UNLOCKING AFRICA’S ECONOMY

Africa can only realise its potential by standing on its own two feet. Achievement does not mean flying to the moon, according to Pan-African scholar PLO Lumumba. Progress starts with the basics, like providing water to villages and using African chickens to lay African eggs instead of importing poultry products.

It’s a simple strategy the continent still fails to grasp, but it doesn’t have to be that way. And listening to Lumumba’s arguments, it’s hard to disagree.

A lot of African farmland grows profitable export crops like coffee and cocoa, while staples like wheat and rice are imported. However, most of these can and should be produced locally. If they are not, the continent remains hostage to global food supplies and rising prices.

Food, though, is just one example. As Lumumba explains, the concept of sovereignty can be applied across all sectors.