How to really help Africa?
July 18, 2007Check out this great talk by Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala - How to help Africa? Do business there.
Rather than the constant negative reports of how bad everything is in Africa, she doesn’t say bad things don’t happen, but that things are getting better fast.
Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala was the former hard line Finance Minister of Nigeria, who got Nigeria’s economy back on track with her very strict non compromising views.
She talks about the fact that African’s are fighting back against corruption, about how African entrepreneurs are exploiting globalization and how large international corporations are directly helping normal African’s yet earning large profits by investing in essential infrastructure such as telecommunications and financial services.
We had a telecommunications company that was only able to develop 4530 land lines in it’s entire 30 year history. Now after liberalization there are 32 million GSM lines in operation. We are the second largest growing telecommunications market in the world after China. We are receiving investments in telecommunications of around $1 billion a year … and nobody knows!! Except a few smart people.
Forget about tired old Bono and his post colonial patronizing campaign. Listen to Ngozi and her other outspoken African economist colleagues such as Andrew Mwenda of Uganda and James Shikwati of Kenya.
