Tag: infrastructure

Time for Africa to get Energy independence.

“Every day without reliable power translates into lost production, interrupted services, constrained investment, and reduced opportunity.” President Ramaphosa speaking at the energy indaba in March 2026,

 

Africa didn’t need another energy shock. But that’s exactly what the war in Iran has delivered. Not through missiles or troops, but through fuel prices, shipping delays, weakening currencies, and rising inflation.

Things were starting to look better for Africa. South Africa was showing signs of recovery. Nigeria and Ethiopia were pushing through reforms. Zambia and Ghana were emerging from debt restructuring, and Kenya had stabilised its macroeconomic position. On top of this, Africa was positioned to benefit from a new critical‑minerals boom. The IMF summed it up in the 2026 World Economic Outlook in January stating “Growth is expected to accelerate in sub-Saharan Africa… supported by macroeconomic stabilization and reform efforts in major economies.”

All of that has now been thrown into doubt by the crisis in Iran. The consistent thread across all of this is energy. Africa is a net petroleum importer with limited reserves. Any significant shock hits immediately.

This is the second significant energy shock in the last 5 years (the first being the Russian invasion of Ukraine). African policy makers, businesses, and households should by now have heard the message loud and clear, Africa needs energy independence. Without it the continent has little economic agency and is subject to the whims of decision making in Washington, Moscow, and Riyadh where we are not part of the conversation.

To create that independence, it will require a different approach, we don’t have the money for massive infrastructure investment thus, we must make it cheap and easy for businesses and households to build energy resilience.

Iran and its impact on Africa

No missiles have hit the continent but the war in Iran is a slow-motion disaster for Africa. Higher oil prices, disrupted shipping routes, and a strengthening dollar are feeding directly into inflation. That inflation is already squeezing households and businesses, and it will worsen if the conflict drags on.

Longer term the impacts on fertiliser availability and the inability for industry and businesses to import inputs and exporters to access crucial middle eastern markets and hubs will significantly undermine growth across the continent (Afriexim bank has a good primer here). Fuel prices are already increasing, this is coupled with weakening African currencies and a strengthening dollar, making fuel imports even more dear and amplifying the inflationary impac as all other dollar denominated imports (and debt payments) get more expensive.

The energy imperative

Energy is the lifeblood of modern livelihoods. Whether as electricity or fuel, it is the bedrock of agriculture, transport and logistics, mining. industry, services, and IT. It is a massive component of quality-of-life enabling people to get to work, access affordable food, do their homework in the evening. And Africa does not have enough of it with 600 million people without access to electricity accounting for 85% of the global population without access to electricity. On top of that Africa is dependent on imports for much of its energy needs, the continent imports about 75% of its refined fuel from the Middle East and India and that demand is set to grow.

Africa does not produce enough energy. Worse, it imports most of what it uses. That makes the continent a dependent customer on the global energy stage. Even worse we are last in line, behind Europe and Asia because we do not have their demand or purchasing power.

Two countries already show what energy independence can look like in practice: Nigeria and South Africa.

Shifting from dependence to independence

Africa needs energy, but we don’t have enough and are dependent on the rest of the world to get most of what we have. To get out of this conundrum we need to think differently and move fast. Luckily, we already have examples on the continent that point to plausible solutions.

Free the market – let people make their own energy.

Governments don’t need to solve this alone — and in many cases, they can’t. Most African energy systems are top-down government defined systems. The government decides import and fuel prices, the national electricity utility controls an ageing and inefficient grid. Making energy, expensive and inefficient which has knock on effects throughout the system. Africa does not have the money to make massive investments in oil and gas extraction, storage, refining, and pipelines that could decouple it from global supply and in any case that would take decades to complete. The solution is simple, allow households and industry to uncouple themselves from this system with a focus on renewables.

1.        Nigeria – from generator to solar

In Nigeria, the national grid is characterised by its failures to supply enough or reliable energy. As a result many households and businesses generate their own power, primarily through diesel generators, producing approximately 40,000MW of power. In recent years, this is shifting to solar, which is growing by 22% a year.

This transformation is driven by two things. First the high cost of diesel fuel and the cost of powering generators, solar is now 40% to 60% cheaper than running a diesel generator.  Second policy reforms namely The Electricity Act 2023, the Nigeria Electrification Project (NEP) and “Embedded Generation” rules have provided incentives, tax breaks and feed-in tariffs designed to de-risk investment and allows states like Lagos to issue their own generation and distribution licenses, bypassing the national grid bottleneck. (you can read a great report on this from the energy think tank Enzi iJayo here)  

2.        South Africa – load shedding to load bearing.

In South Africa, load shedding had become a daily reality undermining business and quality of life. Realising that it could not fix the national utility, Eskom, quickly enough to stabilise supply and bring on board new supply the government embarked on a series of reforms.

The Electricity Regulation Amendment Act (ERAA) of 2024. These allow the private sector to build big (100mw +) power plants for their own use without complex licensing requirements, and the ability to sell that power onto the national grid. This has reduced demand on Eskom by 3%. In addition between 2023 and 2026 household rooftop solar has expanded by 215%, on sunny days this reduces demand on Eskom by 15%-20%. This has been enabled by waiving registration fees (reducing the cost of installation), and by allowing users to sell their excess power onto the grid and reduce their bills.

Simple and at scale

The Nigerian and South African examples show that with the right policies and incentives domestic energy production can grow at pace and scale. Today they both have plans to expand this, Nigeria has announced two massive solar assembly plants by both the public and private sectors. This will significantly reduce the cost of new solar accelerating its adoption. In South Africa the wholesale electricity market reforms have triggered investments in grid level solar, wind, and battery storage projects.

The Ethiopian example of the Grand Renaissance Dam shows that you can fund massive energy infrastructure projects without having to borrow. And they have coupled this with policies like banning the import of fossil fuel vehicles in order to reduce dependence on imports.

Time to move.

Africa’s policy makers are not known for moving at speed, but hopefully this latest crisis forces them to do so as it impacts their citizens wallets, votes, and likelihood to protest and throw them out. Africa’s future lies in its ability to produce its own energy. Not only reducing dependence on others, but decoupling the stability of our currencies, inflation and economic health on events and markets far outside our control.

This is not an impossible dream as some may have you believe. All it requires is breaking the old way of thinking and putting in place policies that allow businesses and households to take the lead in finding solutions for their energy needs, And coupling that with incentives that make it cheap for those solutions to be solar and wind, which Africa has in abundance and for free. This will happen much faster than waiting for governments to build power stations and transmission lines.

The war in Iran will cause serious pain, lets make it the last time that happens and start building out Africa’s energy independence. Energy crises have toppled governments before. Leaders who ignore this risk are gambling with inflation, currency stability, and social unrest.

Rethinking African infrastructure: investing in the small for big results

The Africa Development Bank estimates that Africa needs as much as 175 billion US dollars a year by 2025, to close the infrastructure gap, which is cited as a significant constraint on its growth.

The notion of the infrastructure gap has driven African governments to borrow and spend billions on roads, railways airports, dams, and other large, ambitious infrastructure projects. However, this binge of infrastructure is starting to be questioned and rightly so. The continent is dotted with shiny infrastructure projects which are struggling to justify themselves as they have not created the growth, employment, revenues and development promised. Many have been vehicles for corruption and have burdened taxpayers with enormous debts which we are struggling to repay.

Much of this large infrastructure is built on the “build it and they will come” principle. That these huge projects will attract investment, industry and generate economic activity that will ensure that they can pay for itself. It is time to rethink this approach. Does Africa need Infrastructure, yes, however we need to rethink our approach to infrastructure. Investing in “small” infrastructure, that provides immediate benefits to citizens and drives quality of lie and economic development. Rural roads, urban roads, last mile internet and electricity connectivity, pedestrian infrastructure, community healthcare infrastructure, warehousing, and cold storage.

Build it for those that are there.

On May 31st, 2017, President Uhuru Kenyatta opened the first phase of the largest infrastructure project in Kenya’s history, christening it the ‘Madaraka Express’. It was the Chinese built Standard Gauge Railway (SGR) which parallels the old colonial line from Mombasa on Kenya’s coast through the capital Nairobi to Lake Victoria and on into Uganda. President Kenyatta hailed the railway as a developmental gamechanger stating that ‘Large and vibrant towns will grow along its length, new factories and hotels, and service businesses will employ hundreds of thousands of young people. Farmers will earn more as their produce makes its way to buyers faster and cheaper’. Not only has none of this come to pass, but the railway has also been losing money and bleeding the country dry with debt payments. In the 2021-22 financial year the railway reported an operating loss of 31 million US dollars while the country made 209 million dollars of debt payments for the railway.

Across the continent this tale is repeated mega infrastructure projects, justified as the foundation upon which Africa’s future development will be based. Mega railways, airports, ports, dams, and power stations, that will kickstart manufacturing industries, transform large scale agriculture and make the continent more attractive to investors. These projects, by and large have not done so, instead becoming a drain on the public purse, threatening critical services and other development projects as we try to pay back loans.

It is clear from the mess that many of us have gotten ourselves into, that Africa needs to rethink the “build it and they will come philosophy” for how it invests in infrastructure, and the type of infrastructure it invests in.

Thinking small: Rural Roads, warehousing, pedestrians, and the last mile.

What small infrastructure should African governments be investing in. It should be small infrastructure that enhances the productivity and growth of the majority of livelihoods in the economy. It should infrastructure that improves the daily lived experience of citizens. It should be infrastructure that drives the growth of local economies and industries. And there are a number of options that would serve one or more of these objectives.

  1. Rural Roads

Much of the mega-infrastructure investment on the continent has focused on transcontinental highways meant to spur intra-African trade, expressways to beat the traffic menace in cities and superhighways for national prosperity. However, most African countries remain primarily agricultural economies. ‘Agriculture employs approximately 65–70% of the African workforce, supports the livelihoods of 90%of Africa’s population, and accounts for about a quarter of the continent’s GDP’[1]. Enhancing rural transport networks will improve access to markets, particularly for small farmers allowing them to get their produce to market quicker and cheaper. It will reduce the cost of getting goods and services to rural communities and make travel to regional centres easier. All critical to improving opportunities and livelihoods for local communities.

  1. Warehouses

This is a subject I have written about previously, certified warehouses that can properly store agricultural goods, would reduce post-harvest losses. Africa loses approximately 100 million tonnes or $4 billion worth of food to post harvest losses. If not lost that food would reduce the cost of food, improve availability and boost incomes throughout the value chain from farm to fork. Proper storage would save lot of this food. Beyond just improving food supplies, certified storage would improve farmer access to credit and markets as certified storage is the foundation of commodities exchange systems.

Beyond agriculture, certified warehouses with refrigerated facilities would enable the provision of healthcare by enabling the storage of medicines and vaccines that can then be distributed to local facilities or clinics at short notice.

  1. Small urban infrastructure

Infrastructure in African cities is a perennial problem, causing epic traffic, hurting businesses, and creating unfortunate living conditions for many. What this requires isn’t investments in superhighways and expansive public transport systems, but people focused infrastructure. As previously written, “78 per cent of Africa’s population commutes by foot and on bicycles every day,[2]”. Investing in sidewalks, footbridges, cycle lanes, road crossings, footpaths etc. will save lives and make the lives of millions of people easier.

Second investing in “aesthetic” infrastructure such as parks, streetlights, signage, and street markings. This may seem frivolous, but it serves a purpose, people need green spaces for their mental and physical well-being, well-lit and marked streets enhance safety, service delivery and facilitate businesses. Improving the liveability of cities by investing in small urban infrastructure will serve to improve quality of life and the business environment boosting urban economies.

  1. The last mile

The last mile can be broadly defined as the final stage of a network or transportation network before its final destination. It is the fibre cable that brings internet to individual buildings, the electricity line that connects homes to the grid, the telco tower providing cell service and the road leading to your front gate. Investment in the last-mile is about making sure those that would be bypassed by dispassionate cost-benefit analysis. This investment in the last mile does not mean governments must spend billions building power cables and fibre lines. Innovative structures, such as Kenya Universal Service Fund, which uses funds from fees and levies paid by telecommunications companies to fund the building of infrastructure and provision of services in underserved areas. This is why Kenya has 98%[3] of the population covered by a mobile network, which in turn has opened access to mobile money and internet services making Kenya a global digital leader.

Conclusion: building small to enable the big

People often talk about Africa’s fundamentals (large young population that is underserved market), when making the case for large investor attracting infrastructure. However, what they forget, is that those fundamentals will remain theoretical unless those people have livelihoods and growing incomes. Shifting infrastructure investment to serve those people and create those incomes is a much more powerful magnet for investment than any argument based on theoretical potential.

African leaders spend a lot of time talking about the Asian Tigers and the extraordinary economic growth. What they often fail to mention is that those countries, invested in creating domestic demand growth by improving the incomes of their populations. Through land reform, education and strategic investment, they created the domestic demand that provided the base upon which their industries could grow. Investing in people and local economy focused is one of those strategic investments.

For Africa, investing in enabling “small” infrastructure, that improves people’s lives and livelihoods shall do more to boost our economies than massive billion-dollar projects aimed at theoretical investors for potential future growth. Boosting domestic livelihoods, incomes and demands is self-reinforcing, it creates demand which local industries can respond to and that investors want to tap into. Which will, in future, justify infrastructure mega projects that are built to support real economic development.

 

[1] Africa Development Bank, https://www.afdb.org/fileadmin/uploads/afdb/Documents/Publications/AEB_Volume_8_Issue_3.pdf

[2] UNEP https://www.unep.org/news-and-stories/press-release/better-infrastructure-and-policies-can-protect-billion-african

[3] Kenya National Bureau of Statistics, 2023 Economic Survey, p.303

Redefining Transport Policy for African Cities

As a citizen of Nairobi, it is a city that despite its many charms can be extremely hard to love. Rapid urbanisation in Nairobi has seen significant growth in the number of vehicles on roads. Today, Nairobi is not only one of the world’s most congested cities, but traffic is also a significant contributor to air pollution and in a city where almost half the population walks to work it has direct impacts on the health of the city’s residents. In addition, Nairobi traffic’s horrendous safety record means that there are, on average, about 7 deaths from the 35 road crashes every day. Beyond health, economically the World Bank estimates that traffic jams cost 50m Kenyan shillings (approx. US$500,000) a day in lost productivity in Kenya’s economic hub. For residents of the city, traffic represents an everyday hazard and annoyance, that cannot effectively be avoided or dealt with, you must just bear it.

This story is not unique to Nairobi, cities across the continent are experiencing explosive growth of their urban populations, which brings with it the challenges of congestion, air pollution, and negative health impacts. Lagos suffers from ‘hellish traffic’, Accra is struggling with traffic congestion and across the continent, air pollution is causing hundreds of thousands of premature deaths every year.

So, what can be done? Traditional approaches currently being implemented are not fit for the African context, and the financial cost of building out broad public transport may not be viable for most African governments. African cities need to change their approach to public transport, to one that considers the realities of how we live and move through our cities and uses the innovations and solutions that have been developed. Using this context and experience to develop solutions that work for us. Solutions that create liveable cities for all their citizens, enhancing quality of life, livelihoods, society and the economy.

Reality informing the design of liveable African cities.

The first reality is that in most African cities the majority of people walk, cycle or take public transport. Most of that public transport, such as Matatu’s in Kenya, combi’s in Zimbabwe, Danfos in Nigeria etc.  or the increasingly ubiquitous motorbike taxis are not owned by the government. The chaos and lawlessness of public transport aside, it is generally quite efficient, getting millions of people where they need to be on a daily basis across the continent.

The second reality is that infrastructure is expensive, and urban infrastructure even more so. Beyond that, as the cases of London and New York show, public transport in cities often run at a loss and requires public subsidy. African governments are already taking on massive debts to invest in other infrastructure and don’t have the ability to indefinitely support expensive transit systems.

The third reality is that a primary cause of congestion is private cars, people who drive themselves to work, school, home etc, as African cities grow in their prosperity more people buy cars. Cars need space to move (roads) and sit (parking), but then spend most of their time idle (overnight or while people are at work), cars run on fuel emitting not only carbon but the pollutants that make our cities air near intolerable. Compounding this problem is that most cars on the continent are second hand imported from Japan, Asia and Europe while they are cheaper for consumers they are usually not in line with latest emissions and safety regulations in those markets. Continuing to design our cities around cars will only continue to prove the old urban planning idiom if you build more roads you get more cars, an experience that urbanites from around the continent can attest to.

What we need to do is build our cities around being liveable. Liveable like my definition of development is holistic, the world liveable means worth living, enjoyable and in the context of cities it refers to urban quality of life. A liveable city isn’t just an economic entity where people can earn a living it is also a place where people enjoy a decent standard of living. That means a city that is designed and governed around the needs for those who live in it, those needs include jobs but also a clean and healthy living environment, security, affordable housing, accessible public services, and mobility. Mobility isn’t just an aspect of a liveable city it is a key enabler of all the other aspects of a liveable city (you can’t have a clean environment without controlling pollution from transport). Thus, for African cities to be more liveable we need to design and govern transport services that cater to all by providing solutions that enable affordable, clean efficient modes of transport to all sections of society. With the realities briefly described above, this brings certain solutions to mind

1-   Build for pedestrians and cyclists

If a significant majority of people walk and cycle to their destinations it is inconceivable that we do not build infrastructure to cater to and encourage pedestrians and cyclists. Rather than focus on super-highways and roads for people with cars (who tend to be higher up the socioeconomic ladder) we should focus on the vast majority of our citizens. A disturbing number of road deaths around the continent are those of pedestrians and that is in large part because we design our transport infrastructure around cars and not people. Meaning that our sidewalks, footbridges, cycle lanes, footpaths, road crossings etc. are inadequate in number, where they do exist, they are badly designed and the mentality that vehicles take priority means that many drivers do not understand or care to consider pedestrians. Rather than spending billions on new urban roads and highways let us first spend it on infrastructure for people.

2-   Build on what we have

As mentioned earlier most African cities all have some form of private enterprise (busses and motorbikes) that have filled the space that governments vacated. For instance, Nairobi’s Matatu’s have developed a network that is as extensive as any of the planned public systems. Furthermore, because of the competitive nature of the system, they have had to remain relevantly affordable to their client base. There is no need to get rid of functioning system, rather policy should focus on cleaning up the chaos and illegality in the system, protecting consumers and other road users, while allowing these enterprises to grow and continue to move people around.

3-   Get cars off the road

Cars are the primary cause of congestion and pollution; thus, the solution is clear, policy and urban design should be aimed at getting those cars off the road. A straightforward way to do this is via tax, making it more expensive to drive a car in a city. Around the world, cities have imposed congestion taxes or carbon taxes. However, these are expensive to implement and track as it requires putting in place systems and processes that can track individual cars into and out of cities. A simpler solution is taxing public and private parking. Nottingham in the UK has implemented parking levy’s where private companies are charged for the parking spots their employees use. This is much easier to administrate than trying to track and tax individual car owners. More than that the impacts on the city have been positive, the money raised from the levy has been invested in improving public transport, carbon dioxide emissions have fallen by a quarter and streets that were previously clogged up are freer because fewer people drive to work.

4-   Allow non-car solutions

If you are going to tax private car users off the road, you need to give them alternative options, you need to allow innovators and entrepreneurs to develop solutions that people who may not want to take current forms of public transport and can afford something more expensive to take. This is already happening with applications like uber operating around the continent, competing against other international and local companies offering transport solutions in African cities. The Egyptian app SWVL and others offer ride-hailing services for busses. Through technology and business, the choice is no longer limited to crazy matatu or your own car, but there are options for different consumers at different price points.

Mobility for liveability

Simply put the policy solutions presented above follow a quite simple formula: fewer cars results in less pollution and congestion. Combined with investments in people-focused infrastructure, and allowing for private innovation in public transport, moving through African cities could be viable and affordable for everyone. Doing so without extensive public expenditure or severely disrupting existing industries is a significant plus.

As African cities grow, we must consider and improve their liveability. Transport is a crucial element of a liveable city. Enabling everyone, of all socioeconomic classes to move throughout the city efficiently, affordably and cleanly will improve the health, sanity and economy of African cities. For those who have to bear the exhausting and infuriating congestion that is a daily part of life in too many African cities, a novel approach to transport in African cities cannot come soon enough.

 

 

Africa’s Development Begins with Agriculture

 

“It is time to change the way we think. Farmers are not the cause of Africa’s poverty; they are a potential solution. They are key to creating the future envisioned by the SDGs.” — Kofi Annan, former UN Secretary General

The development narrative in Africa is dominated by two key strategies. The first is massive infrastructure investment and development and the second is big top down policies broadly seeking to achieve the Sustainable Development Goal’s (SDG’s). Neither of these two strategies are inherently wrong, Africa needs infrastructure to ease and stimulate commerce, trade, industry and to make people’s lives easier. In addition, the SDG’s are laudable and the goals they seek to achieve would undoubtedly make millions of lives better. However, this approach has reinforced a problematic issue in Africa’s economic story, the failure to put agriculture first. Agriculture, in particular small holder farming was and remains the largest economic sector on the continent, thus its development or lack of has a significant impact on the development trajectory of the continent. The policies and strategies adopted by many African governments at independence (and that many governments still profess today) saw smallholder agriculture as secondary to industry and were in many cases hostile to small farmers. In doing so, the core of the African economy and its engine of development was undermined. In Asia the opposite approach was taken came agricultural transformation took place before industrialisation providing the foundation of the Asian miracle. In a previous post on reimagining industrialisation I urged that we start seeing agriculture as industry, which would not only need African countries to step back from the policies that have failed the continent for the last 50 years but enact a set of policies that would empower farmers, improve livelihoods and drive growth and development.

Why agriculture

The primary reason for focusing on agriculture is its importance on the continent. Today much as at independence, agriculture remains central to the African economy accounting for over 60 percent of jobs and a meagre quarter of the continent’s GDP. The poor performance of the sector is illustrated by the fact that 90 per cent of those living in poverty are engaged in farming,[1]. If nothing else agricultural transformation in Africa would not only benefit the most people but also those who most need help.

Agricultural transformation, which we can define as the process by which the sector evolves from being subsistence and farm focused to one that is more productive, commercialised and linked to the non-farm sectors of the economy at the core of economic development. First off increases in productivity also means GDP growth (remember that GDP is the measure of the value of everything produced within an economy). Secondly, as productivity increases so does farmer income, when most of the population is involved in agricultural production these income increases have multiple positive impacts on the wider economy. Increased income means rural populations have more cash to spend and they will most likely spend that income on more local goods and services. Increased demand for local goods and services, as Africa tries to kickstart manufacturing and other industries a local market to sustain those industries is crucial and farmers with increased incomes could provide that mass market. In addition increased agricultural income generates savings, savings are the basis of investment in an economy as it what banks use when they lend money to businesses. Third higher agricultural productivity has benefits for urban populations as well, increased productivity increases the supply of and brings down the price of food, thus bringing down the cost of living. Crucially, this pro-poor developmental stimulus performance of agriculture requires the participation of small farmers, small farmers dominate agriculture in many developing economies and it is their transformation from subsistence to market participation, productivity and income gains that are the precursor to development. This process was what happened in East Asia where the technology of the green revolution combined with supportive government policies and land reform kickstarted rural economic growth, stimulating demand for local non-farm goods and services and providing the basis for industrialisation

What happened to African agriculture?

The lack of transformation in the agricultural sector since independence has had significant impacts on development on the continent. Between 1960 and 2000 agricultural productivity grew at a paltry 0.6 per cent in sub-Saharan Africa compared to 3 percent in developing countries as a whole, this can be seen clearly in the graph below comparing African and Asian agricultural productivity.

So, what happened to African agriculture, in short bad policy. At the core of the African economy at independence and today is agriculture in particular the small-scale farmer. However rather than enacting policies that would have supported farmers, increasing productivity and its associated increases in spending and saving African governments sought to rapidly modernise their economies. In this vision of modernisation, the focus of the economy is industrial, manufacturing and urban. The policies that this view entailed placed a significant burden on the agricultural economy of African countries, where governments not only underpaid farmers for their produce, but sought to extract revenue to fund industrialisation as well as keep the cost of living down for people in urban areas who worked in those industries. The creation of state corporations whose mission was to industrialise African agriculture into large-scale commercial farming not only failed but became avenues for rent seeking and corruption. It was not long until farmers retreated from markets to subsistence farming and parallel markets. As African agriculture was pushed into crisis by bad policy, African economies lost their primary source of growth. Africa’s development failure is rooted in the failure of its agricultural sector whose origins are to be found in the agricultural policies pursued by African governments, thus overturning these policies should be the first step towards reversing that failure.

New policies for agricultural transformation

If past agricultural policy in Africa provides a handbook on what not to do, then what policies should African countries be looking at to make agriculture an engine of growth. These policies must be aimed at assisting farmers in increasing productivity and connecting them to markets so that the wider populace and economy can benefit.

  • Assisting farmers

At the core of agricultural transformation is the farmers who work the land and the first policy should be providing them with the assistance they need. Rather than telling them what to do or grow (as has been done in the past) farmer assistance should be aimed at providing farmers with the skills and tools. At the core of this would be extension services which consists of farmer support through education, support and advisory and these would include:

  • Education and advisory services on the science and technology of farming such as water and irrigation, soil types, what to consider when choosing a crop to plant, what to consider when acquiring fertiliser, certified seed and where to get it.
  • Sustainability strategies on how to maintain your soil, prevent erosion and depletion.
  • Making farmers aware of market opportunities and government programs and services which they can take advantage of.
  • Facilitating the organisation and cooperation of farmers so that they can share knowledge and skills with each other and possibly enable farmers to form cooperatives or commercial groups to gain more favourable trading terms.
  • Deploying agricultural extension officers to rural areas employed by the government who can provide ongoing advice and support to farmers.

Farmer assistance policy would be aimed building the capacities of farmers to take initiative and improve their farms how they see fit, building on the expertise provided through the training and education and the experiences of their fellow farmers. In short it is about enabling farmers to be better farmers rather than old policies which tried to dictate to farmers the right way to farm.

  • rural infrastructure

As mentioned earlier much of the continent is on an infrastructure building binge, however most of that infrastructure is big infrastructure such as powerplants, railways and highways meant to facilitate international trade and industry. However, the rural and agricultural economies also need infrastructure, namely roads and storage facilities. Rural roads will help connect farmers to a higher number of potential markets and cut transport costs for agricultural goods, which will help reduce the cost of food.

Storage is crucial, post-harvest losses (agricultural produce lost between the farm and its final destination) in Africa are significant. The Food and Agriculture Organisation of the UN estimates that “sub-Saharan Africa food losses of about 20 % for cereals, 40%-50% for tubers, fruits and vegetables, 27% for oilseeds, meat and milk, and 33% for fish, that has an expenditure evaluated at US$4 billion per year – enough to feed at least 48 million people, equivalent to the population of Angola, Zimbabwe, Swaziland, Namibia and Malawi all together.”[2] Proper, affordable and widely available storage is key to ending losses and preventing produce from rotting due to a lack of refrigeration or unsuitable storage conditions. Preventing post-harvest loss through the provision of adequate storage facilities is the simplest way to increase productivity and improve farmer incomes. Governments have multiple options available to do this such as building public storage facilities, or incentivising the private sector to invest in storage solutions

  • Embrace science and technology

In the early sixties India was on the brink of famine and in search of a solution. The ministry of agriculture invited a scientist Norman Borlaug who had been working on new high yielding strains of wheat and rice and they soon adopted new 2 “miracle” rice variety. By the 1990s rice yields per hectare had risen threefold and India had gone from near famine to one of the worlds major rice producers and exporters. This is the story of the green revolution, where new technologies and research in agricultural science were successfully transferred to practice boosting productivity particularly in Asia where like India, many countries faced the spectre of mass famine. In 1970 Norman Borlaug was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his work in helping to feed the world. Much like Asia in the 1960’s Africa must pursue and embrace agricultural science, with climate change and shifting weather patterns farmers around the continent are facing significant challenges. If productivity is to be maintained and improved for an ever-growing population farmers will need new tools particularly those that science can provide such as drought resistant higher yielding crops. For this to happen African governments have to put more money and effort behind the agricultural research institutes and agricultural departments in African universities to come up with the tools that African farmers can use. If African governments don’t do this someone else will and they will own the rights to those innovations, making African farmers more dependent on foreign companies. New seed varieties, and technologies funded by African governments can be sold to farmers and licensed to African companies at much lower financial cost and without the strings attached to global multinational corporations.

Agriculture as the foundation for development

If Africa’s growth failure lies in policy that marginalised agriculture, the implications of this should be clear to policy makers on a continent whose economies are still agriculturally based. If, as the World Bank puts it, Africa is to claim the 21st century[3] then African governments must realise that industrialisation is not achieved without agriculture but rather with agriculture at its centre. As East Asia’s did, Africa’s agriculture sector holds immense potential not just for growing produce but for value addition (processing and marketing of agricultural products) and stimulating the wider economy. Boosting productivity would boost incomes, savings and quality of life for most of the population and the multiplier effects could spark the very industrialisation that African leaders sought at independence and still seek today. Agriculture can drive Africa’s development, but only with the right policies, policies that place the Africa’s farmers at its centre.

[1] Africa Development Bank Group – p.11-12 https://www.afdb.org/fileadmin/uploads/afdb/Documents/Policy-Documents/Feed_Africa-Strategy-En.pdf

[2] http://www.fao.org/africa/news/detail-news/en/c/445333/

[3] http://siteresources.worldbank.org/INTAFRICA/Resources/complete.pdf

What is Development?

Freedom should not be understood to mean leadership positions or even appointments to top positions. It must be understood as the transformation of the lives ordinary people in the hostels and the ghettos; in the squatter camps; on the farms and in the mine compounds. 

It means constant consultation between leaders and members of their organisations; it demands of us to be in constant touch with the people, to understand their needs, hopes and fears; and to work together with them to improve their conditions. – Nelson Mandela

This is the question at the centre of the African story, at least when it comes to policy, yet we do not seem to have that discussion, leaving it open to be defined by those in power rather than those whose lives its supposed to change. In academia the question as to what development is much debated but it has failed to leave the confines of the ivory tower and development aid industry. Today development is too much like beauty, it’s in the eye of the beholder, every time the government builds a footbridge or a railway it claims development, economists and business leaders look at economic growth figures and call that development, the UN looks at the Human Development Index and Sustainable Development Goals and calls that development. What about the people, those for whom this development is being done, it seems to me that if the vision of development being pursued was one that came from the people, then governments and international development agencies may have more success pursuing it.  A policy shift to people centred development, that actually takes what people want and need into account would in my view make the whole notion of development much more relevant and impactful.

Roads, railways and power.

Most of the continent is busily pursuing the infrastructure gap, which can be summarised as the need for infrastructure (roads, railways, power, water and sewage systems, housing etc.). In Africa the African Development Bank has estimated that Africa needs 95 billion US dollars a year to close its own infrastructure gap[1]. Governments have latched onto this and across the continent there is a massive building program being pursued. Physical infrastructure is perfect politically, its tangible and can (if done properly) make an impact on people’s lives, without the complicated political, administrative and moral issues that come with improving education or fighting corruption. Business and banks love it because they can make significant profits funding roads, railways and power stations while saying they are contributing to ‘development’. Infrastructure is important, there is no doubt about it, a road connecting a rural community to an urban market can radically increase opportunities, electricity has and can change the lives of the poor the world over, but is it development? I don’t think so, I see infrastructure as an enabler, a building block towards development, but not development itself.

GDP growth and jobs

You cannot have a conversation about development without someone bringing up GDP growth numbers. Despite academic attempts to dethrone economic growth as the primary indicator of development it is the standard statistic that people cite. But what does GDP growth actually tell us? GDP is the value of all the goods and services produced in an economy in any given period (usually quarterly or annually). So, when it grows, it means that the country is producing more things and as a whole earning more. However, it doesn’t tell you important details such as who is earning more – are the rich getting richer or is the additional income being spread to the middle and lower income groups. It doesn’t measure standard of living, or the quality of social goods such as healthcare and education. It is just an aggregate, a useful one but without context and additional data it doesn’t tell you whether peoples lives are actually improving. When people point at GDP growth and call it development, take it with a pinch of salt.

Ask the people?

What is missing from the development debate for me is the people, most of whom are still stuck without meaningful employment or prospects of progress, far too many living in poverty. What does development mean to them. I think at its core, development would be the ability to live a life with dignity. A life where our children have a decent education that gives them a chance at a future where families can rely on the health care system and have adequate housing. A job to support you and your families. A police force and courts that are fair and protect society and a government that respects our rights. Thus, to me development is about growing the economy in such a way that provides jobs and income for the majority, building the infrastructure that enables this, investing in social services that improves quality of life and the rule of law and respect for human rights. Development isn’t just about jobs, or growth, or new roads and power stations, to me it’s about uplifting the lives of Africans, and our development policy, whether economic, education, infrastructure or law and order has to have that as its goal. But that’s just me, ideally, we should start by asking the people. Governments around the continent would benefit from broad consultation process to see what their citizens consider development and make their policy on that basis.

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[1]https://www.afdb.org/fileadmin/uploads/afdb/Documents/Publications/Africa%20Econo%20brief%202_Africa%20Econo%20brief%202%20(2).pdf