TURNING POINT | Africa must stop exporting wealth and importing value
Africa’s industrialisation debate is often presented as an economic question. I believe it is much more than that. It is a question of dignity, economic sovereignty and whether we are prepared to build economies that create value for Africans rather than merely supplying the raw materials on which somebody else’s prosperity is built. The Africa […]
Africa’s industrialisation debate is often presented as an economic question. I believe it is much more than that. It is a question of dignity, economic sovereignty and whether we are prepared to build economies that create value for Africans rather than merely supplying the raw materials on which somebody else’s prosperity is built.
The Africa Industrialization Index, covering the period 2010 to 2017, offers a sobering snapshot of the continent’s industrial performance. The figures show significant differences between African economies and, more importantly, reveal how difficult it is for countries to sustain industrialisation once it has begun.
Between 2010 and 2017, Namibia’s score declined from 0.6332 to 0.6162, reaching a low of 0.6038 in 2016. South Africa remained the continent’s strongest performer, although its score also declined from 0.8819 to 0.8371. Morocco, by contrast, improved from 0.7807 to 0.7983.
The lesson is not that one country is succeeding and another is failing. It is that industrialisation requires deliberate choices.
