Prioritizing Wealth Creation is the Ultimate Economic Solution to ending Poverty in Africa

 

Sometimes I wonder why Wealth Creation was not more prioritized across Africa....

Let me also share that Foreign Aid was never designed to create wealth for African People as a whole but Foreign Trade will!

Yes, I know a few would continue to benefit from Foreign Aid - no doubt - but the main question is that at what point would it magically transform the landscape? If it would - it should have... with the amount already targeted towards the continent things should not be where they are today - right? These are some of the topics I covered in detail in my Africa Trade and Investment Facilitation Masterclass (available to members of Nazaru's African Business Network here - www.nazaru.trade).

In this 3-hour Masterclass I focused heavily on wealth creation, capturing trade opportunities, navigating and monitoring trade and investment policies, engaging with stakeholders and more. In one of the sessions, I also dived deep into differences between National (controlled) Wealth and what will unlock Individual Prosperity across African nationsClip from that segment is provided below with subtitles courtesy:

Transcript: Speaking - Toyin Umesiri, Nazaru CEO "... You have individual and National prosperity. When you look at regions like China. They've actually developed. More millionaires have emerged out of China over the last 30 years than the last 200 years of their existence. Meaning -there's been more individual prosperity. Right. In those regions that embrace trade, there's been more National prosperity in the regions that embrace trade than the last 200 years of their existence. And what we're seeing in Africa, as Africa is now embracing trade as a top priority with the AfCFTA and all of those engagements. the next 10, 15 years, there's going to be more individual prosperity and National prosperity.

Remember, trade, when you do engage in trade, you provide a service or you produce a product or you do this, the revenue comes directly to you. So that's what the slide is. So let me explain what the funnel is. A lot of times there are African countries that are resource rich. Right. Nigeria oil... Congo... You know, the story of Africa, the story of Africa is a story of natural resources. But what I did with the slide, especially when I engage with the government official, is that the oil and resource rich Nations, the flow of the money coming from those natural resources does not get to the people.

So let me say this as an example. Let's say there's an oil rig all of this transactions happening, for example, in Nigeria - right. This is a government deal. It's a government deal. They have the rights to the minerals. They own everything on the ground because of the Constitution. Right. Or the current or institution that needs to change by the way. So when people come in and they say, oh, we want right to drill, we want this. This is a transaction with the government. So, when that transaction closes, the funds and the money goes into the government's hands. People forget that government also have expenses. They have to pay staff. I mean, they have to run. They have to build - the good ones will use that money. Well, they will build infrastructure; road, they'll give you light.

They'll provide amenities, right. To keep the society going. Those are the good ones. But that money, even when the government is fantastic, they don't distribute the cash. It starts with being a lot of money and it just funnels And you start asking what gets into the hand? I mean, what actually puts food on the table of the people? The government - they don't distribute that cash, even if they distribute it in places, in some places, it's just token. So oil resources and natural resources that government's own and deals that governments do is not designed to make people rich. It is not designed to make individuals rich. It's a compliment. It is how the government figures out how to run itself.

Remember, the government also taxes people. The government is also looking for money. And one way they make money is through these deals - right. So people - in government deals the people do not prosper. It's not designed to build prosperity for the people. The government spends that money on things like infrastructure, paying salaries of their staff. All that money goes away. So the question you should ask is then how do people build wealth? Individual wealth that there's enough that individual wealth that you start seeing a Nation that is prospering. We think about U.S. U.S. is not even designed around those deals, even though their private sector players that are benefiting from executing those contracts on behalf of the government. Yes.

But if you are not in that oil space, then where do you get money from? That's the other side of this map is that the way people get individual wealth is to either you get employed in other people's industry or you build industries yourself. You build industries. You build companies that employ people, right? That you do - it's value for value. You provide value to people, and people pay you for the value, and you do it enough times that you build industries..../"

End of Transcript. To access the full Masterclass visit - https://www.nazaru.trade


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