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| Africa: Subsaharan |
| Lack of investment claimed to be the tragedy in Africa |
| 2005-06-10 |
| Tony Blair must take some credit for edging the Bush administration closer to a deal on multilateral debt relief in Washington this week. But then reducing the debt burden for some of Africa's poorest countries will in no way "make poverty history". That is because the moral question of our time has little to do with public money and everything to do with private capital. The calls for rich taxpayers' money to eliminate poverty, either as debt relief or as aid, drown out the whoosh of billions of dollars of private capital that is circling the globe, looking for a place to land and multiply. The real tragedy is that only 1 per cent of it finds its way to sub-Saharan Africa. This vote of no confidence in Africa on the part of global investors is seen by some as a justification for doubling aid. But this is confounded by the fact that Africa delivers some of the highest returns on investment on the planet. |
| Posted by:too true |
| #9 Kim du Toit essay on aid to Africa. |
| Posted by: Lurker 2005-06-10 23:43 |
| #8 Giving money to Africa will be more money for the policians/dictators to steal. I am sending money to one of those widows in Algeria that needs to get access to her frozen accounts. Just wnated you to know that I am doing my part for Africa. |
| Posted by: Cyber Sarge 2005-06-10 13:01 |
| #7 The problem in Africa is corruption and mismanagement not funding. Let's just remember the well known history of the bridge who cost gazillions to build but was not connected to any road and even if the roads had been built would have had near zero traffic because there was no economic activity in the regions around justifying its building. Oh, and those gazillions weren't lost for everyone. There are also countless examples of equipment who was built but no funding was earmarked for maintenance so after just a few years it was in ruins. |
| Posted by: JFM 2005-06-10 10:52 |
| #6 Why sink money into Africa when some tinpot dictator might get a wild hair and decide to nationalize whatever you invested in? Call us when you give up your love affair with socialism and develop some respect for property rights. |
| Posted by: BH 2005-06-10 10:10 |
| #5 Hey! Lets invest in large-scale farming in Zimbabwe! Er, wait a minute.... |
| Posted by: Bomb-a-rama 2005-06-10 10:09 |
| #4 You may be right Tu but I still favor quality Mexican racehorse partnerships. |
| Posted by: Shipman 2005-06-10 09:32 |
| #3 Believe me, if I had any excess money around and wanted to flush it down a toilet, Africa would be the first place I'd look to invest. |
| Posted by: tu3031 2005-06-10 08:35 |
| #2 The tragedy of Africa is the lawlessness, corruption and incompetence of its rulers. |
| Posted by: Spot 2005-06-10 07:50 |
| #1 This article gets part of the answer right but small time entrepreneurs in Africa need access to really small amounts of capital to set up businesses, generally less than a USD100. Banks are not interested in lending such small amounts. The model that works is mutual societies, where people pool savings and make loans to members, often what is lacking is the knowhow of how to do this. |
| Posted by: phil_b 2005-06-10 07:04 |