Essential The Africa the Media Doesn't Tell You About

The Odum of Ala Igbo

The Odum of Ala Igbo

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thatknickfan said:
African economy: the limits of ‘leapfrogging’
The rapid spread of technology has raised hopes for Africa, but digital services cannot take the place of good governance

https://on.ft.com/gift_link

Interested in your thoughts @Frangala @The Odum of Ala Igbo
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It's true. One example which comes to mind is the use of drones in Rwanda to deliver supplies. Obviously, using that technology is good but you can carry more goods by roads. Also, the last time I checked, drones can't pick up people to fly them to the bank/the hospital/the market etc.

I hate it when Westerners suggest these solutions to Africans. Africans need infrastructure. Not gimmicks. We need strong institutions, not NGOs.
 
Frangala

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thatknickfan said:
African economy: the limits of ‘leapfrogging’
The rapid spread of technology has raised hopes for Africa, but digital services cannot take the place of good governance

https://on.ft.com/gift_link

Interested in your thoughts @Frangala @The Odum of Ala Igbo
Click to expand...

The link did not work properly but I can say that all this stuff comes is a gimmick. People who are strong advocates of this leapfrogging theory are referring to how the continent leaped the landline phone phase to mass access to cellular phones which is a positive. There is only so much you can do with 3g or 4g cell phone connection ( infrastructure like )fibre optics to provide fast and reliable internet. THis is not going to propel your economy. You need big infrastructure project that can bring electricity, roads, ports etc... to really capture the potential of a 1.2 billion Africans which the average age is under 20.

These people need to be working in factories, getting an education, be entrepreneurs with ease of doing business and not have the overwhelming operation cost(s) of small to medium enterprises tied to lack of electricity. All these "leapfrogging" business is a euphemism for lack of ambition, willingness of doing the necessary big infrastructural projects that can truly transform countries.
 
The Odum of Ala Igbo

The Odum of Ala Igbo

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Frangala said:
The link did not work properly but I can say that all this stuff comes is a gimmick. People who are strong advocates of this leapfrogging theory are referring to how the continent leaped the landline phone phase to mass access to cellular phones which is a positive. There is only so much you can do with 3g or 4g cell phone connection ( infrastructure like )fibre optics to provide fast and reliable internet. THis is not going to propel your economy. You need big infrastructure project that can bring electricity, roads, ports etc... to really capture the potential of a 1.2 billion Africans which the average age is under 20.

These people need to be working in factories, getting an education, be entrepreneurs with ease of doing business and not have the overwhelming operation cost(s) of small to medium enterprises tied to lack of electricity. All these "leapfrogging" business is a euphemism for lack of ambition, willingness of doing the necessary big infrastructural projects that can truly transform countries.
Click to expand...

There's no country on Earth that built a modern, industrial economy with solar cell panels and modular power cells. Every country needs a robust public utilities system. If I see some oyinbo peddling solar panels on street lamps to bring electricity to 200,000,000 Nigerians or 90,000,000 Congolese - give him/her a DIRTY SLAP.
 
thatrapsfan

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Frangala said:
The link did not work properly but I can say that all this stuff comes is a gimmick. People who are strong advocates of this leapfrogging theory are referring to how the continent leaped the landline phone phase to mass access to cellular phones which is a positive. There is only so much you can do with 3g or 4g cell phone connection ( infrastructure like )fibre optics to provide fast and reliable internet. THis is not going to propel your economy. You need big infrastructure project that can bring electricity, roads, ports etc... to really capture the potential of a 1.2 billion Africans which the average age is under 20.

These people need to be working in factories, getting an education, be entrepreneurs with ease of doing business and not have the overwhelming operation cost(s) of small to medium enterprises tied to lack of electricity. All these "leapfrogging" business is a euphemism for lack of ambition, willingness of doing the necessary big infrastructural projects that can truly transform countries.
Click to expand...
African economy: the limits of ‘leapfrogging’ | Financial Times

@Frangala @The Odum of Ala Igbo working link

The end of the piece emphasizes what you both said.

Yet flashy apps cannot hide a basic truth. African farming yields are stuck in the 19th century. The majority of farms have no irrigation, no government help with seed or fertiliser, no access to market and hazy ownership rights. Farmers do not bother to grow crops that, in the absence of refrigeration, would rot before they reach the consumer.

Only 44 per cent of rural Kenyans and 32 per cent of Ethiopians live within 2km of an all-season road, a metric that former Prime Minister Meles Zenawi considered more critical than GDP in determining development.

Health is another example. Around the continent, technologists are seeking to solve a basic problem: lack of decent, affordable public healthcare. Babyl Health Rwanda, the subsidiary of Babylon, a UK creator of a “doctor in your pocket” app, offers online consultations to villagers who live miles from the nearest clinic. Ms Lunga, whose Baobab Circle offers tele-consultations to hypertension and diabetes patients, argues that technology can fill a gap. “There are not enough doctors, there are not enough nurses,” she says. “That’s when you need AI to leapfrog that.”

Yet, as with agriculture, innovations in healthcare smack of patching up failed systems. Many African governments are too poor, too badly organised or too busy lining their own pockets to provide decent healthcare for their people. If there is leapfrogging in health, it is when Africa’s wealthy skip over their own dilapidated systems to get treatment abroad.
 
The Odum of Ala Igbo

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thatknickfan said:
African economy: the limits of ‘leapfrogging’ | Financial Times

@Frangala @The Odum of Ala Igbo working link

The end of the piece emphasizes what you both said.

Yet flashy apps cannot hide a basic truth. African farming yields are stuck in the 19th century. The majority of farms have no irrigation, no government help with seed or fertiliser, no access to market and hazy ownership rights. Farmers do not bother to grow crops that, in the absence of refrigeration, would rot before they reach the consumer.

Only 44 per cent of rural Kenyans and 32 per cent of Ethiopians live within 2km of an all-season road, a metric that former Prime Minister Meles Zenawi considered more critical than GDP in determining development.

Health is another example. Around the continent, technologists are seeking to solve a basic problem: lack of decent, affordable public healthcare. Babyl Health Rwanda, the subsidiary of Babylon, a UK creator of a “doctor in your pocket” app, offers online consultations to villagers who live miles from the nearest clinic. Ms Lunga, whose Baobab Circle offers tele-consultations to hypertension and diabetes patients, argues that technology can fill a gap. “There are not enough doctors, there are not enough nurses,” she says. “That’s when you need AI to leapfrog that.”

Yet, as with agriculture, innovations in healthcare smack of patching up failed systems. Many African governments are too poor, too badly organised or too busy lining their own pockets to provide decent healthcare for their people. If there is leapfrogging in health, it is when Africa’s wealthy skip over their own dilapidated systems to get treatment abroad.
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African countries were given a bad hand in the 1960s and 70s. Their level of human capital and infrastructure development was PISS POOR.

No reason why these countries aren't at India or modern-day Vietnam's level of development.

The key is infrastructure. Many Chinese officials who come to Africa say, China was like the 30-40 years ago. Then we built things. We educated our schools. We had rural health programs and clinics.

I often wonder if China was only able to achieve these things because it has 5 millenia of experience with a strong-state apparatus and having a party as powerful as the Communist Party of China.

(by no means am I advocating one-party dictatorship in Africa; see Derg in Ethiopia, Zanu-PF etc. etc.)
 
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