"Africa Day" 2020. Africa's moment to shine is here. With its smart and youthful population that want more. "Africa needs a Reset". Many mistakes have been made by our leaders(Past & present) since end of colonialism. It's up to Africa's current generation to right Africa's ship.
"Africa Day" (formerly African Freedom Day and African Liberation Day) is the annual commemoration of the foundation of the Organisation of African Unity (OAU) on 25 May 1963. It is celebrated in various countries on the African continent, as well as around the world.
The Organisation of African Union (OAU) is now known as The African Union (AU) @_AfricanUnion consisting of 55 member states in Africa. The AU was announced in the Sirte Declaration in Sirte, Libya, on 9 September 1999, calling for the establishment of the African Union.
Summary of issues Africa should be working on:
twitter.com/africaupdates/status/1264918125507739649
1) Africa needs drastic coordinated (Government & private sector) Economic measures especially in industrialization.
No African nation can industrialize without steel & steel industries" It is a basic driver.
Metallurgy is a key pillar to "Africa's Industrialization + Africa's Security"
2) The World has changed. Africa needs to up its game and learn to Research and Make stuff. Industrialization is key. Africa needs smart investments in crucial areas like:
-Steel Production and Foundry's.
-Electronics including Chip Research & Manufacturing.
-Medicine
-Robotics.
3) Understanding value creation is key. Africa needs to rebuild its value systems from the ground up + train more folks in crucial areas like Materials, Chemicals, Metallurgy & Engineering. These are drivers on which a lot of stuff is built on in many advanced industrial economies.
4) There are a lot of areas where Africa has advantage as a key producer of (crops & minerals), but somehow continually receives the end of the stick (very little earnings).
"Africans have to find ways to get support from the system in order to solve the value creation problem".
5) Africa produces about 75% of the world’s cocoa, yet the gets just 5% of the US$100 billion annual chocolate market value. Africa needs to up its game and build chocolate schools and chocolate manufacturing businesses. Africa's Cocoa and Tea farmers still earn very little money.
6) Financing projects: "One of Africa's biggest problem" that has left it on the hook with financiers and loan sharks for decades making it hard for African Countries to plan and build their economies. Africa needs to study and plan how it can finance many of its projects locally.
7) Power Generation. All the industrialization talk is useless if African Countries can't generate enough electricity for Industries and its citizens. Countries like Egypt have come up with smart solutions to generate power, enabling industries to thrive and improve quality of life.
8) In 2018 Egypt completed the world's largest combined cycle power plants in record time. The stations added a total of 14.4 gigawatts of power generation capacity to Egypt's national grid, enough power to supply up to 40 M people with reliable electricity.
9) Farming: Africa has plenty of land suitable for farming. It's really embarrassing for Africa to import any food from anywhere. Africa's Govt officials need to help local farmers mechanize even with cheap tractors, plus setup well organized yearly financing options for them.
10) Silencing Of The Guns: Africans need to now understand that they have to work together for our own benefit and security.
11) Africa's politicians need to understand that @AfCfta can't succeed if regular traders can't move their goods easily between different African regions, or travel freely to these regions in exploration of business opportunities. Road is the cheapest most natural link, then rail.
End all wars and civil conflicts from parts of DRC Congo, Central African Republic, Sahel, South Sudan & new conflicts spots in Mozambique.
12) Africa's East, West, North & South needs to be connected smoothly with DRC Congo and Central African Republic in order to open up African Trade. It's obvious there no smooth connection in Central Africa. Everybody can't fly, plus heavy and large goods use road, rail & ship mostly.
13) What we lack is an understanding of value creation. We don’t want to solve problems, tough problems. Our Tech Foundation is non-existent. African Countries have deskilled completely in many important sectors of their economies due to ignorance/lack of investment from past Governments.
14) Africa must craft a way to industrialize. Many Asian nations have successfully maneuvered themselves from disadvantageous positions over the years and industrialized. Some countries used a mixture industrial subsidies and even trade barriers to achieve their economic growth goals.
15) The question is do the current crop of African leaders have the skills to tactfully maneuver their Countries economies by learning from case studies around the World, and applying them to their advantage?
Do Africa's current leaders really want Africa to succeed and industrialize?
16) One of Africa's biggest asset at the moment is its young population. All African Countries should protect and educate these young folks. These are the folks that can bring back Africa to greatness if educated with the right courses. STEM Education should be a focus + Good Schools.
17) "#Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world". -- Nelson Mandela
18) African Governments need to work on building quality schools and make education affordable all over Africa. African kids working in mines and farms as cheap labour, or idling in unsafe refugee camps shouldn't be happening in 2020. Harness these young peoples minds. Educate them.
19) "It all starts with Data". Africa's loses a lot of money and clout because of its uncoordinated approach and lack of clear data in fields like mining. Good Data collection , Storage, and Sharing will help African nations & businesses have an advantage in international business.
20) Africa's Statisticians and Economists need to Research and Publish more Data. Africa currently faces a lack of reliable Information/Data. Data is the new most important commodity. We need more Statisticians at State and County levels to complement those working at National levels.
21) "African Data is very valuable". Africa holds valuable minerals that many of the Worlds most important companies use. Proper valuation should be key.
"Africa needs to properly value and plan for all its Data" be it from Minerals, to Human, Water, Fisheries, and Land resources.
22) African nations need to cushion our elderly, very poor and folks with disabilities. Social assistance programs are key. It's sad to see African kids and the elderly begging on streets because of poverty. Create programs, and offices that can help eliminate or minimize such issue.
23) It is critical that Africa develops its own Research and Manufacturing capacity in its Medical & Pharmaceutical industries. Africa has invested very little in Medical schools & Research Institutes and has an "Alarming shortage of Specialists". We rely a lot on foreign vaccines.
24) Intra-African trade is 15%, compared to about 47% in America and 67% in Europe. We need to tweak our trade routes inwards so as to make sure we are trading more with each other, thus create wealth right here in Africa. Support our small businesses + stop the over taxation of SMEs.
twitter.com/africaupdates/status/1264918125507739649
Africa Team