Africa Rising 21st Century

              The recent death of former Zambian President Kenneth Kaunda has led to a lot of discussion and remembrance of well-known African leaders of the past, such as Tanzania’s Julius Nyerere, Kenya’s Jomo Kenyatta, South Africa’s Nelson Mandela and Ghana’s Kwame Nkrumah.   As with all leaders worldwide and throughout history, these men were flawed, but they are remembered for leading their nations into independence or majority rule.   They may have made unfortunate choices in the opinion of many in some cases, but at least they seemed to care about the welfare of their people.   Their lives and rule were in contrast to other African leaders such as Uganda’s Idi Amin and Milton Obote, Central African Republic’s Jean-Bédel Bokassa , Nigeria’s Sani Abacha and Ethiopia’s Mengistu Haile Mariam.   Their reigns are not remembered fondly and indeed, their names inspire fearful memories of what they wrought ...

Globally, the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) estimates that international transportation costs average 9 percent of the value of exports, but in Africa, such costs average 11.4 percent, as compared to only 6.8 percent for developed countries.   Given such obstacles as the many landlocked African countries; smaller, older vessels on African routes; the disconnect between African shipping options and the major East-West shipping routes; lower value and quantity of many African exports, and impediments such as bottlenecks at African ports, caused by corruption and port mismanagement, it has been difficult for developed country governments to help resolve such transportation issues.             When I worked on AGOA early on, the prevailing idea was that business-to-business traders must seek their own transportation – that it isn’t government’s place to identify and facilitate commercial transportati...

              Every year, there are numerous days set aside to either commemorate an event or to remind us of some issue that continues to require being addressed. This past June 12 was World Day Against Child Labor, and organizations such as Green America wanted us all to keep in mind that despite many assurances from big players in the chocolate producing community, child labor still exists in Africa around the growing and harvesting of cocoa for chocolate.   However, this is an issue that is much more complex than it may seem.             According to Green America, a nonprofit established to create a socially just and environmentally sustainable society, there are still more than one million child laborers in the cocoa sector, and for the first time in 20 years, the number of child laborers globally has increased.  Chocolate sales exceed $100 billion per yea...

               (This blog post is excerpted from my training materials for the African Growth and Opportunity Act.) Africa has had traders for millennia so international trade is not new to businesspeople on the continent.   However, traders are short-sighted; they sell what they have and then repeat the process with little to no long-term planning.   For example, I have seen African women who sell clothing come to conferences or trade fairs and sell what they have without contacting potential distributors and figuring out how they will work out an arrangement to regularize sales so they can determine how much to make over a specific time period and for how much they can and should sell their wares.   The difference is that traders make what products they can and then find buyers.   Entrepreneurs study the market for unmet needs and develop strategies to meet those needs over the short term and plan to expand their customer...

               There was a time in recent history when African countries such as Ghana and Nigeria seemed to compete for the number of military coup d’états.   Fortunately, that period passed, but recent events make one ask: is the coup epidemic in Africa back again?   Between 1960 and 2000, Africa averaged four coups a year.   From 2000 to 2019, The average was around two each year, but this political phenomenon seems to be ramping up.   In 2019, a failed coup took place in Gabon, and this year, there were two coups in Mali within months of each other.   In March, an attempted coup against Niger President-elect Mohamed Bazoum was prevented only days before his inauguration. In April, Chad President Idriss Deby died fighting northern rebels, ending three decades of his rule.   In the aftermath of his death, a military council run by his son, Mahamat Idriss Deby, seized power, promising to hold elections with...