Africa is not what white supremacists insist on seeing. And that is only a land of migrants and boats. It is also a giant that grows albeit very unequally and that even in some development indices, such as for example in the percentage of female presence at the managerial levels of public and private companies, which is 23 per cent, exceeds the Italian one and of other so-called developed countries. Or in the rapidly growing race for schooling, also bearing in mind that English is also spoken in French-speaking countries and French in English-speaking ones. And also the Italian, more and more widespread. Already in 2011, the African Development Bank (BAD) had found that 34 percent of the population belonged to the middle class. To help a development that is - we stress again - very diversified, every year an event of extraordinary importance for the level of participants and sponsors takes place, the Africa CEO Forum. For the seventh time indeed 1.500 heads of state, ministers, CEOs of major multinationals and global financial and banking institutions they meet – this time from 25 to 26 March, in Kigali, capital of Rwanda – for this world summit where decisions are made, agreements are drawn up according to a financial program which each year establishes a precise area of priority. Which – it should be emphasized – despite the fragmentation of the continent into many states and statelets, despite the weak growth and the enormous tragedy of overpopulation, has achieved some results.
Is the real African common market coming?
Finally, in 2018, and precisely in Kigali, there was the signing of the first inter-African agreement for the creation of the Continental Free Trade Area (ZLEC). 48 countries out of 57 recognized as independent states have signed it, even if the divisions and controversies started immediately. The center of the African diaspora is the overwhelming power of non-African multinationals and of the still colonial and neo-colonial states (USA, England, France, China) which control a large part of the African economy. And that if customs and borders are opened, it could prevail over African companies, which are still structurally and financially fragile. In reality, the ZLEC agreement envisages a controlled and slow process of liberalization and as African experts point out, the real problems of the continent are the appalling corruption of the ruling classes, the poverty of overpopulation and the inability to control one's enormous wealth. It's a shame because a study released by the African Bank for Development and the UN Economic Commission for Africa estimates that the elimination of customs barriers between African countries could lead to a 2022 percent increase in trade between now and 55,3 intra-African trade compared to the 2012 level.
The fake news of the 5 stars on the African French currency
The continent's industrial exports, with the elimination of tariff barriers, could well exceed 50 percent, while the real wages of unskilled workers would increase as the workforce shifts from agriculture to non-agricultural sectors. Among the countries that have not yet signed up to the agreement is Nigeria as President Muhammadu Buhari had to give up under pressure from Nigerian industrialists, two of whom are in the Forbes ranking of the continent's billionaires, one is even the richest with 12 billion dollars. An exponent of the 5 stars had incautiously declared that France would be the obstacle to a progressive liberalization of borders because France opposes French-speaking countries giving up the African French franc currently used as a common currency. A fake news, yet another of the 4 stars, since African countries that have signed the ZLEC agreement among which there are 14 French speakers, are 90 percent controlled by the very powerful American, British oil, finance and arms multinationals and the Dutch who impose themselves with the corruption of local politicians, their emissaries, and with private police forces. Thus they control all the English-speaking African countries which appear to be, in the Transparency ranking, the most corrupt, the worst governed and the most impoverished. Not only that, but the 5-star exponent, having no first-hand information, does not know that quite a few rulers of the countries that have adopted the African French franc, to a request from France to dissolve this link, they replied that they have no intention of doing so.
Africa grows with technologies
Within a few years many African countries have had decidedly high performances since according to a study by Pwh 5 of the 10 countries in the world that have grown the most in the last 10 years are Africanfirst Rwanda, then Nigeria, Mozambique, Angola and Tchad. In 2018 the largest increases in GDP were achieved according to the World Bank-Quartz, from Ghana with a +8,3 per cento, from Ethiopia with 8,2 per cent, from the Ivory Coast with 7,2 per cent, from Djibuti with 7 per cent, from Senegal with 6,9 per cent and from Tanzania with 6,8 per cent. The diffusion of mobile Internet between 2016 and 2020 will reach from the current 26 percent to 38 percent while the coverage of mobile telephone networks in inhabited African territory is already 80 percent. Smartphones are currently 350 million and will double by 2020, with many devices of African technology and production. The mobile phone is today the payment instrument used by the vast majority of the population because bank branches are very rare. The parameters of a contradictory growth, ie a lot of technology and a lot of poverty, are at the center of the days of the Forum, with a problem that is becoming decidedly heavy for some countries: colossal debts contracted with the real protagonist of African contradictory growth: China. A widespread and very expensive presence.
Il blog by Paola Guidi.
