Africans, don't give up on Africa

Although my wife is Canadian because she was born here; her ancestral roots traces back to the West Indies and ultimately Africa. My wife studying history and eventually furthering in Modern Slavery make both of us a team for Africa emancipation. If we're not talking about promoting African values in our Canadian context, we are busy putting the lines together about Africa: the news, reports, economic analysis, the society, environment etc. So when she sent me an email containing a link to the set of pictures below during one of her research, I wasn't at all surprised. The pictures were published on CNN’s Inside Africa website with the caption: “Stunning photos show Africa through African eyes”. The publication was part of the the IBM Research Africa 12 Global Research Lab Project

My wife naturally connected with the stories that followed each picture because of her education and of course the many trips we have made together into Africa and African related attraction around the world. For me, however, I connected with those pictures because I saw myself in them. They told my story.

The house I was born in Mushin Lagos, Nigeria was just across the railway line like this. Since I was born  up till date, I’ve never seen a single train pass through. My parents never stop telling tales of how busy that railway line used to be.	Yet in other places, trains are working. Railway workers strike and others leave the few working ones over crowded like the one seen above.
We fetched water like this. I remember lifting big buckets on my head on very long distances. And you just have to fill up those big drums stored behind the kitchen doors.	Africans are extremely creative. We make something out of nothing. Don’t pity Africa, work with Africa! We have a thriving creative economy, youth bulginess.
Yet we have hope. The future is not ahead, the future is now. When I was a kid we soil ourselves like this young child, telling ourselves we are eating food as we put this dusts on our chin. We have not lost hope. Its this hand-in-soil that has strengthened our creativity.	They say religion has been our bane. But who could I have been if I had not known the Lord Jesus Christ. Because of our faith our communities are built on tenets of respect and love. Its this foundation that allows people like myself to thrive all around the world.
While many people know this young boy made a pair of “glasses”, only very few people knew what he made it of and what the process of making it require. I know because that boy was just exactly like me! we made those funny looking pair of “glasses” out of table-top calendar spine. Creativity is in our DNA! This is Africa!!	This picture passed the strongest message to me. What are we doing to secure the future? Or better still, what am I doing? I see Bill Gates and his earnest effort and I say to myself yes, this is the way to go! We have to secure the health of our future generations.

This is Africa. We are Africans. If we have come this far why go back? Our faith has been strengthened because daily, we face challenges that forces us to exercise them. We have experienced mountain moving faith as we see mountains of poverty and economic hardship sublime. We are hard working and we also believe in honest dealings even though corruption is fast making this assertion an illusion. We have grown because we strengthened our communities by caring for one another in a most unique way. These is Africa, where you can have breakfast, lunch and dinner in the house of three different people you met on the street. We take care of our own, we don’t let one another down. This is the Africa I have grown into from the 1980s into the 2000s. All the evil that has happened in recent times must be be reversed. We will not sit and look at them take away our glorious future. We will reverse it. We will fight it with our words across the diaspora.

We are not where we want to be, yet, we are not where we used to be. The road is still very far. We must not allow idiosyncratic people who have crept into our communities deny us of our glorious destination. We must not fail to connect with our core competences, build on our strength and secure future generations. I personally don’t expect a sudden change but one thing I’m sure of is that: myself and many others who share similar vision will not give up. Africa will arise to take its rightful place among committee of nations. It has already begin to happen, the chart below shows Nigeria is the 3rd fastest growing economy in 2014 and hence a major destination for investment (Wealth Professionals Magazine Issue 2.2 pp8,14). By 2050, global economic dynamics would also have shifted in Africa’s favour. Keep in mind that this are assumptions and pre-included are very high risks factors. If we continue to work on reducing these risk factors: ensure political stability, a stable society, we can exceed these growth estimates by very wide margin.

Its time Africa, We must not give up!

What the Elections Hold For Nigeria: Gloom or Glory (An Economist View)

From the greatest of economic optimism to the highest forecast of gloom, Nigeria is always tossed in between when looked through the knowledge prism of intellectuals around the globe. Global Trend 2025 Report forecast Nigeria to be part of the ‘arc of instability’ due to its youthful age structure and rapidly growing population. This ‘youth bulge’ is expected to remain on rapid growth trajectories and according to this report, unemployment conditions must change ‘dramatically’ to avert instability and state failure. This report holds element of truth, but there is greater optimism. My personal findings working with young people in Nigeria and been a youth myself in my mid-twenties, I have come to understand more fundamentally that the youth, as much as they hold the ability to ruin the nation as seen in the case of Niger Delta militias, they also have the capacity to transform the Nigerian economy. A phenomenon I call the ‘Y-index’ (i.e. youth index). Another intellectual, Okonjo Iweala calls it ‘demographic dividends’. Together with growing technology in the area of telecommunication and the Nigerian Banking reforms (see figure below), the impact the telecoms industry is playing in the banking sector is now so obvious. This provides a bouyant financial sector for core economic activity. Nigeria is on its pathway to growth and that is more so now than ever before. Approaching elections, due in April 2011 (couple of weeks time), is likely to usher in a period of political instability that will probably see a significant increase in political tension. This is the opinion of a school of thought,but on the other hand, we as a nation have become wiser, thus this political tension can be averted or at least minimized in order for Nigeria to attain the required economic growth as a nation. Again, the youth has arole to play in achieving this. Economic expansion will be buoyed by robust performance in the non-oil sector. Real GDP growth is expected to average over 6.5% in 2011-15, provided political tension do not alter these forecasts, Nigeria can be seen to be on its path to economic glory.

Looking Beyond the BRICS: Nigeria, Among the Emerging Emerging Markets 'Frontiers'

Key Data: GDP growth: 5.8%, GDP: $248bn (PPP: $397bn), Inflation: 11.2%, Population: 155.2m, GDP per head: $1,600 (PPP: $2,560).

The biggest concentration of overlooked markets is in Africa (which is in many ways an overlooked continent). In 2011, according to The Economist (2010), there will be a great deal about the unexpected merits of ‘frontier’ economies such as Nigeria who are poorer and riskier than the emerging BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India and China). Multinationals intending to invest in foreign countries will be wise to do so now in order to enjoy location economies while leveraging the valuable skills in Nigeria to increase profitability and profit growth. Based on my recent work, I'll recommend two major non-oil sectors for profitable investment: Agricultural sector and the film industry (Nollywood).
Although with very high volatility, moving into Nigeria can provide a foreign company the needed vitality. Companies that move first will enjoy lots of advantages. They will be able to forge deals with aggressive young companies, strike infrastructure deals with local governments. And they can shape the tastes of future consumers. Companies that succeed in these neglected emerging markets are not only putting down roots in the world’s most fertile soil. They are giving themselves a chance to establish business habits (learning experiences/curves) for years to come. Many reforms are on-going in Nigeria and many is still to come. After all, there are hardly easy markets.

Seun Oyeniran


Reference
The Economist (2010), Businesses will learn to look beyond the BRICs, Nov 22nd 2010 | from The World In 2011 print edition (http://www.economist.com/node/17493411?story_id=17493411)
Hill, C.W.L., (2011), International Business: Competing in the Global Market Place, New York: Mc Graw-Hill
Global Trends 2025, (November 2008), A Transformed World,
UNCTAD Report, http://unctadstat.unctad.org/TableViewer/tableView.aspx?ReportId=719
CORRUPTION PERCEPTIONS INDEX 2010 , accessed 3/3/2011
Human Development Report 2010, The Real Wealth of Nations:Pathways to Human Development, UNDP 2010, accessed 3/3/2011
United Nations (2004), Conference on Trade and Development , Eleventh session São Paulo, 13–18 June 2004, GE.04-51545
Sloman, J. , and Wright, A., (2009), Economics, England: Pearson
Saugato Datta, (2011) (Eds), Economics: Making Sense of the Modern Economy, London: Profile Books