What's the real meaning of "African solutions for African problems?

There is no doubt that with one billion inhabitants and abundance of natural resource endowments, the 21st century is for Africa. Political transitions of the past two decades, remarkable economic growth rates and resilience to the global economic crisis are instructive. The continent has caught the attention of the old and new masters of global wealth. How should Africa respond to this attention and take advantage to place the continent on the global stage. There's an ideal founded as far back as 1967 that has become a cliche, i.e. African solutions for African problems. What does it mean exactly? Read more

Nigeria's jobless growth - What does it say about the nature of growth?

According to the Renaissance Capital's recent report, the low labour-absorptive capacity of growth implies the poverty headcount and income inequality in Nigeria are rising. Nigeria’s jobless growth suggests that the sectors that have emerged in recent years and driven the country’s strong growth are not job-creating. Just over half (54%) of Nigeria’s population lives below the poverty line, according to the United Nations Development Programme’s Multidimensional Poverty Index. Such a high incidence of poverty implies that socially inclusive or participatory economic growth is critical. Nigeria’s economy grew at a stellar average rate of 8.8% pa in the 10 years to 2011; but concurrently, unemployment increased sharply from 13.6% to 23.9% over the same period. This shows that strong growth has not been sufficient for job creation in the formal sector, or by implication poverty reduction. Moreover, it suggests that as the size of Nigeria’s economy has increased, the share of the workforce in gainful employment has declined, implying growing income inequality.