Libre Opinion: In the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic, I allow myself to plead in favor of
building a modern industrial economy in Africa. The Coronavirus has turned the world upside down. All
countries are in shock. The health crisis has given rise to a global economic recession.
But, as the pandemic subsides, the great peril for Africa would be to remain “
confined" to the export of raw materials and the import of manufactured objects. Now the countries
Africans must seek to manufacture objects locally at a lower cost and in a more profitable way with a view to
to sell them all over the world.
However, what must be understood is that the Coronavirus will accelerate the decoupling or disarticulation
of the American economy compared to the Chinese economy. The stakes are high. A battle of the
arduous challenges lie ahead between the United States of America and China for world leadership.
The United States has just learned the hard way that it has put too many eggs in China's basket.
Today, the Americans regret having entrusted to a single country like China the manufacture of almost
everything they use in their daily life. As a result, the list is long of companies that will
reconsider their production and supply chain with regard to China. These companies will
term, repatriate or transfer their activities to other countries.
In other words, there are a very large number of labour-intensive factories and therefore
hundreds of millions of jobs that could be transferred from China to the rest of the world. With some
very high manufacturing costs at home, these mostly American companies need a
alternative. In my opinion, with its young and abundant workforce, sub-Saharan Africa could well
serve as a manufacturing base for the rest of the world.
Crises, well, there's a saying that it's always the poor who pay the price! Indeed, the
commodity-exporting countries have always paid the greatest price for economic shocks. For
so to speak, African countries only export raw materials. So that today, Africa
represents barely 1% of the world's manufacturing industry with more than 15% of the world's population.
With the Covid-19 crisis, the slowdown in the global economy will lead to a considerable drop in the
raw material prices. As a result, African countries will see their mining revenues
to diminish. On the other hand, exporters of manufactured products like China will benefit with a
decrease in spending on raw materials by Chinese industries. Which will lead to the end of
account for an increase in the purchasing power of the Chinese.
China consumes about 50% of the raw materials extracted in the world. Countries' economies
Africans are totally dependent on the export of commodities such as oil, gas, coal,
uranium, cobalt, iron ores, bauxite, copper, cobalt, copper, phosphates, manganese, gold, diamonds, cotton,
wood, coffee, cocoa, rubber, and other industrial metals.
Obviously, when the Chinese economy slows down, at the end of the day, it is the African economies that,
again, pay the price. Thus, in the face of this double crisis, economic contagion could therefore be
much faster than the spread of the Coronavirus.
This excessive dependence on raw materials has made Africa an extremely
poor and very vulnerable. Mineral resources have not helped Africa eradicate extreme poverty on
the continent. On the contrary, these extractive industries have exacerbated poverty by creating an environment conducive to corruption, dictatorship and armed conflict. Besides the exploitation of resources
minerals generates few jobs. In reality, Africa is poor because it manufactures nothing.
The inability of African leaders to industrialize the continent has cost the people of Africa dearly.
Today, Africa is by far the poorest continent on the planet with 28 of the poorest countries
of the world. Access to adequate housing, education, primary health care, electricity and
Drinking water is far from assured for the vast majority of Africans.
For more than 60 years, African countries have only regressed. African leaders have religiously
followed the policy inherited from colonization, thus confining African countries to the simple export of materials
raw.
But, this time around, Africa could be fine. Africa can make the most of this crisis
unexpected from Covid-19. To do this, let's not look for noon to two o'clock, Africa must
simply follow in China's footsteps to become the manufacturing hub of the world. We have the
land, raw materials, contractors, and labor. All it takes is to build the
industrial zones and to bring companies with their machines.
Africa can industrialize well. But, you have to start first by making very simple items
such as kitchen utensils, spare parts, clothes, and shoes. With experience,
we could move on to manufacturing the more valuable goods.
No country in the world has developed without light industry. Manufacturing has a multiplier effect that
even agriculture does not have. The manufacturing sector translates into many more jobs and a
greater distribution of wealth.
The more a country produces manufactured objects, the more it develops. The more a country exports the materials
raw the more it becomes impoverished. Economists have long known about this paradox called
'Curse of raw materials'. This phenomenon is an economic disease about which we speak very little in
Africa and yet well taught elsewhere. To date, the manufacturing sector remains the main driver of a
rapid and sustainable economic growth. Factories are the most effective way to eliminate
extreme poverty.
For the first time, the redistribution of the cards in the world gives African countries the opportunity to
create an industrial base similar to the strategy adopted by the Four Asian Dragons (South Korea
South, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Singapore). Also, throughout history, the manufacturing sector has made
United States, United Kingdom, France, Japan and Germany the richest countries in the world.
More recently, industrialization has propelled China to the rank of the fastest growing economy in the world.
with an exceptional elimination of extreme poverty in the country.
I urge Africans to reorganize their economies without further delay to take advantage of this unique
opportunity. Otherwise, these many companies providing jobs and sustainable income will leave
China to set up in other emerging countries such as India, Vietnam, Mexico, Turkey, and
Brasil.
For Africa, this is an opportunity for a fresh start. Regardless of our current situation or our
pass. All that matters is what we do today and now. We have a chance here
unique and historic not to be missed. We have to wake up to grab it with both hands. All
Patriotic Africans must rise up and work very hard in order to flood the whole world with objects made in
Nigeria, Ghana, Cameroon, Kenya, Ethiopia, Guinea… We need a “Made in Africa” Revolution
".
We must meet this challenge together. Only then will we end extreme poverty,
thirst, and hunger in Africa. At this time, it is the only effective means available to us to claim our
respect and to put an end to the contempt, exploitation, domination and humiliation that weigh on all
Africans.