Time is Africa's biggest resource

Nairobi; Kenya: Although Africa is richly endowed with immense natural and cultural resources, time is her biggest resource. I learnt the priceless value of time back in 1991 during a business visit to Japan. I had secured a meeting with the chairman of a leading retail chain in the country. We were to discuss a potential investment worth millions. I arrived at the meeting venue looking and feeling confident. Within a minute into the meeting, I received one of my life’s most stinging lessons. The chairman calmly told me that he couldn’t enter into a business partnership with me because I was eight minutes late.
Eight minutes cost me millions and since then, my watch is always eight minutes ahead.

Time is indeed money and wasting it is like robbing yourself and others. CS Lewis, the Christian philosopher, put it perfectly, “the future is something which everyone reaches at the rate of 60 minutes an hour whatever he does, whoever he is.” My teenage daughter Joy recently echoed this powerful truth when she reminded us that not even Barrack Obama can purchase a twenty fifth hour. It is what we do with our time that makes the difference between success and failure.

Political leaders are well served to remember that elective office has an expiry date. They only have four or five years to provide transformational leadership that changes the lives of their constituents. To do that, they must value moments and minutes because they are the basic currencies of time. Within this context, simple things like late arrivals in meetings augur ill for the bigger picture.

informal sector

The private sector too, must be as disciplined with time as they are about money. This is especially true for the millions of young people in the informal sector. Every minute counts and their businesses will greatly benefit if they deploy the time at their disposal effectively.
At a deeper level, our immortality is the most powerful reminder that we have limited time in this world, so we had better value and fully utilise each moment.

Before climate change disrupted the natural order of things, seasons were never late. It mostly rained when it was supposed to and consequently, bumper harvests were the norm, not the exception.
Biodiversity too, responds to nature’s punctual timing. Because wildebeests are punctual in their migration, Kenya and Tanzania can plan for the increased tourist arrivals that accompany this period.

Indeed, both flora and fauna seem to have an internal clock that they respond to punctually and consistently. In this regard, they are a step ahead of many humans, who lose touch with the internal clock and ignore the external one. We must restore our focus and adherence to these two clocks so that we can utilise time to the fullest in steering Africa forward.

Think green, Act green.