Many in development ask themselves, "how can Africa grow", or "how do we alleviate poverty in Africa"? The quick answer to all that is investment in some form of loans, aid and so on, and so forth. However, let's remember that great civilizations such as; Roman Empire, Greeks, Egyptians, and Incas grew by infrastructure. Infrastructure is key in linking people, places, things, and most important commerce. Commerce is the lifeblood in any civilization, this lifeblood enables farmers to grow crops and be able to transport their produce thousands of miles. Kenya is a good example of this, farmers are transporting flowers to be sold in the European market.
What Africa needs right now is multi-billion dollar investment in the following infrastructure: railways, and roads. I didn't mention telecom, because to have fiber optics you need roads to build the fiber network. This fiber is what is needed if Africa is going to take that leap in Information Technology Enabled Services (think Outsourcing/BPO - ITES).
People reading this post will ask, "how can Africa afford all this". I wrote two months ago about how the Chinese use a process called full-cost recovery to recoup the cost of any public works project. When a highway is built, the Chinese levy tolls to recoup the costs of the road. Tolls pay for the cost of the roads faster, then raising public taxes to build and maintain the road. Read this post I wrote in June.
China's infrastructure investment could have a very positive spin-off in lowering transaction costs and assisting African governments to address social calamities such as poor health services, energy crisis, and skills development among others.
To learn more about this author, visit Nii Simmonds's Website.
Like this article? Share it with your friends
 |
Related Articles |
|
 Wall Street, “Africa is Investing’s Final Frontier”
|
| |
I came across an interesting article in Canada’s Globe & Mail entitled, “Africa - Investing’s Final Frontier?“. The piece talks about how Africa has been overlooked, primarily due to the perceived risks associated w...
|
|
Infrastructure investment opportunities in Africa
|
| |
Many in development ask themselves, "how can Africa grow", or "how do we alleviate poverty in Africa"? The quick answer to all that is investment in some form of loans, aid and so on, and so forth. However, let's re...
|
|
CONCLUSION: What Drives China’s Growing Role in Africa?
|
| |
This paper intends to provide an assessment, based on fractional information, of China’s
economic involvement in Africa and to identify the forces shaping burgeoning China-Africa
economic relations. The study is u...
|
|
V. B. African Demand for Infrastructure: AID VS. COMMERCE: FACTORS INFLUENCING THE GROWING TIES
|
| |
Inadequate infrastructure is one of the top constraints to business in Africa, where energy and
transportation are among the main bottlenecks to productivity growth and competitiveness.
|
|
5.1 Insufficient investments in Africa have hindered the deepening of diversification: Economic Report on Africa 2007
|
| |
Using the results for Africa shown in table A5.1, it is possible to compute what one
could call a turning point in the relationship between investment and diversification.
|
|
|
Nii Simmonds
(Visit Nii's Website)
Nii Simmonds is founder of NAFRICOM, a
non-profit trade association for IT
Software and Technology Services industry
for Africa and a blogger on African
development. Mr. Simmonds is also a
Co-founder of EmergingictGroup, a global
ICT research, training, and
advisory/consultancy. Under Mr. Simmonds
leadership, his organization NAFRICOM
organized the 1st annual 2003 Ghana
Outsourcing Conference.
Through his experience working with many
African oriented organizations in the
field of Information Technology,
development, and globalization, Mr.
Simmonds has become a leading speaker and
presenter on African development, ICT
policies, outsourcing/BPO market in Africa
and other emerging markets, social
entrepreneurship, technology education,
and Globalization. Professionally Mr.
Simmonds is a consultant specializing in
corporate finance, globalization, business
strategy, and outsourcing.
Mr. Simmonds has been acknowledged for his
research in globalization and offshore
market by Mckinsey, IBM Global Services,
AT Kearney, Keane, Wharton School,
Harvard, Government of Ghana, Ghana
embassy, Smeal College of Business,
Harvard Business School NeoIT, ITESA,
Summit Circuit, Bloomberg News, Wall
Street Journal, Avaya, Affiliated Computer
Services (ACS), Data Management
International and many others.
Mr. Simmonds got his B.S. in
Management/Finance from Smeal College of
Business at Pennsylvania State University
and a minor in Information Systems and
Statistical Analysis. Mr. Simmonds holds a
Business Process Outsourcing Master
Certificate from the Wharton School.
|
|
 |
|
Nii Simmonds's
Complete
List Of
African-Accounts
Articles
|
|
If you enjoyed this article, get Nii Simmonds's Complete List of African-Accounts Articles For FREE!
|
|
|
|
![[Get Copyright Permissions]](http://license.icopyright.net/images/icopy-w.gif){kind=small}
