliance on natural resources which are vulnerable to price changes in the global market.

Finally African states must trade with each other; Intra-African trade has also been seen as one way of improving Africa’s fortunes.