Natural resources are potentially a constraining factor on community
potential ... but not always. Abundant resources may facilitate
development, but only if they are used effectively. The chapter describes
all the other resources that go into a successful comprehensive success.
The chapter shows how external resources should be used to complement
local available resources to achieve maximum value adding.
An Asset of the Community
CHAPTER 7
RESOURCES:
NATURAL RESOURCES
Natural resources are potentially a constraining factor on community
potential ... but not always. Abundant resources may facilitate
development, but only if they are used effectively. The chapter describes
all the other resources that go into a successful comprehensive success.
The chapter shows how external resources should be used to complement
local available resources to achieve maximum value adding.
An Asset of the Community
Not so quick
One would think that natural resources would be an asset of the community, but
sadly, the rule of law may have preempted what seems like common sense so
that the legal reality is something very different.
Not simply money
Resources are not simply money. Resources are many things. The most
important are:
Human resources, and
Natural resources
The following are also important resources. They can be created in order to
build more potential for success in a community. They are created as a result of
use of human and natural resources and all of the other resources in different
ways:
Organizational infrastructure
Enabling environment
Physical infrastructure
Production equipment
Working capital
Page 110 PB-New-Wave-for-Development-110102b.odt
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Chapter 7 - Resources: Natural Resources
Money
Knowledge
Human resources and natural resources are the ultimate determining factors in
the potential for a community. The potential for progress is a function of the
underlying potential of the human and natural resources.
Making the best use of resources
Why does the prevailing process waste resources? What results can be achieved
when available resources are best used?
Resources
The resources are people, natural resources, infrastructure, material and
equipment, financial resources and knowledge. For resources to get
committed to development purposes there must be value adding and
there must be a “return” to the owners of the resource.
Success in development needs resources. The world has the resources to achieve
amazing success and development progress, but resources need to be managed
so that there is economic value adding as a result of their use. It is time to end
zero-sum development and replace it with initiatives that are economic value
adding and benefit both the funding entities and the users. It is time to do
development making best possible use of local resources in collaboration with
needed outside resources.
Importance of local resources
The failure of development is due in large part to the failure to use effectively
local resources. The value of local resources is well recognized and international
business has made huge fortunes be exploiting local resources, but the business
model was all about the corporate bottom line, and nothing to do with the need
to create value from these resources in the host community.
It is possible for local resources to become the investment driver in local
communities. External resources added on top of local resources can create huge
wealth, and it is reasonable that this wealth improves the quality of life of the
local community.
In the development space there has been a complete unlinking of these various
resources so that resource use has been very inefficient and ineffective.
If we look at the resource situation from a global perspective, there are
enormous resources. If we look at the way the resource flows are going on, there
is a total disconnect between resources available and resources needed. This is a
PB-New-Wave-for-Development-110102b.odt Page 111
Printed on Nov 29, 2015at 10:56 PM
New Wave for Development
process problem. This is not a resource problem, at any rate from a global
perspective.
If we look at resources in a community, there are likely to be some resources, but
rarely all the resources needed to operate a “closed” economy successfully.
Resources are being wasted
Resources are an issue. It is not that there are not enough resources. There are
lots of resources. It is just that resources are used in very wasteful ways.
And there is also a situation where assets that ought to be resources are
liabilities simply because of the process and organization of development.
Development needs resources in order to be effective. But more important than
the absolute amount of resources is the way they are used. Economic progress is
a dynamic process, and a small amount of resource well placed will do more
good than a massive amount of resources badly utilized.
There are four principal resources: human, natural, material and financial. It is
possible to argue that these resources are abundant, but badly distributed.
Certainly, it can be argued that the resources are not distributed in the optimum
way for development progress.
This chapter addresses the issue of resources both from the perspective of
resource availability as well as how resources are mobilized and
allocated to priority works. The chapter explores ways in which available
resources can be used to achieve maximum economic value adding and
progress towards the goal of success in development. This chapter
highlights the importance of all resources. Resources are not just money
and financial resources.
What are resources used for?
The world has resources. But little of the world's resources are being used to
support economic value adding activities in the SOUTH.
Even though the SOUTH has enormous natural resources they have not been
used in ways to create economic value adding for the SOUTH. The development
and investment process has been wrong.
And even though the SOUTH has an enormous pool of labor, the development
and investment process has not made much progress in creating economic value
adding from this resource.
The formal sector organizational infrastructure for success in development in
the SOUTH is not strong. This includes government, the legal and regulatory
frameworks and the banking sector and the local enterprise sector. But in spite
Page 112 PB-New-Wave-for-Development-110102b.odt
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Chapter 7 - Resources: Natural Resources
of this NORTH business seems to be able to invest and profit when it sees
opportunity for itself.
The physical infrastructure in the SOUTH is generally poor and deteriorated.
Enormous economic value adding would be achieved with major investment in
infrastructure, but it is long term and should be part of an integrated program.
The material and equipment used for productive activities in the SOUTH is also
limited, and in most cases old and dilapidated. The applies in all areas of the
enterprise economy, but especially among small and medium scale enterprises
(SMEs). Investment in incremental materials and equipment for production can
have and enormous economic value adding impact.
Finance is limited in the SOUTH, but abundant in the NORTH. But investors
from the SOUTH are scared about investment in most places in the SOUTH. In
order to get comfort, the main vehicles for investing in the SOUTH are the paper
of the World Bank and the similar regional development banks (RDBs), but this
feeds into essentially low performance on-lending to the SOUTH. Most other
vehicles for investing in the SOUTH are also committed to investment models
that extract wealth from the SOUTH for the benefit of the investor without much
economic value adding remaining in the host communities. Getting finance into
the SOUTH in ways that are going to facilitate economic value adding sufficient
to build the economies in the SOUTH and satisfy investors is going to be the
way and is the challenge
Knowledge is a final element of resources in development. Knowledge is not
just data, nor just information. Knowledge is part facts and part experience. The
SOUTH has a lot of knowledge, and so does the NORTH. Up to now the
NORTH has too much tended to ignore the knowledge of the SOUTH. And too
much, in my view, the SOUTH has tried to bundle knowledge (technical and
technology) with financing, and mostly has lost out on both.
Using resources for net value adding
The challenge is twofold. The first is to mobilize resources in ways that give
satisfaction to those that own or control resources, and the second is to make use
of the resources in ways that create “economic value adding” and enough
surplus to pay for the use of resources.
In order to make the best use of resources and to generate the maximum of
economic value adding in the SOUTH it is of importance to make use of
resources in a well balanced manner. When the minimum of resources is used to
the maximum of benefit, the economic performance of the global economy can
be improved immensely. The best results are going to be achieved if the least
amount of resource is consumed in net economic value destruction.
PB-New-Wave-for-Development-110102b.odt Page 113
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New Wave for Development
The resources are people, natural resources, infrastructure, material and
equipment, financial resources and knowledge. For resources to get
committed to development purposes there must be value adding and
there must be a “return” to the owners of the resource.
Success in development needs resources. The world has the resources to achieve
amazing success and development progress, but resources need to be managed
so that there is economic value adding as a result of their use. It is time to end
zero-sum development and replace it with initiatives that are economic value
adding and benefit both the funding entities and the users. It is time to do
development making best possible use of local resources in collaboration with
needed outside resources.
Financial resources
Africa and the SOUTH needs investors that are looking for a high return on a
small investment, and want their investment to be earning well for a long time.
Africa and the SOUTH needs to get away from the international investors that
are looking for a big return on a big investment and an early and easy exit
strategy.
And there are enough financial resources in the modern world to finance
anything that is low risk and economic value adding. The challenge is to create
financing vehicles and the financial intermediaries that will make it possible for
the capital markets to operate for the benefit of their investors and development
at the same time.
It was said of the Rothschild Bank in the Victorian era that they had the
best information in the financial community, and that this was the
secret of their success. It is still true in modern times that information is
key to financial performance. It can be manipulated information that
created wealth and scandal in recent years in the financial community,
or it can be the reliable sound basic financial information being proposed
in this work to support development investment
Financial resources are available in both the institutional capital market and
among private investors and philanthropic organizations. The challenge is to
organize so that these sources see a good return and a low risk from investing in
development and the economic value adding of developing communities.
Know-how
And there is also enough technical know how for development success to be
achieved anywhere modern people with resources choose to work. Good
management of limited development resources will not encourage do anything
Page 114 PB-New-Wave-for-Development-110102b.odt
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Chapter 7 - Resources: Natural Resources
anywhere development, but will aim to focus the use of development resources
where there can be the most economic value adding, and the most benefit to the
host community and the local people.
Africa and developing countries need technical support as well as investment. In
most cases it is preferable to have investment and technical support to be from
different sources,
Natural resources.
What natural resources are there? How can local resources be used as an
economic driver for the area? What is the natural economic potential of the area?
What can agriculture do? Are their other local resources that have economic
potential? Natural resources rarely deliver economic value to the local
community. Far too often they are exploited in ways that make them a local
liability and a huge asset for remote stakeholders. They get depleted without
adequate thought to the future. The solution is to use natural resources to help
improve the neighborhood economically and sustainably
Natural resources – badly utilized and depleting
Natural resources not well understood
Natural resources are abundant in the SOUTH. There is an oversupply of
natural resources, and a glut of early stage value adding products based on
natural resources. The terms of trade for the SOUTH has deteriorated
dramatically over the past fifty years because of this abundance. Yet it is of
enormous potential value for the SOUTH.
And there are some natural resources that are essential for the wealth and
lifestyle of the NORTH, notably petroleum that come from the SOUTH. And
resources like this should make success in development for the SOUTH much
easier. But SOUTHs resources go far beyond just oil, there is every conceivable
natural resource in the SOUTH, and this resource should ensure the success of
development in the SOUTH
Natural resources
Natural resources are all over the SOUTH. The natural resources of the SOUTH
should be the basis for great wealth.
But these resources are not serving to drive the success of development in the
SOUTH
In fact, natural resources in the SOUTH are one of the major root causes of
violence and death and destruction in the SOUTH.
PB-New-Wave-for-Development-110102b.odt Page 115
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New Wave for Development
The reasons are complex. Mainly because modern rules have become complex,
and modern rules often have the backing of international law, maybe national
law, powerful states, powerful companies, powerful individuals.
But modern rules do not necessarily bring equity and justice and fairness to any
specific situation.
In the SOUTH, the rule of law often serves to make wrong legal. The rule of law
often makes it possible for the NORTH to get what it wants for far less than is
right and fair.
The ownership of natural resources has been an issue for centuries. The
“commons” has been an important concept in the NORTH, but is even more
important in the SOUTH. The “commons” was an idea in the American Indian
tradition, and is an idea in much of the SOUTH. But the concept of commons in
the NORTH has become subservient to the idea of private property and all the
rights that go along with private property. And indeed, to the extent that
property is public, the “rights” attributable to private property are usually
applied, because these rights facilitate exploitative use.
The SOUTH has natural resources, but what value have these resources created
as they have been exploited. The SOUTH is incredibly rich in all sorts of natural
resources. Almost every mineral the world needs is available in the SOUTH, and
all sorts of energy products. The SOUTH has land and water. The SOUTH has
lumber, and exotic flora and fauna. The SOUTH has agricultural potential and
rich fisheries.
But how much of this wonderful natural resources wealth is creating wealth in
and for the SOUTH?
Energy – petroleum
Energy – coal
Energy – solar
Energy – wind
Energy – uranium
Energy – hydro
Energy
Water
Lumber
Page 116 PB-New-Wave-for-Development-110102b.odt
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Chapter 7 - Resources: Natural Resources
Agricultural land
Bio-resources – fauna
Bio-resources – flora
Minerals – bauxite
Minerals – iron ore
Minerals – diamonds
Minerals - gemstones
Minerals – gold
Minerals – copper
Minerals – phosphate
Energy
Petroleum
Petroleum products are usually very expensive.
Electricity
Electricity is also very expensive. There has been very little major capital
investment in low cost technology for energy generation.
Fuelwood
With generally high costs Sub-Saharan African businesses are at a severe
disadvantage in the global marketplace.
At the same time, African businessmen and women are handicapped by lack of
easy access to information about financial opportunities and the lack of microeconomic
policies and institutions to take care of these sectors, greatly hinder
access to capital.
The few investment banks available concentrate on commercial activities instead
of investing in productive sectors.
All too often, information about possible funding sources especially those from
the United States reaches the private sector in Africa long after they have been
filtered through various government agencies. By the time the application gets
to the people, deadlines are usually past and the financing is no longer available.
PB-New-Wave-for-Development-110102b.odt Page 117
Printed on Nov 29, 2015at 10:56 PM
New Wave for Development
Help in creating competitive feasibility studies and timely assessment of
business opportunities is urgently needed.
Entrepreneurial training programs is very essential for graduates to become self
employed.
Private sector in Africa and governments need to collaborate to improve the
human resource development programs in Africa in order to produce dynamic
business leaders for the future.
As business, trade and finance becomes increasingly globalized, the countries of
Sub-Saharan Africa face the risk of becoming increasingly non-competitive in
relation to the other continents. Some African governments have responded to
these current economic challenges by carrying out structural adjustment that
only creates higher levels of unemployment, poverty and social unrest.
While there is no miracle cure, the solution lies in creating opportunities that
allow African business people the freedom and confidence in shaping their own
future and that of Africa. The African business community must be given the
opportunity to compete in the international arena. This will come about through
education, access to information about business and financial opportunities and
the ability to enter in direct business relationships with investors in key
international markets and the United States.
Attempts to control the trade are so inadequate - says Global Witness -
they border on 'astonishing complacency'.
Similar allegations are made about diamonds, with stones sent from
Sierra Leone to Liberia and then on to Belgium.
Failure to enforce tighter regulation, says Global Witness, will ensure
that terrorists and organized crime, will continue to rely on the trade in
precious stones.
“The group came to trade in the rare gemstone known as tanzanite - a
beautiful blue stone, only found in one tiny area of Tanzania” Global
Witness
Chapter 8 - People
Page 118 PB-New-Wave-for-Development-110102b.odt
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Chapter 8 - People
///////////////////////////////////////////
///////////////////////////////////////////
Not so quick ... one would think that natural resources would be an asset of the community, but
sadly, the rule of law may have preempted what seems like common sense so
that the legal reality is usually something very different.
Not simply money
Resources are not simply money. Resources are many things. The most important are human resources, and natural resources
The following are economic resources, which are also important. They can be created in order to
build more potential for success in a community. They are created as a result of
use of human and natural resources and all of the other resources in different
ways:
- Organizational infrastructure
- Enabling environment
- Physical infrastructure
- Production equipment
- Working capital
- Money
- Knowledge
Human resources and natural resources are the ultimate determining factors in
the potential for a community. The potential for progress is a function of the
underlying potential of the human and natural resources.
Making the Best Use of Resources
Why does the prevailing process waste resources? What results can be achieved
when available resources are best used?
Resources
The resources are people, natural resources, infrastructure, material and
equipment, financial resources and knowledge. For resources to get
committed to development purposes there must be value adding and
there must be a “return” to the owners of the resource.
Success in development needs resources. The world has the resources to achieve
amazing success and development progress, but resources need to be managed
so that there is economic value adding as a result of their use. It is time to end
zero-sum development and replace it with initiatives that are economic value
adding and benefit both the funding entities and the users. It is time to do
development making best possible use of local resources in collaboration with
needed outside resources.
Importance of local resources
The failure of development is due in large part to the failure to use effectively
local resources. The value of local resources is well recognized and international
business has made huge fortunes be exploiting local resources, but the business
model was all about the corporate bottom line, and nothing to do with the need
to create value from these resources in the host community.
It is possible for local resources to become the investment driver in local
communities. External resources added on top of local resources can create huge
wealth, and it is reasonable that this wealth improves the quality of life of the
local community.
In the development space there has been a complete unlinking of these various
resources so that resource use has been very inefficient and ineffective.
If we look at the resource situation from a global perspective, there are
enormous resources. If we look at the way the resource flows are going on, there
is a total disconnect between resources available and resources needed. This is a
process problem. This is not a resource problem, at any rate from a global
perspective.
If we look at resources in a community, there are likely to be some resources, but
rarely all the resources needed to operate a “closed” economy successfully.
Resources are being wasted
Resources are an issue. It is not that there are not enough resources. There are
lots of resources. It is just that resources are used in very wasteful ways.
And there is also a situation where assets that ought to be resources are
liabilities simply because of the process and organization of development.
Development needs resources in order to be effective. But more important than
the absolute amount of resources is the way they are used. Economic progress is
a dynamic process, and a small amount of resource well placed will do more
good than a massive amount of resources badly utilized.
There are four principal resources: human, natural, material and financial. It is
possible to argue that these resources are abundant, but badly distributed.
Certainly, it can be argued that the resources are not distributed in the optimum
way for development progress.
This chapter addresses the issue of resources both from the perspective of
resource availability as well as how resources are mobilized and
allocated to priority works. The chapter explores ways in which available
resources can be used to achieve maximum economic value adding and
progress towards the goal of success in development. This chapter
highlights the importance of all resources. Resources are not just money
and financial resources.
What are Resources Used For?
The world has resources. But little of the world's resources are being used to
support economic value adding activities in the SOUTH.
Even though the SOUTH has enormous natural resources they have not been
used in ways to create economic value adding for the SOUTH. The development
and investment process has been wrong.
And even though the SOUTH has an enormous pool of labor, the development
and investment process has not made much progress in creating economic value
adding from this resource.
The formal sector organizational infrastructure for success in development in
the SOUTH is not strong. This includes government, the legal and regulatory
frameworks and the banking sector and the local enterprise sector. But in spite
of this NORTH business seems to be able to invest and profit when it sees
opportunity for itself.
The physical infrastructure in the SOUTH is generally poor and deteriorated.
Enormous economic value adding would be achieved with major investment in
infrastructure, but it is long term and should be part of an integrated program.
The material and equipment used for productive activities in the SOUTH is also
limited, and in most cases old and dilapidated. The applies in all areas of the
enterprise economy, but especially among small and medium scale enterprises
(SMEs). Investment in incremental materials and equipment for production can
have and enormous economic value adding impact.
Finance is limited in the SOUTH, but abundant in the NORTH. But investors
from the SOUTH are scared about investment in most places in the SOUTH. In
order to get comfort, the main vehicles for investing in the SOUTH are the paper
of the World Bank and the similar regional development banks (RDBs), but this
feeds into essentially low performance on-lending to the SOUTH. Most other
vehicles for investing in the SOUTH are also committed to investment models
that extract wealth from the SOUTH for the benefit of the investor without much
economic value adding remaining in the host communities. Getting finance into
the SOUTH in ways that are going to facilitate economic value adding sufficient
to build the economies in the SOUTH and satisfy investors is going to be the
way and is the challenge
Knowledge is a final element of resources in development. Knowledge is not
just data, nor just information. Knowledge is part facts and part experience. The
SOUTH has a lot of knowledge, and so does the NORTH. Up to now the
NORTH has too much tended to ignore the knowledge of the SOUTH. And too
much, in my view, the SOUTH has tried to bundle knowledge (technical and
technology) with financing, and mostly has lost out on both.
Using resources for net value adding
The challenge is twofold. The first is to mobilize resources in ways that give
satisfaction to those that own or control resources, and the second is to make use
of the resources in ways that create “economic value adding” and enough
surplus to pay for the use of resources.
In order to make the best use of resources and to generate the maximum of
economic value adding in the SOUTH it is of importance to make use of
resources in a well balanced manner. When the minimum of resources is used to
the maximum of benefit, the economic performance of the global economy can
be improved immensely. The best results are going to be achieved if the least
amount of resource is consumed in net economic value destruction.
The resources are people, natural resources, infrastructure, material and
equipment, financial resources and knowledge. For resources to get
committed to development purposes there must be value adding and
there must be a “return” to the owners of the resource.
Success in development needs resources. The world has the resources to achieve
amazing success and development progress, but resources need to be managed
so that there is economic value adding as a result of their use. It is time to end
zero-sum development and replace it with initiatives that are economic value
adding and benefit both the funding entities and the users. It is time to do
development making best possible use of local resources in collaboration with
needed outside resources.
An Array of Resource Types
Financial resources
Africa and the SOUTH needs investors that are looking for a high return on a
small investment, and want their investment to be earning well for a long time.
Africa and the SOUTH needs to get away from the international investors that
are looking for a big return on a big investment and an early and easy exit
strategy.
And there are enough financial resources in the modern world to finance
anything that is low risk and economic value adding. The challenge is to create
financing vehicles and the financial intermediaries that will make it possible for
the capital markets to operate for the benefit of their investors and development
at the same time.
It was said of the Rothschild Bank in the Victorian era that they had the
best information in the financial community, and that this was the
secret of their success.
It is still true in modern times that information is
key to financial performance. It can be manipulated information that
created wealth and scandal in recent years in the financial community,
or it can be the reliable sound basic financial information being proposed
in this work to support development investment
Financial resources are available in both the institutional capital market and
among private investors and philanthropic organizations. The challenge is to
organize so that these sources see a good return and a low risk from investing in
development and the economic value adding of developing communities.
Know-how
And there is also enough technical know how for development success to be
achieved anywhere modern people with resources choose to work. Good
management of limited development resources will not encourage do anything
anywhere development, but will aim to focus the use of development resources
where there can be the most economic value adding, and the most benefit to the
host community and the local people.
Africa and developing countries need technical support as well as investment. In
most cases it is preferable to have investment and technical support to be from
different sources,
Natural resources.
What natural resources are there? How can local resources be used as an
economic driver for the area? What is the natural economic potential of the area?
What can agriculture do? Are their other local resources that have economic
potential?
Natural resources rarely deliver economic value to the local
community. Far too often they are exploited in ways that make them a local
liability and a huge asset for remote stakeholders. They get depleted without
adequate thought to the future. The solution is to use natural resources to help
improve the neighborhood economically and sustainably
Natural resources not well understood and they are not well utilized. Natural resources are abundant in the SOUTH. There is an oversupply of
natural resources, and a glut of early stage value adding products based on
natural resources. The terms of trade for the SOUTH has deteriorated
dramatically over the past fifty years because of this abundance. Yet it is of
enormous potential value for the SOUTH.
And there are some natural resources that are essential for the wealth and
lifestyle of the NORTH, notably petroleum that come from the SOUTH. And
resources like this should make success in development for the SOUTH much
easier. But SOUTHs resources go far beyond just oil, there is every conceivable
natural resource in the SOUTH, and this resource should ensure the success of
development in the SOUTH
Natural resources are all over the SOUTH. The natural resources of the SOUTH
should be the basis for great wealth.
But these resources are not serving to drive the success of development in the
SOUTH
In fact, natural resources in the SOUTH are one of the major root causes of
violence and death and destruction in the SOUTH.
The reasons are complex. Mainly because modern rules have become complex,
and modern rules often have the backing of international law, maybe national
law, powerful states, powerful companies, powerful individuals.
But modern rules do not necessarily bring equity and justice and fairness to any
specific situation.
In the SOUTH, the rule of law often serves to make wrong legal. The rule of law
often makes it possible for the NORTH to get what it wants for far less than is
right and fair.
The ownership of natural resources has been an issue for centuries. The
“commons” has been an important concept in the NORTH, but is even more
important in the SOUTH. The “commons” was an idea in the American Indian
tradition, and is an idea in much of the SOUTH. But the concept of commons in
the NORTH has become subservient to the idea of private property and all the
rights that go along with private property. And indeed, to the extent that
property is public, the “rights” attributable to private property are usually
applied, because these rights facilitate exploitative use.
The SOUTH has natural resources, but what value have these resources created
as they have been exploited. The SOUTH is incredibly rich in all sorts of natural
resources. Almost every mineral the world needs is available in the SOUTH, and
all sorts of energy products. The SOUTH has land and water. The SOUTH has
lumber, and exotic flora and fauna. The SOUTH has agricultural potential and
rich fisheries.
But how much of this wonderful natural resources wealth is creating wealth in
and for the SOUTH?
- Energy – petroleum
- Energy – coal
- Energy – solar
- Energy – wind
- Energy – uranium
- Energy – hydro
- Energy
- Water
- Lumber
- Agricultural land
- Bio-resources – fauna
- Bio-resources – flora
- Minerals – bauxite
- Minerals – iron ore
- Minerals – diamonds
- Minerals - gemstones
- Minerals – gold
- Minerals – copper
- Minerals – phosphate
- Energy
- Petroleum
- Petroleum products are usually very expensive.
- Electricity
- Electricity is also very expensive. There has been very little major capital investment in low cost technology for energy generation.
- Fuelwood
Performance of Locally Owned Businesses
With generally high costs Sub-Saharan African businesses are at a severe disadvantage in the global marketplace.
At the same time, African businessmen and women are handicapped by lack of
easy access to information about financial opportunities and the lack of microeconomic policies and institutions to take care of these sectors, greatly hinder
access to capital.
The few investment banks available concentrate on commercial activities instead
of investing in productive sectors.
All too often, information about possible funding sources especially those from
the United States reaches the private sector in Africa long after they have been
filtered through various government agencies. By the time the application gets
to the people, deadlines are usually past and the financing is no longer available.
Help in creating competitive feasibility studies and timely assessment of
business opportunities is urgently needed.
Entrepreneurial training programs is very essential for graduates to become self
employed.
Private sector in Africa and governments need to collaborate to improve the
human resource development programs in Africa in order to produce dynamic
business leaders for the future.
As business, trade and finance becomes increasingly globalized, the countries of
Sub-Saharan Africa face the risk of becoming increasingly non-competitive in
relation to the other continents. Some African governments have responded to
these current economic challenges by carrying out structural adjustment that
only creates higher levels of unemployment, poverty and social unrest.
While there is no miracle cure, the solution lies in creating opportunities that
allow African business people the freedom and confidence in shaping their own
future and that of Africa. The African business community must be given the
opportunity to compete in the international arena. This will come about through
education, access to information about business and financial opportunities and
the ability to enter in direct business relationships with investors in key
international markets and the United States.
Attempts to control the trade are so inadequate - says Global Witness -
they border on 'astonishing complacency'.
Similar allegations are made about diamonds, with stones sent from
Sierra Leone to Liberia and then on to Belgium.
Failure to enforce tighter regulation, says Global Witness, will ensure
that terrorists and organized crime, will continue to rely on the trade in
precious stones.
“The group came to trade in the rare gemstone known as tanzanite - a
beautiful blue stone, only found in one tiny area of Tanzania” Global Witness
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