Why are educated Africans still poor?
In the early years of attaining political independence from white colonial minority rule, African governments poured public funds into educating its people. More Africans have also been educated abroad. But decades later, many educated Africans are either doing menial jobs in the west or are poor and without employment in Africa. The case for Zimbabwe has seen the unprecedented increase of vendors or vendorpreneurs who have flooded the pavements of Harare City Centre prompting the authorities to contemplate removing them by force and driving them to designated areas where business is not so good. The vendors have stood their ground forcing the government to postpone the purported move. Some of the vendors are said to hold university degrees but have been left with no choice but to take to the streets and be street wise or starve.
Who is responsible?
The government is definitely responsible for failing to provide the basic public infrastructure such as schools, roads, hospitals, water and power supplies among other essentials to promote socioeconomic activities. The government has struggled to provide public goods and services in the absence of direct foreign aid inflows. Both the government and to a certain extent its educated population have failed to find creative ways of self sustenance. We can blame government all day but let us think about the role of the educated citizens. Has the education they received failed to inspire creativity to use their learned skills to confront new challenges? Is becoming a vendor the most creative thing we can think of? Are we not inadvertently encouraging our own children to become vendors in the future? Vending started way back with some parents giving their children sweets and biscuits to sell at break and lunchtime in school. Even teachers had school children sell their products for them at schools where they were teaching.
How about our education?
Was the education we received not good enough to inspire creativity? As far as I am concerned, neither the government nor the citizens have figured out a way to create capital. We have struggled with the concept of money and capital. We have struggled to understand how businesses are started and run. We have struggled with understanding investment as a poverty alleviation tool not financial aid. We have received finial aid for more than half a century which is greater than the current GDP of all the African countries put together. A company like Apple has more money than the entire continent of Africa. We have the resources but they are not economically viable. They are either underground or on their way out of the continent. In return we have orders of foreign consumables such as fleets of luxury vehicles coming into Africa.
But the diaspora send money?
Diaspora remittances which have prevented countries like Zimbabwe from becoming failed states are being used to purchase foreign products within Africa or consumables from outside the country or continent. It benefits the economies of the countries providing goods and services. We accumulate liabilities instead of assets. We are constantly doing everything to perpetuate poverty without realising it because we lack the financial intelligence with they did not teach in school. African governments have not done enough to harness the potential of the diaspora community as investors with an emotional attachment to Africa and reason to want Africa to do well.
Going back to basics
Africa needs to go back to basics and teach a combination of personal finance, business and investment. With the exponential growth of information technology, anyone can have a startup and reach a billion Africans and another 6 billion outside the continent. There is an abundance of possibilities if governments can install the telecommunications infrastructure to enable the smart creatives to use their creativity for new ways of wealth creation. Kenya and Rwanda are perhaps the leading countries in the implementation of new technologies as drivers of economic growth and development. This does not mean we ignore the land and agriculture and industry. I am just looking at what educated people can do to break the cycle of poverty. It is not a good inheritance for our children.
Who is responsible?
The government is definitely responsible for failing to provide the basic public infrastructure such as schools, roads, hospitals, water and power supplies among other essentials to promote socioeconomic activities. The government has struggled to provide public goods and services in the absence of direct foreign aid inflows. Both the government and to a certain extent its educated population have failed to find creative ways of self sustenance. We can blame government all day but let us think about the role of the educated citizens. Has the education they received failed to inspire creativity to use their learned skills to confront new challenges? Is becoming a vendor the most creative thing we can think of? Are we not inadvertently encouraging our own children to become vendors in the future? Vending started way back with some parents giving their children sweets and biscuits to sell at break and lunchtime in school. Even teachers had school children sell their products for them at schools where they were teaching.
How about our education?
Was the education we received not good enough to inspire creativity? As far as I am concerned, neither the government nor the citizens have figured out a way to create capital. We have struggled with the concept of money and capital. We have struggled to understand how businesses are started and run. We have struggled with understanding investment as a poverty alleviation tool not financial aid. We have received finial aid for more than half a century which is greater than the current GDP of all the African countries put together. A company like Apple has more money than the entire continent of Africa. We have the resources but they are not economically viable. They are either underground or on their way out of the continent. In return we have orders of foreign consumables such as fleets of luxury vehicles coming into Africa.
But the diaspora send money?
Diaspora remittances which have prevented countries like Zimbabwe from becoming failed states are being used to purchase foreign products within Africa or consumables from outside the country or continent. It benefits the economies of the countries providing goods and services. We accumulate liabilities instead of assets. We are constantly doing everything to perpetuate poverty without realising it because we lack the financial intelligence with they did not teach in school. African governments have not done enough to harness the potential of the diaspora community as investors with an emotional attachment to Africa and reason to want Africa to do well.
Going back to basics
Africa needs to go back to basics and teach a combination of personal finance, business and investment. With the exponential growth of information technology, anyone can have a startup and reach a billion Africans and another 6 billion outside the continent. There is an abundance of possibilities if governments can install the telecommunications infrastructure to enable the smart creatives to use their creativity for new ways of wealth creation. Kenya and Rwanda are perhaps the leading countries in the implementation of new technologies as drivers of economic growth and development. This does not mean we ignore the land and agriculture and industry. I am just looking at what educated people can do to break the cycle of poverty. It is not a good inheritance for our children.
Comments
Post a Comment