November 20 – African Industrialization Day

nPostednon November 20, 2015

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As people work to industrialize many
African nations, hopefully they will
strive to create environmentally-sound
factories with good working conditions.

nEvernsince 1990, November 20 has been a day to focus on ways to stimulatenAfrica’s industrialization.

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nAfricanis a large continent, and each region and nation has its ownnstrengths and challenges. So when I say something like, “Africanhas…” or “Africa does not…” – I’m obviously speaking ofngeneral patterns of strengths and challenges. Please do not take itnas descriptive of each and every nation.

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nOkay,nhere are two generalizations:

n African has many natural resources, including mineral resources, biologicaln diversity, and land area.
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n However,n Africa’s lack of industrialization in many places and industriesn means that it still struggles with joblessness and poverty.

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nAnd herenare two examples of my two generalizations, given by Lawrence Mbae in a March, 2014, article:

n(1) Côte d’Ivoire and Ghana,nbetween the two nations, produce more than half of the world’s cocoa.nHowever, if you check the supermarket shelves in those two nations,nthe chocolates people buy are imported from Switzerland and the U.K and other nations that do not grow cocoa!

(2) Nigeria is the world’s sixth largest producer of crude oil. Itnexports more than 80% of its oil – but it cannot refine enough fornits own use, and so it must import refined fuels from other nations.

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Innboth cases, someone is making money selling Africa’s raw resources,nand someone is making money transporting Africa’s resources to highlynindustrialized nations, and of course someone is making moneynproducing and selling consumer products from those materials. Mostndepressing, perhaps, is that someone is making money transportingnthese consumer goods back to Africa and selling them to Africans.

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nAmnI being to cynical to suppose that even the first two of the links innthis chain may be, in many instances, European and North Americanncompanies?

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Let’sngo back to our first generalization: Africa is rich in resources. As ancontinent, it has 12% of the world’s oil reserves, 40% of its gold,n60% of underused arable land (arablenmeans “suitable fro growing crops”), 65% of the world’s diamonds, between 80 and 90% of its chromium and platinum.

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nThenfact that only about 1% of the world’s manufacturing occurs in Africanshows that there is a huge opportunity for growth. If factories werenbuilt in Africa, hopefully mostly by Africans, that would create many jobs for local populations. Africa would benefit bynproducing the locally needed manufactured goods and by exportingnmanufactured goods as well as raw resources.

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nOnenthing that prevents such a wonderful thing is that many Africannnations are unstable and are therefore risky places for investment. It isncrucial that these nations become more democratic, less violent, morenstable – places where people can generally count on the rule of lawn– and obviously for more reasons than for industrialization! Ifnmore nations can become as stable and prosperous as Botswana, therenwould be much more happiness in the world!

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nAlsonon this date: