Africa can be rich, but Africa is poor today

You read that right. Yes, Africa can be rich, but we are poor today. I have gone through the motions of this phrase but the more I think about it, the more I am convinced there is a lot of truth in that statement. Yes, we have a ton of natural resources; yes we have in abundance any region’s most priced resource – people, young ones at those. Until we figure out how to put our best people and best ideas ahead of narrow-minded political interests, do not come at me, please. Partir si tu ne veux pas écouter ce que je dis parce que je ne changerai pas la phrase, et c’est mon affaire. Merci.

On today’s episode of “What are you thinking?”, I am a little upset. And that is fine. I love the burning rage, and I am going to ride it out!

#1 Africa is poor because its leaders make bad choices

Our leaders really do.

There is a multitude of reasons that have contributed to the circumstances we find ourselves in; I need not name them. You can also look them up pretty quickly if needed. The experiences of Asia, for instance, provide some insight into where our leaders need to take some blame. We see this, for instance, in how quickly the tide turned for Vietnam when they made the decision to open up their economy and took some pretty bold steps to allow foreign capital and participation. Today, their narrative is much different from before. Not without flaws, but much different.

The Asian experience shows that African countries can grow their economies and can develop faster if our leaders make sound decisions in the national interest. They have demonstrated that what makes the difference is the varying abilities of governments to translate opportunities into development and prosperity.

And at large, it really comes down to the choices we make and don’t make, mostly for self-interested and political preservation purposes.

#2 The private sector as an engine of growth.

I recently listened to a voice note retweeted by a mutual friend on Twitter, and it made me chuckle. The man was talking about how politics and corruption are gatekeepers to success in business in Ghana. There were no lies told. Amongst the numerous good points, one such was the idea that people cannot share their ‘best practice’ on how they succeeded because perhaps it was not very ‘legitimate’ – my words, not his.  Truthfully, if you try to find out what the blueprint is, what you will come up with is all manner of tools that mostly prioritize kinship ties, witchcraft, and/or the church.

Ghana, for one, is not poor because the private sector is non-existent or that it has been unable to cope with difficult conditions. The challenge is rather that all too often, the successful private sector actors are not “private” at all. Yes, I went there.

Every eight years, there is a new class of private sector players as power changes hands. Typically, these end up being the younger relatives of those who have always had it, but I digress. Our most successful private sector players are what Dr. G Mills an elite-linked system of rent-seeking. What is worse is that where there is a semblance of private-sector independence, government attitudes toward truly private businesses range from punitive to outright hostility. Sadly, this is not for an economic reason; it comes from suspicion and fear for the preservation of political interests.

The relationship between the private and public sectors is key for development. Rather than stifle it, our leaders must be creating and encouraging the conditions necessary to make it thrive. Apart from a facilitatory role, the government must get out of the business of doing business.

#3 “Africa’s choices are easy,” says no one.

There is no debate about how tough Africa’s choices are – there should be none at least. Changing Africa’s development path from poverty to prosperity will require sweeping reforms and actions that, in most instances, will ruffle the feathers of its elite.

African politicians face major challenges. Yet the trick is that these are obstacles to be overcome. Our challenges are not eternal damnation of unchangeable factors, nor are they permanent excuses for failure. South Korea showed us this, and so did Vietnam, Japan, Singapore. On our continent, we can see how obstacles were overcome in places like Botswana and Rwanda, to mention two. Our challenges should be viewed as obstacles to be overcome, nothing more.

So yes, Africa can be rich, but Africa is poor today.

Sixty plus years after independence, Ghana and much of Africa have yet to realize their potential. Our greatest natural assets appear to undermine our prosperity. Take oil, for instance, Africa’s black gold.

For us, far from oil becoming the typeface for widespread development, the continent’s oil wealth has served instead to enrich elites. In my half home and Ghana’s favorite cousin (Therese won’t admit it but she lies), Nigeria, for example, between 1999 and 2013, received revenues in excess of $509 billion. And yet, standards of living have declined in Nigeria. GDP per capita in Nigeria is $2,032, and in Ghana $2,202; Nigeria’s population is almost seven times that of Ghana. The number of Nigerians living on less than a dollar per day soared from an estimated 19 million in 1970 (of a population of 70 million) to 91 million (of a population of some 200 million).

Rather than powering #development, oil has failed its people. But we also know oil doesn’t yet have arms and legs to act on its own. It’s the brains behind its management. Bad choices around oil management have tainted governance and accountability in Nigeria, and across Africa.

Why do our leaders make these bad choices?

A more important question is perhaps why do our leaders keep making bad choices? In the book ‘Why Africa is Poor,’ we start to understand that core to answering this is that we as Africans and our international community friends allow it.

The former has bought into the idea that we lack the means to change the status quo. I cannot tell you the number of times I have been told point-blank that I can use my intelligence in other areas than in ‘international development‘. Why? “It will never change.” That is not entirely false. The latter, on the other hand, have been super eager to “help Africa” for reasons oscillating between self-interest to pity.

The reality that African leaders have been permitted to get away with disastrous, self-interested decisions can be attributed, in large part, to the broken social contract between the state and its people and the relative contentment with the ‘that is just how it is’ narrative.

Until we are willing to prioritize economic growth over political preservation and tomfoolery, ‘Africa is poor’ may be a phrase we battle with for much longer, especially when commodity prices are low. So yes, Africa can be rich, but Africa is poor today.

As always, I’d love to hear your thoughts, especially if you disagree. 🙂

A great book to read on the above is below!

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Noelle Wonders

Marie-Noelle is the creator and curator of Noelle Wonders - a blog created to pose questions, exchange ideas, explore power asymmetries, and humanize topics around growth and development.

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