Despite numerous setbacks, Africa is rising

In 2013, the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank gave a glowing account of African countries like Rwanda, Mozambique, Kenya, Ethiopia and Ghana that were enjoying an economic boom even as most European countries struggled in the wake of the 2008/09 economic crisis. In fact, Africa was the fastest growing continent in the world.

War, famine and dictators have become rarer, declared The Economist.

The human development index showed that the continent had made huge leaps: secondary school enrolment had grown by 20 per cent between 2000-2008; deaths from malaria had dropped by a third; life expectancy had improved with most people set to celebrate their 50th, if not, 60th birthday; child mortality rates had dropped significantly; discoveries of pricey natural resources like oil buried underneath the Dark Continent, put the icing on the cake.

Life to many, according to economic would get better. Across the continent the right things were being done: Foreign Direct Investment had grown from $15 billion in 2002 by 300 per cent in 2012; mobile phone penetration was like no other on the world. There were many phones on the hands of most Africans than anywhere in the world; democracy was flourishing and more countries held elections that could be considered freer and fair than at any time.

It was with the prospects of Africa becoming the next financial giant that the term ‘Africa Rising’ came up. With Africa rising, the general expectation was that more of the desperate millions on the continent would move up the social ladder into the working middle class, thus leaving behind images and memories of depravation, desolation, diseases and death as a consequence of poverty.

Alas that seems not to be case.

Unfortunately, despite many countries in Africa registering economic growth rates of between 5 and 6 per cent annually, poverty levels have remained high. The rosy look has not been matched with expansion in economic opportunities to put youths into gainful employment. Plenty and want co-exist across the continent from Lagos to Durban, from Nairobi to Cairo.

So what ails Africa? Is the cake not big enough to pass around? A report by the Africa Prosperity Report by the Lagatum Institute says the fortunes of the people on the continent is worse off than before. Unemployment remains high despite the so-called boom. Notably too, unscrupulous businessmen and numerous multi-national companies doing business in Africa have contributed to capital flight and rising poverty to “belie the Africa Rising promise.”  Former UN Secretary General Koffi Annan released a report in 2013 that showed Africa lost as much as Sh38 billion dollars to shady deals with multi-national companies.

It is easy to conclude that Government is the weakest link in Africa’s promise. All across Africa, the ruling elite is seemingly engaged in acts of self-preservation. In places like Burundi and Uganda where the leaders have attempted to tweak the constitution to self-preserve, the masses pay a heavy price.

In Kenya, despite it being a strong democracy, the shenanigans of the ruling elite have conspired to keep the millions who are poor, poor with policies contrived to ensure that elected leaders reap most from public coffers. But things are starting to move in the right direction.

Yet despite that, all is not lost for Africa. With a fairly youthful, bubbly, educated population, mobile-carrying and generally less acquiescent to accept the doctrine of politicians hellbent to keep them poor and democracy taking root, Africa’s long-coming rise is certain.