Of sugar, corruption and dashed hopes

‘Please don’t develop the taste for that sugar which is called corruption’. Pope Francis seemed pretty clued into the ills that ail us this past week. Turning Nairobi into one hopeful, if slightly drenched mass of humanity, it was refreshing to see power and humility come together so effortlessly in one man.

He pulled no punches as he cited the manifestations of poverty as wounds inflicted by minorities as they cling to power and wealth, who selfishly squander while a growing majority is forced to flee to abandoned, filthy and run down peripheries.

As he referred to the land injustices, referring to faceless playground grabbing private developers and condemning unbridled capitalism, I half expected him to turn around and one by one, pulverise the minority he spoke of.

After all, were some of the country’s pillagers not standing a few feet away from him, piously hanging onto every word, and looking like butter wouldn’t melt in their mouths?

But Pope Francis is a much better, wiser person than I am and he gives people far more chances to repent their sinful ways than I could. While he was right on the mark on shunning everything that is wrong in our society and those who are robbing the country dry, I am sure they must have breathed a sigh of relief when he departed, modest ways in hand.

That he assumed the most unpretentious lifestyle even in the few days that he was here must have made our showy self-important leaders uncomfortable, but I doubt that it challenged them to change their pretentious self-serving ways.

It was not by happenstance that he addressed the youth specifically on his visit. Neither is it by coincidence that the youth were a pivotal part of the messaging a few months ago during the Global Entrepreneurship Summit (GES). Let us forget for a minute that we have heard the ‘youth are the leaders of tomorrow’ phrase so much that it is cliché.

I strongly believe that the youth have a place in leadership today, but that is just me.

As a continent, we are home to the greatest assets or a ticking time bomb. Sub-Saharan Africa for example, will have the fastest population growth up to 2050 and the highest youth population in the world. The ‘youth bulge’ is associated with significant productivity challenges.

Two of the biggest economies on the continent demonstrate the statistics faced by most African countries. South Africa, despite being a leading economy is reported to have as high as 50 per cent unemployment rate while in Nigeria, while cited rates of 15 per cent unemployment may not seem high in a population of 170 million people, the actual number of youth not engaged in productive employment is significant.

In 2014 the African Economic Outlook estimated that 53 million of Africa’s 200 million youth aged between 15 and 24 were in unstable employment and 40 million young Africans were out of work. Only a minority of African youth were categorized as having a ‘good’ job.

Wage employment in the formal sector ranged from between 7 per cent and 10 per cent in the low and middle income countries with others falling into what was categorised by the International Labour Organization as ‘vulnerable employment’ including unpaid family working and often precarious self -employment.

If formal employment is not the way out for Africa’s youth, then an environment that fosters entrepreneurship must be invested in.

And while we may quibble over the accuracy of the numbers and the statistics, there is one thing that economists and activists can all agree on - our governments need to do more to create a conducive environment for prosperity.

Yes, our myriad problems represent multiple opportunities for us to innovate as well as business prospects. But make no mistake, there is only so much that the citizens can do by themselves. Local obstacles to local businesses must be removed and the attitude towards small businesses re-evaluated.

To a large extent, most small businesses want to follow the progression to medium sized businesses and eventually, compete against large existing enterprises. This progression is the only effective way for entrepreneurs to continuously remain competitive as opposed to continuously living from hand to mouth.

Instead, for example in Kenya, small traders are continuously harassed by their local authorities, barred from constructively conducting businesses, subjected to disproportionate taxes and costs of capital that they can ill afford. Without a fighting chance, these traders cannot grow beyond this size to create any sort of lasting legacy.

Unreliable electricity supply, with a loss of power for the customary one day a week loses businesses up to 20 per cent of their monthly revenue and if they have to invest in backup power supplies, significantly eats into their profits.

Entrepreneurship is a collective endeavor. As one journal cited, if you want to set up the Samsung’s and Volkswagens of the developing world, Governments must provide infrastructure, an environment that promotes affordable financing, investing in research and mechanisms for people to create sustainable organizations.