19. EFE JOSEPH

   A part of Africa is missing. It is identifiable, yet its indescribable absence ultimately felt. For

quite a long time Africa has been shaded in the sphere of industrialization, seen as

insignificant to the economic affairs of the World along with other such labels as having little to

offer, unintelligent and impoverished this comes particularly from Western prejudices.

In the 14th century, resources development in Africa was on par with Europe and Asia this was so because before industrialization the economy of a continent was determined by the amount of people living in that continent and at that time mineral extraction and utilization was optimal. Unfortunately, between the late 15th to early 20th century Africa’s economy had slowly and steadily declined because of incidence like the slave trade-especially crafts men, Colonization, Foreign interference, Corruption and Greed, Civil war -separation of powerful states into factions and the need for self-preservation of those factions consumed their economic power for political power all these lead to the decline in utility of Africa's resources¹.

Recent analysis of the past decades on Africa's commodity driven economy from short-term to long-term analysis indicate 42 out of 54 countries in Africa are classified as commodity dependent -with the examples of Zambia and Nigeria for close to 60 years, these countries have remained not only commodity dependent but also dependent on the same commodity. This confirms that commodity-dependent and strongly commodity-dependent countries are indeed in a trap. Unless they take strong action to change the status quo, they will remain commodity dependent for the coming centuries. Defeating commodity dependence will require that commodity dependent developing countries put in place the right physical and institutional infrastructure that allows technology to thrive².

Empirical studies also show that ‘countries whose wealth is largely dependent on the exportation of primary commodities which include both agricultural produce and natural resources, are highly prone to violence. A recent United Nations (UN) report in the last sixty years showed that at least 40% of civil wars on the African continent have been connected with natural resources; and intrastate conflicts that have a link to natural resources are twice as likely to relapse within five years compared to those that are not. The “Resource Curse” as best known is about political dysfunction3. The most important of those dysfunctions is that discovering natural resources often acts as a source of conflict between factions fighting for a share of the revenue another as well as communal conflict, unfavourable political climate, Poor infrastructure and lack of research teams which leads to withdrawal of foreign investments3.

It is known that about 30% of the earth’s remaining mineral resources are found on the African continent. Additionally, Africa has the world’s biggest precious metal reserves on earth. In the present state of knowledge, Africa is believed to possess a significant proportion of global reserves: 30% of Bauxite, 60% of manganese, 75% of Phosphates, 85% of Platinum, 80% of Chrome, 60% of Cobalt, 30% of Titanium, 75% of Diamond and nearly 40% of Gold. Sub-Saharan Africa produces 7% of global oil production and known reserves are of a similar magnitude4 with 60% of the world's Arable land5 (percentage per country could be gotten from any good contemporary source) with a growing GDP of about 4.5% annually6 over the past few years indicates great potential for investments in a variety of areas for sustainable development.

With the global rise in demand for energy and electricity as well as the fact that Africa’s Uranium mines are quite accessible than other mines in the rest of the world, it gathers a lot of interest from the Corporate World7 (the emotive and political side is however outside the scope of this essay).  Presently, 18% of the global supply of Uranium stems mainly from three African countries, Africa’s potential as a source for sustainable development can be seen in China’s single largest investment in Uranium mining and utilization in Namibia8.

In 2019, 60% of African population were under the age of 25 such a youthful population can turn ideas into reality particularly in the mineral sector which is labour intensive. Also Africa is the world’s leader in Mobile communications particularly sub-Saharan Africa9 where data is cheap thereby creating ready means for access to relevant  information as well as to create a better network of marketing and trade. Reducing intracontinental trade barrier, investing in stable government and creating various agency to cultivate African talent as well as policy change to favour entrepreneurial skills will promote sustainable development.

Conclusively, if Africa seeks lasting solution for sustainable development through the mineral resource sector such solution must be concerted, defined and designed by Africans themselves and not the inherited systems of management from the Western or Eastern World which from the past decades have failed to yield substantial result. Success requires belief, time, strong political will and a long-term, realistic development vision, coupled with an ambitious but reasonable implementation strategy and all hands must be on deck. Just like a single web maybe insufficient to support a given load but multiple webs interwoven maybe very strong indeed.

References:

 1-Why is Africa still poor m.youtube.com/watch%3Fv%3DTW46XDTW46XDXNO3Q&ved=2ahUKEwj4rJG14KP0AhVKOhoKHeW3BHwQxa8BegQlBhAF&usg=AOvVaw2elPk0UXP2nVWbSbjbfLO3

2-UNITED NATIONS CONFERENCE ON TRADE AND DEVELOPMENT: Escaping from the Commodity Dependence Trap through Technology and Innovation COMMODITIES &DEVELOPMENT REPORTING 2021

3,8-Natural Resources and Conflict: Unlocking the economic dimension of peace-building in Africa: Sylvester Bongani Maphosa

4,8-Harnessing natural resources for inclusive growth: Paul Collier and Caroline Laroche

Mineral resources and development in Africa 

5-Dangote on investing in Africa -FT business https://bit.ly/FTimeSubs

6,9- https://www.facebook.com/hornofafrica360/videos/530228404042412/?app=fbl

7-https://www.facebook.com/GovernmentZA/videos/1046920282494080/?app=fbl

UNCTAD and FAO (2017). Commodities and Development Report 2017. Commodity Markets, 

B Economic Growth and Development. (United Nations publication. Sales No. E.17.II.D.1 New York and Geneva).