Ain’t No Passing Craze: Let’s Talk Africa
Mo Ibrahim, Sudanese-British billionaire, mobile communications guru and African thought-leader has long said that Africa needs to solve its own problems. FWP was lucky enough to hear Dr. Ibrahim elaborate on this first hand at the One Young World forum last year in The Hague. The moral of the story: Africa has an image problem… and a governance problem.
From being labelled “The Hopeless Continent” on the cover of the Economist in 2000, there has been considerable shift in perspective and growing interest in this emerging market opportunity, with the same magazine cover citing “Africa Rising” in 2011 and “Aspiring Africa” in 2013. Africa’s economic growth is projected to expand at a rapid pace, with the fastest-growing economies in the world being African. With a combined GDP increase of over 40% in the last 10 years and extreme poverty rates continually declining, the interest and optimism over the continent’s future is strong. At the same time, Africa’s population boom is creating an unmatched opportunity for the continent’s 54 countries to produce goods and services for their own consumers, instead of relying on the expensive imports. While China and the USA erect ever-greater barriers to free trade, the African continent is pushing on in the opposite direction and hoping to create the largest free trade area since the establishment of the World Trade Organization.
This all sounds wonderful, but other nations (namely China) have given the world a glimpse of what rapid growth and industrialization, built on the back of low-cost labor and manufacturing, can look like. But who really holds the power over the economic development agenda in Africa? China’s significant investment in the continent since the 1970’s has not gone unnoticed by the U.S., with the Trump administration’s new ‘Prosper Africa’ policy aiming to increase American FDI across the continent in order to challenge China’s influence. The opportunity for foreign investment is hard to dispute but brings into question what type of growth would best sustainably serve the people of Africa — not just their governments and elites.
It goes without saying that this development push holds immense opportunity, but also significant challenges. As home to just over 17% of the world’s population, Africa currently accounts for less than 5% of global carbon emissions. Some people refer to the “leapfrog” potential — the chance for Africa to sidestep traditional industrialization through radical innovation. We have nothing against frogs here at Flat World Partners, nor their ability to leap, but from now on, we’ll be referring to Africa’s leaping potential as something akin to a springbok instead.
Hayley Mole, Associate (and proud South African)
Andela, a New York-based company training and connecting African coders to international opportunities, has secured $100 million in Series D funding, intending to double it’s pool of 1,100 engineers this year across their four African campuses.
Last year, FWP attended the 1–54 Contemporary African Art Fair. Returning this year, we highly recommend checking it out.
Beyond watching ‘Black Panther’ on repeat (although needless to say, Wakanda Forever), diving into a good book might give you some insights into this wonderous and largely misunderstood continent. African authors, although under represented on a global level, have been slashing stereotypes and garnering recognition for decades. Chinua Achebe and Chimananda Ngozi Adichie may already be on your bookshelf, but OneBookOneCountry has some ideas to take you from the mountains of Lesotho to the streets of Djibouti.
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