Recipe For Africa’s Economic Emancipation For Launch

AS part of efforts aimed at providing answers to the many economic crises the African continent is grappling with, a book, Economic And Africapitalism- The African Perspective written by Emeka M. Adimmadu, will be launched in Abuja this week.

  Speaking at a media interaction in Lagos recently, Adinmadu providing some insight into the content of the book stated that the book tried to look at why the continent is not thriving in spite of the abundance of wealth within its borders. He said that it was on this premise that it was concluded that Africapitalism is the pathway to Africa taking its rightful position among the comity of nations.  

  According to him, Africapitalism is Africa’s version of free market system differentiated by reliance of market mechanism driven by consumer interests and not by supplier or producer overzealous and inordinate. 

  He further said that the ideology is all about a model of social capital or culture that promotes equalitarianism through all inclusive institutions, noting that history shaped the institutional trajectories of most advanced economies and history can also shape the institutional trajectories of African region.

   “Africapitalism is an economic blueprint to reshape the African economic landscape through institutional trajectories and the verdict of history. For African nations to grow and prosper, it must evolve economic trajectory by changing institutions.”  

   Adinmadu however noted that institutions are altered through political conflicts, which depends on how the past shapes the present.

  For him, institutions that encourage prosperity and growth always create positive resonance that forestalls the efforts by the elites to undermine them and vice versa. 

   He argued that attempts by African continent over the years to combat poverty have failed due to weak economic trajectory and defective institutions. 

  “Prosperity and poverty are all the time determined by the incentives created by institutions and how politics determines what institutions to create depend on the weight of history.” 

  He also believed that the challenge to develop new perspective in Africa’s economic trajectory requires a regional or inter-regional long term strategy involving first and foremost the revitalization and promotion of the erstwhile moribund micro, small and medium scale enterprises, a political process that encourages strong and virile private sector in partnership with cognate public sector institutions. 

   “Such a collective regional approach would result in shoring up the nearly extinguished middle-income group which will support the simultaneous development of SME’s and on the longrun bolsters greater opportunities for rapid growth and development of the African region.

   “The development of SME’s and the resurgence of the middle-income group constitute the venerable instruments to jump-start the receding African glory as a pioneer continent in the world.”