Business
OPINION: As Africa rises, so should her status globally
Economic Outlook
Moreover, Africa‘s economic outlook is even better than its current trend of economic growth. On IMF forecasts “Africa will grab seven of the top ten places over the next five years”. This phenomenon was taking hold in the continent while most of the global markets, particularly those in the developed world, were contracting below 4 to 8 percent in 2008 and 2009. Africa was enjoying a modest economic growth.
According to the African Economic Outlook 2008, a collaborative project between the African Development Bank, the OECD Development Center and the UNECA, the continent continued economic growth with the rate of GDP growth averaging about 5.7 percent in 2007 and 5.9 percent in 2008 and 2009.
Key Global Issues
Therefore, the alienation of Africa, a continent with abundance of both natural and human resources, from discussions of key global issues is indicitive of how much the developed world would rather cling to their traditional leadership role than to embrace a new world order of which the decision-makers are diverse and representative of the twenty-first century’s world, not the Cold War’s “first, second and third worlds”.
Despite Africa’s exclusion from global institutions as a decision-making stakeholder, something wonderful is underway across the continent in the technological front. For instance, in Africa, the utilization of the modern technologies such as the mobile phones and the broadband internet is going at a speed faster than any other time in the history. According to recent report by GSM, Africa is the second largest user of mobile phones after Asia; Over 650, 000,000, or 50 percent of Africans, are subscribed to mobile phone services.
Broadband
On the other hand, the growth in Africa’s internet and broadband sector has accelerated in recent years due to improved infrastructure coupled with the arrival of wireless access technologies and less regulations, which resulted lower tariffs. In an effort to meet the Millennium Development Goals in Africa, for example, broadband internet is rapidly replacing dial-up as preferred access method, according to a recent report by the Internet World Stats, an organization that tracks the usage of the internet globally.
The reason of the growth of the internet usage that is taking place in Africa is because many Africans have gained access to international fibre bandwidth for the first time via submarine cable in 2009 and 2010. Though the growth in this sector is slow, almost 15 percent of Africans – 118 million do have internet access; 30 million of them are on facebook. Nigeria, with more than 40 million users, leads the way as can be seen below:
In conclusion, while Africa’s shortcomings, lack of good governance, corruption, incompetent head figures, etc — cannot be ignored, yet the continent’s dynamic and fast paced economic growth must be taken into account as basis of elevating Africa’ world status from the current subservient role to an active participant of the debates regarding the international key issues: economic, technology, peace and security, poverty, climate change, and other important issues borne out of the current trend of globalization. Africa is not asking for a century of its own. But all Africans want is their fair share in the 21st century. Is that too much to ask?
Abdirahman Takhal is Executive Director at the Center for Somali Peace and Justice.
