...Why Africa is poor. Really!

Although many people consider Africa poor, the continent is rich in resources and one can only bemoan the situation in which the people of Africa are. How does one explain being rich in resources but really poor? How do you come to see that a people that are so warm and friendly can be so destitute and corrupt? How do you explain an act so inebriated and cancerous that a government official, instead of trying to help his people would be ridding it of the financial regiment that sustains such a lethargic economy?

“Africa: Rich in Resources but Economically misfit. The Case of Cameroon.” is the title of a term paper I submitted in 2006. In it, I talked about the theoretical and conceptual principles in the economical and financial health of the 82nd richest country in the world, (GDP-Gross Domestic Product of $16,875,000,000. World Development Indicators database, World Bank, April 23, 2007) cross referencing such wealth to the current factors that cripple any meaningful sustainable economic development and growth in the country of 16million people. Although Cameroon has this much potential, ranked among the top ten percentile in Africa, ahead of Gold-producing power houses Ghana and Cote d’Ivoire, little is left to be desired in the country’s futile trade and industry scene. In 2005, it was estimated that a little more than 40% of the country’s households live on less than $2 a day, while the average household lives on about $6-9 daily.

While the economic picture vis-à-vis the potential show a considerable departure from progress or adequate utilization of its resources, Cameroon has never failed to RSVP economic meetings abroad. This, most ministerial budgeters see as an opportunity not just to go abroad, but also to transport their ill-gotten loot to foreign banks and sap their country of any more financial resources as they report exorbitant expenses. For example, when the Minister of State of Communications visited Bonn, Germany for a conference in 2006 for three business days, he had a delegation of four. The report they submitted for expenses totaled almost $40000. Now, imagine how many round trip air tickets and hotel room packages can be bought for that much. But then, since there are no checks and balances, the government is bound to absorb the charges. How ironic that this delegation had just flown back from Bonn with an insurmountable amount of knowledge learnt from the conference that was based on the role of Communication in the Good Governance and Anti-corruption war.

Please look at the picture below and tell me if you see what these people learnt during a conference just like the one my Minister of Communications attended, and whether they are more likely to plunge a country into the troughs of poverty rather than development.



...Yea you guessed right, probably the jet lag!