Toronto Star
by Jonathon Power
2 Jul 12
Thanks to goodnewsnetwork.org for the find.
Approximately half the people of Africa own a cellphone. In many African countries phone technology is ahead of Europe and North America. Money can be transferred from the city to an upcountry village. Bills can be paid. In Ghana farmers can receive text messages reporting the price of yams and corn two towns away and thus find the best market without a middleman. In Kenya residents of small villages can receive texts to say when the perambulating doctor will next be coming.
Black Africa has come late to the party but a majority of its 48 countries is leaping ahead. One advantage of being late is that one can leapfrog over old concepts and tools and get today’s version at cheaper prices than the old. This is true for everything from state of the art well-digging equipment to new seeds and mineral mapping.
Welcome to the new Africa. Lions roar and poverty drops. Even with the impact of the Western world’s economic crisis, the IMF says the slowdown in Africa is modest. The forecast for this year had been 5.9 per cent annual growth. Now it is 5.4 per cent — which means since this is an average many countries are well ahead of this figure, a number over 7 per cent, including the continent’s giant, Nigeria. One reason is that African banks, thanks to cautious management, have not been exposed to the ailments of Western ones.
All over infant mortality rates are falling, literacy is improving, longevity is rising and infectious diseases including AIDS are falling steadily, as is malaria — thanks to big programs, courtesy of Bill and Melinda Gates and ex-president, Bill Clinton, to introduce impregnated bed nets.
A number of African countries have oil and valuable minerals sold at good prices. But East Africa, which is the fastest growing region of sub-Saharan Africa, has little of these.
Paced by the Chinese and Indians, Western firms are now getting in on the act. In the last 12 months, British trade with Nigeria has increased by 66 per cent and is growing steadily. Credit Suisse bank says that if it doesn’t develop its Africa expertise many clients will go elsewhere. Some countries are floating bonds on western exchanges.
African stock markets are flourishing and homegrown banks are pushing out their tentacles to small towns while making good profits. Micro-lending is on the rise, pulling distant villagers into the modern economy.
For the first time a middle class is emerging in significant numbers.
Consumer products are in high demand. Motorbikes fill the roads. Good private schools, universities and hospitals are in high demand as well. The upper middle classes send their children to school and university in Europe and North America. Increasingly these graduates and some of the rest of the diaspora are returning to their land of opportunities.
Debt is down — partly thanks to writeoffs by western countries that were prodded into action by NGOs. Inflation is falling.
Corruption is being tackled even though it is very much an uphill fight. Countries are finding new non-traditional items they can export — flowers from Kenya and Zimbabwe and out-of-season vegetables from a number of countries. Intra-African trade has risen from 6 per cent to 13 per cent of all trade.
Foreign aid has risen even if not by as much as western heads of government had solemnly promised. For the most part it does some good, even if much is wasted and badly spent. One big problem is that diplomats and aid officials turn over every three years and continuity is lacking. New arrivals get kudos for starting new projects not for servicing old. Important things like new wells find their pumps break down after four years and nobody is organized to maintain them.
High commodity prices for everything from palm oil to cocoa to soya beans have given most countries a boost, yet commodities provide a smaller proportion of exports than they did a decade ago. Only about one-third of Africa’s recent growth is due to commodity exports.
Commodities have found new markets. A decade ago trade with Brazil, India and China made up only 1 per cent of total trade. Now it is 20 per cent.
Some countries are also working on the import side, introducing programs to persuade people to eat homegrown food. In Nigeria the latest budget penalizes rice and flour imports and favours domestic cassava. Bakeries now have to make sure that their bread contains 40 per cent cassava flour.
Ten years ago the Economist labelled Africa as “The hopeless continent.” Much has changed. The lions are roaring!
http://www.thestar.com/opinion/edito...omies-take-off
