1. Mission: The mission, vision, values and goals of individual African countries as laid out by their corresponding leaders are lacking. For instance, President Julius Kambarage Nyerere of Tanzania tried, but unfortunately his political mission, vision, values and goals were superb, but his economic mission, vision, values goals were bad to say the least, history has given us ample examples that Socialism does not work economically, and that Capitalism is the best path to economic prosperity.
2. Leadership: Good governance and leadership require building strong institutions and a government whose branches of executive, legislature and judiciary are well balanced. The majority, if not all African systems of governments are big violators of this. There is not any single African nation that is doing this well. President Barack Obama summarized this well, “Africa needs strong institutions, not strong men”.3. People: People empowerment through academic, professional and financial education and literacy as well as civil liberty and freedom to live well and peacefully and pursue one’s goals and dreams are very important in the economic development of the people. African nations are trying in this aspect, but they are still far behind. In most African countries, it is common for leaders and governments to oppress and suppress their people for the sake of a small group of people remaining in power.
4. Cash Flow: For economic development in any country, a good positive cash flow is very important in both, the public and the private sectors of the economy. Most African countries have negative cash flows. Political policies and economic policies are drivers of the public sectors and private sectors. Fiscal policies (policies on government budget, government revenue, government expenditure) and monetary policies (policies on money supply and interest rates) are key drivers of the public and private sectors of the economy. Moreover, the government’s policy on the economic system, whether to implement Socialism, Communism or Capitalism, play a key role in influencing how effectively and how efficiently scarce resources get allocated in the economy. History has shown that Capitalism, in practice as implemented by USA, Japan, Germany, Singapore and many developed nations, is the most effective and the most efficient economic system. African countries once again continue to remain far behind in regards to this aspect.
5. Communication: Political and economic relationships within the country and between countries and international organizations, institutions and corporations are very important and very crucial in economic development of individual countries. Foreign policy and trade pacts between nations play a major role in the international movement of wealth, goods and services between nations. Once again, most African nations are on the lower end of the equation as stronger and more competitive developed nations and international institutions (like World Bank and International Monetary Fund [IMF]) and multinational corporations dominate world economies in a new world order of Imperalism and Neo-Colonialism under the umbrella of Globalization. Globalization is good, trade is good, but predominantly producer nations win more than predominantly consumer nations. Cash and wealth always flow from consumers to producers.
6. Systems: All systems that drive economic development, from government branches, departments, institutions, private institutions, corporations, non-governmental organizations, education, infrastructure are important in defining an economy. African countries are trying in some of these aspects, but not in others, and they fail miserably in some these aspects, for instance in the building of infrastructure.
7. Legal framework, government rules and regulations, ethical standards, moral standards and values: A strong system of law and order is very important in economic development. Corruption, embezzlement, nepotism and low ethical standards of the society are detrimental to economic development. Unfortunately, the majority of African countries are big violators of this.
8. Economic output of products and services: How well, how effectively and how efficiently does a society produce goods and services? There is no doubt that industrialization of a society rises economic output per capita. Land, labor, capital and entrepreneurship are the four major means of production, the better and the more competitive a society is at allocating these resources, the more effective and the more efficient it gets at producing goods and services. Economic output is measured by Gross Domestic Product (GDP). In the world now, USA is number one with an economic output of $19 trillion, followed by China. While USA has a population of around 330 million, China has more than 4 times as much. Once again, African countries lag far behind at production. Why? Most African countries had a history of suppressing private ownership of major means of production and African leaders never quite managed to lay out good missions, visions and feasible plans to industrialize their countries, and most failed miserably because of crude missions, visions, plans, values or implementations.
This topic is big, the above is a mere summary to lay out a big picture from a vantage point.
~ Dr. Allan Rwabutaza,
Wednesday, February 01, 2017
Wednesday, February 01, 2017
http://www.rwabutaza.com/rwabutaza/why-african-nations-remain-behind-in-economic-development/
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