It's All About Entrepreneurship

As seen in the last couple blogs, attention on the African economy is growing. This weekend there were two more interesting articles on this theme. First in the Wall Street Journal Weekend Edition, there was an article about investors making high risk investments in "treacherous" places such as Zimbabwe -- essentially on the theory that things can't get much worse and Mugabe can't live forever so why not get a toehold now. And lest you think the dollars are not significant, "Foreign direct investment has rebounded, reaching $103 million in 2005, up from just $4 million in 2003, according to the most recent figures available from the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development." With natural resources (gold, platinum), natural wonders (Victoria Falls), and the natural desire to talk (booming cellphone industry) there are myriad opportunities for those with the stomach for daily changing exchange rates and runaway inflation.

No matter where the investment is flowing--Zimbabwe, Nigeria, South Africa, Ghana, Rwanda, etc.--there seems to be increasing agreement that investing in businesses and entrepreneurs is the was out of poverty for the Continent. In a really interesting article in the New York Times' Week in Review section (that looks as though it was sponsored by from, the John Templeton Foundation) people provide an answer to the question "Will Money Solve Africa's Development Problems?" Longtime proponent of entrepreneurship over aid, William Easterly of NYU, to Iqbal Quadir, founder of Grameen Phone in Bangladesh, all make strong arguments for investing directly in people and companies and avoiding--at all costs--the funneling of funds to governments. The link above has full transcripts from the article and even those who answer "Yes" qualify their answer by saying the money must come in the form of investment, not aid.