Africa’s Development Trajectory: Lessons from China

Abstract

Made in Africa by Carol Newman, et al. is the outcome of a research program on Learning to Compete (L2C) sponsored by the African Development Bank, the Brookings Institution, and the United Nations University World Institute for Development Economics Research (UNUWIDER) with the objective of identifying why there is so little industry in Africa despite the impressive record of economic growth being posted by the continent. The resultant exodus of African intellectuals from Africa to other parts of the world consequent upon the degeneracy and progressive decay of African universities is a recurring phenomenon that has become known as 'brain drain' Until there is a concerted effort by African governments to reverse this untoward trend, through improved funding of their educational institutions, placement of emphasis on Research and Development, and the promotion of innovations and inventions in Science and Technology, the industrial development of Africa will remain a mere mental construct and an illusionary expectation. To attempt to fill the gap through the importation of foreign -run industries in Africa would only perpetuate Africa's dilemma of industrial poverty. [...]Africans take responsibility for their industrial destiny, reliance on the goodwill of foreign investors for Africa's technological and industrial development will prolong and entrench the continent's dependency on the rest of the world. [...]impactful inventions as infant formula, TV dinners, the pill, video games, barbed wires, google search, passports, robots, air-conditioning, department stores, market research, shipping container, clocks, barcode, cold chain, tradable debt and tally stick, radar, the bank, tax havens, leaded gasoline, antibiotics in farming, M-Pesa, property registers, index funds, s-bend, concrete, insurance, and the Billy bookcase are carefully appraised and their inventors commended.