Africa is a continent of immense hope with numerous opportunities. The irony of this assertion is that it is only recently being fully realized by most Africans after several decades of unfair colonial misinformation and misdirection, which allowed the continent and its people to ignorantly perish in foreign aid mentality; and also getting miseducated to be financial dependence. These strategies were a calculated plan for the purposes of selfish economic impoverishment by foreign interests on Africa’s richly endowed wealth and her abundant reserves of natural resources. Africa, no doubt, has great potential to grow economically on its own, and to make the entire continent a critical aspect of the global production and supply chain. This global business arrangement would be actualized through reforms that will unlock the inherent potential, in building local capacity for a continental economic total transformation; if properly and adequately harnessed. A transformation that would significantly export finished goods and services, including tourism, instead of just raw materials exports.
In a recent public speech by Director General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala of the World Trade Organisation (WTO), global investors have been urged to quickly key into Africa’s economy, to fully industrialise the continent, considering the future opportunities it offers.
Such advice is based on the unwavering resilience of the teeming young entrepreneurs in the continent’s business environment, with its huge consumer and labour base; which is enormous and quite encouraging. This attractive window for prospective investors is also based on the future youths’ work-age population of 2.5 billion (young Africans) by the year 2050. Her motivational forecast for foreign investors is based on her professional knowledge and cognate experience in the field. No one can, at this auspicious time of Africa’s global economic emancipation, actually wish away the imminent rain of abundant wealth and financial breakthrough lurking to manifest for the continent. African countries must therefore rise up and leverage the juicy low hanging fruits the business environment offers for exploits in the global trade ecosystem. This is something that needs to be aggressively pursued with seriousness for the expected outcome of poverty reduction; and mitigating the predominant lower class in the society, for the eventual emergence of a significant proportion of middle social class in the African economy.
On finance, the continent’s banking landscape is being reshaped by reasons of foreign exits, recapitalization, and profit pressure in certain African countries. For the Pan-Africanism concept and stronger continental economic cooperation, this sectoral development is one that has come to being because the big indigenous banks are leveraging on the opportunity it offers to accelerate their expansion projects across the African continent. Multilateral financial institutions like African Export Import Bank (AFREXIMBANK) are equally encouraging internal reforms by supporting the African trade initiative through free trade corridor operations. This is being pursued to strengthen institutions that promote unification that eliminates continental trade barriers, and the reduction of incidental high costs in intra-African trade. This is for the purpose of creating a stable continental investment climate that shall checkmate any eventual global trade volatility within the continent. This singular function comes under the core mandate and responsibilities of the ongoing continental trade agreement known as the African Continental Free Trade Agreement, AfCFTA.
Development banks that exist within the various sectors of the African economy on the other hand, such as the African Development Bank (AfDB), Shelter Afrique (for housing development) – along with their respective national affiliates like the Federal Mortgage Bank (FMB); Nigeria’s Bank of Agriculture (BOA), and Bank of Industry (BOI) – should synergize, as they are expected to work with commercial banks to fund promising businesses and projects that are certified to contribute towards African economic development.
The mentality of foreign intervention schemes and foreign loans from global financial institutions by African nations, outside internal continental sourcing, should be kept as last resort. If the naturally endowed wealth is incorruptibly recreated for appreciable values before they are exported, the overall trade balance on the continent’s current account shall definitely post surplus, once the economy swings into self sufficiency on products, goods and services generated from within.
The leadership of African nations is where this feasible proposition might start having challenges and hiccups, through absence of the required patriotic and genuine implementations of these economic tasks, for the expected achievable economic goals in the African economy. These proposed economic roadmaps for African economic growth and socioeconomic development demand godly sacrifices from the leaders at the helm of affairs.
