AFRICA, A CONTINENT OF OPPORTUNITIES

Time to time Africa has made the headlines but then the outcome hasn’t been in line with the expectations. It is like an airplane ready to take off but for whatever reason is still in the runway. Progress have been made, of course, but we aren’t sure that the achievements have been equal to the potentialities. Each one and everybody can make his opinion on the matter, and here we don’t go back to the conversations and discussions on the subject.

We would like to focus on what to do, certainly learning the lessons of the past failures, because, as we said in other occasions, the future is the projection of the present that is son of the past that has been badly told.

In a few lines what can we share here in a very succinct way? By and large, the approach to Africa growth hasn’t been correct all the time. You can’t talk about the Continent as a single unit because it is made by many realities, that’s to say the 54 Countries, at least, each one having its own vision, objectives, and expectations about the future of the related populations. Consequently, generalizations can’t be accepted.

Moreover, it must be considered that the future of Africa is in the hands of the African people: it isn’t obvious statement. Just think about what happened when there is whatever symposium, meeting: are the speakers really voicing the desires, the ambitions, and the needs of the communities? We doubt, whether they are foreigners or responsible public figures.?

However, yesterday we have been pleased to learn what has been said in Dakar 2 Summit and the address of the M.me Samia Suluhu Hassan, Présidente de la République Unie de Tanzanie has been very informative indeed over the theme?"Nourrir l’Afrique: souveraineté alimentaire et résilience". She listed some measures already in progress in her Country and focusing on environment, agriculture,?land?distribution?to?the?youngpeople?and private sector involvement. Moreover, the fact that the speaker is a lady adds more importance to the content of the speech.?

The Inclusive Growth can be realised re-examining the development finance agencies’ approach. In brief:?changing the development objectives without updating the approach could leave things as before.??The promotion of Private Sector means also to face the capitalists’ risk-adverse to invest in the real economy, which seems to be an important factor in Africa, as it emerged from a World Bank survey:?“African investors remain risk-averse and the funding requests lack speaking the language required for investment”?[1]

In our view, there are some bottlenecks on both the methodology and the practice.?The matter is twofold because it is not only a question of involving the capitalists in the development process, but also helping them to reposition their strategy in the light of changing market conditions; so, what to do about the risk aversion??

Only a new analysis can sort out from the impasse: we did it?[2]?and???have elaborated two Options: (A) Associate the Capitalists in the strategic decisions within the development schemes, (B) Provide Capitalists & Entrepreneurs & Investors with the seed capital to establish their own FUND.

The option (A) means to take them onboard.?A practical example can be provided with reference to the program of the International Finance Corporation (IFC) in MENA countries. IFC could set up a Risk Fund in each of the twenty MENA countries stretching from Iran to Morocco using even a small slice of the $ 2 billion budget as seed capital and calling on national capitalists to act as shareholders who are truly committed to financing both start-up and growth of companies, which are the backbone of countries' economies. Learning by doing is the appropriate way to?disseminate the language required for the investments.?But we aren’t sure that this approach could happen on the grounds that giving them a seat means sharing the power and it is very unlikely that it takes place.

Consequently (option B) it is up to African capitalists to take on charge the future of their communities and to establish a National Fund for creating jobs and promote opportunities, which can help to minimize the migration of unemployed youth to Europe and be a real contribution to the inclusive growth.

FINANCE BOUTIQUE (www.ascaniograziosi.net?) worked on the matter and designed COMMUNITY-BASED ECONOMY MODEL. It aims at re-designing the entire architecture in favour of poor people and small business as well and shift the paradigm of the financial interventions from over-indebted economy at micro and macro level to a real people’s empowerment via jobs creation and opportunities promotion[3].

In the above understanding we have written a LTTER TO AFRICAN CAPITALISTS and?affirmed our availability to provide any additional information on the setting up of the Fund, without any commitment.https://ascaniograziosi.net/2020/10/08/letter-to-african-capitalists/?The letter is also available in French?https://ascaniograziosi.net/2020/10/12/lettre-aux-capitalistes-africaines/?.

[1]?https://ascaniograziosi.net/2018/05/28/the-digital-economy-in-africa-could-be-a-gamble-because-investments-matter/?.

[2]?THE THEORY OF CHANGE APPLIED TO FINANCE FOR DEVELOPMENT?https://reader.ilmiolibro.kataweb.it/v/1252660/the-theory-of-change-applied-to-finance-for-development_1268103.

[3]POVERTY, AN ALTERNATIVE PARADIGM?https://www.morebooks.de/store/gb/book/poverty-an-alternative-paradigm/isbn/978-613-8-45817-3.